Conversion as Lateral Movement

Repetition and Ambiguity in Ifugao Pentecostalism

Bibliographic Data

ID5348151
AuthorsJon Henrik Ziegler Remme (0000-0001-7445-1478, University of Bergen, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume27
Issue1
Pages1-17
Publication date2025-10-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanberra Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0314-9099 • E-ISSN: 1740-9314
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14442213.2025.2547670
OpenAlexW4414885899
LanguageEN
References cited31

In a Philippine Pentecostal congregation, conversion and religious practices took repetitive forms. At the same time, repetition could potentially inhibit feeling the presence of God. How, then, could repetition be so central to a church that was so ambiguous about repetition? This article addresses this question by connecting the repetitive form of Pentecostal conversion and ritual practice to the uncertainties and ambiguities in converts’ experiences of dwelling in divine immanence. The article argues that the ambiguity and feelings of vertigo that being in divine presence entails call for repetitive conversions, and that the ambiguity towards repetition replicates itself in their differentiation from Catholic repetitions and in their own repetitious religious practices. When seen in relation to the multireligious topography of the village, conversions become repeated lateral movements in and out of different spaces of spiritual immanence. The article thus offers a spatial alternative to temporal approaches to conversion and repetition.

Ambiguity · Repetition (rhetorical device · Subject (documents · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies · Religion, Society, and Development

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Open DOIOpen Access