Dreaming faith into being: Indigenous Evangelicals and co-acted experiences of the divine

This article examines the role of socio-moral space in people’s experiences of divine presence. More specifically, it addresses the questions of how social others influence people’s experiences of God and Satan among the indigenous evangelical Yine people of Peruvian Amazonia, and the consequences t...

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Main Author: Minna Opas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Finnish Society for the Study of Religion 2016-12-01
Series:Temenos
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/60306
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author Minna Opas
author_facet Minna Opas
author_sort Minna Opas
collection DOAJ
description This article examines the role of socio-moral space in people’s experiences of divine presence. More specifically, it addresses the questions of how social others influence people’s experiences of God and Satan among the indigenous evangelical Yine people of Peruvian Amazonia, and the consequences these interactions have for the individual believer and the collectivity. For the Yine dreams are a privileged site of human encounter with other-than-human beings, and they also feature centrally in their Christian lives. It is in dreams that they interact with angels and sometimes with the devil. By examining Yine evangelical dreams as mimetic points of encounter involving not only the dreamer but also transcendent beings and fellow believers as active agents, the article shows that Yine experiences of God’s presence cannot be conceptualised as an individual matter, but are highly dependent on the social other: they come to be as co-acted experiences of the divine.
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spelling doaj.art-2e17a418f3e84080aa58ff8bcc75ef8d2022-12-22T00:33:39ZengFinnish Society for the Study of ReligionTemenos2342-72562016-12-0152210.33356/temenos.60306Dreaming faith into being: Indigenous Evangelicals and co-acted experiences of the divineMinna OpasThis article examines the role of socio-moral space in people’s experiences of divine presence. More specifically, it addresses the questions of how social others influence people’s experiences of God and Satan among the indigenous evangelical Yine people of Peruvian Amazonia, and the consequences these interactions have for the individual believer and the collectivity. For the Yine dreams are a privileged site of human encounter with other-than-human beings, and they also feature centrally in their Christian lives. It is in dreams that they interact with angels and sometimes with the devil. By examining Yine evangelical dreams as mimetic points of encounter involving not only the dreamer but also transcendent beings and fellow believers as active agents, the article shows that Yine experiences of God’s presence cannot be conceptualised as an individual matter, but are highly dependent on the social other: they come to be as co-acted experiences of the divine.https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/60306Christianityevangelicalsdreamsmimesisco-acted experiencesYine
spellingShingle Minna Opas
Dreaming faith into being: Indigenous Evangelicals and co-acted experiences of the divine
Temenos
Christianity
evangelicals
dreams
mimesis
co-acted experiences
Yine
title Dreaming faith into being: Indigenous Evangelicals and co-acted experiences of the divine
title_full Dreaming faith into being: Indigenous Evangelicals and co-acted experiences of the divine
title_fullStr Dreaming faith into being: Indigenous Evangelicals and co-acted experiences of the divine
title_full_unstemmed Dreaming faith into being: Indigenous Evangelicals and co-acted experiences of the divine
title_short Dreaming faith into being: Indigenous Evangelicals and co-acted experiences of the divine
title_sort dreaming faith into being indigenous evangelicals and co acted experiences of the divine
topic Christianity
evangelicals
dreams
mimesis
co-acted experiences
Yine
url https://journal.fi/temenos/article/view/60306
work_keys_str_mv AT minnaopas dreamingfaithintobeingindigenousevangelicalsandcoactedexperiencesofthedivine