Becoming Religious Disbelievers: Retrospective Viewpoints

Everson, Kimberlee C.

doi:10.1007/s11089-018-0849-6

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One of the themes that came to the foreground in more recent studies is change to non-theism and irreligiosity. With this respect, especially the qualitative studies by Fazzino (2014), Marriott (2015), Thiessen and Wilkins-Laflamme (2017), Everson (2019), Nica (2019), as well as Starr and colleagues (2019) are important. These qualitative studies can be compared with the research interest presented in this volume, as they can illuminate the complexity and multifaceted nature of the process of deconversion and what this experience means to the individual.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thiessen and Wilkins-Laflamme (2017), for example, did not collect qualitative and quantitative data from the same sample, but the statistical data is merely used as background information for the qualitative analysis. The Q-Sorting methodology used in Everson's (2019) study, on the other hand, corresponds to a standardized and rather deductive approach and therefore risks limiting the inductive potential of qualitative research. Thus, while yielding very interesting results, both studies could have benefited from not favoring one methodic strand over the other.…”

Section: Conclusion and Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Chapter 2: Recent Research on Deconversion

Steppacher¹,

Streib²,

Bullik³

et al. 2021

Deconversion Revisited

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Our book on Deconversion Revisited needs to include a review of extant research with a focus on contributions published after our first book on deconversion (Streib, Hood, Keller, Csöff, Silver, 2009) in which one chapter was also dedicated to the discussion of research before 2009 (for a review of the most recent contributions to deconversion research, see also Streib, 2021). In the last decade, research on religious change and deconversion has increasingly received attention with hundreds of publications that explicitly or implicitly focus on the topic. While explicitly interdisciplinary empirical research on deconversion still remains an exception (Currie, 2016;Gooren, 2016;Rambo & Bauman, 2017), the general appreciation of an interdisciplinary perspective is high. Within this wider context and research activity, our previous book (Streib et al., 2009) has received not only positive and thoughtful reviews (Gooren, 2011;McAdams, 2010;Nica, 2016), but the conceptual considerations about deconversion elaborated in our previous study have been critically discussed or integrated in research projects (see, for example, Fazzino, 2014;Marriott, 2015;Nica, 2019).Compared to the massive research literature on conversion, studies on deconversion are still considerably smaller in number and deconversion research is relatively young: The study of deconversion begins in the 1980s and 1990s. Early studies of deconversion have focused upon defectors from New Religious Movements (NRMs) (Hood, Hill, Spilka, 2018;Streib et al., 2009). Most studies of deconversion have been done by sociologists and psychologists using participant observation or descriptive research strategies. Further, Paloutzian, Rambo, and Richardson's (1999) conclusion about research on conversion appears valid also for research on deconversion before the turn of the century: Most studies are retrospective, cross-sectional, and constitute no systematic program of research. This has changed in the new century and more so in the last decade. Of course, our own research (Streib et al., 2009) has roots in the study of New Religious Movements too but was expanded to include deconversions from all kinds of mainstream religious traditions in the USA and Germany. In the light of this broader conceptual discussion contrasting the term with conversion, deconversion here is understood as a dynamic process that involves movement within the religious field (see Chapter 1 of this volume). Deconversion is a complex and personally consequential process, affecting the individual's morality, belief system, religious experiences, religious 1 Results presented below with reference to GSS and ALLBUS data are our own calculations unless specified otherwise.

show abstract