Naberman. 5528097. Listening to My Own Feelings: Emotions in Representations of Leaving Religion in the Dutch Context.

Abstract

This thesis contributes to the scholarly inquire of religion by investigating the lived afterlife of religion through combining two young and promising fields: religious emotion and leaving religion. It argues that one cannot understand leaving religion without taking the emotional dimension into account. This thesis proposes such a study by investigating the “emotional scripts” that are presented in representations of leaving religion in the Dutch context. With “emotional scripts” the author highlights the mediation and structure of emotion as presented in narratives of leaving religion. It investigates three case studies that range from the 1960s to the present-day context: the literary works of Jan Wolkers and Maarten ‘t Hart (1960s and 1970s), the TV-series Vrijdenkers (2021), and the blogosphere Dogmavrij.nl (2015—present) and its audience. It argues that the emotional scripts that are presented by Wolkers and ‘t Hart have a lasting influence on Dutch understandings of leaving religion, but that the present-day representations indicate a fundamental change in the emotions of leaving religion. Whereas Wolkers and ‘t Hart presented an emotional script that confronts the negative religious past in order for a blessed secular state to arrive, the present-day representations present an emotional script that confronts the self. The author argues that this shift towards the self is related to the rise of the ideal of authenticity and the therapeutic narrative that both proclaim an ideal notion of selfhood as becoming one’s true self