J.H. Roeland

Selfation : Dutch Evangelical Youth Between Subjectivization and Subjection

De tot voor kort wijdverspreide opvatting dat religie zou verdwijnen in Noordwest Europa, wordt meer en meer betwist. Religie zou niet zozeer verdwijnen, maar subjectiever en persoonlijker worden, voornamelijk gericht op de individuele religieuze ervaring. Dit boek onderzoekt in hoeverre deze invloedrijke opvatting over religieuze veranderingen houdbaar is, aan de hand van een kwalitatief onderzoek naar evangelicalisme onder Nederlandse jongeren - vandaag de dag een van de meest populaire manifestaties van het Christendom in Nederland. De auteur introduceert de lezer in de wereld van jonge evangelicals en in de religieuze gemeenschappen waar zij hun geloof gestalte geven. Hij bespreekt de levensbeschouwelijke en morele repertoires waaruit zij putten, de wijze waarop het heilige wordt bemiddeld, en de implicaties hiervan voor de discussies over de aard en de toekomst van religie in Noordwest Europa.

Close encounters: Ritualizing proximity in the age of celebrity. An ethnographic analysis of meet-and-greets with Dutch singer Marco Borsato

For many celebrities, organizing meet-and-greets with fans and followers has become a permanent feature of their public appearances. As yet little is known about the role and importance of such ‘unmediated’ encounters within the everyday constitution of celebrity culture. Why would fans be interested in the possibility of direct, personal contact with people they already know from the media? To find an answer to this question, this article presents ethnographic research into meet-and-greets with the Dutch artist Marco Borsato. Results show that these meet-and-greets constitute a meaningful experience for those involved: they validate and enhance emotional involvement, serve as status symbols within the fan hierarchy and, in some cases, can fulfil a vital role in personal life narratives of healing.

Beyond individualisation: neo-evangelical lessons for religious socialisation

Young Christians may be less individualised than some widely shared reflections in the literature suggest. Even though their faith may no longer be exclusively or primarily nourished in the traditional institutional contexts of family, school and church, they often prefer their faith being lived and expressed in new forms of sociality such as festivals and virtual communities. The authors describe one particular current in contemporary Christianity in which such tribal forms of sociality are rampant, namely neo-evangelicalism. They argue that socialisation actually takes place in these seemingly individualised forms of sociality, yet less explicitly than in traditional forms. Furthermore, they explore the lessons that may be learned from the tribal forms of sociality that characterise neo-evangelicalism for religious socialisation in the contexts of church and school.

Beyond the domestication of nature? Restructuring the relationship between nature and technology in car commercials

It is often assessed that the construction of nature, technology and the relation between both is in the midst of a restructuring without specifying exactly what different articulations can be distinguished and how they differ from the modern notion of nature being separated from and domesticated by technology. Through an analysis of car commercials, this study develops a typology of constellations of nature and technology. Besides the well-known modern dichotomy of nature versus technology, with the latter being superior to the former, three types of articulations were found: technology as a flexible and superior technological mimicry of nature; technological mastery as harmful to nature; and nature and technology as two holistically connected realms. Implications for theories about the changing nature of nature and the restructuring of the relationship between nature and technology are discussed.

“Can we dance in this place?”: Body Practices and Forms of Embodiment in Four Decades of Dutch Evangelical Youth Events

This article describes the developments of the EO Youth Day, a Dutch Christian mass event that attracts thousands of young people every year. It is argued that in the course of time, the EO Youth Day has changed from a modest and sober event characterized by a Calvinist outlook to an expressive ‘hip’ event with an evangelical swing. This change becomes especially visible when the first versions of the EO Youth Day in the 1970s are compared with more recent ones—a comparison we shall make in this article. Central to this change is the way the body is addressed and referred to in what we call the ‘forms of embodiment’ offered at the EO Youth Day. Evidence for this is provided by an explorative empirical study of four EO Youth Days—those organized in 1977, 1987, 1999, and 2008.

Fantasy, Conspiracy and the Romantic Legacy: Max Weber and . the Spirit of Contemporary Popular Culture

The relation between modernity and cultural discontents of anomie and alienation is a central element in the works of Weber, Durkheim, Marx and their successors. Under modern conditions, the two are likely to occur simultaneously, because of modernitys tendency to erode the meaningful nomos of the past (anomie) and replace it with overbearing and therefore alienating institutional systems. This chapter argues that such analyses of modern life are no longer confined to the works of sociologists. It then argues that these narratives are especially present in todays popular culture, in particular in the genres of fantasy and conspiracy theories. Author discusses the theoretical implications of this observation, in particular for Max Webers classical analysis of the discontents of modern culture. He explores the possibility that fantasy culture and conspiracy culture may serve as repertoires by means of which hyper-real spiritualities are constructed that offer solace for modern problems of meaning. Keywords:conspiracy theories; fantasy; hyper-real spiritualities; Max Weber; modern culture; popular culture; romantic legacy

Click to Connect: Participation and Meaning in an Online Church

This study is a qualitative study into the meaning that visitors derive from participating in the Dutch online church Mijn Kerk (litt. My Church). By focusing on the experience of the individual visitors, the everyday context of visitors is taken into account. What people are looking for online is determined by their relationship with the local church as well as further offline circumstances. This can be roughly divided into two categories: connectedness (with other people) and sustenance (inspiration for everyday life). Within Mijn Kerk visitors both offer and search for fulfillment of these needs, resulting in four typical behaviors: to vent, to encourage, to inspire and to recharge. Being very approachable, relatively anonymous and non-committal, while at the same time offering stability, real personal contact and durable relationships, Mijn Kerk is a unique community online in which people try to overcome the tension between individualism and the desire for connectedness.

God changes people: modes of authentication in Evangelical conversion narratives

Abstract One of the distinguishing characteristics of Evangelicalism is the conversion story. In this article we focus on the conversion stories of interviewees within the setting of several related Evangelical television programs broadcast in the Netherlands since the 1980s. We argue that the conversion story is construed through a particular view on and practice of authenticity. Thus we see that, in the televised conversion story, modes of authentication are at work in what we analytically distinguish as frames, narratives, and strategies of authentication. We argue that the idea of an authentic transformation has changed from a more fundamentalist mode of authentication, emphasizing the subjection of the self to a particular religious narrative, to a more expressive mode of authentication that emphasizes the exploration of the inner, unique self of the interviewee.

Contextual responses to interreligious encounters online

Increasingly, interreligious encounters occur through internet communication. The debate on the influence of internet communication on interreligious encounters is characterized by a contradiction between the theory of cyber-balkanization on the one hand and the theory of networked religion on the other. However, neither theory is contextualized and neither can therefore explain why an interreligious encounter results in either interreligious conflict or mutual understanding. In this article, a contextualized approach to the implications of internet communication for interreligious relationships is advocated. The authors show that contextualization on the level of the openness of the religious group is too one-dimensional. Therefore, a contextual reception model on the level of the situation is developed to explicate the possible attitudinal and behavioral positions within an online interreligious encounter. This model can be used to investigate the implications of internet communication for interreligious relationships.

Virtualization of Ritual: Consequences and Meaning

It is frequently argued that the authenticity of a religious ritual is in danger when practiced online because of the mundane and profane setting of the practitioner, which is usually a domestic space with a desk and a computer. This would easily distract the practitioner and create an “overload” of the mundane, possibly resulting in a loss of sacredness. However, in this contribution we base our argument on a tentative empirical journey made by one of the authors, and come to another conclusion. Following a broader trend of scholars who claim that the onand offline worlds are intrinsically linked, we propose that the quality of an online ritual mainly lies in the realm of experience. Moreover, we argue that the authentication of an online ritual is highly dependent on the framework of previous ritual experiences acquired in the offline domain. We have seen in the aforementioned explorative qualitative research that people are capable of sacralising their personal surroundings by excluding mundane elements and introducing the sacred into their homes and work environments. However, this is only possible if they have had experience with such a mental and material transformation previously. Subjective interference is thus a key notion in understanding the way the ritual changes through virtualization.