Events, Christian Faith Communities, and the Public Square

Abstract

Living as members of a faith community can be problematic in world regions where secularism controls the public sphere. The secularisation of European society, for example, has made it more difficult for religious groups to have a voice in public affairs. However, in many instances, religion has seen a revitalised role in the public square. Even in places where religion is believed to be best served as a muted witness in the private realm, Jews, Christians, and Muslims share a long tradition and heritage of political dissent, such as gathering on street corners to express their faith and their views. This political dissent is often guised in the form of events as a method of creating a public presence. The purpose of this paper is to examine and typologise the ways in which Christian faith communities (mainly in the United Kingdom) engage in the public square, through the medium of events. Contributing towards the development of the concept of the Eventization of Faith, this study interprets ‘events’ broadly, through a critical events perspective, acknowledging the contestation of secular spaces for sacred or faith-related purposes (Dowson & Lamond, 2018), as well as the potential for contestation of sacred spaces used for non-faith events. This paper acknowledges overt and covert motivations of Christian faith communities in their engagement in public and sacred spaces through the medium of events.

Keywords

• religious tourism
• events
• public square
• eventization of faith