Idols and the Threat of Unhappiness

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04. Emotions in Social Movements

Abstract

Sociologists of religion have proposed various theories as to why evangelical Christianity
thrives in a modern pluralistic environment. This phenomenon runs contrary to the secularization
hypothesis: the idea that the forces of modernity are corrosive to religious systems. Based on
data from participant observation at an evangelical congregation in the Midwest, I propose an
argument for a mechanism that contributes to this phenomenon of evangelical strength involving
emotions. I introduce the concept of idolatry talk--or talk characterized by the advocacy of
asceticism and the subjugation of self in favor of the deity--to capture this idea.
Idolatry talk trains members to 1) define good feelings derived from religious sources as
healthy and define an overabundance of good feelings from secular sources as damaging; 2)
increase participation in religious activities and to decrease participation in secular recreations,
maintaining an ascetic lifestyle; 3) sanction themselves by producing negative feelings within
themselves in response to secular recreation and to produce positive emotions in response to
religious activities; and 4) internalize and identify with increasing compliance to these feeling
rules and define as healthy an increasing dependence on the religious institution for positive
emotions.

Authors

• Kathryn Elizabeth Panger

• Shane Sharp, Northern Illinois University