In the Hands of God: How Evangelical Belonging Transforms Migrant Experience in the United States

by Johanna Bard Richlin

Overview

How evangelical churches in the United States convert migrant distress into positive religious devotion

Why do migrants become more deeply evangelical in the United States and how does this religious identity alter their self-understanding? In the Hands of God examines this question through a unique lens, foregrounding the ways that churches transform what migrants feel. Drawing from her extensive fieldwork among Brazilian migrants in the Washington, DC, area, Johanna Bard Richlin shows that affective experience is key to comprehending migrants’ turn toward intense religiosity, and their resulting evangelical commitment.

The conditions of migrant life—family separation, geographic isolation, legal precariousness, workplace vulnerability, and deep uncertainty about the future—shape specific affective maladies, including loneliness, despair, and feeling stuck. These feelings in turn trigger novel religious yearnings. Evangelical churches deliberately and deftly articulate, manage, and reinterpret migrant distress through affective therapeutics, the strategic “healing” of migrants’ psychological pain. Richlin offers insights into the affective dimensions of migration, the strategies pursued by evangelical churches to attract migrants, and the ways in which evangelical belonging enables migrants to feel better, emboldening them to improve their lives.

Looking at the ways evangelical churches help migrants navigate negative emotions, In the Hands of God sheds light on the versatility and durability of evangelical Christianity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691194981
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/24/2022
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Johanna Bard Richlin is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oregon.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction Pilgrims of the Potomac: Migrant Faith in the Shadows 1

1 Stories of Exceptionalism: Brazilians as a Special Case in the Study of Migration and Religion 14

2 Stuck and Alone: The Affective Imprint of Migrant Distress 36

3 Church as Hospital and God as Consoler: The Affective Therapeutics of Migrant Evangelical Churches 69

4 Hopeful Migrants, Confident Christians: Spiritual Disciplines and Evangelical Efficacy 101

5 Affective Therapeutics in Comparative Perspective: Catholic and Spiritist Migrant Experience 133

6 The Evangelization of God among Migrants: Intimate Faith and Embodied Experience across Denominations 161

Conclusion When Affective Therapeutics Fail: Migrant Faith and Resilience in Uncertain Times 182

Appendix 197

Notes 201

Bibliography 235

Index 253

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A beautifully written and carefully researched account of the appeal of evangelical Christianity to Brazilian migrants. Rather than focusing on the material rewards of conversion, Richlin takes seriously what these congregants say about their loneliness and the intense emotional satisfactions of their faith. The result is one of the best and richest portraits of faith experience that we have seen for many years.”—T. M. Luhrmann, author of How God Becomes Real

“In the Hands of God makes a significant and timely contribution to the anthropology of Christianity. While a great deal has been written about new forms of Christianity in Latin America, there is not a tremendous amount of work about Latin American Christians in the United States. I am full of praise for this book.”—Kevin Lewis O’Neill, University of Toronto

“Well-researched and well-written, In the Hands of God examines the relationship between evangelical Christianity, migration, and affective experience in the United States. Richlin grounds her lucid observations in sound anthropological methods and theories, and the revelations about Brazilian migrants are fascinating.”—J. Derrick Lemons, University of Georgia

Editorial Reviews

"A needed contribution. . . . Richlin’s ethnographic and qualitative research [are] both engaging and heartening."—-Philip Letizia, Reading Religion

From the Publisher