In the Hands of God : : How Evangelical Belonging Transforms Migrant Experience in the United States / / Johanna Bard Richlin.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022 English
• VerfasserIn: Richlin, Johanna Bard,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (272 p.) :; 2 b/w illus. 8 tables. 2 maps.

How evangelical churches in the United States convert migrant distress into positive religious devotionWhy do migrants become more deeply evangelical in the United States and how does this religious identity alter their self-understanding? In the Hands of God examines this question through a unique lens, foregrounding the ways that churches transform what migrants feel. Drawing from her extensive fieldwork among Brazilian migrants in the Washington D.C. area, Johanna Bard Richlin shows that affective experience is key to comprehending migrants’ turn toward intense religiosity, and their resulting evangelical commitment.The conditions of migrant life—family separation, geographic isolation, legal precariousness, workplace vulnerability, and deep uncertainty about the future—shape specific affective maladies, including loneliness, despair, and feeling stuck. These feelings in turn trigger novel religious yearnings. Evangelical churches deliberately and deftly articulate, manage, and reinterpret migrant distress through affective therapeutics, the strategic “healing” of migrants’ psychological pain. Richlin offers insights into the affective dimensions of migration, the strategies pursued by evangelical churches to attract migrants, and the ways in which evangelical belonging enables migrants to feel better, emboldening them to improve their lives.Looking at the ways evangelical churches help migrants navigate negative emotions, In the Hands of God sheds light on the versatility and durability of evangelical Christianity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Pilgrims of the Potomac migrant faith in the shadows -- 1 Stories of Exceptionalism: Brazilians as a special case in the study of migration and religion -- 2 Stuck and Alone: the affective imprint of migrant distress -- 3 Church as Hospital and God as Consoler: the affective therapeutics of migrant evangelical churches -- 4 Hopeful Migrants, Confident Christians: Spiritual disciplines and evangelical efficacy -- 5 Affective Therapeutics in Comparative Perspective: catholic and spiritist migrant experience -- 6 The Evangelization of God among Migrants: intimate faith and embodied experience across denominations -- Conclusion: When Affective Therapeutics Fail: migrant faith and resilience in uncertain times -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A Note on the Type