Week 8: Religion and Social Construction

I am Christian and attend church services once or twice a week, every week. My experiences are not quite like those of The Church of Jesus with Signs Following. There is more structure to my services and less randomness. They also coincide more with social norms—there is no snake handling and people don’t speak up or out in the same ways. People do get up and dance, raise their hands, sit and pray, and do what they want during the time periods when music is being played. People pray with each other and for one another, and at different points in time I have felt different things. When listening to songs, praying, listening to the sermon, or being prayed for, I have had overwhelming feelings of joy, sadness, excitement, or sudden understanding. I can also relate to the feelings described in the book, particularly when Covington describes the feelings in the room when Aline was praying and praising, repeating “Akiii” (78). When listening to others pray or praying myself, I have had those feelings of “great pain, loss,” desperation, “A panting after something she could not quite reach. And then it would be a coming to rest in some exquisite space” and of being “transfixed.”

Emile Durkheim discusses religion and its importance in society. My church and campus ministry have given me a place and a sense of belonging. I love communing and talking with people who believe the same things I do and growing and learning from them; Durkheim calls this collective consciousness. The cross could be considered our totem or sacred image. The feelings I described in my experience would be described as effervescence to Durkheim. Durkheim would associate those ‘heightened feelings’ as coming from being in the group.