Lived religion and sexuality

Abstract

In recent years, concepts such as lived and everyday religion have re-energised how religion is measured, analysed and understood. But although such terminology is readily deployed in contemporary research, there are areas where it has not been so prevalent. This chapter charts what concepts such as lived and everyday religion have offered the sociology of religion, moving on to consider their future potentiality, exploring what a lived religion perspective specifically offers the study of religion and sexuality. This draws upon data from a large-scale, multi-method project entitled ‘Religion, Youth and Sexuality,’ which explored the religious and sexual identities of eighteen- to twenty-five-year-olds living in the UK. Areas explored include how individuals de-institutionalised from traditional religious communities (sometimes because of their sexual orientation) experience their religion as lived; and how sexual practices themselves can be considered a form of lived religion for some religious adherents.