Marion Bowman (born 1955) is a British academic working on the borders of religious studies and folklore and ethnology. She is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, The Open University.^[1]

Bowman is a long-standing researcher into New Age and alternative spiritualities.^[2] Her research focus is predominantly contemporary spirituality in the UK and Europe, particularly "the practices and beliefs of individuals both within and on the margins of institutional religion".^[3]

Bowman began her university education at Glasgow University but moved to Lancaster University to study under Prof Ninian Smart.^[2]

Bowman completed her MA in Folklore at Memorial University, Newfoundland: her dissertation was on devotion to St Gerard Majella in Newfoundland.^[4] She completed her PhD at the University of Glamorgan in 1998 on 'Vernacular Religion and Contemporary Spirituality: Studies in Religious Experience and Expression'.^[5]

From 1990 to 2000 Bowman was based at Bath Spa University in the department of Study of Religions.^[1]

In 2000 Bowman joined the Religious Studies department at The Open University. She was Head of Department between 2010 and 2013.^[1]

Bowman has carried out a long term study of Glastonbury, seeing it as a sight of "significant pilgrimage destination and microcosm of contemporary spirituality and vernacular religiosity".^[6]

Bowman is a member of the Steering Committee of the Baron Thyssen Centre for the Study of Ancient Material Religion, based in the Classical Studies Department at the Open University.^[7] She was also a Co-Investigator on the Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project Pilgrimage and England’s Cathedrals, Past and Present, which ran from 2014-2018.^[8]

The research of Bowman and Open University colleagues into alternative religions has been seen to have a number of impacts: both at an academic level in influencing research agendas but also in influencing a more positive public awareness of practitioners of alternative religions.^[9]

Bowman has been a visiting lecturer or professor at a number of European universities, including the University of Oslo, Norway;^[10] University of Bayreuth, Germany; University of Pecs, Hungary and University of Tartu, Estonia.^[11]

Bowman is currently vice-president of theology and religious studies UK.^[12] She is a former president of the British Association for the Study of Religions and a former Vice-President of the European Association for the Study of Religions.^[13]

Between 2002 and 2005, Bowman served as president of the Folklore Society: her Presidential Lectures derived from her research into Glastonbury and Newfoundland.^[14][15] She is an International Fellow of the American Folklore Society.^[16]

• Bowman, Marion (April 1993). "Reinventing the celts". Religion. 23 (2): 147–156. doi:10.1006/reli.1993.1013.
• Bowman, Marion (1995). "The commodification of the Celt: New Age/Neo-pagan consumerism". In Brewer, Teri (ed.). The Marketing of Tradition: Perspectives on Folklore, Tourism and the Heritage Industry. Hisarlik. ISBN 978-1-874312-21-5. OCLC 35555136.
• Bowman, Marion (May 1995). "The noble savage and the global village: Cultural evolution in new age and neo‐pagan THOUGHT". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 10 (2): 139–149. doi:10.1080/13537909508580734.
• Bowman, Marion (January 1998). "Belief, Legend and Perceptions of the Sacred in Contemporary Bath". Folklore. 109 (1–2): 25–31. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1998.9715958.
• Sutcliffe, Steven; Bowman, Marion, eds. (2000). Beyond New Age: Exploring Alternative Spirituality. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-0998-7. OCLC 43969544.
• Bowman, Marion (2001). "The People's Princess: Religion and Politics in the Mourning for Diana". In Barna, Gábor (ed.). Politics and Folk Religion. Department of Ethnology, University of Szeged. ISBN 978-963-482-400-8. OCLC 61726708.
• Bowman, Marion (2002). "Contemporary Celtic spirituality". In Pearson, Joanne (ed.). Belief Beyond Boundaries: Wicca, Celtic Spirituality and the New Age. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-0744-1. OCLC 48098557.
• Bowman, Marion (March 2003). "Vernacular religion and nature: The 'Bible of the Folk' tradition in Newfoundland". Folklore. 114 (3): 285–295. doi:10.1080/0015587032000145333. S2CID 144203410.
• Bowman, Marion (December 2004). "Presidential address given to the Folklore society, March 2004[1]: Procession and possession in glastonbury: continuity, change and the manipulation of tradition". Folklore. 115 (3): 273–285. doi:10.1080/0015587042000284266. S2CID 216643691.
• Bowman, Marion (August 2006). "The Holy Thorn Ceremony: Revival, Rivalry and Civil Religion in Glastonbury: Presidential Address Given To the Folklore society, March 2005". Folklore. 117 (2): 123–140. doi:10.1080/00155870600707805. S2CID 161605141.
• Bowman, Marion (June 2009). "Learning from experience: The value of analysing Avalon". Religion. 39 (2): 161–168. doi:10.1016/j.religion.2009.01.016. S2CID 144329975.
• Bowman, Marion; Valk, Ulo (2014). Vernacular Religion in Everyday Life: Expressions of Belief. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-54354-1. OCLC 893333268.
• Bowman, Marion (27 June 2014). "Far from the madding crowd: Glastonbury's spiritual side". The Conversation.
• Bowman, Marion (27 July 2016). "The contented collector: materiality, relationality and the power of things". Material Religion. 12 (3): 384–386. doi:10.1080/17432200.2016.1192159. S2CID 193315973.
• Coleman, Simon; Bowman, Marion (2 January 2019). "Religion in cathedrals: pilgrimage, heritage, adjacency, and the politics of replication in Northern Europe". Religion. 49 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1080/0048721X.2018.1515341. S2CID 149551939.
• Bowman, Marion; Sepp, Tiina (2 January 2019). "Caminoisation and Cathedrals: replication, the heritagisation of religion, and the spiritualisation of heritage". Religion. 49 (1): 74–98. doi:10.1080/0048721X.2018.1515325. S2CID 150171323.
• Bowman, Marion (September 2020). "'Rehabilitating' Pilgrimage in Scotland: Heritage, Protestant Pilgrimage, and Caledonian Caminos". Numen. 67 (5–6): 453–482. doi:10.1163/15685276-12341598. S2CID 225314281.