RT Article
T1 Reading, feeling, believing: online testimonies and the making of Evangelical emotion
JF Journal of contemporary religion
VO 34
IS 1
SP 97
OP 115
A1 Geuns, Suzanne van 1992-
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1666247073
AB A personal relationship with God is central to Evangelical belief. It unfolds as believers interpret internal sensations as coming from outside-from God. How does the formulaic design of testimonies present the audience with a personal relationship with God as a pursuit that is both feasible and deeply desirable? Analyzing the discursive rules structuring the appearance of emotion in the most popular testimonies on the online platform of Christianity Today reveals that such texts expertly present a microcosm in which the experience of reading mirrors the trajectory toward belief writers describe. To read a testimony from start to finish, readers must choose to tolerate the unfamiliar: that is, feel emotions that specifically belong in an Evangelical frame. Online written testimony relies on compelling storytelling to move readers, making them practise what it feels like to hand over part of one's own story to God.
K1 Evangelical
K1 anthropology of Christianity
K1 close reading
K1 Discourse Analysis
K1 Emotion
K1 Language
K1 online Christianity
K1 Testimony
DO 10.1080/13537903.2019.1585122