Threats of Hellfire and Jumping for Heavenly Joy
Religious revivals are often accompanied by manifest emotional phenomena, such as ecstaticism, trances, and glossolalia, which have proven challenging to explain. Following the recent wave of insights to properties of religious rituals and beliefs conductive to human cooperation, I propose that emot...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2014
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| In: |
Method & theory in the study of religion
Year: 2014, Volume: 26, Issue: 4/5, Pages: 508-532 |
| Further subjects: | B
Cooperation
costly signaling hypothesis
emotions
revivals
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Religious revivals are often accompanied by manifest emotional phenomena, such as ecstaticism, trances, and glossolalia, which have proven challenging to explain. Following the recent wave of insights to properties of religious rituals and beliefs conductive to human cooperation, I propose that emotional signals provide a solution to the problem of Machiavellian opportunists who undertake displays of commitment as calculated investments and are liable to defect when it appears more profitable. As an empirical case I explore the Christian revivals that arose in early 19th century Finland, and demonstrate how their emotionalism was connected to assumed hypocrisy of ordinary Christians and especially that of the state church clergy. In addition to exposing the context in which to expect emotional revivals, the article suggests ways to reconciliate long-standing debates on the relative importance of socioeconomical versus religious motivations in the birth of new movements. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0682 |
| Contains: | In: Method & theory in the study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341273 |