A reclamation of cultural tradition in the ritual of matrimony for our ceremonially illiterate time.
22nd September 2025
Paperback
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
A reclamation of cultural tradition in the ritual of matrimony for our ceremonially illiterate time.
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.
Critic Reviews
"Matrimony is a triumph, analyzing and reconstructing marriage through the ages. This illuminating work challenges the paucity of the modern wedding ritual and offers inspiring, practical pathways for deeper, more meaningful rituals. It's a bold, clear-eyed view of what the marriage ritual could be, if we are courageous enough to tune in to the ancestors and to follow our truth." --Manchán Magan, documentarian and author of Thirty-Two Words for Field
"With Matrimony, Stephen Jenkinson trails a troubled beast. A beast many regard as simply AWOL, rarely glimpsed or woefully stretched on the rack of whatever progress report is currently doing the rounds. A beast with hurt feelings. With chewy wit, nimble storytelling, and the unmistakable tang of lived experience, he sets our sights for the initiatory core of the endeavor. Turns out, we barely knew the thing at all. This isn't a book about groovy intuitions, but mythically reasoned imaginings; far may it sail." --Martin Shaw, PhD, mythologist and author of Bardskull and the award-winning Mythteller trilogy
"Matrimony is a summons, a reckoning, and a blessing. With the raw grace and precise poetics that are his signature, Stephen Jenkinson lays bare the scaffolding of love and commitment--not as sentimental refuge but as a culture-making labor, as an inheritance both weighty and wondrous. This book will shake loose your assumptions, invite you into the work of witnessing and being witnessed, and, if you let it, alter your understanding of what it is to be bound--to another, to time, to the making of meaning itself." --Elena Brower, artist and bestselling author of Practice You and Art of Attention
About the Author
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.
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22nd September 2025
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