Graham Harvey (born 25 August 1959) is an English religious studies scholar. He specialises in

modern Paganism Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...

indigenous religion Indigenous religions is a category used in the study of religion to demarcate the religious belief systems of communities described as being " indigenous". This category is often juxtaposed against others such as the " world religions" and " ne ...

s and

animism Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things— animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather syst ...

Life and work

Graham Harvey was born in 1959. He obtained a Ph.D. title at the

University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick unive ...

in 1991 on a dissertation about group identity in ancient Jewish literature. From 1991 to 1995 he taught religious studies in Newcastle. From 1996 to 2003 he worked as reader and principal lecturer in religious studies at the King Alfred's College, Winchester. Since 2003 he works at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

where he is a professor and was head of the religious studies department from 2013 to 2017. After being invited to do a presentation about contemporary druids, Harvey began to do fieldwork about

which resulted in several books, notably ''Listening People, Speaking Earth: Contemporary Paganism'' (1997) and ''Researching Paganisms'' (2004). He has written extensively about

s and

, producing the monograph ''Animism: Respecting the Living World'' (2005) and the edited volume ''The Handbook of Contemporary Animism'' (2013). In the monograph ''Food, Sex & Strangers: Understanding Religion as Everyday Life'' (2013) he seeks to define religion through people's behaviours and everyday practices rather than

belief A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to tak ...

. Harvey practices modern Paganism with druid orders and as animism with ecological activists. He is married and also participates in Jewish celebrations with his wife.

Selected publications

Monographs * ''The True Israel: Uses of the Names Jew, Hebrew and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature'', Brill, 1996 * ''Listening People, Speaking Earth: Contemporary Paganism'', Hurst, 1997 * ''Animism: Respecting the Living World'', Hurst, 2005 * ''What do Pagans Believe?'', Granta, 2007 * ''Food, Sex and Strangers: Understanding Religion as Everyday Life'', Routledge, 2013 Edited volumes * ''Words Remembered, Texts Renewed: Festschrift for Prof John F.A. Sawyer'', with Jon Davies and Wilfred G. E. Watson, Sheffield Academic Press, 1995 * ''Paganism Today: Witches, Druids, the Goddess and Ancient Earth Traditions for the Twenty-First Century'', with Charlotte Hardman, Thorsons, 1996 * ''Indigenous Religions: A Companion'', Cassell, 2000 * ''Law and Religion in Contemporary Society: Communities, Individualism and the State'', with Peter W. Edge, Ashgate, 2000 * ''Indigenous religious musics'', with Karen Ralls-MacLeod, Ashgate, 2000 * ''Shamanism: A Reader'', Routledge, 2003 * ''Historical Dictionary of Shamanism'', with Robert Wallis, Scarecrow, 2004 * ''Researching Paganisms'', with Jenny Blain and Douglas Ezzy, AltaMira, 2004 * ''The Paganism Reader'', with Chas S. Clifton, Routledge, 2004 * ''Ritual and Religious Belief: a reader'', Equinox, 2005 * ''Indigenous diasporas and dislocations'', with Charles D. Thompson Jr, Ashgate, 2005 * ''Religions in Focus: New Approaches to Tradition and Contemporary Practices'', Equinox, 2009 * ''Handbook of Contemporary Animism'', Acumen, 2013 * ''Edward Burnett Tylor, Religion and Culture'', with Paul-François Tremlett and Liam T. Sutherland, Bloomsbury, 2017 * ''Sensual Religion: Religion and the Five Senses'', with Jessica Hughes, Equinox, 2018 * ''Indigenizing Movements in Europe'', Equinox, 2020 * ''Reassembling Democracy: Ritual and Cultural Resource'', with Michael Houseman, Sarah M. Pike and Jone Salomonsen, Bloomsbury, 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Graham 1959 births Living people Pagan studies scholars Alumni of Newcastle University Academics of the Open University English modern pagans Modern pagan writers