ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some key anthropological theories for the analysis and interpretation of blurred encounters'. It begins with an outline of theories for the interpretation of rites of passage, which are a classical blurred phenomenon that exist to guide people through the joints of categorisational systems. The chapter explores how these ideas play out in repeating ritual and pilgrimage before concluding with a more general discussion of the relationship between religion, spirituality and secular world views. Decades ago two giants of anthropology explicitly argued for the value of applying anthropological theory to Christian material and with the increasing popularity of home anthropology' familiarity was no longer an automatic excuse for focusing on the distant. The chapter explores various anthropological understandings of blurred encounters. British social anthropology has a long history of interpreting the social aspects of religion.
