Religious Conversion and Disaffiliation: Tracing Patterns of Change in Faith Practices

190 Pages·2010·0.883 MB·English

by  Henri Gooren (auth.)

Religious Conversion and
Disaffiliation
Religious Conversion and
Disaffiliation
Tracing Patterns of
Change in Faith Practices
Henri Gooren
religious conversion and disaffiliation
Copyright © Henri Gooren, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10453-2
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States – a division of St. Martin’s Press
LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the
United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-28911-0 ISBN 978-0-230-11303-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230113039
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gooren, Henri Paul Pierre, 1967–
Religious conversion and disaffiliation : tracing patterns of change in faith
practices / Henri Gooren.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Conversion. I. Title.
BL639.G66 2010
204'.2—dc22
2010001770
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by MPS Limited, A Macmillan Company
First edition: September 2010
Dedicated to my father, Henk Gooren
Born: Pematang Siantar, Indonesia, November 9, 1930
Died: Oosterhout, the Netherlands, April 30, 2008
I feel his absence every day.
Contents
List of Figures xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction The Appeal of Conversion 1
A Hothead in a Disordered World 1
The Conversion Career 3
A Resurgence of Religion? 5
Secularization, Globalization, and Transnational Religion 6
The Religious Perspective: Distinguishing Form and Function 8
Conversion in Christianity 10
Conversion and the Religious Organization 11
Conversion and Disaffiliation in Modern Fiction 15
Methodology and Caveats 16
Aim and Structure of the Book 18
1 Approaches to Conversion 19
Introduction 19
William James: Conversion as the Healing of a Divided Self 20
Lofland and Stark: The Original Process Model of Conversion 22
Travisano: Conversion as the Disruption of Identity 24
Straus: Active Conversions by Religious Seekers 25
Greil: A Socialization-and-Social-Networks Approach
to Conversion 26
Heirich: Conversion as a Paradigm Shift 27
Bromley and Shupe: A Role Theory of Conversion and
Commitment 28
Long and Hadden: Conversion and Commitment as
Specific Types of Socialization 29
Snow and Machalek: The Convert Role Within a Specific
Universe of Discourse 30
Richardson: Paradigm Conflict between Active and Passive
Conversion Approaches 33
viii CONTENTS
Rational Choice Conversion Models: Gartrell and
Shannon, Stark and Finke 35
Rambo: A Holistic, Interdisciplinary, and Open Process
Model of Conversion 37
A Critique of Conventional Conversion Approaches 40
2 The Conversion Career 43
The Need for a New Approach to Conversion 43
The Bias of Scholarly Discipline 45
Synthesizing Conventional Conversion Approaches 46
The Conversion Career 48
The Methodology of the Conversion Career Approach 52
3 Conversion and the Religious Market 53
Introduction 53
The Micro-Level: The Rationalist Actor 54
The Meso-Level: The Competitive Religious Organization 56
The Macro-Level: The Religious Economy and the
Religious Market 59
The Religious Market Model and Conversion 63
Conclusion: Connecting Religious Demand and Supply 65
4 Stories of Conversion and Disaffiliation 69
Introduction 69
Parental Religion 70
Seekers and Shoppers 77
Committed Converts 86
Confessing Leaders 96
Disillusioned Disaffiliates 102
Conclusion 110
5 Conversion Careers in Latin America 115
Introduction 115
Pentecostal Conversion Careers in Latin America 116
Charismatic Catholic Conversion Careers in Latin America 120
Mormon Conversion Careers in Latin America 122
Pentecostal Disaffiliation 124
Mormon Disaffiliation 125
Catholic Disaffiliation 126
Conclusion 127
CONTENTS ix
6 Conclusion 131
Introduction 131
Conversion and the Religious Organization 131
The Converting Subject 135
Levels and Patterns of Religious Activity 136
The Religious Factor in Conversion 138
General Conclusions and Recommendations 140
Notes 143
References 157
Index 171
List of Figures
2.1 Movement between levels of religious activity in the
conversion career approach 50
6.1 Levels and requirements of individual religious
participation in the conversion career approach 133
6.2 M ovement between levels of religious activity in the
conversion career approach 137
6.3 Factors in religious activity 139
Acknowledgments
First of all, the members of the Conversion Careers Research Team must
be singled out for special thanks: André Droogers, Marjo de Theije, Anton
Houtepen, Miranda Klaver, Birgit Meyer, Ikuya Noguchi, João Rickli,
Carlos Sediles, Regien Smit, Linda van de Kamp, Rijk van Dijk, and Peter
Versteeg. Our meetings and discussions of our texts at the Department
of Anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, were always very
helpful and stimulating.
I also benefited greatly from the help I received from my former colleagues
at the Center IIMO for Intercultural Theology and the Department of
Theology at Utrecht University: Freek Bakker, Jeannette Boere, Martha
Frederiks, Hervé Jamin, Jan Jongeneel, Willemien Otten, Marian Oude-Griep,
Marcel Sarot, Karel Steenbrink, Henk Tieleman, Wil van den Bercken, Geert
van Oyen, Peter van Rijn, and Huub Vogelaar.
At various meetings in Birmingham and Amsterdam of the Global
Network on Pentecostalism (GLOPENT), I received extremely valuable feed-
back from scholars like Allan Anderson, Michael Bergunder, Simon Coleman,
Jörg Haustein, Bernice Martin, David Martin, and Cees van der Laan.
Many friends and colleagues associated with the Society for the
Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) commented on my ideas or on parts of
this book: Andrew Chesnut, Chris Chiappari, Ryan Cragun, Mara Einstein,
Carlos Garma Navarro, Virginia Garrard-Burnett, David Knowlton, Rick
Phillips, and Timothy Steigenga. I thank Armand Mauss especially—he
commented on the whole manuscript. Other friends and colleagues in the
United States who offered valuable help and feedback are Edward Cleary,
Mark Grover, and Lewis Rambo.
In the Netherlands, the discussions on religion with my fellow editors
of the journal Religie and Samenleving (Religion and Society)—Durk Hak,
Lammert Jansma, Erik Sengers, and Monique van Dijk-Groeneboer—
were always stimulating and fun. I also thank Johan Roeland, Wouter van
Beek, and Anton van Harskamp for their fresh ideas. Richard Singelenberg
provided valuable comments on various chapters of the book.
I am deeply grateful to the Netherlands Organization for Scientific
Research (NWO) in The Hague for funding our international research