Spiritual Process in Lightprayer: A Network of New Religious Practice

Authors

  • Ilona Raunola University of Eastern Finland.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.51074

Keywords:

Lightprayer, spiritual process, Actor-Network-Theory, Fireritual, new religious movement, living on light.

Abstract

The article considers the conditions of spiritual process in the new-religious movement Lightprayer. Based on the analysis, it is argued that Lightprayer itself and the techniques involved can be seen as new-religious methods of self-awareness and experienced relationship to divinity. To approach the spiritual process I will draw upon the procedures of Bruno Latour’s Agency-Network-Theory. The ethnographic material concerning the Fire Ritual is interpreted from the perspective of ANT in two ways. First, I will examine the human and non-human terms of the spiritual process in the visible world. Second, I will apply the ANT reading also regarding the invisible world of inner religious experience and thus immaterial actors. In both case I will analyze and interpret field notes, photographs and interviews. The intensity of the spiritual process can be considered as a central characteristic in the analysis of the specific traits of religious activities and also the motivations for participating in them. The perspective of ANT foregrounds the contributions and roles of the human and non-human actors in the actualization of spiritual process in Lightprayer. At the same time the research surveys the meaning of spiritual process in general among new and traditional religiousness.

Author Biography

Ilona Raunola, University of Eastern Finland.

Doctoral student, cultural anthropology.

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Published

2017-07-06

How to Cite

Raunola, I. (2017). Spiritual Process in Lightprayer: A Network of New Religious Practice. Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion, 53(1), 85–111. https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.51074

Issue

Vol. 53 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Articles

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