Functions of Narrative Genres for Lived Religion

PhD Tuija Hovi has specialised in social psychology and the anthropological study of Christianity, as well as in qualitative methods such as ethnography and narrative inquiry. She focuses on the global Pentecostal-Charismatic trends accommodated in contemporary Finland. Currently, Hovi works as an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Comparative Religion, Åbo Akademi University, Finland. She is also a member of the editorial board of the Finnish academic open access journal Elore.The article presents the object and results of a study which combines the psychology of religion and folkloristics in the form of a qualitative analysis of empirical ethnographic material compiled from sources in a local neo-charismatic congregation called the ‘Word of Life’. Personal narrative is discussed as a genre which represents the collective tradition of a religious community. It is a socially-learned speech act and a means of interpreting and sharing religious experience, thus constructing and confirming the faith of the community, both individually and collectively. In the neo-charismatic tradition, everyday speech draws on a literal (biblical) tradition as well as on socially-shared narrative genres such as ritual testimonies, prophecies, sermons and casual, personal narratives of co-believers. The faith-creative power of these stories can be found in their performative utterances and evaluative structures as well as in non-communication