Implicit religion: reshaping the boundary between the religious and the secular?

ABSTRACT This article introduces a Special Section of Journal of Beliefs and Values focusing on new directions in the study of Implicit Religion. It sets the scene for the Special Section in two steps. Step one focuses the origin of the concept of Implicit Religion as a set of analytic tools for examining the salience of commitments for the lives of individuals in contemporary societies. The tools comprise three key components styled: commitments, integrating foci, and intensive concerns with extensive effects. Step two charts a path through the contributions to the Special Section that apply these tools in respect of the following themes: cosplay, video games, Straight Edge punks, the Grateful Dead, birth stories, sacralised subjugation, TV sitcoms, and attitudes to the body