The next meeting of the ‘Belief, Practice, Embodiment, and Wellness’ reading group will be on Tuesday 12th December, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM in Cornwallis North-West, seminar room 9.
This session will explore self-formative practice and wellness/healing. That is, how what we do day to day shapes how we think and feel, how we experience the world. The readings look at the diverse ways that people engage with certain repeated practices in order to cultivate particular kinds of dispositions and sensibilities, and, in turn, realise a (variously defined) well, healthy, or ideal self. The full references for these readings are below.
The first reading, by John Hockey, looks at how long-distance runners engage with small ritual practices when training. He explores how they cultivate particular sensibilities and affective modes as a part of the process of realising a particular bodily state. The second, an interdisciplinary paper by Dagfinn Ulland, explores how those involved with the Toronto Blessing movement developed an embodied spirituality through their repeated engagement with the church and it’s spiritual practices. This engagement, he argues, contributed to the ecstatic healing experiences experienced by his interlocutors. By bringing together these two different papers, we can explore how practices of self-formation and cultivation live out in our bodies and selves.
Anyone who is interested can join, and there will be plenty of drinks and snacks. Feel free to also bring your own food and drink if you would like.
If you are unable to attend in person, but would like to be involved, then please contact me via the email below for a link to attend online.
If you do not have access to the readings and would like PDF copies, if you would like to be added to the mailing list for this group, or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch by contacting Lucy Clarke at lcc36@kent.ac.uk.
The Belief, Practice, Embodiment, and Wellness reading group is a cross-disciplinary reading group which explores how themes of meaning making, spirituality, religiosity, and existential positioning, connect with recovery, health, and wellness. This group has been put in place with the support of the Centre for Health and Medical Humanities, and with generous funding from the Arts & Humanities PGR Events Fund.
Reading references
John Hockey (2009) ‘Mundane Ritual Practices and Distance Running Training’ Journal of Ritual Studies Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 77-88
Dagfinn Ulland (2012) ‘Embodied Spirituality’ Archiv für Religionspsychologie / Archive for the Psychology of Religion Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 83-104