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“I Was Always This Way…”: Rhetorics of Continuity in Narratives of Conversion

Publication ,  Journal Article
Johnston, EF
Published in: Sociological Forum
September 2013

This article is concerned with identifying, comparing, and accounting for the principal rhetorical conventions within Pagan practitioners’ narratives of conversion. Applying key insights from studies on narrative identity and drawing on 15 months of fieldwork and 25 in‐depth interviews with Pagan practitioners, I first outline formal similarities in the content of participants’ narratives, arguing that these narrative conventions together constitute an ideal typical conversion narrative: what I call the rhetoric of continuity. This narrative form depicts the process of conversion as a rediscovery or uncovering of a temporally continuous and essentialized Pagan self. I suggest that while all conversions involve both change and continuity, adherents of different faith traditions vary in the degree to which they stress self‐transformation and/or self‐continuity. I then argue that the rhetoric of continuity reflects and reinforces practitioners’: (1) perspective on the locus and nature of the authentic self; (2) claims to legitimacy and social acceptance; and (3) understanding of the nature of religious truth.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Sociological Forum

DOI

EISSN

1573-7861

ISSN

0884-8971

Publication Date

September 2013

Volume

28

Issue

3

Start / End Page

549 / 573

Publisher

Wiley

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Johnston, E. F. (2013). “I Was Always This Way…”: Rhetorics of Continuity in Narratives of Conversion. Sociological Forum, 28(3), 549–573. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12037
Johnston, Erin F. ““I Was Always This Way…”: Rhetorics of Continuity in Narratives of Conversion.” Sociological Forum 28, no. 3 (September 2013): 549–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12037.
Johnston EF. “I Was Always This Way…”: Rhetorics of Continuity in Narratives of Conversion. Sociological Forum. 2013 Sep;28(3):549–73.
Johnston, Erin F. ““I Was Always This Way…”: Rhetorics of Continuity in Narratives of Conversion.” Sociological Forum, vol. 28, no. 3, Wiley, Sept. 2013, pp. 549–73. Crossref, doi:10.1111/socf.12037.
Johnston EF. “I Was Always This Way…”: Rhetorics of Continuity in Narratives of Conversion. Sociological Forum. Wiley; 2013 Sep;28(3):549–573.
Journal cover image

Published In

Sociological Forum

DOI

EISSN

1573-7861

ISSN

0884-8971

Publication Date

September 2013

Volume

28

Issue

3

Start / End Page

549 / 573

Publisher

Wiley

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology