Dynamics of Speaking and Doing Religion

The aim of this volume is to engage in the dynamics of speaking and doing religion,
which extends from a religious to a social context. This volume contains selected papers
presented at the interdisciplinary workshop ‘Religious Speech and Religious Speakers:
Authority and Infl uence of Word and People’ (February 2019), which brought together
scholars from anthropology, theology and culture studies with the focus to explore
ways in which religious speeches have impact specifi cally as instructive and normative
resources. The contributions demonstrate the diversity of issues around the topic of
religious speech within Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. Presented case studies deal
with religious specialists and their authority, the authority of lay people, the effects
and force of religious speeches and discourses and the role of religious speech in
interpreting natural phenomena or mediating value changes. Although religious
speech is taken as the subject of discussion, the focus in this volume is not religious
speeches per se, that is, how religious speech is defi ned, shaped, framed, or produced,
but the social impact of religious speeches and speakers in the ways they shape and
infl uence our worldview, social interactions, cultural practices, and power relations