Total devotion in the ancient world: emotions and narrative in radical religion

Abstract

Surveying the research field of radical religion, this article identifies major trends that have focused on radical beliefs, marginalisation, and societal relations. The article suggests that to understand radical religion in more depth, the focus on radical beliefs and exterior relations in radical religion research should be supplemented by addressing group-internal ideals of devotion and the role of emotionality and narrativity. I argue that these aspects are important for the formation and continued pull of radical religion, for enduring forms of total devotion that enable identity fusion and motivate costly sacrifice. I present the concept of total devotion and an approach to how shared ideals of devotion, emotionality, narrativity and in-group dynamics in radical religion can be analysed. Finally, the article calls for a historicization of the study of radical religion and highlights contributions to this thematic issue that analyse forms of total devotion from the ancient world.

Full text

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rrel20
Religion
ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rrel20
Total devotion in the ancient world: emotions and
narrative in radical religion
Laura Feldt
To cite this article: Laura Feldt (2022): Total devotion in the ancient world: emotions and narrative
in radical religion, Religion, DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2022.2150405
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2022.2150405
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa
UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis
Group
Published online: 28 Nov 2022.
Submit your article to this journal
View related articles
View Crossmark data

Total devotion in the ancient world: emotions and narrative
in radical religion
Laura Feldt
University of Southern, Odense, Denmark
ABSTRACT
Surveying the research field of radical religion, this article identifies
major trends that have focused on radical beliefs, marginalisation,
and societal relations. The article suggests that to understand
radical religion in more depth, the focus on radical beliefs and
exterior relations in radical religion research should be
supplemented by addressing group-internal ideals of devotion
and the role of emotionality and narrativity. I argue that these
aspects are important for the formation and continued pull of
radical religion, for enduring forms of total devotion that enable
identity fusion and motivate costly sacrifice. I present the concept
of total devotion and an approach to how shared ideals of
devotion, emotionality, narrativity and in-group dynamics in
radical religion can be analysed. Finally, the article calls for a
historicization of the study of radical religion and highlights
contributions to this thematic issue that analyse forms of total
devotion from the ancient world.
KEYWORDS
Radical religion; devotion;
ancient religions; emotions;
narrative; in-group dynamics
and ideals
Introduction
1
In recent years, important research on radical religion has concentrated on the ties
between religion and violence, on radical beliefs, radicalisation and relations to majority
society, as well as religiously motivated terrorism (Sedgwick 2010; Juergensmeyer 2013;
Juergensmeyer 2013; Aslan 2013; Kaplan 2015; Assmann 2016; Kühle 2018;
2
see also
Bayat 2007; Dawson 2018a,2018b). Research has thus emphasised radical beliefs and
the violence directed at others, whether the social environment or competing religious
groups. This situation makes marginalisation a key factor and offers a predominant
focus on Islam and on the contemporary era. These foci can be seen not only in the
research field, but also in the media and in politics. While these are important subjects,
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
CONTACT Laura Feldt lfeldt@sdu.dk
1
I would like to thank the members of the collective research project on Total Devotion warmly for our collaboration and
for good conversations about the project. I am especially grateful to Michael Stausberg, Esther Eidinow, and Jan
N. Bremmer for their helpful comments on this essay. I also gratefully acknowledge the Independent Research Fund
Denmark that funded this research (grant no.0132-00171B).
2
In Juergensmeyer and Atran’s work, beliefs in a cosmic war, apocalypticism, and a special destiny have been highlighted.
Kühle points out that ‘the radicalisation framework’tends to connect strong religion with violence and disruptions of
social order (Kühle 2018).
RELIGION
https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2022.2150405

the emphasis on exterior relations and on contemporary developments arguably leaves
crucial parts of radical religion un-analysed and less adequately understood, just as the
attractors, pull factors, and mechanisms for continual group membership and group
cohesion, the willingness of the members to stay-in, are less well accounted for.
3
More
detailed analyses of factors that contribute to or sustain continued membership or
‘staying-in’and more comparative cases of historical examples of forms of radical reli-
gion, violent as well as non-violent, are necessary in order to discern the factors that con-
tribute to the pull of radical religion. The pull of what I suggest to term ‘total devotion’
(unfolded below) and the pull of the group are crucial factors also in outbreaks of vio-
lence. In this essay, I occasionally refer to the theoretical object of the discussion as
‘radical religion’, even though one of the suggestions made here is to replace the term
with another concept, namely total devotion. My reason for doing so is to highlight
the relevance of these discussions to the broader and multidisciplinary field I wish to
engage. While in some ways problematic (see below), the term radical religion is immedi-
ately recognisable to scholars of many disciplines and difficult to do without, as it is used
by many actors in the contemporary field. Whereas the term radical religion emphasises a
differentiation towards a form of religion seen as moderate, and is intimately related to
discussions of radicalisation, marginalisation, and radical beliefs, the term that I propose,
total devotion, emphasises devotion as an embodied practice, in-group ideals of devotion,
and the intense and all-encompassing character of the devotion, in the eyes of the group
members. The two terms are thus not synonymous, but can be seen as partially overlap-
ping, depending on specificdefinitions.
Important perspectives on contemporary forms of radical religion have suggested that
group-internal understandings and performances of high-intensity religiosity deserve
more attention (De Graaf 2022; Dawson 2018b; Aran 2013), and that pull factors
should be studied more closely (Nanninga 2014; Juergensmeyer and Sheikh 2013).
Beliefs may not be the only decisive aspect in the pull of totally devoted religious
formats, because the pull is also about the performance of the self in relation to the
group (Roy 2017,2014; Nanninga 2014; cf. Asad 1993; Aran 2013). ‘Staying-in’can
have a lot to do with inward-facing religious ideals and competitions over religious excel-
lence (Wortley 2005). These can be as important factors as exterior relations (Nanninga
2014; Aran 2013; Juergensmeyer and Sheikh 2013
4
). While enclave-formation, radicali-
sation, and group polarisation remain important (Lindekilde and Bertelsen 2015; Sun-
stein 2009), group-internal ideals of religious devotion are also a highly pertinent
focus of study and analysis, as these can form a centre of gravity in in-group competitions
over religious excellence (Aran 2013, 155). For analyses of group-internal dynamics and
ideals of devotion, it is important also to discuss the role of emotions and narrative, as it
is via emotionality and narrativity that such ideals gain traction and become decisive
points of orientation for individual and group identity. Such factors are precisely what
this thematic issue highlights. Understanding emotional and narrative involvement in
total devotion, and developing strategies of analysis for total devotion ideals, as well as
3
With these terms I wish to emphasise the centripetal factors of continual attraction or inward pull that contribute not
only to group cohesion but also to the willingness of the members to remain members of the group.
4
Enclave formation and group polarisation of course remain important (Sunstein 2009; Lindekilde and Bertelsen 2015).
2L. FELDT

historicising case studies, are arguably important issues for the study of religions as well
as for contemporary societies.
In this essay, I present new perspectives on the field of radical religion. To begin with, I
present a new term, total devotion, but also highlight the need for more focus on religious
ideals of devotion and how they become effective via emotionality and narrativity. These
perspectives are explored in the contributions to this thematic issue via case studies from
the ancient world. We provide historical perspectives on total devotion that might further
develop the field and that highlight the role of religious ideals of devotion. In taking a
historical perspective, we also wish to explore in more depth the continued attraction
of total devotion, for which emotions and narrativity are arguably crucial, as elaborated
below. The articles analyse various forms of intense religious devotion –total devotion –
in ancient Jewish and Christian religious traditions, within the comparative context of
ancient Greek and Roman religion. The ancient contexts and traditions, as the basis of
later developments, are eminently suited for an exploration of the role of narrativity
and emotion in radical religious formations. These foundational traditions can help us
historicize total devotion before the advent of Islam and discuss trajectories of historical
developments. First, I will briefly discuss terminology and then go into more detail with
how a focus on religious ideals of devotion, emotions, and narrativity can help us in the
study of radical religion. Finally, I present the contributions to the thematic issue before
the concluding discussion.
Total devotion
Radical religion is a relative term. What is understood as radical religion must always be
seen in relation to a specific context and as defined by specific actors in a given social and
political context (Sedgwick 2010). The same goes for extremism, a term that is relative to
what is considered ordinary or at the centre; the extreme is found at the margins of some-
thing (Pratt 2010). So, when we speak of radical religion, it is always relative to another
form of religion understood as moderate. This again, is closely related to the given social
and historical context. What is considered radical in religion in Scandinavia looks quite
different in India, the USA, or Saudi Arabia. As highlighted by Gideon Aran, who
suggests the term ‘super-religiosity’instead,
5
the field of radical religion has highlighted
very specific types of super-religiosity over others, due to the Protestant heritage of the
study of religion, namely the belief-oriented formats, and, consequently, left out more
ritualistic formats (Aran 2013, 155–162). But not all types of radical religion hinge on
specific‘radical’beliefs. For instance, Jewish Haredim are rarely discussed under the
heading of radical religion or radicalisation, as their focus is a meticulous ritualisation
of all aspects of life and practice (Aran 2013). Nevertheless, Haredim express and practice
a form of ‘super-religiosity’–or, in other words, what I suggest terming total devotion.
In the field of study relating to radical religion and radicalization, there is a noticeable
proliferation of terms used of the theoretical object: fundamentalism, religious terrorism,
radicalisation, extremism, religion and violence, and religion and securitisation. The
5
I do not use Gideon Aran’s term as I find it important for any new term to connect more deeply to the empirical materials
than ‘super’does, although I recognise and share the ambition to find a broader umbrella term that could also include
ritualistic forms of total devotion, meditative forms, mysticism, etc.
RELIGION 3

interdisciplinarity of the field is one good reason for this situation. Currently, forms of
total devotion are being researched not only, not even predominantly, by scholars of reli-
gion, but also by Middle Eastern studies scholars, political scientists, historians, intelli-
gence analysts, and more. Another reason for the variety in terminology is the rising
influence, since 2001, on the media, public debates, and research, of religion-fuelled ter-
rorist attacks, meaning that many terms in the field tend towards stressing violence and
terrorism; legitimately, but also unsurprisingly (Juergensmeyer, Kitts, and Jerryson 2013;
Pratt 2010; see also the journals Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Critical Studies on Ter-
rorism, Terrorism and Political Violence). This means that ‘radical religion’–again, legiti-
mately and unsurprisingly –has an unmistakably negative ring to it that runs counter to
how perfection in religious devotion is perceived by religious insiders and that leaves out
non-violent forms of total devotion. There is much to suggest that the factors relating to
in-group dynamics and that stimulate continued membership, ‘staying-in,’in totally
devoted religious groups, and/or that contribute to the formation and continued attrac-
tion of such forms of religion, should and could profitably be paid more attention. In
studying these factors, ideals and understandings of devotion are important objects of
study, as are the roles of emotionality and narrativity.
Shifting terminology and focus, I propose ‘total devotion’as a broad umbrella term
that can encompass both forms of religious extremism and terrorism, fundamentalism,
super-religiosity, and what is labelled radical religion, but also non-violent forms of reli-
gious life that can be seen as all-encompassing or aiming at full perfection by either actors
in the field, or by scholars based on etic definitions and understandings, or both. By high-
lighting in-group dynamics and understandings of devotion, we can approach these as
phenomena that can be graded or scaled. Devotion can be understood as all-encompass-
ing in several ways –temporally, spatially, in terms of identity, beliefs, emotions, rituals,
or other practices. The term total devotion highlights (1) the intensity of the relation
between a deity and the devotee/s and/or the intensity of relations within the group to
an extent where group relations override other social ties; it also includes an emphasis
on emotionality, leaving the societal and historical context empirically open, so that it
does not require the devoted group or actor to be marginalized, a minority, or to be
the object of social condemnation;
6
and (2) the all-encompassing quality of the devotion
that can be said to characterise these forms of religion, but in ways that overlap with and
describe the ideals of the devotees, thus opening the concrete and varied practices of
devotion for a more specific and detailed study. Not requiring the relation between
the religious group and the societal context to be characterised by marginalisation, the
term also does not require violence to be part of the devotion, but it does not rule it
out either.
7
It allows us to distinguish between forms of total devotion that involve vio-
lence and those that do not, and between forms of total devotion held in high regard by a
majority society and forms that are marginalised. It enables a study of highly ritualised
forms of total devotion over against forms that focus more on the training and policing
of the correct beliefs. The term allows us to highlight group-internal ideals and scales of
devotion –i.e., comparison and competition –as a factor in total devotion. It respects the
6
On marginality as a concept, see Feldt and Bremmer 2019.
7
The terms radical religion, radicalisation, and extremism all implicitly or explicitly point towards violence and ‘bad reli-
gion’(Orsi 2022).
4L. FELDT

variable social contexts in which forms of total devotion appear in a descriptive way.
Additionally, it can include all kinds of religious-devotional practices that might be
studied productively together without overemphasising belief: asceticism, mysticism,
martyrdom, law abidance, a meticulous ritualisation of all aspects of everyday life, and
more. Indeed, the term total devotion highlights emotional practices, embodiment,
and identity as crucial aspects.
8
I also suggest that exploring historical cases can add
important new perspectives to contemporary research in this field, and that the concen-
tration on emotions and narrative can further new approaches that might help explain
which factors contribute to a continued pull and engagement, as well as the intensity
of involvement.
In research on radical religion, it would be advantageous to shift the focus away from
questions of belief and from group-society relations and instead to theorise and analyse
the role of emotional and narrative practices that contribute to the formation and contin-
ued pull of total devotion types of religion. Suggesting that belief is not the decisive factor
in total devotion and that emotional involvement needs much more study, the contri-
butions of the thematic issue analyse examples of total devotion in ancient religions.
This is a new way to open the field and show how total devotion comes in a variety of
forms beyond the ideas of modern ‘fundamentalism’and ‘extremism’that emphasise
reactions to globalisation, secularisation, modernity, global polarisation and securitisa-
tion (Sardoc 2020; Fox 2013; Sedgwick 2010; Al-Rasheed and Shterin 2009; Partridge
2001). I hypothesize that this can help explain the continued attraction of total devotion
in more depth and offer comparative contextualisation to a field focused on contempor-
ary religious formations, ignoring the longer history of religions in which various degrees
of intensity and scope in religion are evident and for which it is unwise to assume con-
stant levels and scopes of religiosity and intensity of devotion across epochs and contexts
(cf. Rüpke 2016a,2016b; McGuire 2008; Lincoln 2003). The articles analyse religious con-
texts that offer examples of idealisations of total devotion and an all-encompassing
emotional commitment, often configured via narrativity (as unfolded more below).
Our common research questions are: (1) How do total devotion ideals and practices
emerge and which formats develop in ancient religions? (2) How do emotions and nar-
rativity play together in ancient religious evidence for total devotion? A final question,
namely how can emotions and narrativity perspectives and analyses of emic perfection
ideals and practices contribute to the broader study of radical religion, is the subject of
discussion in the present contribution.
Group-Internal ideals of devotion: scales, scope, and intensity
Devotion takes many forms and occurs in most religious traditions from ancient Greece,
medieval Christianity, to Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, Jewish Haredim and Hindu
devotional movements. The term devotion covers a lot of ground, from piety, zealotry,
affection, reverence, respect, to awe, loyalty, fidelity or love towards a religious person,
object, deity, or spirit, to mention just a few central associations of the term (Kinsley
8
Devotion thus approaches David Morgan’s re-definition of what we should understand by the term ‘belief’(Morgan
2010, 7). Yet, to my mind, the word belief is troublesome because it over-emphasises the intellectual and cognitive
aspects of devotion over embodiment, practice, the senses, and emotions.
RELIGION 5

and Narayanan 2005, 2316). Deities and other superhuman beings can be the objects of
devotion, but so can material objects (Morgan 2018,2012), geographical areas, shrines,
temples, sacred texts, and humans, especially persons considered to be paradigmatic
devotees such as saints, teachers, or ascetics (Kinsley and Narayanan 2005, 2317). Devo-
tion comes in different types, and it may be informal or formal, it comes in individual or
collective formats, but it invariably involves a training, cultivation, or socialisation of
attention and practice (Sloterdijk 2012, 173–175; Kinsley and Narayanan 2005, 2317–
2318).
9
Devotion can be individual and pious, but it can also take collective forms and
be socially very structured; collective prayer is a good example of the latter (Kinsley
and Narayanan 2005, 2319), but individual devotional prayer is often stylised and is
invariably shaped by collective ideals and practices.
Scarcely any attention has been devoted in research to scales,scope, and intensity in
studies of devotion and overall, there is a general lack of in-depth studies of devotion
as a religious phenomenon (Kinsley and Narayanan 2005, 2321). In research on
radical religion, some attention has been paid to ‘devoted actors’committed to sacred
values (Juergensmeyer 2020; Atran 2016; Aslan 2013). Importantly, this research
points to factors such as apocalyptic beliefs, often relating to participation in a cosmic
war (Juergensmeyer 2020), ideas of a special destiny, specific sacred values, and social
factors such as identity fusion and imagined kin as oft-occurring traits in radical religion
that strengthen the in-group (Atran 2016). Yet less explicit or detailed attention is spent
on how that devotion or commitment to the in-group is fuelled, stimulated, and kept
alive in various contexts. There is much to suggest that we need to pay more attention
to religious ideals of devotion and how they form a centre of gravity that contributes
to continued membership. Religious ideals of devotion may involve varying scales,
scopes, and intensities of devotion. They can be implicit in a given context of practice
or they can be explicitly formulated in discourse. Group-internal measures of religiosity
necessarily involve at least implicit comparisons with other forms of devotion, for
instance with forms of religion considered more standard, moderate, weak, or main-
stream that are contrasted to religious perfection, excellence, or virtuosity (Aran 2013,
160–163), and they invariably involve a continual striving towards them that stimulates
competition within the group (Sloterdijk 2012).
Group-internal ideals and measures of devotion can of course vary, but generally
relate to demonstrating or performing one’s excellence or striving in religion in
group-internally recognized ways (Aran 2013, 169–171).
10
Aran notes how what he
terms ‘super-religiosity’is a competitive form of religion (Aran 2013, 172–173; see
also Pratt’s‘assertive’and ‘impositional fundamentalism’, Pratt 2010). Costly sacrifice
–the willingness to sacrifice something very important to you, be it your own life
(martyrs) or the lives of others (suicide martyrs or terrorists); your quality of life; or sub-
jecting yourself to pain and discomfort (ascetics); or generally in terms of the price paid
9
Sloterdijk sees humans as fundamentally ‘autoplastic’or self-training beings. Any kind of training requires devotion, from
the peasant, the worker, the athlete, the rhetor, and to the yogi, the ascetic, or the warrior. Any kind of training requires
practice and this involves a continual attempt at improving the action in question in its next execution (Sloterdijk 2012,
14, 24-25, 173-175). This, of course, makes the line between religion and non-religion more blurry, but this line has
indeed very often been exceedingly blurry throughout history. Sloterdijk’s thought can be made useful in analyses
of religion, see e.g. Feldt 2023; or see Jensen 2015.
10
Outward-directed violence can sometimes be a resource in such a religious competition (Aran 2013, 170–171), cf. the
recent focus on gamification in extremism research (Lakhani and Wiedlitzka 2022).
6L. FELDT

(money, time, property, health) –is recognized by many researchers as a key component
in radical religion (Juergensmeyer 2020; Atran 2016). And costly sacrifice in itself shows
that it is important to look at internal ideals of devotion and how they can be scaled in
different ways, because the scope, intensity and scales of devotion can vary so much. It is
worth pointing out that costly sacrifice can entail a variety of scopes (or, indeed, smaller
and larger costs), from sacrificing your life or the lives of others, to sacrificing only one
hour per week to your devotion, from emotionally highly intense rituals to a quick,
formal prayer, and from scales of devotion involving elaborate habits of dressing and
eating, influencing every aspect of everyday life.
In terms of scope, total devotion will involve some form of totality or striving for per-
fection or completeness in devotion. Here, we can analyse how widely and comprehen-
sive the religious devotion is understood in terms of number of areas of human
existence affected by religious practice, norms, and regulations (Aran 2013, 180–184),
whether in temporal (all the time?) or spatial (everywhere?) parameters. This can be
compared to a devotion that is limited in scope, for instance, a few days or hours of
practice, or a devotion affecting only a few areas of existence. Devotion can also be
understood or measured in terms of intensity: rituals can stimulate intense, emotionally
and sensationally charged devotional practice, emotionality and sensational charge can
be heightened in various ways, e.g., via physical displacement to liminal zones like caves,
mountaintops, or deserts, or via emotional intensity in group prayer, chanting,
11
or
dancing. Specific forms of intensifying devotion can be highly regarded and idealised,
like joyous jubilation in communal singing or practices of passionate crying. Thus,
intensity can be a factor in what is regarded as ideal practice and religion per se. Devo-
tion ideals can also materialize in terms of specificscales of practice, whether it is as a
specific, meticulous religious ritual practice; certain formal eating habits; skirt lengths;
hat sizes or forms; hairdos; ways to walk, sit, or stand; ritual punctiliousness; or a
strict, verbalised adherence to, and policing of, very specific beliefs; the performance
of specific songs or ways of prophesying; or the cultivation of a strict emotional reper-
toire performed within the group (see Gilhus 2023). Importantly, emic ideals of perfect
or total devotion can be implicit in practice, but nevertheless studied by the researcher,
or explicitly phrased in discourse and reflected upon by religious actors in a religious
group. There is much to suggest that examining both religious groups’explicit discourse
about being devoted, and their scales of devotion and/or emic measures of religiosity is a
fertile approach if we wish to understand group-internal competition over the perform-
ance of religious excellence, i.e., over who is mostly perfectly or totally devoted. Yet
there can be no doubt that total devotion can also be studied in contexts without expli-
cit, verbal discourse (see Eidinow 2023). The articles presented in this thematic issue
thus inquire about the ideals of religious perfection, excellence, totality, or virtuosity
in the religious contexts that we study; the endeavours to increase religiosity, train devo-
tion, or other ways of striving for perfection or excellence in an encompassing religious
devotion.
Highlighting and focusing on ideals of devotion can thus lead us towards aspects
of total devotion that are often left out in belief-oriented measures of religiosity, and
that move beyond organisational and spatial differentiations (church vs. sect,
11
For instance, the genre of nasheeds.
RELIGION 7

locative vs utopian).
12
Drawing inspiration from Aran, Atran, Juergensmeyer, and
Sloterdijk, I approach total devotion ideals embedded in practices and made explicit
in narratives and texts as templates for endeavours to excel in religion. Emic perfec-
tion ideals and practices are key in the training of religious devotion, as well as for
motivating costly sacrifice and identity fusion. I argue additionally that these ideals
and practices hinge on narrative and emotional practices.
Narrativity and emotion
How do narratives and emotions work together in total devotion and how can a stronger
emphasis on these aspects help us understand the pull and continued attraction of total
devotion better? To focus on emotionality and narrativity is important, because religious
devotion does not only consist of ideas or beliefs, but also of emotions and motivations
(Corrigan 2016), and these are likely more important than beliefs (Hogan 2011, 23) in
establishing a pull and maintaining it, as factors supporting the ‘staying-in’of the
members of a given group. Emotions should not be seen in isolation, but considered in
conjunction with narrativity, as stories form a vital part of emotional lives. Narrativity
and emotionality and their interconnections are fundamental parts of human experience,
identity, and social life (on narrativity: Geertz and Jensen 2011; Kleres 2010, 183; Butler
2005; Ochs and Capps 1996; on emotionality: Scheer 2012; Nussbaum 2003). Emotional
experience is affected by narrativity in as much as we tell others, and ourselves, of our
experiences. Emotions havea storied form, as episodes, sequencesof actions and reactions;
emotional repertoires are taught via paradigmatic stories (Hogan 2011, 24; Kleres 2010,
185; Goldie 2000, 13; Nussbaum 1988, 226). This naturally plays into the kinds of identity
formation and emotional training taking place in totally devoted religious groups.
To maintain ideology, a range of beliefs, goals, and practices are cultivated that people
accept as the reasonable options, as a set of unselfconscious ways of thinking about and
acting in the world. Ideology can be seen as ‘a complex set of goals and beliefs that are
functional in relation to some social hierarchy’(Hogan 2011,24–25 ad 24). Rephrasing
this to fit the study of total devotion, we could say that a cultivation of beliefs, goals, and
practices cannot be thought without narrativity or emotionality (in ways that can support
or undermine social hierarchies). In terms of how ideals become effective,
13
narratives
and emotions are thus important. In a cognitive approach to this process, human cogni-
tion focuses on prototypical features and high salience. This means that prototypical
examples of a category, and those that are emotionally intense and therefore highly
salient, are experienced as more important. In other words, they simply ‘count more’
(Hogan 2011,24–25). Again, refocusing to fit the current context, we can use this to cor-
roborate our study of paradigmatic stories, culturally sanctioned and normative narra-
tives and accounts, as well as materially mediated practices (Eidinow 2023;2019).
Total devotion is not only about explicit, intellectual beliefs and goals, but fundamentally
about establishing affective structures that make people take on certain goals, behaviours,
12
Focusing on belief or spatial differentiation can mean that some ritually focused forms –e.g., some Judaisms –can
appear less intensively religious than some Protestantisms (Aran 2013, 166). On totality and intensity in relation to vio-
lence and puritanism, see Assmann 2016.
13
I recognize that ideals do not equal ideology but ideals are nevertheless relevant to investigate in order to understand
religious ideologies, viewpoints, etc., although an investigation of ideals certainly does not exhaust ‘ideology’.
8L. FELDT

and social relationships as crucially more important than others.
14
In-group and out-
group divisions may enforce such dynamics (Hogan 2011,25–26), strengthening
enclave formation (Feldt 2023) and inhibiting out-group empathy. The processes
behind the formation of total devotion, even just in terms of pull factors and motivations
for staying-in, are of course very complex. Yet it is important to emphasise that they are
not only about beliefs, but also about the establishment of common goals and ideals as
important and salient via narratives and emotionality.
15
As bodily and cognitive processes that are historically and culturally variable,
emotions must be studied in their social, historical and philological contexts (Eidinow
2016,81–102). They are also processes that go beyond the psyche-body; they are situa-
tional, socially cultivated, and contingent on shared meanings (Eidinow 2016; Johansen
2015,49–51; Tygstrup 2012, 196). Affects/emotions are understood only when we verba-
lise or narrate them (Greenberg and Angus 2011), or in an interplay with a verbalised/
narrated form (Simecek 2015, 497–500; Johansen 2015; Bourke 2014; Scheer 2012;
Hogan 2011; Keen 2011; Rosenwein 2010; Hogan 2003, 239–264; Goldie 2000; see also
Feldt and Geertz 2020 on cognitive-somatic foundations.)
16
As the bodily-affective
dimension is under-determined, emotions are invariably entwined with thoughts, evalu-
ations, and culturally available narrative structures (Goldie 2000, 5, 13); emotions take
place between people and are ‘about’social relationships (Kleres 2010; Sarbin 2001;
Katz 1999). For our purposes, it is relevant to look at the ways emotions function to
align individuals with groups, to restrain them, endorse ideals, and how emotions can
be used in performances of commitment (Feldt 2023; Gilhus 2023; Mermelstein 2013,
240).
The role of narrativity in religious identity formation processes has been amply
demonstrated (e.g., Geertz and Jensen 2011), but we need to pay more attention to emo-
tionality in combination with narrative. Narratives can process and mobilise emotions
for groups as well as individuals (Feldt 2020d; Frink 2015; Hogan 2011; Kleres 2010;
Goldie 2000).
17
Stories stimulate emotions in their audiences through characters, narra-
tors, and events, and they may comment on affective processes on a meta-level.
18
Emotions and emotional experience have a narrative format, on the one hand, and
14
With regard to emotionality and beliefs, we can be propelled to react beyond (and sometimes even against) explicitly
formulated beliefs. For instance, one can find oneself acting in ways that support a patriarchal social hierarchy, even
though one understands oneself as a feminist, on account of prototypical thinking, salience, emotional climates, and
social relationships and hierarchies. Much research on aesthetics, the senses, materiality, embodiment etc. has empha-
sised the importance of the senses, body, and materiality in recent years (see e.g. Grieser and Johnston 2017; Morgan
2010,2012,2018; Meyer 2009,2011 and many more), but it is worth pointing out also with regard to radical religion,
considering the emphasis on beliefs in radical religion research.
15
An analysis of total devotion ideals and practices in ancient religions must naturally remain aware that any historical
period may not produce singular or monolithic ideologies but pay attention to how ideologies can co-exist and/or
compete (Macherey 2006, 128; Hogan 2011, 26). It must also take into account that such ideals and how they work
are not determined only by class but by many factors –social networks, broader social clusters, the conditions of
life, families, regional, religious, etc. (Hogan 2011, 27).
16
But NB, we now wish to update our section on ‘basic emotions’(Feldt and Geertz 2020) in a more critical vein. The
theory of basic emotions was formulated by Paul Ekman in the 1970s and has been substantively criticised (see Dövel-
ing al. 2011, 5-6; Reddy 2020).
17
All media can arouse emotions, Döveling et al. 2011, Hogan 2011, 1-28; Feldt and Bremmer 2019; Feldt 2020a.
18
See Hogan’s useful distinctions (Hogan 2011, 2-4; Bartlett and Gentile 2011; Döveling et al. 2011, 3-4). Emotion scholars
like Bourke (2014), Scheer (2012), and Rosenwein (2010) reckon with common cognitive-bodily foundations, but also
stress historically and culturally shifting contexts. I lean on this history –and literature-oriented research strand more so
than the power-oriented emotion ethnography (e.g., Lutz and Abu-Lughod 1990). NB, even post-classical narratologies
offer few strategies of analysis for emotions (cf. Feldt 2020).
RELIGION 9

narratives are, on the other, emotionally structured (Feldt 2020d; Kleres 2010, 188). Indi-
viduals in a group understand themselves as emplotted in large –and small-scale narra-
tives, seeing other individuals and groups as characters in such narratives, playing roles
according to themes and plots (Sizgorich 2009,8–9; Somers 1994). Through stories and
narrative framings, we make sense of emotions and through narrative we access the
emotions of others; emotions connect groups in emotional communities (Rosenwein
2006) and affective economies (Ahmed 2004).
19
Emotions are at once tied to sensing
bodies, as well as being situational and stretched across social and material contexts.
Humans inevitably materialize and mediate communication, meaning that communi-
cation and emotions can be distributed to our surroundings and we are affected by
our surroundings in a feedback loop (a brief overview of research in this area is given
in Feldt and Geertz 2020; Johansen 2015), where the actions affect the actor, the work
the worker, the communication the communicator (loosely translating Sloterdijk 2012,
174–175; see also Johansen 2015, 50). In this thematic issue, we analyse endeavours to
increase and intensify the emotionally-bodily anchored devotion of the practitioners.
The materials analysed stimulate and sometimes stipulate high-intensity devotion. The
empirical contexts, communication, and practices analysed here –mediated materially,
textually, bodily –work back on the communicators.
The emotional expressions of others affect us deeply and are among the strongest eli-
citing conditions for a person’s emotions, even when these appear as mediated content in
fiction (Hogan 2011,1–4).
20
As biological emotion systems
21
are under-determined
(Hogan 2011,5–7), social factors influence and modify emotional expressions (e.g.,
how much which subjects can laugh or cry in public, and see my discussion above),
and these social factors are themselves part of the emotions, as are the ideologies that
modulate –intensify or particularize –emotions (Hogan 2011,5–7). In sum, sociality
contributes greatly to the idealization of specific emotions.
22
Affective learning and train-
ing in religious groups and the crucial extent to which emotions are relational and social,
and, accordingly, the role of narrative in how we are motivated to feel and act, are highly
important matters in understanding the continual attraction of total devotion. Idealis-
ation and training lead the instabilities of bodily affect into socially sanctioned forms.
Material practices or media that have been culturally sanctioned and selected for use
19
In Rosenwein’sdefinition, an emotional community is a "group[s ] in which people adhere to the same norms of
emotional expression and value –or devalue –the same or related emotions" (Rosenwein 2006: 2). Sara Ahmed under-
stands an affective economy as the interplay between different emotions and identity and group formation, for
instance involving relations between emotions, as when negative attachments like hate involve simultaneous positive
attachment, love, to other subjects (Ahmed 2004: 118). On collective emotions, ‘the synchronous convergence in
affective responding across individuals towards a specific event or object’, see von Scheve and Ismer 2013.
20
Hogan works on emotional experience from the perspective of affective narratology (Hogan 2011, 1-4). Hogan high-
lights how expressive outcomes are also eliciting conditions. Brent Plate suggest something similar, when he speaks
about the sensing-body-in-motion and how cinema as a medium affects the viewers’bodies and emotions (Plate 2017).
21
Emotion systems in our embodied brains direct our attention, produce physiological responses, provide action ten-
dencies and neurochemical reactions. Hogan recognises the disagreement on the range of biological affects, but
suggests the incomplete list of fear, anger, attachment, disgust, hunger, lust and stresses the importance of social
analysis. Social operations are part and parcel of emotion experiences and expressions, as well as the ideologies
that intensify or otherwise steer emotions, ‘including those in literary narrative’,as‘I take it that [a heteronormative
order] is [not] determined by the neurobiology of emotion’(Hogan 2011, 6). Often ideologies and literary narratives
–and I might add, culturally sanctioned narratives like religious ones –work against the instabilities of emotions
(2011, 7).
22
Hogan’s example is that of romantic love, where a certain social idealisation might stress the dependency of a woman
and the protection provided by a husband. After some threats to their being together, the couple ends up together in a
socially sanctioned order, marriage as a heteronormative union (Hogan 2011, 7).
10 L. FELDT

and/or transmission through history, some of which are culturally (as well as religiously)
canonical, selected, and paradigmatic, form excellent material for this type of analysis.
23
This is the framework within which the contributions of the thematic issue –that I
present in the following section –have been formulated and discussed.
Total devotion in the ancient world –historicising radical religion: presenting
the contributions
The articles in this thematic issue all contribute to historicizing the study of radical reli-
gion by using the concept of total devotion and by studying several different kinds of total
devotion together, from nympholepsy to law abidance and commanded love, from poetic
enslavement metaphors to martyr ideals, ascetics, and pillar saints. While focusing
mainly on ancient forms of Judaism and Christianity, the set of articles also offers
studies that inquire into forms of total devotion or ideals of total devotion in ancient
Greek and Roman religion. This set of articles thus addresses the context of the
ancient Mediterranean and Near East, which for the majority was characterized by loca-
tive, temple-based religions focused on practice. In this context, we see the emergence of
practices, metaphors, and narratives that implicitly bear witness to models of total devo-
tion, but also the emergence of explicitly formulated ideals of total devotion. Using the
concept of total devotion, this set of articles thus demonstrates that the research field
related to radical religion can be historicised in ways that increase our understanding
not only of religion in the ancient world, but also contribute to a continual discussion
of our comparative concepts. Total devotion or radical religion is not always the same
and it has not always existed, certainly not in the forms we see today. Total devotion
is not inherently tied to the modern, as a reaction to secularisation, modernisation,
and globalisation, but can be found in various formats also in the ancient world: in
relation to minor, localised deities in the context of Greek polis religion, among elite
reformers in minority Judaism in the Persian era, among poets in the Roman empire
and new converts to Christianity, as master narratives in the ascetic expansion in late
antique Gaul and with the pillar saint as a totally devoted emperor in ancient Syria.
We present these studies to highlight the role of emotionality and narrativity in the for-
mation of total devotion and as contributing factors to the pull on the identity and prac-
tice of the members. The concepts used in the broader field, including total devotion,
should be the subject of further, comparative, historical and critical discussion in the
study of religion and it is in this spirit that we present our contributions.
The first article in the set focuses on how devotion can even be understood in the
context of ancient Greek religion. Esther Eidinow analyses practices of devotion to the
nymphs –nympholepsy, a state of being captured by nymphs –in their material and eco-
logical context from 5th century BCE Greece. While we do not know precisely for how
long the nympholepts stayed in their locations in the Greek countryside, their practice
can fruitfully be analysed as a practice of total devotion, involving deep commitment
with encompassing physical-material, mental, embodied and emotional dimensions,
23
A gap between cultural norms and self-experience is to be assumed (Newsom 2021, 4), but a text also does not only
express the cultural norm or model. Newsom shows how cultural models are not just ‘how our culture wants people to
experience themselves’, but much more complex negotiations of many aspects of culture (2021, 4).
RELIGION 11

engaging all spheres of the nympholept’s life for an extended period. The material evi-
dence for nympholepsy –cave spaces and votive offerings –involved both total devotion
and costly sacrifice and display, and certainly bears witness to sacred values. Eidinow asks
how this fragmentary evidence has been and can be used to create a narrative about our
historical subjects. Drawing on Scott Atran’s work on devoted actors and using theories
of ecological cognition, as well as Martin Buber’s theory of world engagement, Eidinow
discusses how the nympholepts experienced identity fusion in a form of relationality that
helped shape their sense of self so that it extended beyond the physical to the other world,
and beyond the body to the environment. She highlights the processual and relational
qualities of devotion, extending over a physical-material environment, a social environ-
ment, and the continual creation of the self –emotionally, mentally, physically –in
relation to multiple others. The empirical evidence analysed demonstrates how emotions
are relational and affected by sociality and materiality in a specific ecology. In the case of
nympholepsy, the intensity of devotion was heightened, and its scope broadened,
spatially and materially, because religious practice was confined by the space of the
cave; a space that heightens sensory impact. Inscriptions and iconography reflecting
the devoted subject stimulated continued devotion. While explicit scales could not be
observed in this fragmentary material, the scope of devotion was indeed very encompass-
ing for the duration of the nympholept’s stay in the cave.
In Laura Feldt’s article, the ideal of total devotion embedded in Deuteronomy or
Devarim of the Hebrew Bible is analysed using perspectives from theories of emotions
and narrativity in the historical context of Second Temple Judaism and the Persian
empire (also ca. 5th century BCE). Using perspectives from research on radical religion,
emotions and narrative, as well as the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk’s ideas of
asceticism and training, the article demonstrates that the ideal of devotion in Deuteron-
omy involves an explicit discourse on devotion as ideally total in terms of personal,
spatial, and temporal aspects. Taking the narrative and affective economy into
account, the role of emotional intensity is also demonstrated in the command to love
the deity and the elicitation of fear and disgust. These aspects support enclave-formation,
identity fusion and costly sacrifice, as well as violence towards others. Feldt suggests that
more attention should be paid to Deuteronomy 1–11 as aiming to train devotion affec-
tively and narratively and that the analysis of the ideal of the relationship between Israel
and Yahweh as a form of total devotion showcases that the focus on radical beliefs and
relations to exterior groups and society at large in radical religion research should be sup-
plemented by attention to emotions, narrativity, and group-internal ideals of devotion.
Rather than analysing single emotions in isolation, Feldt highlights how emotionality
in Deuteronomy is interwoven with narrativity. Their entanglement functions to align
the individual member with the group and train them towards total devotion, and nar-
rative aspects play crucial roles in heightening emotional intensity.
Jörg Rüpke’s article also demonstrates the fundamental entanglement of emotionality
and narrativity. He looks at the ‘personal poetry’of the Augustan period, where poets like
Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid spoke about emotional and explicitly sexual
relationships with Venus in a language mobilizing towards radical ways to live. These
authors used religious language, metaphors, and elements of myths to frame the relation-
ship between the poet and the deity as total and encompassing, using imagery of depen-
dency and enslavement. The poetry was written by and addressed to a male, elite group of
12 L. FELDT

educated Romans and it was not used in any social practice of total devotion. Neverthe-
less, this Roman love poetry does belong in a discussion of total devotion and its history,
argues Rüpke, as the literary domain is not, and should not be, seen as exempt from the
religious; both are embedded in social life. Literary, fictional, and otherwise mediated
communication about religion also belongs to the field of religion, as it has been
shown for contemporary literature (see the thematic issue of Religion guest-edited by
Davidsen in 2016; esp. Davidsen 2016; Feldt 2016; Johannsen 2016, and Feldt 2011)–
it also goes for the ancient world. In the history of scholarship on Roman poetry,
however, the borders between poetry and religion have been strictly upheld. Rüpke’s
piece instead works towards destabilizing them. While Horace’sOdes –of which 4.1 is
analysed in depth here –is about imagined practices and experiences, and about
poetic networks and not about religion in any organized form, the clear and vivid formu-
lation of models of total devotion is nevertheless significant. Horace’s metaphors mix
erotic imagery with religion in ways that are suggestive of an intense emotional identifi-
cation and a form of total or excessive religiosity. His hymns had a surprising history of
reception as they became an important model for later Latin Christian hymns. The
models set out by Horace travelled onwards to stimulate devotion for new divinities
such as Christ, Mary, and a multitude of saints in hymnal singing. These models
influenced religious life in western Europe for eras to come.
The metaphor of the slave (ʿebed) for the relationship between devotee and deity goes
back to the Hebrew Bible, where it is found as part of the imagery and storytelling of Deu-
teronomy but also elsewhere (e.g., in the Psalms and Prophets) as a more general term for
servants and also for the work (the rituals) the deity is due (e.g., Ex 12:26, see Bridge
2013).
24
In the Roman empire, total devotion to a deity was formulated by means of
the metaphor of the slave, as we saw in Rüpke’s analysis of Horace’s hymn about the
relations between the poet and Venus. Turning to some of the early Christian ideals of
devotion, Jan N. Bremmer highlights the emotionality of the metaphor of slave of
Christ in the narrative of the apocryphal Acts of Peter, a text from the late second
century. As Bremmer demonstrates, an ideal of total devotion to Christ is promulgated
in this narrative and the metaphor of the slave is used as a summary term for this totally
obedient relationship, a model of devotion that is total in scope. The narrated ideals of
devotion are also emotionally intense, involving the performance and display of deep
affection via tears and crying. The text also explicitly reflects on the group’s scales of
devotion, distinguishing those with a lesser devotion, weak or wavering in their faith,
from those with an idealised total devotion. Moreover, Bremmer interestingly brings
out that according to this story, the devotees of Christ must believe with all their
heart. The text thus locates belief in the heart, whereas the earlier Jewish texts studied
by Feldt stipulate a total love for the deity, also located in the heart. This is an indicator
of how belief was becoming central in early Christian models of devotion, which is clearly
was not in Jewish models. Overall, Bremmer shows how the text of the Acts of Peter pays
much attention to nurturing total devotion and belief. At this point, Christianity was still
an emerging religion and continuously under threat. Drawing on the insights of Scott
Atran, Bremmer’s analysis shows that martyrdom –a total form of costly sacrifice –is
24
The term for slave is intimately related to the term meaning ‘work’in Hebrew and must also sometimes be translated
‘servant’. See Bridge 2013 for a fuller discussion of slave metaphors in the Hebrew Bible.
RELIGION 13

idealised as the ultimate form of total devotion in these Acts. The model of total devotion
entailed the belief that the totally devoted Christ followers would become able to perform
fantastic and miraculous deeds, a belief that might also have worked as a pull factor,
suggests Bremmer. His contribution also highlights the importance of in-group dynamics
by pointing to the danger of the dissolution of the group and the demise of its devotion,
as we can see in the amount of attention the text spends not only on the dangers of doubt,
but also on deflecting the dangers of heretics, pseudo-prophets, fake magicians, and
human patrons and making them less appealing to the audience.
In the hierarchical organization and authoritarian leadership that characterised
ancient Christian Pachomian monasticism in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, the prac-
tice of weeping functioned as a performance of total devotion, as shown here by Ingvild
S. Gilhus. Total devotion towards the divine, the monastic father, and the religious group
was idealised. The article analyses performances of weeping, the scales of weeping and
how weeping was assessed in various contexts, and the ways in which it was taken to
reflect religious excellence. Based on analyses of the Life of Pachomius, in combination
with a selection of further Pachomian sources, Gilhus brings out how the management of
emotions was a leadership issue in the Pachomian community. Here, weeping generally
expressed world rejection and eschatological goals –happiness was postponed to the
world to come –but crying was also practiced in a context of authoritarian leadership.
Intense weeping was a sign of total devotion demonstrating the ideal relations of sub-
mission of the monastic son to the monastic father and the son’s total devotion to him
and to the divine. Laughing and joking was seen as belonging to the outside world,
and so emotional practices marked the boundary between insiders and outsiders in
the community. The Pachomian in-group was characterised by a competitive, lachry-
mose religiosity, in which weeping –as a performance of total devotion –was scaled
and assessed as ideal or excessive. As emotional expressions are also eliciting conditions
for emotions, or, in other words, because emotions are contagious, these stories of
weeping monastic saints also activated the emotional commitment of their audiences.
Practices of weeping and tears made a profound difference to the social context of Pacho-
mian monasticism, as an expression of the idealised total devotion fundamentally
entwined with issues of group cohesion, commitment, leadership, and authority.
Gilhus’analysis brings out the relevance of scope, intensity, and scales in the study of
total devotion.
Narrativity, and how plots play important roles in structuring identity and practice in
total devotion, is in focus in the next article. Klazina Staat analyses a set of Latin, hagio-
graphies and argues that they share a special ascetic plot of total devotion that plays on
both Christian ideals of secrecy and the factor of fame. The latter indeed drives the plot,
showing how total devotion spreads. Staat uses the concept of ‘masterplot’, taking inspi-
ration from psychologist Dan McAdams’work on ‘the redemptive self’and historian
Beatrice de Graaf’s work on convicted terrorists’‘radical redemption plot’, to show
total devotion is plotted in Latin ascetic hagiography of secret saints and to unfold the
embedded ideal of total devotion. In the ascetic masterplot, there is a set of recurring
elements, involving the saints’total devotion to God, strong passions of love and
affection, withdrawal from the homeland, possessions and family, rumours that spread
and attract followers, and finally, the revelation of the identity of the saint and the
stories of new miracles. The saints’performance of new miracles leads to even more
14 L. FELDT

rumours and expressions of total devotion. Staat highlights how ascetic withdrawal,
secrecy, fame, emotionality, storytelling, and imitation of exemplars are constitutive
elements in the ascetic total devotion masterplot. She also emphasises the formative func-
tions of narrativity and elements that actively implicate the audience in the plot. In sum,
plotting plays an important formative role in structuring lives and identities for totally
devoted persons. Externalised narratives, such as hagiography, can have formative func-
tions in training audiences in intense devotion and continued membership.
Finally, and treating one of the most conspicuous forms of total devotion to emerge in
the ancient world, namely the Christian pillar saints, Christian Høgel analyses Theodor-
et’s Life of Symeon Stylites the Elder. Emphasising that pillar sainthood is characterized
by an extreme and conspicuous visual performance, he suggests that Symeon’s perform-
ance of asceticism should be seen as a new form of visible and competitive super-religi-
osity that emulated imperial practices. Exploring both narrative and emotional aspects of
Theodoret’s hagiography, Høgel argues that Symeon’s practice resembles that of Roman
emperors: imperial columns, mass performances, imperial styled receptions of foreign
nations, and mass conversions leading to loyalty ties and new allies. While practicing a
form of asceticism and costly sacrifice, Symeon Stylites was special in taking it to new
heights through confinement, danger, and conspicuousness: Theodoret’s narrative
suggests that he was universally visible, attracting large crowds, spurring storytelling
and mass conversions. The competitive religiosity of totally devoted actors is clearly
visible here and made eminently usable for a Christian rhetoric of empire. Moreover,
the life of Symeon Stylites demonstrates to the fullest degree how ascetic devotion was
maximised into a form that was very conspicuously total in scope and emotionally
intense –for the idealised saint as well as his followers. Not only was scale of devotion
broadcast to all, in very practical terms, by the pillar itself, but the concrete religious prac-
tices of devotion –such as genuflections –could also be counted very specifically by the
onlookers, as at once an indication of a competitive religiosity striving for perfection, and
a stimulus for it.
Discussion
The study of total devotion through the lenses of emotion and narrativity that we have
pursued here, overall belongs to the strand in research that studies religion via sensory
experience, the body, and materiality (Grieser and Johnston 2017; Corrigan 2016
25
)
but drawing on studies in the history and sociology of emotions and a broadly under-
stood study of narrativity in human experience and identity. Although we have not neg-
lected material contexts (Eidinow 2023; Feldt 2023; Høgel 2023), our focus in this
thematic issue has mainly been on religious texts that embed ideals or models of total
devotion and their formative impact on their audience via emotionality and narrativity
(Bremmer, Eidinow, Feldt, Gilhus, Høgel, Rüpke, Staat). Understanding religion as a
multi-facetted cultural phenomenon that invariably involves aesthetic-sensory mediation
(Grieser and Johnston 2017; Meyer 2011,2009; Morgan 2018,2014,2010), means that
it must be analysed in its aesthetic forms and contexts. For the same reason, religious
25
Unfortunately, Corrigan (2016) overlooks the extensive and convincing criticism of Ekman’s theory of basic affects by
historians of emotion such as Reddy (Reddy 2020).
RELIGION 15

media –such as narratives, texts, forms of materiality, movement, or other sensory forms
of mediation –cannot be used as a form of direct access to religious representations
without consideration of their media form (Feldt 2016). Naturally this goes also for reli-
gious texts more broadly and for religious narratives more specifically (Feldt 2017), as
narrativity and emotionality (and other forms of sensory experience) are foundationally
formative of human experience and identity (Scheer 2012; Feldt and Geertz 2020, and
above). Sensory and emotional experience is deeply socialized and interlaced with narra-
tivity. In our research on total devotion in ancient religions, we have tried to demonstrate
how an attention to narrativity and emotionality in religious ideals of total devotion can
be fruitful and produce new perspectives both on the ancient materials studied and on
radical religion. Our studies offer new perspectives on the latter by highlighting the for-
mative role of narrative, emotional, and metaphorical models for the total, perfect or all-
encompassing relationship between devotee and deity and the resulting in-group
dynamics.
Shared models and ideals of total devotion can stimulate and abet enclave formation,
identity fusion, and shared goals in a group in ways that sustain the staying-in factor
(Bremmer 2023; Eidinow 2023; Feldt 2023; Gilhus 2023; Høgel 2023; Staat 2023).
Shared ideals can offset a competitive religiosity that sustains the centripetal forces in
group formation, because the members –in spite of dissent or in-group conflict (e.g.,
Gilhus 2023; Staat 2023) were oriented towards the same ideal of devotion. Ideals of per-
fecting religious practice and emic scales of devotion were found in emotional language
and metaphors (Bremmer 2023; Feldt 2023; Rüpke 2023) and in stories about religious
heroes and ideal devout actors (Bremmer 2023; Eidinow 2023; Feldt 2023; Høgel 2023;
Gilhus 2023; Staat 2023). Forms of devotion could be pictured as competing with each
other and compared, in emic discourse, to other forms deemed more perfect or admir-
able, while others were excluded, sometimes violently (Feldt 2023). In all these contexts,
we saw various emic scales of devotion at work and aspects of competition and compari-
son, as a competitive discourse of devotion can only operate on the observation of simi-
larities and differences. The focus on group-internal ideals of total devotion is thus a
valuable addition to the study of radical religion. Emic discourse on devotion ideals
entails distinguishing those who are totally devoted from those who are lukewarm,
weak in faith, apostates, or otherwise religious in a way not perceived as ideal by
actors in the in-group. This shows quite clearly that the scales, scope, and intensity of
religion in ancient societies were variable and not the same everywhere and that this
was recognised in emic scales of devotion. It is thus unwise to assume constant levels
of religiosity and intensity of devotion across ancient societies, periods, and contexts.
26
It is also clear that a concept like total devotion –relating to the study of radical religion,
but without the massive negative connotations related to extremism and violence –that
addresses group-internal religious ideals more closely can be useful for the study of reli-
gion. It is useful because it highlights that forms of strong and intense religious zeal,
devotion, or commitment existed in the ancient world under differing social, historical,
and medial circumstances. It also allows us to analyse and compare the group-internal
pivots around which devotion is organised and scaled and –e.g., –the extent to which
these include violence. It is important to study such forms of radical religion so that
26
Rüpke’s work on lived ancient religion, individualism, and deviance are path-breaking examples of such research.
16 L. FELDT

we can produce more knowledge about the factors that contribute to the forces for
‘staying-in’for members. Moreover, religious ideals of total devotion are important to
study for their own sake –what are their formats, how do they function in various
groups, how do they become effective and formative? –but also because they are evidence
of religious discourses of ‘religion’that have deep anchors in religious experience and
identity formation (see here Beatrice De Graaf 2022; Fuglsang-Larsen and Jensen 2021).
27
There is much to suggest that the study of radical religion will gain from further
studies of the aesthetic-sensory, affective, and narrative sides of devotion. If emotions
and affects are seen as the other of reason, it is easy to dismiss radical religion and the
strong emotional intensity it involves as the domain of crazy, religious people, as ‘bad
religion’(Orsi 2022). Yet, it is incumbent on study of religion scholars to offer analyses
of all sorts of religion and studying radical religion from the perspective of ideals of devo-
tion, emotionality and narrativity helps us see that the phenomenon is more ambiguous
than sometimes thought. Certainly, it does not help us analyse or address the challenges
of radical religion to dismiss it as ‘bad’or ‘inauthentic’religion. While there is no necess-
ary relation between radical religion and violence, but a contingent one, while there is an
important gap between materially, textually, etc. mediated ideals and practice, we must
also recognise that religious media are not ‘innocent;’their formative power must be
reckoned with. For that reason, we may differentiate between religious media that
sustain total devotion ideals, group internal competition, and enclave formation to a
greater degree than others, just as we must take seriously the textually embedded reli-
gious ideals and models that underpin and legitimise religious violence towards outsiders
and apostates to greater degrees than others (Juergensmeyer 2020; Larsson 2018)by
driving emotionality and orienting identities narratively (Feldt 2023).
In emotions research, it is broadly established that emotions have a directedness or
‘aboutness’(Goldie 2000)–emotions relate to social situations and are directed
towards something or somebody, as opposed to moods that are unspecific mental
states (Tietjen 2021). This directedness comes from the intertwining of emotions and
narrativity because this nexus hinges on the evaluative aspect of emotions which is fun-
damentally contingent on the underlying, narratively based understanding of the social
situation: who did what to whom, who benefits, who was injured or whose fault was it,
who was the hero, who the enemy. In other words, the nexus entails or rests on an evalu-
ation. These questions show the interaction and entwinement of emotionality and nar-
rativity that is fundamental in human experience and identity and so also in the
formation and continued force for staying-in found in radical religion. In total devotion
or radically religious groups, this fundamental intertwining of emotionality and narrativ-
ity is broadened by practices of devotion, individual and collective, ritualisations,
27
In the study of ancient religions, much ink has been spent on investigating ancient terms for ‘religion’such as religio or
threskeia (Nongbri 2013, Barton and Boyarin 2016) and on intellectual, belief-oriented discourse by elite authors such as
Philo or Tertullian and there is a strong trend in such research to conclude that ‘religion’did not exist in antiquity (more
references to the debate but focused on Judaism, see Feldt 2020a). While this is important work, in a future research
project I will pursue what can be gained in terms of understanding ‘religion’in the ancient world by looking instead at
different materials. Whereas the empirical sources for terms for ‘religion’and ‘belief’are scant and derive from the cul-
tural elites, emic ideals, practices, and scales of devotion are plentiful as they are embedded in religious texts –narra-
tives, prayers, hagiography, and incantations –that reflect a broader segment of ancient societies. This evidence
overwhelmingly suggests that the language in which ancient peoples spoke of the relation between devotees and
deities was the language of emotion and narrative –fear, love, disgust, pain and suffering as mediated via idealised
figures of devotion –heroes, prophets, magicians, ascetics, sages, martyrs, and more.
RELIGION 17

materiality, spaces, etc. that work towards the formation and continual habituation of
total devotion. The more explicit the religious discourse on total devotion, and the
more extensive and explicit the training programmes supporting it, the more self-con-
sciously it is understood as identity-defining (put differently by Juergensmeyer 2020
but with overlapping understanding) and involving a person’s entire life (a form of
costly sacrifice), and/or the desire to impose it on others, the more likely total devotion
is to involve violence directed at others, especially if the narrative others or enemies are
framed derogatorily (as evil, disgusting, and weak –etc.) For the formation and contin-
ued pull of radical religion, singular emotions can of course be important, but what really
matters is the emotional and narrative economy in which emotions and storytelling work
together to stabilise the group and its devotion.
28
Finally, studies of ancient forms of radical religion might help normalise radical reli-
gion in research on ancient religions, including Judaism and Christianity. What this the-
matic issue shows is that total devotion ideals form central parts of emerging, normative,
elite Judaisms and Christianities; they were not anomalous or deviant. They cannot be
relegated to the margins; they were part of the fabric of ‘Judaism’and ‘Christianities’
in their very emergence as ‘religions’. Ancient forms of total devotion in Judaism and
Christianity –and ancient religions generally –should not be studied because they are
examples of ‘good’religion or because they are ‘respectable’, nor should we study
radical religion, religion, terrorism, and violence, or any other kind of religion, (only)
because it disgusts or pleases us (Orsi 2022, 316; 2019)–although emotionality plays
into our practices too. We should study ancient forms of radical religion because they
help us produce better analyses of, and understand in more depth, this strange phenom-
enon we call religion in all its ambiguities. Both moderate and radical religion are
entwined with emotionality, sensory experience, and narrativity that helps organise iden-
tities and their relations to each other.
Conclusion
This essay has provided an overview of the current state of the multidisciplinary field of
research dealing with radical religion from the perspective of the study of religion. It indi-
cates that there has been a predominant focus on factors promoting radicalisation, mar-
ginalisation, and turning to terrorism. Overall, radical beliefs and the relations between
radical or extreme groups and majority society at large in late modern European and
North American societies have been in focus. These are indubitably important issues
to study, but against this context, I have suggested that research needs to pay more atten-
tion to religious group dynamics, religious ideals, and factors contributing to sustaining
membership. In this context, historical case studies of radical religion can really aid this
analysis by deepening the discussion, in the study of religion, of the variegated field relat-
ing to radical religion, fundamentalism, extremism, religious terrorism, fundamentalism
and related concepts beyond Islam and the contemporary era. I have presented the
28
For that reason, I also find Tietjen’s distinction between love-based religious zeal and anger-based religious zeal a bit
too schematic and empirically more unrealistic (Tietjen 2021), as group-foundational emotions do not occur in isolation
but are invariably related to other emotions in emotional economies. Loving a deity can mean also hating certain out-
groups, other deities, and/or specific emotional practices, aligning subgroups with each other, e.g. men and women or
leaders with laypeople (see Feldt 2020a discussing Second Temple Judaisms with inspiration from Ahmed 2004).
18 L. FELDT

concept of total devotion as a new and productive way of approaching the field, as this
concept focuses on group-internal, emic, religious ideals and scales of devotion and on
how religious ideals play important roles in group-internal competition over who is
most perfectly religious. Offering new angles in its focus on scales of religion, both in
terms of scope and intensity, the concept of total devotion is not solely concerned
with belief, but highlights practice as well. While radical religion is a relative concept,
the concept of total devotion –while also relative to empirical contexts –is additionally
anchored also in emic scales that can be studied empirically. In the formation and con-
tinued appeal of total devotion, emotional and narrative practices are key, as the contri-
butions to this thematic issue bring out, through their analyses of forms of total devotion
from ancient Greece and Rome, the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism, forma-
tive Christianity, as well as later forms of Christianity from ancient Syria and Gaul. The
thematic issue contributions, as well as this article, have brought together ancient
materials with fresh theoretical perspectives from the study of religion and radical reli-
gion, emphasising the formative role of narrative, emotional, and metaphorical models
for the total, perfect or all-encompassing relationship between devotee and deity –and
the resulting in-group dynamics of those experiencing total devotion.
Notes on contributor
Laura Feldt, PhD, is Associate Professor of the Study of Religion, University of Southern
Denmark. She is the author of The Fantastic in Religious Narrative from Exodus to Elisha (Routle-
dge 2012), editor of Wilderness in Mythology and Religion (de Gruyter 2012), co-editor of Margin-
ality, Media and Mutations of Religious Authority in the History of Christianity (Peeters 2018 with
Jan N. Bremmer) among others, and co-editor of Numen –International Review of the History of
Religions 2017-2022. She has authored research articles on religious narrativity, wilderness, mon-
strosity, materiality, and the fantastic in ancient religions as well as contemporary spiritualities.
Currently, she heads the collective research project Total Devotion –Passions and Plots in
Radical Religion in the Ancient World, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark
(www.sdu.dk/en/radrel).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
References
Ahmed, Sara. 2004.“Affective Economies.”Social Text 22: 117–139.
Al-Rasheed, Madawi, and Marat Shterin. 2009.Dying for Faith. Religiously Motivated Violence in
the Contemporary World. London: I.B. Tauris.
Aran, Gideon. 2013.“On Religiosity and Super-Religiosity (I): Measures of Radical Religion.”In
Numen-International Review of the History of Religions 60 (2/3): 155–194.
Asad, Talal. 1993.Genealogies of Religion. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
Aslan, Reza. 2013.“Cosmic War in Religious Traditions.”In The Oxford Handbook of Religion and
Violence, edited by Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson, 260–267. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Assmann, Jan. 2016.Totale Religion. Ursprünge und Formen Puritanischer Verschärfung. Picus
Verlag: Wien.
Atran, Scott. 2016.“The Devoted Actor.”Current Anthropology 57: S192–S203.
RELIGION 19

Barlett, Christopher P., and Douglas A. Gentile. 2011.“Affective and Emotional Consequences of
the Mass Media.”In The Routledge Handbook of Emotions and Mass Media, edited by Katrin
Döveling, Christian von Scheve, and Elly A. Konijn, 60–78. London: Routledge.
Barton, Carlin A., and Daniel Boyarin. 2016.Imagine No Religion: How Modern Abstractions Hide
Ancient Realities. New York: Fordham University Press.
Bayat, Asef. 2007.“Radical Religion and the Habitus of the Dispossessed: Does Islamic Militancy
Have an Urban Ecology?”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 31: 579–590.
Bourke, Joanna. 2014.The Story of Pain. from Prayer to Painkillers. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Bremmer, Jan N. 2023.“Slaves of God/Christ: Narrated Total Devotion in the Apocryphal Acts of
Peter.”53.
Bridge, Edward J. 2013.“The Metaphoric Use of Slave Terms in the Hebrew Bible.”Bulletin for
Biblical Research 23 (1): 13–28.
Butler, Judith. 2005.Giving an Account of Oneself. New York: Fordham University Press.
Corrigan, John. 2016.“Emotion.”In The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion, edited by
Michael Stausberg, and Steven Engler, 510–524. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davidsen, Markus. 2016.“The Religious Affordance of Fiction: A Semiotic Approach.”Religion 46
(4): 521–549.
Dawson, Lorne. 2018a.“Religion and Terrorism, a Special Issue of Numen.”International Review
of the History of Religions 141–164.
Dawson, Lorne. 2018.“Debating the Role of Religion in the Motivation of Religious Terrorism.”
Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 31: 98–117.
De Graaf, Beatrice. 2022.Radical Redemption. What Terrorists Believe. Unpublished manuscript
courtesy of the author.
Döveling, Katrin, Christian von Scheve, and Elly A. Konijn. 2011.The Routledge Handbook of
Emotions and Mass Media. London: Routledge.
Eidinow, Esther. 2016.Envy, Poison and Death. Women on Trial in Classical Athens. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Eidinow, Esther. 2019.“The (Ancient Greek) Subject Supposed to Believe.”Numen 66: 56–88.
Eidinow, Esther. 2023.“I-Thou-Nymph: A Relational Approach to Ancient Greek Religious
Devotion.”Religion 53.
Feldt, Laura. 2011.“Religious Narrative and the Literary Fantastic: Ambiguity and Uncertainty in
Ex. 1-18.”Religion 41 (2): 251–283.
Feldt, Laura. 2016.“Contemporary Fantasy Fiction and Representations of Religion: Playing with
Reality, Myth and Magic in His Dark Materials and Harry Potter.”Religion 46: 550–574.
Feldt, Laura. 2017.“The Literary Aesthetics of Religious Narratives: Probing Literary-Aesthetic
Form, Emotion, and Sensory Effects in Exodus 7–11.”In Aesthetics of Religion. A Connective
Concept, edited by Alexandra Grieser, and Jay Johnston, 121–146. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Feldt, Laura. 2020d.“Feeling Narrative Cultures: Analysing Emotions in Religious Narratives with
Examples from Old-Babylonian Ninurta Myths.”In Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of
Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 14, edited by D. Johannsen, A. Kirsch,
and J. Kreinath, 125–154. Leiden: Brill.
Feldt, Laura. 2020.“Total Devotion: Dismantling Religious Practices and Training Devotion in 2
Kings 22-23.”Journal for the Study of Judaism 51: 309–338.
Feldt, Laura. 2023.“Total Devotion in Deuteronomy.”Religion 53.
Feldt, Laura, and Jan N. Bremmer. 2019.Marginality, Media, and Mutations of Religious Authority
in the History of Christianity. Leuven: Peeters.
Feldt, Laura, and Armin W. Geertz. 2020.“Religion og Medier i et Religionsvidenskabeligt
Perspektiv.”Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift 70: 6–37. doi:10.7146/rt.v0i70.120397.
Fox, J. 2013.An Introduction to Religion and Politics: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.
Frink, Stephanie. 2015.“The Past Beats Inside Me Like a Second Heart”. In Structures of Feeling.
Affectivity and the Study of Culture, Guest-Edited by Devika Sharma and Frederik Tygstrup,
132–146. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
20 L. FELDT

Fuglsang-Larsen, Jeppe, and Sune Q. Jensen. 2021.“Everyday Religion and Radical Islamism –A
Contribution to Theorizing the Role of Religion in Radicalization Studies.”Studies in Conflict &
Terrorism 5: 1–17. doi:10.1080/1057610X.2021.1929056
Geertz, Armin W., and Jeppe S. Jensen. 2011.Religious Narrative, Cognition and Culture. London:
Equinox.
Gilhus, Ingvild S. 2023.“Tears Flowed from his Eyes Unceasingly”: Weeping and Total Devotion
in Egypt in Late Antiquity.”Religion 53.
Goldie, Peter. 2000.The Emotions. A Philosophical Exploration. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Greenberg, Lynne, and Leslie Angus. 2011.Working with Narrative in Emotion-Focused Therapy.
Washington: The American Psychological Association.
Grieser, Alexandra, and Jay Johnston. 2017.The Aesthetics of Religion –A Connective Concept.
Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Hogan, Patrick C. 2003.The Mind and Its Stories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hogan, Patrick Colm. 2011.Affective Narratology: The Emotional Structure of Stories. London/
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Høgel, Christian. 2023.“Total Devotion in Pillar Saint Hagiography.”Religion 53.
Jensen, Hans J. 2015.“Udstigere og immunsystemer, asketer og akrobater. Om Peter Sloterdijks
Du musst dein Leben ändern. Über Anthropoteknik.”Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift 60: 75–
97.
Johannsen, Dirk. 2016.“On Elves and Freethinkers. Criticism of Religion and the Emergence of
the Literary Fantastic in Nordic Literature.”Religion 46 (4): 591–610.
Johansen, Birgitte S. 2015.“Locating Hatred: On the Materiality of Emotions.”Emotion, Space and
Society 16: 48–55.
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 2013.“Religious Terrorism as Performance Violence.”In The Oxford
Handbook of Religion and Violence, edited by Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and
Michael Jerryson, 280–292. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 2020.God at War. A Meditation on Religion and Warfare. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Juergensmeyer, Mark, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Religion
and Violence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Juergensmeyer, Mark, and Mona Sheikh. 2013.“A Sociotheological Approach to Understanding
Religious Violence.”In The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence, edited by Mark
Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson, 620–643. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kaplan, Jeffrey. 2015.Radical Religion and Violence: Theory and Case Studies (Extremism and
Democracy Book 31). London: Routledge.
Katz, J. 1999.How Emotions Work. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Keen, Suzanne. 2011.“Introduction: Narrative and the Emotions.”Poetics Today 32: 1–53.
Kinsley, David, and Vasudha Narayanan. 2005.“Devotion.”Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by
Lindsay Jones, 2nd ed., vol. 4, Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pp. 2316-2322. Gale eBooks,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3424500771/GVRL?u = syduni&sid = bookmark-GVRL&xid =
e1995771. Accessed 28 Oct. 2022.
Kleres, Jochen. 2010.“Emotions and Narrative Analysis.”Journal for the Theory of Social
Behaviour 41 (2): 182–202.
Kühle, Lene. 2018.“Policies of Radicalisation as Anti- and Countercult Ideologies.”Journal of
Muslims in Europe 7: 211–236.
Lakhani, Suraj, and Susann Wiedlitzka. 2022.““Press F to pay Respects”:An Empirical Exploration
of the Mechanics of Gamification in Relation to the Christchurch Attack.”Terrorism and
Political Violence online prepublication, in press. doi:10.1080/09546553.2022.2064746
Larsson, Göran. 2018.“Disputed, Sensitive and Indispensable Topics: The Study of Islam and
Apostasy.”Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 30: 201–226.
Lincoln, Bruce. 2003.Holy Terrors. Thinking About Religion After September 11. Chicago: Chicago
University Press.
Lindekilde, L., and P. Bertelsen. 2015.“Voldelig Transnational Aktivisme: Islamisk Stat, Foreign
Fighters og Radikalisering.”Dansk Sociologi 26/4: 28–51. 94.
RELIGION 21

Lutz, Catherine, and Lila Abu-Lughod. 1990.Language and the Politics of Emotion. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Macherey, Pierre. 2006.A Theory of Literary Production. Translated by Geoffrey Wall. London:
Routledge.
McGuire, Meredith. 2008.Lived Religion. Faith and Practice in Everyday Life. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Mermelstein, Ari. 2013.“Love and Hate at Qumran: The Social Construction of Sectarian
Emotion.”Dead Sea Discoveries 20: 237–263.
Meyer, Birgit. 2009.Aesthetic Formations. Media, Religion and the Senses. New York: Palgrave
MacMillan.
Meyer, Birgit. 2011.“Mediation and Immediacy: Sensational Forms, Semiotic Ideologies and the
Question of the Medium.”Social Anthropology 19: 23–39. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8676.2010.00137.
x.
Morgan, David. 2010.“Materiality, Social Analysis, and the Study of Religions.”In Religion and
Material Culture –The Matter of Belief, edited by David Morgan, 55–74. London: Routledge.
Morgan, David. 2012.The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling.
Berkeley: University of California Press. doi:10.1525/california/9780520272224.001.0001
Morgan, David. 2018.Images at Work: The Material Culture of Enchantment. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190272111.003.0003
Nanninga, Pieter. 2014.“Jihadism and Suicide Attacks. Al-Qaeda, al-Sahab and the Meanings of
Martyrdom.”(PhD-thesis). University of Groningen, Groningen.
Newsom, Carol. 2021.The Spirit Within Me. Self and Agency in Ancient Israel and Second Temple
Judaism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Nongbri, Brent. 2013.Before Religion. A History of a Modern Concept. New Haven: Yale University
Press.
Nussbaum, Martha. 1988.“Narrative Emotions: Beckett’s Genealogy of Love.”Ethics 98 (2): 225–
254.
Nussbaum, Martha. 2003.Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Ochs, E., and L. Capps. 1996.“Narrating the Self.”Annual Review of Anthropology 25: 19–43.
Orsi, Robert A. 2019.“The Study of Religion on the Other Side of Disgust”.Harvard Divinity
Bulletin summer 2019: https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/the-study-of-religion-on-the-other-
side-of-disgust/.
Orsi, Robert A. 2022.“The Study of Religion on the Other Side of the Good Religion/Bad Religion
Binary.”Journal of Religious Ethics 50: 312–317.
Partridge, C. 2001.Fundamentalisms. Waynesboro: Paternoster Press.
Plate, Brent. 2017.Religion and Film. Cinema and the Recreation of the World. New York:
Columbia University Press.
Pratt, Douglas. 2010.“Religion and Terrorism: Christian Fundamentalism and Extremism.”
Terrorism and Political Violence 22: 438–456. doi:10.1080/09546551003689399.
Reddy, William. 2020.“The Unavoidable Intentionality of Affect: The History of Emotions and the
Neurosciences of the Present Day.”Emotion Review 12: 168–178.
Rosenwein, Barbara. 2006.Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages. New York: Cornell
University Press.
Rosenwein, Barbara. 2010.“Problems and Methods in the History of Emotions.”Passions in
Context: Journal of the History and Philosophy of the Emotions 1/1: 1–32.
Roy. 2014.Holy Ignorance. New York: Columbia University Press.
Roy. 2017.Jihad og Døden. København: Forlaget Vandkunsten.
Rüpke, Jörg. 2016a.On Roman Religion: Lived Religion and the Individual in Ancient Rome.
New York: Cornell University Press.
Rüpke, Jörg. 2016b.Religious Deviance in the Roman World: Superstition or Individuality.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rüpke, Jörg. 2023.“Veneration of Venus in Augustan Love Poetry as a Metaphor of Total
Devotion.”Religion 53.
22 L. FELDT

Sarbin, T. R. 2001.“Embodiment and the Narrative Structure of Emotional Life.”Narrative
Inquiry 11: 217–225.
Sardoc, Mitja. 2020.“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Radicalization: An Interview with Arun
Kundnani.”Journal of Applied Security Research 15: 1–9. doi:10.1080/19361610.2020.1702374.
Scheer, Monique. 2012.“Are Emotions a Kind of Practice (and Is That What Makes Them Have a
History)? A Bourdieuian Approach to Understanding Emotion.”History and Theory 51: 193–
220.
Sedgwick, Mark. 2010.“The Concept of Radicalization as a Source of Confusion.”Terrorism and
Political Violence 22: 479–494.
Simecek, Karen. 2015.“Beyond Narrative: Poetry, Emotion, and the Perspectival View.”The
British Journal of Aesthetics 55: 497–513.
Sizgorich, Thomas. 2009.Violence and Belief: Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam.
(Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Sloterdijk, Peter. 2012.Du Musst Dein Leben ändern. Über Anthropotechnik. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Somers, Margaret R. 1994.“The Narrative Constitution of Identity: A Relational and Network
Approach.””. Theory and Society 23: 605–649.
Staat, Klazina. 2023.“Emplotting Total Devotion: Secrecy, Fame, and Imitation in the Lives of Late
Antique Christian Ascetics.”Religion 53.
Sunstein, Cass R. 2009.Going to Extremes. How Like Minds Unite and Divide. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Tietjen, Ruth R. 2021.“Religious Zeal as an Affective Phenomenon.”Phenomenology and the
Cognitive Sciences 20: 75–91. doi:10.1007/s11097-020-09664-4.
Tygstrup, Frederik. 2012.“Affective Spaces.”In Panic and Mourning. The Cultural Work of
Trauma, edited by Daniela Agostinho, 195–210. Berlin, Boston: Walter de Gruyter.
Von Scheve, Christian, and Sven Ismer. 2013.“Towards a Theory of Collective Emotions.”
Emotion Review 5: 406–413.
Wortley, John. 2005.“The Spirit of Rivalry in Early Christian Monachism.”Greek, Roman and
Byzantine Studies 33/4: 383–404.
RELIGION 23