An activist religiosity? Exploring Christian support for the Occupy movement. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Winter, Emily
• Is Part Of: Journal of contemporary religion. Volume 32:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 51
• Page End: 66
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: Christianity -- social movements -- Occupy -- activism -- religious identity; Religions -- Periodicals; Religions -- History -- 20th century -- Periodicals; 200
• DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2016.1256648
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1353-7903

Abstract

Abstract: While Christian involvement in progressive social movements and activism is increasingly recognized, this literature has rarely gone beyond conceptualising religion as a resource to consider instead the ways in which individual activists may articulate their religious identity and how this intersects with the political. Based on ten in-depth interviews with Christian supporters of the London Occupy movement, this study offers an opportunity to respond to this gap by exploring the rich meaning-making processes of these activists. The article suggests that the location of the Occupy camp outside St Paul's Cathedral was of central importance in bringing the Christian Occupiers' religio-political identities to the foreground, their Christianity being defined in opposition to that represented by St Paul's. The article then explores the religio-political meaning-making of the Christian Occupiers and introduces the term 'activist religiosity' as a way of understanding how religion and politics were articulated, and enacted, in similar ways. Indeed, religion and politics became considerably entangled and intertwined, rendering theoretical frameworks that conceptualise religion as a resource increasingly inappropriate. The features of this activist religiosity include post-institutional identities, a dislike of categorisation, and, centrally, the notion of 'doings'—a predominant focus on engaged, active involvement.