Taking Christianity to Therapy. Emotional Identity Work at an Evangelical Megachurch (Ariane Kovac)
When people speak critically of evangelical Christianity, they often target emotions. Evangelicals get portrayed as angry fire-and-brimstone preachers, or their ‘shiny happy’ positivity is accused of being hypocritical. Evangelicals level these same criticisms against each other. Different strands of evangelicalism tend to agree on many theological questions but disagree about what counts as legitimate and authentic expressions of emotion. Progressive evangelicals criticize the rigid—and in their view, performative—positivity of more conservative churches. These progressives frame their difference in therapeutic language of recovering from “burnout” or “trauma.” In my dissertation, I explore how different understandings of emotionality inform perceptions of “right” or “wrong” religious practice in evangelicalism. Drawing on a case study of a progressive megachurch that uses a therapeutic framework to distance itself from conservative evangelicalism, I examine the role of emotions in inner-evangelical disagreements and identity construction.
