Occasional Religious Practice: Valuing a Very Ordinary Religious Experience

The pews overflow on Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday. A mother reaches out to a local church for the first time to request the baptism of her newborn. The death of a public figure is marked with an extravagant funeral at a cathedral. These are all examples of what Sarah Kathleen Johnson calls occasional religious practice.

Occasional religious practice is a way of relating to religion that is characterized by participation in religious practices occasionally rather than routinely, most often in connection with certain types of occasions, including holidays, life transitions, and times of crisis. In a North American religious landscape characterized by declining participation in religious institutions, increasing uncertainty about matters of faith, and a growing population who identify as nonreligious, occasional religious practice is a primary way that people continue to relate to religion. Johnson introduces the concept of occasional religious practice as a novel yet intuitive way to describe, analyze, and respond to this widespread pattern.

Occasional Religious Practice integrates interdisciplinary perspectives from sociology of religion, religious studies, and liturgical theology. Anchored in three years of qualitative research in the Anglican tradition in Toronto, Johnson weaves together stories and interview quotations to show the complexity and depth of occasional religious practice. She argues that it is crucial to attend to occasional religious practice to understand the contemporary religious landscape, how religious rituals function and evolve in religiously diverse contexts, and the benefits of doing theology in conversation with people who relate to religion in a range of ways, especially those on the theological and liturgical margins.

This research takes occasional religious practice seriously as a substantial way of relating to religion. It recognizes the vast diversity of occasional practitioners. It explores the power of occasional practice to shape ritual. It advocates for doing theology in dialogue with participants in religious practices who relate to religion in different ways. It is a call to value and learn from the very ordinary experience of occasional religious practice.

Sarah Kathleen Johnson is Assistant Professor of Liturgy and Pastoral Theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. Her research at the intersection of liturgical studies and sociology of religion employs qualitative methods that value everyday religious experience. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame.