The Micro-sociology of Interaction Rituals within Megachurches

Abstract

We describe the paradigm of micro-sociology using Randall Collins’s work on interaction ritual chains to understand how emotional energy is produced in megachurches. We argue that individuals are motivated to participate in megachurches through a process of interaction ritual chains that produce and evoke deep desires satisfied through emotional energy, which attracts and keeps so many coming to megachurches. We describe Collins’s ingredients for successful rituals (co-presence, a shared mood, a mutual focus of attention, and barriers to outsiders) and how megachurches meet or transform these ingredients for their purposes. As we narrate Collins’s interactive ritual structure, we briefly outline the ways in which the six desires, described in Chapter 3, are met in a cyclical manner within megachurches. We show how they are evoked and addressed in overlapping and synchronic ways, which reinforces the power of the collective effervescence of these churches.