Re-conceptualising the religious habitus: Reflexivity and embodied subjectivity in global modernity

Abstract

The utility of the notion of the religious habitus rests on its capacity to illuminate how embodied dispositions emergent from routinized practices come to be socially and culturally significant. This has been called into question, however, by global changes that undermine the societal stability and personal habits on which it is often understood to rely, stimulating instead reflexive engagements with change. After assessing conventional conceptions of the religious habitus vulnerable to such criticism, we utilize the writings of Latour in developing a new understanding of the term. Re-conceptualizing the religious habitus as something reflexively re-made or instaured, through the cultivation of a subjectivity that locates human action, feeling and thought at the embodied intersection of worldly and other-worldly realities, we illustrate the value of this approach with reference to contemporary Pentecostalism and Islam.

Embodying culture: Body pedagogics, situated encounters and empirical research

“…Discussions of the habitus can be traced back to Aristotle’s (2000) concern with hexis as an acquired overarching moral character able to direct an individual’s feelings, desires and actions as a result of habituation. Translated into Latin as ‘ habitus ’ the term was later used in Christian and Islamic thought to refer to the purposeful overcoming of religiously unfaithful actions (Mellor & Shilling, 2014). With Bourdieu’s (1984, p. 466; 1993, p. 86) enormously influential reformulation of the term, it acquired associations with pre-conscious and ‘durably incorporated’ dispositions that operate beyond conscious control.…”

The Christian Body at Work

“…In addition, I will address two questions concerning the relationship between insider and outsider perspectives with regard to studying Christians at work (3). 1) With the notions of the religious habitus and body pedagogics, Philip Mellor and Chris Shilling (2014, 2010a, 2010b) introduce a conceptualization of patterns of the embodiment of religious attitudes and orientations in a person's biography. Mellor and Shilling emphasize the role of the body for the perpetuation of religious orientations.…”

“…The dynamics of the manifestation of tradition and its Christian characteristics are particularly taken into account in Mellor & Shilling's (2014) notion of the instauration of a religious habitus. Mellor and Shilling (2010a) introduce the notion of the religious habitus by drawing on a number of sociological theories.…”

“…forms of consciousness and experience, including those related to transcendence and immanence" (2010a:217). Mellor and Shilling (2014) further develop the concept of the religious habitus by considering more explicitly the notions of instauration, reflexivity, and multi-realism 33 , which are increasingly important given the "cultural discontinuities of the current era" (2014:290). Taking account of this, they re-conceptualize the religious habitus as "the reflexive crafting of a mode of being that locates human action, feeling and thought at the embodied intersection of worldly and other-worldly realities" (2014:277, my emphasis), "where traffic flows both ways" (2014:284).…”

“…In my view, the point is not so much which label is used, but whether they help to account for central aspects of Christian existence when Christians are studied. For example, Mellor and Shilling (2014;see 4.2.1 & 6.2.1) have offered an understanding of Christian lifestyles as religious which takes seriously the existential char-23 One can, of course, say that 'religion' should be understood as an analytical sociological category and should not be taken to refer directly to particular phenomena. However, I do not think that this reflects a dominant usage of the term in fsw research.…”