Variengin tutkijaseminaarin vieraana 23.8.2018 klo 14.30–16.00 on Stephen Pihlaja.

Tervetuloa kuuntelemaan esitelmää aiheesta Analysing Religious Discourse: Approaches, Contexts, and Topics. 

Tapahtumapaikkana Metsätalon sali 24, Helsingin yliopisto, Unioninkatu 40.

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Analysing Religious Discourse: Approaches, Contexts, and Topics

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the role of language in religious belief, particularly from a cognitive perspective. Researchers are increasingly using analysis of language to understand the role of belief in the human mind. Less interest, however, has been paid to the role of interaction in shaping what, how, and why people believe. Focusing on empirical data from own research into Christians, Muslims, and atheists in online spaces, I argue that approaches to so-called ‘religious language’ must foreground analysis of authentic discourse, looking not just at what the language says about the mind, but how social interaction shapes and is shaped by the beliefs and religious identities of individuals. Focusing specifically on the role of metaphor and narrative positioning, I will show how talk about religion and among believers is a dynamic process, one in which all the elements of the interactional context affect how belief is presented and discussed, and potentially, how beliefs themselves emerge and change in dynamic contexts.