Praying with the Senses

<p>How do people experience spirituality through what they see hear touch and smell? Sonja Luehrmann and an international group of scholars assess how sensory experience shapes prayer and ritual practice among Eastern Orthodox Christians. Prayer even when performed privately is considered as a shared experience and act that links individuals and personal beliefs with a broader institutional or imagined faith community. It engages with material visual and aural culture including icons relics candles pilgrimage bells and architectural spaces. Whether touching upon the use of icons in age of digital and electronic media the impact of Facebook on prayer in Ethiopia or the implications of praying using recordings amplifiers and loudspeakers these timely essays present a sophisticated overview of the history of Eastern Orthodox Christianities. Taken as a whole they reveal prayer as a dynamic phenomenon in the devotional and ritual lives of Eastern Orthodox believers across Eastern Europe the Middle East North Africa and South Asia.</p>