Organizing (Eternal) Identity and Identification: An Upward Glance into Religious Institutions

This dissertation disrupts at least two religious spaces: First, scholars religiously adhering to (social) scientific norms, and second, people identifying with religious organizations (i.e., churches). First, we begin constructing a theoretical lens using poststructural ideas offered by Foucault, Derrida, and Bakhtin to read and disrupt (religious) discourse. Second, we complicate organizational identification as a concept, deeming it fixed and fluid—a paradox within religious discourses that endorse Truth and Perfection. Here, we draw from the communication constitutes organization (CCO) approach. Third, we further curate the lens by applying poststructuralism, identification, and CCO in a specific context: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Church). Doing so enables Restorationism—a fixed-fluid theoretical technique for scrutinizing identification paradoxes in religious spaces. Fourth, we try Restorationism on 89 addresses to reveal contradictions of organizational identification within The Church, followed by discussions of the (dis)organizing effect of language, including Scripture, on identity. Throughout the dissertation, we challenge (social) scientific norms—faithful to postmodernism—through performance techniques, including poetry, courtroom scenes, images, metaphors, and embodied discussions. Doing so, along with speculations on (religious organizational) identification, rouses at least three questions, including (1) who am I; (2) where did I come from; and (3) where am I going