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Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Heart's Work
A restoration of the village-making power of matrimony, a building of cultural memory, and an examination of meaning-making for our ceremonially adrift time
Public and private rituals are failing this culture. Longtime scholar, storyteller, and ceremonialist Stephen Jenkinson has tracked that failure, along with the personal poverties that have followed, and has set about mending the brokenness—the meaning and connection—one wedding ceremony at a time.
“Matrimony is the place where culture leans on love for its portion, its tithe,” explains Jenkinson. “It is the mothering of culture, and ritual is its vehicle, and patrimony its precursor.” Privatizing love, turning matrimony into a social institution barren of all substance, and flattening rituals into benign, generic celebrations of life erodes our skills as citizen witnesses to a troubled time. The way forward, then, is to learn and reclaim our cultural ceremonies and their meaning.
Among the insights that Stephen Jenkinson offers in this thought-provoking
• The place of matrimony and patrimony in modern understandings of romance
• The importance of village rites and rituals
• Old understandings of union, marriage, and matrimony rendered new
Through witty stories, insightful history, and meditative questions, Matrimony invites us to examine the significance of matrimony, ritual, ceremony, and cultural articulation—and how to redeem them for future generations.
Public and private rituals are failing this culture. Longtime scholar, storyteller, and ceremonialist Stephen Jenkinson has tracked that failure, along with the personal poverties that have followed, and has set about mending the brokenness—the meaning and connection—one wedding ceremony at a time.
“Matrimony is the place where culture leans on love for its portion, its tithe,” explains Jenkinson. “It is the mothering of culture, and ritual is its vehicle, and patrimony its precursor.” Privatizing love, turning matrimony into a social institution barren of all substance, and flattening rituals into benign, generic celebrations of life erodes our skills as citizen witnesses to a troubled time. The way forward, then, is to learn and reclaim our cultural ceremonies and their meaning.
Among the insights that Stephen Jenkinson offers in this thought-provoking
• The place of matrimony and patrimony in modern understandings of romance
• The importance of village rites and rituals
• Old understandings of union, marriage, and matrimony rendered new
Through witty stories, insightful history, and meditative questions, Matrimony invites us to examine the significance of matrimony, ritual, ceremony, and cultural articulation—and how to redeem them for future generations.
269 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 12, 2025
16 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Jenkinson
9 books164 followersStephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time yet to come.
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September 8, 2025
This could have been a great 30 page essay. As it stands, it's in desperate need of an editor. The author irritated and frustrated me at times, but I think he would be happy to hear that. Lots of really interesting nuggets. I love Mrs. Devil
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