Music has qualities that correspond well with what religion, in a broad sense, aspires to be. Four musical qualities—timbre, the tonal system of Western music, time relations within the tonal network, and the non-referential nature of music—are linked to John Dewey's definition of 'the religious.' An analogy can be drawn between musical and religious experience: both composers and musicians challenge listeners to explore hidden religiosity in musical performance.
Spiritual festivals in Estonia attract a diverse mix of attendees, including followers of new religions, enthusiasts of esoteric knowledge, and individuals on personal quests. These events serve as opportunities for self-transformation, where participants collectively engage in practices designed to help them 'open up' to themselves, others, and the world. The physical body is central to these ritualized activities, which involve synchronized movement, dance, touch, and eye contact. The paper uses Charles Taylor's concept of the 'buffered' versus the 'porous' self to analyze how these shared bodily practices can foster transformative experiences.
Over the last fifty years, Nordic Lutheran churches have integrated holistic practices such as meditation, yoga, and sacred dance into daily church life, drawing on Eastern traditions, folk religiosity, New Age influences, and secular wellbeing approaches. These practices are not peripheral but serve as vehicles for spiritual progress, holistic care, and community building. The article argues that these innovations are part of an 'immanent turn' in Protestant spirituality ongoing since the 1970s. Adopting a bottom-up, lived religion perspective, it challenges conventional top-down theological frameworks, revealing Lutheran Christian practice as more flexible, inclusive, and connected with embodied experiential spirituality. This approach rethinks Lutheran Protestantism, highlighting personal bodily centred experiences in engagement with the world and the evolution of church practice.