Marion Bowman (born 1955) is a British academic working on the borders of religious studies and folklore and ethnology. She is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies,
The Open University.[1]
Bowman is a long-standing researcher into New Age and alternative spiritualities.[2] Her research focus is predominantly contemporary spirituality in the UK and Europe, particularly "the practices and beliefs of individuals both within and on the margins of institutional religion".[3]
Education
Bowman began her university education at Glasgow University but moved to Lancaster University to study under
Prof Ninian Smart.[2]
Bowman completed her MA in Folklore at
Memorial University, Newfoundland: her dissertation was on devotion to
St Gerard Majella in Newfoundland.[4] She completed her PhD at the
University of Glamorgan in 1998 on 'Vernacular Religion and Contemporary Spirituality: Studies in Religious Experience and Expression'.[5]
Career
From 1990 to 2000 Bowman was based at
Bath Spa University in the department of Study of Religions.[1]
In 2000 Bowman joined the Religious Studies department at The Open University. She was Head of Department between 2010 and 2013.[1]
Bowman has carried out a long term study of
Glastonbury, seeing it as a sight of "significant pilgrimage destination and microcosm of contemporary spirituality and vernacular religiosity".[6]
Bowman is a member of the Steering Committee of the Baron Thyssen Centre for the Study of Ancient Material Religion, based in the Classical Studies Department at the Open University.[7] She was also a Co-Investigator on the
Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project Pilgrimage and England’s Cathedrals, Past and Present, which ran from 2014-2018.[8]
The research of Bowman and Open University colleagues into alternative religions has been seen to have a number of impacts: both at an academic level in influencing research agendas but also in influencing a more positive public awareness of practitioners of alternative religions.[9]
Bowman is currently vice-president of theology and religious studies UK.[12] She is a former president of the British Association for the Study of Religions and a former Vice-President of the European Association for the Study of Religions.[13]
Between 2002 and 2005, Bowman served as president of the
Folklore Society: her Presidential Lectures derived from her research into Glastonbury and Newfoundland.[14][15] She is an International Fellow of the
American Folklore Society.[16]
Selected publications
Bowman, Marion (April 1993). "Reinventing the celts". Religion. 23 (2): 147–156.
doi:
10.1006/reli.1993.1013.
Bowman, Marion (1995). "The commodification of the Celt: New Age/Neo-pagan consumerism". In Brewer, Teri (ed.). The Marketing of Tradition: Perspectives on Folklore, Tourism and the Heritage Industry. Hisarlik.
ISBN978-1-874312-21-5.
OCLC35555136.
Bowman, Marion (May 1995). "The noble savage and the global village: Cultural evolution in new age and neo‐pagan THOUGHT". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 10 (2): 139–149.
doi:
10.1080/13537909508580734.
Bowman, Marion (January 1998). "Belief, Legend and Perceptions of the Sacred in Contemporary Bath". Folklore. 109 (1–2): 25–31.
doi:
10.1080/0015587X.1998.9715958.
Sutcliffe, Steven; Bowman, Marion, eds. (2000). Beyond New Age: Exploring Alternative Spirituality. Edinburgh University Press.
ISBN978-0-7486-0998-7.
OCLC43969544.
Bowman, Marion (2001). "The People's Princess: Religion and Politics in the Mourning for Diana". In Barna, Gábor (ed.). Politics and Folk Religion. Department of Ethnology, University of Szeged.
ISBN978-963-482-400-8.
OCLC61726708.
Bowman, Marion (2002). "Contemporary Celtic spirituality". In Pearson, Joanne (ed.). Belief Beyond Boundaries: Wicca, Celtic Spirituality and the New Age. Ashgate.
ISBN978-0-7546-0744-1.
OCLC48098557.
Bowman, Marion (March 2003). "Vernacular religion and nature: The 'Bible of the Folk' tradition in Newfoundland". Folklore. 114 (3): 285–295.
doi:
10.1080/0015587032000145333.
S2CID144203410.
Bowman, Marion (August 2006). "The Holy Thorn Ceremony: Revival, Rivalry and Civil Religion in Glastonbury: Presidential Address Given To the Folklore society, March 2005". Folklore. 117 (2): 123–140.
doi:
10.1080/00155870600707805.
S2CID161605141.
Bowman, Marion (27 July 2016). "The contented collector: materiality, relationality and the power of things". Material Religion. 12 (3): 384–386.
doi:
10.1080/17432200.2016.1192159.
S2CID193315973.
Bowman, Marion; Sepp, Tiina (2 January 2019). "Caminoisation and Cathedrals: replication, the heritagisation of religion, and the spiritualisation of heritage". Religion. 49 (1): 74–98.
doi:
10.1080/0048721X.2018.1515325.
S2CID150171323.
"
Vernacular Religion" Podcast from the
Religious Studies Project featuring David G Robertson interviewing Marion Bowman about her research into everyday experiences of religion, 2012.
"
Marion Bowman’s ethnological sensation" Video for the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore on how Marion Bowman came to carry out research on Glastonbury, 2016.