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Lived Religion, Worship and Conversion: Ethnographic Reflections in an Abstinence-based Christian Therapeutic Community

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Lived Religion, Conversion and Recovery

Abstract

This chapter critically examines the intersection between lived religion, worship, and the ethics of conversion in a faith-based therapeutic community in the area of substance misuse and recovery. Drawing on a two-month residential ethnography in a Pentecostal therapeutic community in the UK, the chapter outlines a conceptual framework for analyzing the more-than-representational dimensions of conversion and Pentecostal worship, and draws attention to the emotional, spiritual, and therapeutic sensibilities residents attach to, and experience during, practices of worship and prayer. Worship practices are shown to potentially draw converts into powerful experiences of the sacred, which can generate new, or reaffirm existing, transformations in self-identity and religious belief. Equally, the mandatory nature of worship and its associated participatory manners can produce experiences of indifference, isolation and oppression.

Some material in this chapter has been published in Emotion, Space and Society under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND). Williams, A. P. J. (2016 ). Spiritual landscapes of Pentecostal worship, belief, and embodiment in a therapeutic community: New critical perspectives. Emotion, Space and Society, 19, 45–55. Parts of the chapter are reproduced with permission from Elsevier Publishing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Andrew P. J. W. Williams

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  1. Andrew P. J. W. Williams
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Srdjan Sremac

  2. Gordon College, Wenham, MA, USA

    Ines W. Jindra

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Williams, A.P.J.W. (2020). Lived Religion, Worship and Conversion: Ethnographic Reflections in an Abstinence-based Christian Therapeutic Community. In: Sremac, S., Jindra, I. (eds) Lived Religion, Conversion and Recovery . Palgrave Studies in Lived Religion and Societal Challenges. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40682-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40682-0_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-40681-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-40682-0

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