Siobhán Garrigan – författare

In Beyond Ritual, Siobhan Garrigan uses Habermas's theory of communicative action to suggest two things: first, a method by which theology can access the ritual symbols by which faith is formed; and secondly a metaphor of intersubjectivity with which theology can propose an interpretative, rather than an instrumental, understanding of sacramentality - and thus of God.  Through fieldwork studies of both 'marginal' and 'mainstream' Christian Eucharists, Garrigan develops the conversation between Habermas's philosophy and Christian theology, showing how ritual interactions form, and challenge, our very idea of God.Â

Homelessness abounds today in various forms of displacement and as a pervasive condition of unbelonging. It ruins health, lives, communities, habitats, creativity, and hope. This Element argues that for theology to play its part in ending homelessness, it must better understand its own concept of 'home'. The Element proposes a vision of home capable of resisting the tacit, mistaken theology of home that undergirds the various iterations of modern homelessness. Weaving biblical and ritual sources, the argument constructs theological responses to the twin forces of consumerism and nationalism which, alloyed with sexism and racism, constitute the time of homelessness in which we live. It asks the reader to imagine home as 'participating instead of possessing' in every sphere of life, in pursuit of a theology of home capable of preventing homelessness and not merely ministering to people experiencing it. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

In Beyond Ritual, Siobhan Garrigan uses Habermas's theory of communicative action to suggest two things: first, a method by which theology can access the ritual symbols by which faith is formed; and secondly a metaphor of intersubjectivity with which theology can propose an interpretative, rather than an instrumental, understanding of sacramentality - and thus of God.  Through fieldwork studies of both 'marginal' and 'mainstream' Christian Eucharists, Garrigan develops the conversation between Habermas's philosophy and Christian theology, showing how ritual interactions form, and challenge, our very idea of God.Â

The Good Friday Agreement resulted in the cessation of paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland. However, prejudice and animosity between Protestants and Catholics remains. The Real Peace Process draws on extensive fieldwork in Protestant and Catholic churches across Ireland to analyse how Christian worship can become caught up in sectarianism. The book examines the need for a peace process that changes hearts and minds and not merely civic structures of their inhabitants. Aspects of everyday worship – ranging from the spatial and symbolic to the verbal, musical and interpersonal – are explored as the means by which sectarianism can be challenged and transformed.