CO-SPONSORSHIP: Ecclesiological Investigations Unit, Religious Conversions Unit, and World Christianity Unit

Conversion to "none"

The World Christianity, Religious Conversions, and Ecclesiological Investigations units invite papers for a joint session exploring the nature of deconversion interpreted as both turning away and turning towards (i.e. deeper conversion) as an exercise of agency. One important feature of ‘deconversion’ may be a decision to leave or pull back from active association with a religious institution or a traditional faith community. How does disaffiliation function to critique or challenge religious organizations? What role does the abuse and exercise of power, especially institutional power, play in the process of deconversion? How might one consider the distinction between rejecting an institution and relinquishing a religious identity altogether?

Likewise, alternative sources of community, solidarity, and spiritual meaning may be significant pull factors that facilitate religious change. Where are people going and why are they drawn there? Following deconversion, in what ways, if any, do religious traditions still shape an individual's idea of "authentic community”? This panel seeks papers that advance our understanding of what changes and what remains the same, or even intensifies, when people find the freedom to redefine their religious belonging and turn to spiritual practices they experience as more lifegiving?