Compassion and purity: the ethics and boundary-making of Christian evangelicals

Montemaggi, Francesca

doi:10.1080/0048721x.2018.1470117

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…As many other anthropologists have observed, evangelicals spend a lot of time ruminating over the theological implications, the intersubjective politics, and the interactional grammar of evangelism (cf. Bielo 2011; Bornstein 2003; Brahinsky 2020 a ; Elisha 2011; Engelke 2013; Harding 2000; Howell 2012; Montemaggi 2018; Strhan 2015). Many evangelicals are concerned not just about the effectiveness of their efforts but also about the ethics and politics of facilitating good conversions (see Kravel‐Tovi, this issue).…”

Section: The Moral Epistemology Of Missional Christianitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I propose a specifically moral epistemological perspective on US biblicism in order to explain why so many evangelicals have become uneasy about proselytizing (cf. Bielo 2011; Bornstein 2003; Brahinsky 2020 a ; Elisha 2011; Howell 2012; Montemaggi 2018). Taking a ‘moral epistemological’ perspective on biblicism is not about assessing the goodness or badness of a given interpretive strategy (cf.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Proselytizing is not evangelism: epistemic virtue and religious suasion at a post‐fundamentalist church in Nashville

Victor

2024

Royal Anthropological Inst

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This essay proposes a moral epistemological explanation for many US evangelicals’ growing unease about proselytizing. Drawing on extensive fieldwork at a church in Nashville, Tennessee, it highlights how a particular kind of epistemological certainty became a driving value of evangelical biblicism when early nineteenth‐century evangelicals attempted to apply the precepts of inductive science to textual interpretation. Members of the church I studied routinely express regret about this historical entanglement, which they blame for their denomination's dogmatic and ultimately unsuccessful fixation on persuading other people to believe the exact same things as they do. Against ‘proselytizing’ driven by ‘the desire to be right’, my interlocutors are trying to develop a practical social ethics whose explicitly biblical inspiration, they hope, will motivate others to want to become Christians. I show that as an analytic, religious suasion makes concepts like ‘proselytizing’ and ‘evangelism’ ethnographic again by sending them back to the field where our interlocutors themselves define and critique them. Doing this allows us to better grasp nuances in evangelicals’ own evolving ideologies and practices for making their religion intelligible to themselves and others.

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Section: The Moral Epistemology Of Missional Christianitymentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Proselytizing is not evangelism: epistemic virtue and religious suasion at a post‐fundamentalist church in Nashville

Victor

2024

Royal Anthropological Inst

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“…However, the problem then becomes that if shouting warnings about this oncoming judgement does not work, the church is more or less forced to re-adjust itself. And this is what City Church has done -an emphasis on compassion with non-believers, an active engagement in (potential) social relations within Faroese society and a willed avoidance of moralising towards other actors (see Montemaggi 2018). Th e mantra, as it is written on custom-made rubber armbands worn by many of the church's members, is the crystallisation of this intent -'be real and relate '.…”

Section: Strategic Patiencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Faced with this dilemma, churches that wish to keep recruiting new members into the fold see themselves as having to realign the ways in which they do things. As Francesca Montemaggi (2018) has recently shown among conservative believers in Bethlehem church in England, this realignment has oft en led to a reconfi guration in relational ethics between church and outsiders where churches have taken on a more 'inclusive' approach with a much more tolerant moral stance towards what was previously seen as sin or vice, thus off ering a kind of 'low-threshold' off er (Schlamelcher 2013: 62) to individuals who might otherwise not be inclined to come to the church (Montemaggi 2018: 7). Th roughout the rest of this article, I will argue that wedding the concepts of urgent Evangelical imperative with an inclusive approach towards outsiders leads to patience as a strategic necessity for churches in spreading the Gospel.…”

Section: Conversion Salvation and The Evangelical Imperativementioning

confidence: 99%

Reconfiguring Hell

Jensen¹

2022

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

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This article focuses on a Pentecostal church in the Faroe Islands and the way in which members of the church relate to the concepts of life, death, Heaven and Hell. As I argue throughout, the concepts of damnation and Hell, which have historically played a central role in Evangelical churches in the country, have now started to become played down in favour of a ‘Gospel of Life’. I explore this change by paying attention to the existential stakes involved in living life as a member of a Christian movement which sees it as an imperative to spread the Gospel to individuals who are not confessed Christians. This work contributes to a growing amount of literature within the anthropology of Christianity that deals with Pentecostal and charismatic Christian movements. It is my argument that while much earlier literature dealing with phenomena such as conversion and millenarianism has been presented, the question of the ‘small’ biographical aspects of salvation and (the after-)life have not been adequately explored. Finally, I attempt to offer up an example of how changing ontological claims affect religious practice among the people in question. Cet article se concentre sur une église pentecôtiste dans les îles Féroé et sur la manière dont les membres de l’église se rapportent aux concepts de vie, de mort, de paradis et d'enfer. Comme je le soutiens, les concepts de damnation et d'enfer, qui ont historiquement joué un rôle central dans les églises évangéliques du pays, ont maintenant commencé à être minimisés en faveur d'un “Évangile de la vie”. J'explore ce changement en prêtant attention aux enjeux existentiels de la vie en tant que membre d'un mouvement chrétien qui considère comme un impératif de diffuser l’Évangile à des individus qui ne sont pas des chrétiens confessés. Ce travail contribue à une quantité croissante de littérature au sein de l'anthropologie du christianisme qui traite des mouvements chrétiens pentecôtistes et charismatiques. Je soutiens que, si de nombreux ouvrages antérieurs traitant de phénomènes tels que la conversion et le millénarisme ont été présentés, la question des “petits” aspects biographiques du salut et de l'après-vie n'a pas été suffisamment explorée. Enfin, j'essaie d'offrir un exemple de la manière dont l’évolution des revendications ontologiques affecte la pratique religieuse chez les personnes en question.

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A Quiet Faith: Quakers in Post-Christian Britain

Montemaggi¹

2018

Religions

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Post-Christian Britain is characterised by a rejection of doctrinal and morally conservative religion. This does not reflect solely the experience of those with ‘no religion’ but can be found in the narratives of ‘new Quakers,’ those who have become members or attenders in the past three years. New Quakers contrast Quaker sense of acceptance, freedom from theological ideas and freedom to be a spiritual seeker with conservative Christian churches, which have often been experienced as judgmental and doctrinal. Quaker liberal morality also affords inclusivity to those who have felt marginalised, such as disabled and LGBT people. The way new Quakers articulate their identity shines a light on the contemporary transformation of religious forms and society. Their emphasis on individual spirituality and rejection of theological doctrine reflect the profound cultural shift towards a post-Christian Britain, which is religiously diverse, more open to individual spiritual seeking and more liberal morally and socially.

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Compassion and purity: the ethics and boundary-making of Christian evangelicals

Cited by 3 publications

References 43 publications

Proselytizing is not evangelism: epistemic virtue and religious suasion at a post‐fundamentalist church in Nashville

Proselytizing is not evangelism: epistemic virtue and religious suasion at a post‐fundamentalist church in Nashville

Reconfiguring Hell

A Quiet Faith: Quakers in Post-Christian Britain

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