Sarah M. Pike | |
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Occupation(s) | professor, Author, and Scholar |
Academic background | |
Education | PhD, (with distinction) Religious Studies, Indiana University (PhD minor, Women's Studies), 1998 MA, Religious Studies, Indiana University, 1989 BA, cum laude, Religion, Duke University, 1983 |
Alma mater | Indiana University, Duke University |
Doctoral advisor | Robert Orsi |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Comparative Religion |
Institutions | California State University,Chico |
Sarah M. Pike is an American author and professor of comparative religion in the Department of Religious studies at California State University,Chico. [1] [2] Her interests include paganism,environmentalism,religion and ecology,and ritual studies. [1] Her research on neopaganism and radical environmentalism has been lauded as being significant to the study of festival and group behaviour. [2] [3] She is the president of the International Society for the Study of Religion,Nature,and Culture,co-chair of the American Academy of Religion,Ritual Studies Group,and director of the California State University,Chico Humanities Center. [4] [5]
Pike completed her BA, cum laude, in Religion at Duke University in 1983. She earned her MA and PhD (with distinction) in Religious studies from Indiana University in 1989 and 1998 respectively. [6] Her doctoral advisor was Robert Orsi. [7] During her time at Indiana University,Pike extensively observed and involved herself within local (Midwestern) neopagan communities and gatherings as part of her field research. [8]
Pike's most recent book titled For the Wild:Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism [9] covers issues regarding the demonization of radical environmentalists and how religious studies translate into nature and ecology. [2] She explores the motivations for those who partake in risky and illegal behaviour to protest against the destruction of natural habitats and forestry. [2] Her first book,Earthly Bodies,Magical Selves, primarily focuses on neopagan festival behaviours including witchcraft,magic,Spiritualist gatherings,as well as individual and group identity. [3] [10] In her book,New Age and Neopagan Religions in America, Pike sees members of neopagan religions as placing high emphasis on ritual practice as a way of shaping individual and group identities,having significant connections with nature,and understanding God as a living entity. [11]
Pike has written several articles and book chapters on topics such as Burning Man, neopaganism, rituals, environmentalism, youth spirituality, New religious movement and animal rights activism. [6] [5] Her work also includes Wiccan ritual practices pertaining to sexuality, polyamory, and marriage. [12]
Year | Journal/Book | Article/Chapter |
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2018 | Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Nature, edited by Laura Hobgood and Whitney Bauman. London: Bloomsbury. [13] | "Feral Becoming and Environmentalism's Primal Future” |
2016 | Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture | "Mourning Nature: The Work of Grief in Radical Environmentalism” [14] |
2016 | Spiritualizing the City: Agency and Resilience of the Urbanesque Habitat, edited by Victoria Hegner and Peter Jan Margry (New York: Routledge) [15] | "The Dance Floor as Urban Altar: How Ecstatic Dancers Transform the Lived Experience of Cities” |
2014 | Social Science Research Council Forum, “Reverberations: New Directions in the Study of Prayer." [16] | "Sweating Our Prayers in Dance Church" |
2014 | Religion and the Marketplace in the U.S., edited by Detlef Junker, Jan Stievermann, and Philip Goff. London and New York: Oxford University Press [5] | "Selling Infinite Selves: Youth Culture and Contemporary Festivals” |
2013 | Social Science Research Council Forum, “Reverberations: New Directions in the Study of Prayer.” [16] | "Prayer and Presence in Unexpected Places” |
2012 | The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the American News Media, edited by Diane Winston. London and New York: Oxford University Press [17] | "Witchcraft Since the 1960s” |
2011 | Children and Religion: A Methods Handbook, edited by Susan B. Ridgely. New York: New York University Press [18] | "Religion and Youth Culture” |
2010 | God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture, edited by Katherine McCarthy and Eric Mazur. New York: Routledge, Inc. [19] | "Desert Goddesses and Apocalyptic Art: Making Sacred Space at the Burning Man Festival" |
2010 | Weinhold, J. & Samuel G. (eds.) "The Varieties of Ritual Experience," in Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual. Volume II – Body, Performance, Agency and Experience, ed. by Axel Michaels et al. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz [20] | "Performing Grief in Formal and Informal Rituals at the Burning Man Festival” |
2009 | Journal of the American Academy of Religion , 77: 647–672. | "Dark Teens and Born-Again Martyrs: Captivity Narratives After Columbine” [21] |
2008 | Key Words in the Study of Media and Religion, edited by David Morgan. New York: Routledge [4] | "Religion” |
2006 | Teaching New Religious Movements, edited by David G. Bromley. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press [6] | "Men and Women in New Religious Movements: Constructing Alternative Gender Roles” |
2004 | Researching Paganisms, edited by Jenny Blain, Doug Ezzy and Graham Harvey. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press [22] | "Gleanings from the Field: Leftover Tales of Grief and Desire” |
Year | Award/Grant |
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2015 | Visiting Scholar, University of Oslo [9] |
2013 to 2017 | Norwegian Research Council multiyear grant for international collaborative project [9] |
1999 | American Academy of Religion Individual Research Grant to aid in publication of Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves. [7] |
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or a family of religions which is influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Africa and the Near East. Although they share similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse and as a result, they do not share a single set of beliefs, practices, or texts. Scholars of religion often characterise these traditions as new religious movements. Some academics who study the phenomenon treat it as a movement that is divided into different religions while others characterize it as a single religion of which different pagan faiths are denominations.
Wicca, also known as "The Craft", or the "Craft of the Wise" is a modern pagan, syncretic, earth centered religion. Scholars of religion categorize it as both a new religious movement and as part of occultist Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and 20th-century hermetic motifs for its theological structure and ritual practices.
Starhawk is an American feminist and author. She is known as a theorist of feminist neopaganism and ecofeminism. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People.
The Goddess movement is a revivalistic Neopagan religious movement which includes spiritual beliefs and practices that emerged predominantly in the Western world during the 1970s. The movement grew as a reaction both against secularism and Abrahamic religions, which have only gods with whom are referred by male pronouns. It revolves around Goddess worship and the veneration for the divine feminine, and may include a focus on women or on one or more understandings of gender or femininity.
Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today is a sociological study of contemporary Paganism in the United States written by the American Wiccan and journalist Margot Adler. First published in 1979 by Viking Press, it was later republished in a revised and expanded edition by Beacon Press in 1986, with third and fourth revised editions being brought out by Penguin Books in 1996 and then 2006 respectively.
Jeff McBride, also known as "Magnus", is an American magician and magic instructor. He is known for his sleight of hand skills and specializes in the manipulation of playing cards, coins, and other small objects. His stage performances blend elements of kabuki, a Japanese theater form, with traditional conjuring. He has been recognized by the Academy of Magical Arts, the Society of American Magicians, and the International Federation of Magic Societies. He has also has set several Guinness World Records.
The Starwood Festival is a seven-day New Age neopagan and world music festival. It takes place every July in the United States. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects. There are also live musical performances, rituals, bonfires, multimedia presentations and social activities. It is a clothing optional event, and skyclad attendance is common.
Selena Fox is a Wiccan priestess, interfaith minister, environmentalist, pagan elder, author, and lecturer in the fields of pagan studies, ecopsychology, and comparative religion.
Phyllis Curott who goes under the craft name Aradia, is a Wiccan priestess, attorney, and author.
Reclaiming is a tradition in neopagan witchcraft, aiming to combine the Goddess movement with feminism and political activism. Reclaiming was founded in 1979, in the context of the Reclaiming Collective (1978–1997), by two Neopagan women of Jewish descent, Starhawk and Diane Baker, in order to explore and develop feminist Neopagan emancipatory rituals.
Louis Martinié is an author, "internationally known" percussionist, practitioner of a multitude of religions among them being New Orleans style Voodoo, and co-author of the book New Orleans VooDoo Tarot (1992), with Sallie Ann Glassman.
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Neopagan witchcraft, sometimes referred to as The Craft, is an umbrella term for some neo-pagan traditions that include the attempted practice of magic. These traditions began in the mid-20th century, and many were influenced by the witch-cult hypothesis; a now-rejected theory that persecuted witches in Europe had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion. The largest and most influential of these movements was Wicca. Some other groups and movements self-describe as "Traditional Witchcraft" in an effort to distinguish themselves from Wicca.
A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States is a sociological study of the Wiccan and wider Pagan community in the Northeastern United States. It was written by American sociologist Helen A. Berger of the West Chester University of Pennsylvania and first published in 1999 by the University of South Carolina Press. It was released as a part of a series of academic books entitled Studies in Comparative Religion, edited by Frederick M. Denny, a religious studies scholar at the University of Chicago.
Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America is a folkloric and anthropological study of the Wiccan and wider Pagan community in the United States. It was written by the American anthropologist and folklorist Sabina Magliocco of California State University, Northridge and first published in 2004 by the University of Pennsylvania Press. It was released as a part of a series of academic books titled 'Contemporary Ethnography', edited by the anthropologists Kirin Narayan of the University of Wisconsin and Paul Stoller of West Chester University.
Enchanted Feminism: The Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco is an anthropological study of the Reclaiming Wiccan community of San Francisco. It was written by the Scandinavian theologian Jone Salomonsen of the California State University, Northridge and first published in 2002 by the Routledge.
Never Again the Burning Times: Paganism Revisited is an anthropological study of the Wiccan and wider Pagan community in the United States. It was written by the American anthropologist Loretta Orion and published by Waveland Press in 1995.
Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld: An Anthropology is an anthropological study of contemporary Pagan and ceremonial magic groups that practiced magic in London, England, during the 1990s. It was written by English anthropologist Susan Greenwood based upon her doctoral research undertaken at Goldsmiths' College, a part of the University of London, and first published in 2000 by Berg Publishers.
Modern paganviews on LGBT people vary considerably among different paths, sects, and belief systems. There are some popular neopagan traditions which have beliefs often in conflict with the LGBT community, and there are also traditions accepting of, created by, or led by LGBT individuals. The majority of conflicts concern heteronormativity and cisnormativity.
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