Evangelical Congregations and Identity Change

Abstract

In Northern Ireland, evangelicals within congregations have been forced to respond to widespread social and political changes, and this has contributed to changes in the content of evangelical identities. Focusing on the way people frame their identities avoids too immediate analysis of reactions to specific policies and gets at underlying trends. As Todd (2005) has argued, it allows for analysis of how changing identities impact wider social and political processes, including generating crises as well as opportunities for acceptance of the postconflict order. Todd’s typology of identity change, outlined in chapter 2, provides an underlying framework for this chapter.