Abstract
In this chapter, I examine at length five case studies from among my interviewees. Each interviewee is briefly introduced, followed by a biographical sketch of his or her religious itinerary. After thus discussing all interviewees separately, I tie their stories together in a final section, in which I employ these examples to illustrate the main points of appeal associated with the religious repertoire model. Beyond the demonstration of the model, I use these five case studies as an opportunity to demonstrate some of the points that were discussed throughout the book and to elucidate additional observations concerning religious identity and behavior in Christian Kenya.
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Notes
- 1.
The diagram offers a simplification of what may well be much richer personal repertoires. In the case of Robert, for instance, it can be said with certainty that, in his capacity as a regional religious leader and entrepreneur, he has been closely involved with a large number of churches in ways that transcend the limited scope of the present diagram. More precise mapping of religious repertoires could be achieved in the future using a refined and more focused methodology.
- 2.
The question of whether Damaris’ DHIC should be regarded as a freestanding religious form whose familiarity threshold has been crossed is a question to which the answer can be debated. Having attended a yoga course and a course on healing at a Hindu temple, these two particular bodies of teaching can be regarded as having entered her repertoire, yet the question can be raised whether they amount, in and of themselves, to religious forms per se.
- 3.
Luo: kamiluokorie ok itwoyie. Despite his ethnic Kamba background, Robert used the phrase in Luo.
- 4.
Robert elsewhere suggested that he has been a victim of sexual extortion by the female owner of the hall rented for the congregation . Having rejected the woman’s advances, she then allegedly began abusing him. It has been said that the congregation thus had to leave the premises, a move that eventually led to the church’s collapse.
- 5.
The main reason Jane gave for not qualifying as a member at JEC is that she does not participate regularly in a home fellowship or “cell group” meetings. As she explained, she does not participate because there are no such group meetings in her immediate neighborhood, and attending a group in another part of town would require her to get back home alone after dark using public transportation, which would compromise her personal safety.
- 6.
While these were the terminologies used by Jane herself, she also admitted that she is not sure about the precise distinction between these two categories.
- 7.
Due to her young age, Damaris’ religious narrative up to the point of her mother’s departure tended to focus on the family unit. Such cases of group—rather than individual —mobility might deserve special consideration. For the purposes of this work, however, and as I have found relatively little evidence for group mobility after childhood, I decided not to pursue this strand.
- 8.
It goes without saying that territories of legitimate practice vary across religious landscapes, and that any future research using the religious repertoire model would have to identify and take into account local norms.
- 9.
Considering the biographical approach taken here, such age differences can be recognized as working in two possible ways. On the one hand, older practitioners might be expected to have lived through more religious changes , thus developing a richer—if largely inactive—repertoire. On the other hand, if religious mobility in urban Kenya has become more of a norm today, and especially among the youth—a plausible hypothesis, yet one that has not been clearly proven—then one may expect to find wider repertoires—certainly in the active domain—among younger people.
References
Gez, Yonatan N. 2014. “Les répertoires religieux: une approche englobante pour décrire la dynamique des identités religieuses.” In La mobilité religieuse: Retours croisés des Afriques aux Amériques, edited by Philippe Chanson, Yvan Droz, Yonatan N. Gez, and Edio Soares, 53–69. Paris: Karthala.
Gooren, Henri. 2010. Religious Conversion and Disaffiliation: Tracing Patterns of Change in Faith Practices. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Richardson, James T., ed. 1978. Conversion Careers: In and Out of the New Religions. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Richardson, James T., and M. Stewart. 1977. “Conversion Process Models and the Jesus Movement.” American Behavioral Scientist 20 (6): 819–838.
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Gez, Y.N. (2018). Exploring Religious Biographies. In: Traditional Churches, Born Again Christianity, and Pentecostalism. Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90641-6_8
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