From salvation by faith to healing by self-esteem: the religious origins of victim testimony
Keywords:
secularization, north-american protestantism, religious conversion, genealogy , victims of prejudice, testimonyAbstract
In recent decades, we have witnessed an explosion of the testimonial genre in the media worldwide, as well as its centrality to contemporary identity politics. This article proposes that the origin of victim testimonies, which mix therapy and politics, dates back to Protestant practices, especially within the North-American culture. The proposed genealogical path begins in the 16th-century conversion narratives, going through the expansion of Methodism in the United States until the emergence of secular self-help groups in the 20th century, marked by the idea of positive thinking and, later, self-esteem. Just as Foucault proposed clinical confession as secularization of Catholic confession, we propose that victim testimonies might be the secularization of conversion narratives.
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