In the Hands of God: How Evangelical Belonging Transforms Migrant Experience in the United States

Johanna Bard Richlin

Published by Princeton University Press 2022

In the Hands of God

How Evangelical Belonging Transforms Migrant Experience in the United States

Johanna Bard Richlin

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691230757

Overview
Contents

About this book

How evangelical churches in the United States convert migrant distress into positive religious devotion

Why 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.

Author / Editor information

Johanna Bard Richlin is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oregon.

Reviews

“Well-researched and well-written, In the Hands of God examines the relationship between evangelical Christianity, migration, and affective experience in the United States. Richlin grounds her lucid observations in sound anthropological methods and theories, and the revelations about Brazilian migrants are fascinating.”—J. Derrick Lemons, University of Georgia

“In the Hands of God makes a significant and timely contribution to the anthropology of Christianity. While a great deal has been written about new forms of Christianity in Latin America, there is not a tremendous amount of work about Latin American Christians in the United States. I am full of praise for this book.”—Kevin Lewis O’Neill, University of Toronto

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction: Pilgrims of the Potomac migrant faith in the shadows Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Stories of Exceptionalism: Brazilians as a special case in the study of migration and religion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
2 Stuck and Alone: the affective imprint of migrant distress Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
3 Church as Hospital and God as Consoler: the affective therapeutics of migrant evangelical churches Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
4 Hopeful Migrants, Confident Christians: Spiritual disciplines and evangelical efficacy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
5 Affective Therapeutics in Comparative Perspective: catholic and spiritist migrant experience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
6 The Evangelization of God among Migrants: intimate faith and embodied experience across denominations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Conclusion: When Affective Therapeutics Fail: migrant faith and resilience in uncertain times Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182
Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
A Note on the Type Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	262