Selfation : Dutch Evangelical Youth Between Subjectivization and Subjection

Abstract

The once taken-for-granted notion of religion's inevitable decline in Northwestern Europe is increasingly contested. Instead of gradually disappearing, religion seems to become more subjective, personal and informed by private experience. This book addresses the merits of this influential understanding of religious changes, based on a qualitative in-depth study of evangelicalism among Dutch youngsters, one of the most popular renditions of Christianity in the Netherlands. Guiding the reader through the settings and communities in which evangelical youngsters nourish their faith, it critically discusses the ideological and moral repertoires that inform their religious lives, the ways their connection to the sacred is mediated and affirmed, and the implications of both of these for the discussions on the nature and fate of religion in Northwestern Europe. Johan Roeland (1977) obtained his masters degree in Theology. He worked as a PhD candidate at

Beyond individualisation: neo-evangelical lessons for religious socialisation

“…Roeland 2009). There is first an authoritative discourse, an authoritative religious language by means of which one's personal experience of the sacred is supposed to be narrated.…”

“…As one of the authors determined in his interviews with neo-evangelical youngsters (Roeland 2009), they claim that the feeling of connectedness forms a strong motive for them to get involved in these communities. Rather than believing on their own, they chose to share their faith in such temporary communities.…”

Touched by the Spirit: Converting the Senses in a Ghanaian Charismatic Church

“…Rather, I wish to emphasise that 'touch is a bodily experience deeply encoded in Christian culture' (Sennett 1994: 225, see also Classen 1998) and strongly emphasised in Pentecostalism worldwide, including Western societies (e.g. Roeland 2009;Klaver 2011).…”

Buildings and Bibles Between Profanization and Sacralization: Semiotic Ambivalence in the Protestant Dutch Bible Belt

“…Meyer and Houtman 2012, 9-13;Pels 2012, 34-38;Vásquez 2011, 32). Instead, the material turn's central notion that "religion cannot do without material culture" (Engelke 2012, 40) has prompted research into the materiality of Protestantism itself, with attention for bodily sensations (Klaver 2012;Roeland 2009;Roeland et al 2012), pictures (Exalto 2016;Meyer 2012;Morgan 1993Morgan , 2004, church buildings and rituals taking place therein (Buggeln 2003;Coleman and Collins 2006;Martin 2006;Molendijk 2003), and traditions (Crapanzano 2000). Studies like these focus on Protestants' material practices, and raise the pivotal question how these practices are related to religious beliefs among various Protestant groups.…”