Spirituality Studies 9-2 Fall 2023 23 Sára Eszter Heidl 4 Introducing Religionesque In what follows I would like to introduce the term “religionesque”, which I propose to use in empirically researched contexts to refer to something that has religious characteristics, semantics or nature, looks similar to religion but is not actually religion. It is more of an umbrella term that allows for the analysis of terms such as “religion-like”, “supernatural”, “mystical”, “transcendent”, and others. The term “religionesque” first emerged as a result of a language barrier. In Hungarian, the expressions “vallási jellegű” and “vallásszerű” refer to something that has a religious nature or looks religious. In order to find the most appropriate term to indicate the original meaning, the addition of the suffix -esque describes well what the original suffixes “jelleg/ű” and “-szerű” represent. The use of “religionesque” helps to broaden the perspective on religion, as the lived/vernacular religion approach suggests (Knibbe and Kupari 2020, 168), and to overcome previous biases in using similar but inadequate terms for the experiences of the individuals or groups being studied. Re-enchantment categories, for example, are religionesque because they distance themselves from traditional religious institutions and new religious movements but use religious semantics and reinterpret religious ideas in their own way. As a term, religionesque creates space for those who do not wish to identify with the term “religious” or “spiritual” but who nevertheless have some connection with it. Their attitudes or views have therefore an -esque nature. We can see some examples of the use of the suffix in everyday and academic contexts. First of all, the dictionary definitions of the suffix -esque is as follows: in the manner or style of; like (Merriam-Webster n.d.), or indicating a specified character, manner, style, or resemblance. E.g., picturesque, Romanesque, statuesque, Chaplinesque (Collins English Dictionary 2023). The influential and world-famous literary mode of the carnivalesque, originating with Mikhail Bakhtin (1984a, 1984b), represents the transfer of the mood, the sense of the carnival atmosphere through humour, disorder, and chaos into a literary language. The sense of folklore in popular culture, the use, reinterpretation, and resemblance of folklore elements in contemporary media, films, books, etc., can be described by the term folkloresque (Foster and Tolbert 2016). The concept, created by folklorists Michael D. Foster and Jeffrey A. Tolbert, indicates that the use of folklore elements in popular culture and media is currently increasing, but these elements are being heavily reinterpreted, losing their original meaning and authenticity, as well as the tradition behind them. Another example of the use of the -esque suffix can be found in the term “ritualesque” in the work of Botond Vitos (who is also Hungarian, so the logic behind his term may be similar to mine) and his colleagues, who characterise festival participants by their “ritualesque and carnivalesque” performance modes (Vitos, Graham and Gauthier 2022, 111). There is, of course, a limit to the use of the suffix. If all the original terms such as religion, spirituality or ritual are excluded from studies, the question arises: If we cannot use them for anything, what is their purpose? If we continue to use different definitions, then there is no definition. Therefore, the use of “religionesque” should have its limits, and a clear distinction from other terms is needed. First of all, religionesque is an adjective that is a description of certain phenomena. There is no religionesque category (re-enchantment), religionesque institution or movement (pseudo-religion, quasi-religion); and the original terms such as religion and spirituality should be used in appropriate circumstances. Nor can a person be religionesque: their own classification as religious, spiritual, spiritual but not religious, religious in their own way, and similar typologies can be used to describe the individual. There is, however, a religionesque space and time. For example, an event – say a festival – that creates a special atmosphere for its participants, regardless of their religious or spiritual classification can be described as religionesque. There are religionesque symbols and semantics, such as when someone uses religious objects, terms or motifs – deliberately borrowing them from traditional religions or worldviews but reinterpreting them in their own way. There is also a religionesque experience – be it a community or an inward, personal experience that cannot be easily described in words, or a sense of the presence of some kind of higher power, a sense of collective effervescence (Durkheim 1964), communitas (Turner 1969) or a mystical experience (James 1982) [4].
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