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Title
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Moving Heaven and Earth : Evangelical Solidarities in the Flemish Welfare Regime from a Postsecular Perspective
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Author
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Abstract
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| This thesis explores the roles of evangelical inspired solidarities in the largely secularized Flemish welfare regime. It starts from the observation that sociology’s concepts of solidarity have remained defined predominantly in structural and secular terms, eclipsing the emergence of new, bottom-up initiatives, including religiously inspired articulations of solidarity and love of neighbor. To shed new light on these solidarities, by contrast, it adopts the postsecular perspective developed by Paul Cloke and Justin Beaumont. This perspective enables us to examine the interplay of the religious and the secular in ways that depart from traditional binary frames. By turning the gaze to an unexpected case, however, – a young minority religion that has just begun to pave its way in a post-corporatist and traditionally Catholic welfare context – this thesis adds to and complicates the assertions made by these scholars. Most notably, it nuances their rosy portrayal of what they call “postsecular rapprochements” in West European welfare regimes, defined as dialogical coming togethers of secular and religious voices around mutual ethical concerns like poverty, creating liminal spaces of religious-secular interaction. Starting from the assumption that postsecular rapprochement cannot be but one among myriad religious-secular interaction patterns in religious and welfare landscapes so complex and multi-layered, it discerns five patterns of religious-secular interaction beyond postsecular rapprochement. Drawing on document analysis, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and field work in seven evangelical solidarity initiatives in Ghent and Antwerp, it more specifically identifies “stretched postsecular rapprochement”, “parallel moral economies”, “semiotic guerrilla warfare”, “pragmatic rapprochement”, and “subversive love of neighbor”. In proposing these ideal types which are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive, this thesis both adds to the literature on postsecular rapprochement in contexts of social welfare and provides a tool for workers in the field to navigate potential challenges. |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerp
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University of Antwerp
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2024
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DOI
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10.63028/10067/2079480151162165141
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Volume/pages
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178 p.
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Note
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Oosterlynck, Stijn [Supervisor]
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Loobuyck, Patrick [Supervisor]
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Full text (open access)
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