
Matrimony
Ritual, Culture, and the Heart's Work
Stephen Jenkinson(Author)
Sounds True Inc (Publisher)
Published on 22. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-64963-408-5 (ISBN)
Description
In a time when communal rituals and cultural ceremonies fail, longtime scholar, storyteller, and ceremonialist Stephen Jenkinson asks what it means to lose cultural inheritance. In examining matrimony and its ritual twin, patrimony, Matrimony contemplates culture-making, building and preserving cultural memory, and the ache of living in a world bereft of meaning and connection. There is a real and palpable consequence to turning away from public ceremony - and not just for the celebrants.
"Matrimony and patrimony are village rites, a communal affirmation of the village's ways of going on, sometimes not quite knowing how to," shares Jenkinson. "The village needs and deserves a rite of public recognition of the seismic change in its life that matrimony means to make." Privatising love, turning matrimony into a social institution barren of almost all substance, and flattening rituals into convenient events that fit into the routine of modern living erodes our connections and commitment to community and compromises our use as citizens of a troubled time. The way forward, then, is to learn and reclaim our cultural ceremonies and their meaning.
Through witty stories, insightful history, and meditative questions, Matrimony invites us to contemplate the significance of matrimony, ceremony, and cultural articulation - and how to redeem them for future generations.
"Matrimony and patrimony are village rites, a communal affirmation of the village's ways of going on, sometimes not quite knowing how to," shares Jenkinson. "The village needs and deserves a rite of public recognition of the seismic change in its life that matrimony means to make." Privatising love, turning matrimony into a social institution barren of almost all substance, and flattening rituals into convenient events that fit into the routine of modern living erodes our connections and commitment to community and compromises our use as citizens of a troubled time. The way forward, then, is to learn and reclaim our cultural ceremonies and their meaning.
Through witty stories, insightful history, and meditative questions, Matrimony invites us to contemplate the significance of matrimony, ceremony, and cultural articulation - and how to redeem them for future generations.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Louisville, CO
United States
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
302 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64963-408-5 (9781649634085)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, is a cultural worker, teacher, author, and ceremonialist. He is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. He has master's degrees from Harvard University (theology) and the University of Toronto (social work). He's the author of Come of Age, the award-winning Die Wise, Money and the Soul's Desires, and Reckoning (with Kimberly Ann Johnson). For more, visit orphanwisdom.com.