Speaking of Methods: Eliciting Religious Narratives through Interviews, Photos, and Oral Diaries

Abstract

[ In the context of significant religious change, sociologists have been re-thinking both theory and method in these early years of the twenty first century. As our empirical gaze has expanded from the North Atlantic to the globe, our very concepts of belief and practice and organization have been challenged. Secularization has ceased to be the primary theoretical lens through which one understand and society, and a wider range of explorations have emerged. This chapter begins by suggesting that a narrative frame may be especially useful in understanding lived and continues by offering a set of three complementary methods of data gathering that are especially suited to exploring in its everyday manifestations. The author argues that catching multiple religious narratives in diverse social settings requires fishing with multiple nets. Keywords:lived religion; religious narratives , In the context of significant religious change, sociologists have been re-thinking both theory and method in these early years of the twenty first century. As our empirical gaze has expanded from the North Atlantic to the globe, our very concepts of belief and practice and organization have been challenged. Secularization has ceased to be the primary theoretical lens through which one understand and society, and a wider range of religion and explorations have emerged. This chapter begins by suggesting that a narrative frame may be especially useful in understanding lived and continues by offering a set of three complementary methods of data gathering that are especially suited to exploring in its everyday manifestations. The author argues that catching multiple religious narratives in diverse social settings requires fishing with multiple nets. Keywords:lived religion; religious narratives ]