Institutional Religion and Religious Experience

Despite declining adherence to religious institutions, religious experience persists through individualization. Based on 39 in-depth interviews conducted between 2016 and 2018 with Evangelical and Catholic populations in Córdoba, Montevideo, Lima, and Bilbao, the authors find that believers show growing autonomy from religious institutions while reporting a rich range of experiences of God and diverse God representations. The interviews indicate that believers elaborate their own religious experience in a personal and complex way, supporting the hypothesis that deinstitutionalization runs simultaneously with individualization rather than leading to the disappearance of religious experience.

Study at a glance

Abstract

A number of empirical studies have shown the continuous lack of adherence and the growing autonomy of the population regarding religious institutions. This article reflects on the kind of relationship between deinstitutionalisation and religious experience based on the following hypothesis: the evident decline in religious institutions does not necessarily lead to the disappearance or the weakening of religious experience; rather, it runs simultaneously with a process of individualisation. Our aim is to provide empirical evidence of such transformations; therefore, we do not get involved in speculations, but take into account the contributions of scholars concerning three key terms integrated in the conceptual framework of “religious experience’’: “experience of God”, “God image”, and “institutional belonging”. We analysed 39 in-depth interviews with a qualitative approach; interviews were conducted during the years 2016–2018 amongst Evangelical and Catholic populations in three Latin American cities (Córdoba, Montevideo, and Lima) and in the city of Bilbao (Spain). These interviews clearly indicate a growing autonomy from the religious institution, while evidencing a rich range of experiences of God and a great diversity of God representations. In both cases, they point to processes of individualisation of believers who elaborate their own religious experience in a personal and complex way.