Abstract
Having highlighted the shortcomings in the literature under consideration with regard to religious identity in the previous chapter, this chapter makes the case for the foregrounding of religiosity and develops the analytical approach to religious identity that will underpin the subsequent chapters. It does so through an in-depth discussion drawing on the narratives of converts to Islam and through considering how aspects of continuity and change and of past, present and future emerge in the narratives. It presents vivid portraits of how they negotiate and narrate their religious subjecthood and reflects on the limits of sociological conceptualisations, arguing for the relevance and necessity of a ‘theological ear’. To make this case it engages with the writings of Georg Simmel on religion and his notions of religiosity and religion, arguing that these are useful for the reorientation that brings religion to the centre of analysis.
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Notes
- 1.
This conception is therefore very different from how the term religiosity often appears in sociological studies, measured by things such as regularity of prayer of attendance at a place of worship.
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Sealy, T. (2021). Resituating Religiosity. In: Religiosity and Recognition. Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75127-2_4
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