Skip to content

Event Religion

Sára Eszter Heidl

Journal of Religion in Europe February 28, 2024 DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10094 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Qualitative study Case report Peer reviewed
Population Participants at the Everness mindfulness and lifestyle festival in Hungary
Key findings Argues that a new form of spirituality, which the author calls "event religion," supplements or opposes traditional religion in contemporary Hungary, and proposes interpreting festival participants' experience through four dimensions: spatiotemporality, symbols, community, and inward experience.

Abstract

Abstract This article examines some of the changing forms of religion in contemporary Hungary, with a focus on a case study conducted at a mindfulness and lifestyle festival called Everness. The emerging need for an alternative kind of spirituality supplementing or opposed to traditional forms of religion has generated a new conceptual approach that I call event religion. In inductive empirical research, I used event religion to describe and interpret the participant experience in event-based settings through four dimensions: spatiotemporality, symbols, community, and inward experience. I show some characteristics of contemporary changing religiosity and spirituality through the examination of the four dimensions of experience.