This book explores manifestations of creativity in the religious domain. Specifically, the contributions focus on the nexus of the sacred and the creative, and the mechanisms of syncretism and (re)invention of tradition by which this manifestations occur.

The text is divided into two sections. In the first, empirical cases of spirituality characterized by syncretistic processes are highlighted; in the second, examples which can be traced back to forms of the (re)invention of tradition are examined. The authors document possible forms of adaptations and religious enculturation. In the second, the authors demonstrate that spiritual traditions, whether ancient or historically fictitious, are suitable for reframing in the context of critical interpretative frameworks related to cultural expectations which challenge them and call their continuity into question.

Autorentext

Stefania Palmisano is Associate Professor in the Sociology of Religion at the University of Turin, Italy, where she teaches the Sociology of Religious Organization and the Sociology of Religion. She is Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion in Lancaster University (UK). She is a member of the editorial board of Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa (il Mulino) and Fieldwork in Religion (EQUINOX). In addition, Stefania Palmisano is co-ordinator of the research centre CRAFT (Contemporary Religion and Faiths in Transition) based in the Department of Culture, Politics and Society of Turin University.

Nicola Pannofino is PhD in Sociology of Religion and Assistant Professor in Sociology of Language and Communication at the University of Turin. He is member of the scientific committee of Hierós, editorial series of the Italian academic publisher Meti, and member of the organizing committee of the research centre CRAFT (Contemporary Religion and Faiths in Transition) based in the Department of Culture, Politics and Society of Turin University. His research interests include sociology of alternative spirituality, secular religions, theories of the sacred, rhetoric and cognition.**

Inhalt
1. Changing the Sacred: Creative Paths of Religious Experience.- 2.  The itako of Thoku: between tradition and change.- 3.  Invisibility or marginality? Assessing religious diversification among women shamans in Eastern Siberia.- 4.  Evolution of tradition in the Rmnand order among hagiographies, Jagadguru and Mah.- 5.  Re-membering the Goddess: the Avalon sacred path in Italy between tradition and innovation.- 6.  Creative modalities of adaptation of a Hindu bodily form of rituality to Christian spirituality.- 7.  The Syncretistic Religious landscape of contemporary Greece and Portugal: a comparative approach on creativity through spiritual synthesis.- 8.  The new furnace: science, technology, innovation and religious life.- 9.  Ritual creativity and ritual failure in popular Spanish Catholicism: a case study on reformism and miracles in La Mancha.- 10.  Conclusion.