Author: Elisha, Omri

Source: Social Analysis, Volume 52, Number 1, Spring 2008 , pp. 56-78(23)

Abstract:

This article explores the cultural significance of faith among US evangelical Protestants. It is argued that evangelical conceptions of faith provide an idiom for expressing religiosity that transcends conventional notions of belief, which alone do not account for the ideals of evangelical subjectivity. Through an analysis of group rituals in a Tennessee megachurch, along with a discussion of the historical roots of evangelical theology and the growing influence of charismatic Christianity, the article highlights an emphasis on radical intersubjectivity that calls upon the faithful to submit to the totalizing authority of divine agency. It is further argued that evangelical conceptions of faith feature a strand of anti-humanism that resonates with the increasingly authoritarian politics of the post-welfare era, which are explored in relation to the growing phenomenon of altruistic faith-based activism.

Keywords: ANTI-HUMANISM; CONSERVATISM; EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTISM; FAITH-BASED ACTIVISM; INTERSUBJECTIVITY; MEGACHURCH; SPIRITUAL GIFTS

DOI: 10.3167/sa.2008.520104

User name

 

Password

 

 

Remember me

 

 

 

• forgotten your password?
• Sign in via Athens