Abstract
The appeal of this book lies in its strong emphasis on personal narratives in the context of paradigms of religious change and the unique culture of Northern Irish Protestantism. The study collates 95 interviews with evangelical Christians and identifies six varieties of religious journey: conversion, deepening of conservatism, steady maintenance of faith, moderation, transformation and finally leaving faith. This typology is related to previous work on classification of evangelical types, but has a significant advantage in relating to processes rather than static identities.
From the outset it is clear that this is not statistical research. The sample is not representative of Northern Ireland, nor even of evangelicals in Northern Ireland. They have instead attempted to achieve as wide a spread of narratives as possible and focussed on those whose narratives involve change. There are some shortcomings in interviewee selection (such as a wide gender discrepancy), but these are stated upfront and on the whole the work very helpfully points to the wider field of research, rarely deviating from the specific aim of delineating the ways in which religious change is articulated and establishing the common threads that connect these transitions.
The most intriguing aspect of the study is the unusually strong reciprocal relationship of politics and changes in religious identity. Mitchell and Ganiel point to cases of political allegiance leading some to conversion or a complementary deepening of conservatism in faith and politics. For others, however, the rejection of unionist politics was a determining factor in leaving churches. Even conservative religious beliefs or experience may contribute to positions of quietism or more moderate political allegiance. Although the relationship between religion and politics is multi-faceted, its pervasive presence is particular to Northern Ireland. One interviewee describes how they would be happy to self-identify as an evangelical in England, but not in Northern Ireland where they felt it would imply right-wing conservatism. Another notes a theological sympathy for Anglicanism but is repelled by their war memorials and Union Jacks. Mitchell and Ganiel rightly note the tendency for conservative theology to speak of God as ‘an all-powerful figure’ (p. 93), though it would have been interesting to see how those evangelicals on moderating and transforming journeys changed with respect to the language they used to describe God.
The most striking aspect of the work is the emphasis on choice, given in the title and reinforced throughout. Mitchell and Ganiel carefully describe the socializing forces at work and the role of subculture, family and friendship, together with the acceptance or rejection of wider culture and religious outsiders (particularly Catholics), which bear a strong relationship on the journeys undertaken. They do not look for simple causal relationships but rather point to ‘patterns of experience’ and ‘combinations of factors’ (p. 176). On the other hand, they also confidently express the role of individual choice in ‘the complex ways in which people interact with religious, social and political structures, and the different outcomes this might have for personal identity’ (p. 187). Further articulation of what constitutes this agency would perhaps require a different sort of work; for the moment it is left as an elusive, rather undefined category.
Surprisingly, there is little account for generational differences, with the age of respondents never commented on with regard to the wider context. They note work done on those age ranges with higher degrees of religiosity but this is never related to the historical drama of the Troubles themselves. The one exception is a claim on the final page of ‘a new fluidity and openness in Northern Ireland’, which one might expect post-1998 and given the role of new media, but a more historical perspective on the evolving culture of evangelicalism and its impact on individual journeys would be of great interest. On the whole though, the study is clear, open minded and highly readable through its lively style, personal approach and engaging material. It dispels certain myths about evangelicals, such as their lack of existential questioning or education, and overall provides a great deal of insight into the complexity of religious subcultures and the transformation of personal identity in an unusually fraught context.