Called to God: Event, Narration and Subject Formation in the Vocation of a Catholic Nun

IF 0.7 0 RELIGION

Critical Research on Religion Pub Date : 2022-12-26 DOI:10.1177/20503032221148471

Anu K Antony, R. Robinson

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

The literature emphasizes institutional formation in the process of a young woman becoming a nun or sees her motivations as stemming from expectations of social and economic mobility. This article focuses on the nun’s call as event (Badiou 2001; Humphrey 2008), revealing its truth to the subject and reconstituting her by her fidelity to it. However, its validation and realization are only accomplished within the structured formation and discipline of congregational life. Through an ethnographic analysis of the lives of nuns in two indigenous Catholic convents in Kerala, South India, the article shows that they often have to struggle against their families to embrace their call. The congregation endorses the authenticity of a young woman’s call while requiring its constant reexamination through prayer and meditation. Thus, a nun’s call is encoded in formulaic structures through institutional formation, but its sensory and imaginary experiences are uniquely hers. Analytically distinguishing the calling event from the narrated event, the article integrates a Foucauldian understanding of disciplinary practices with Alain Badiou’s idea of the singular event for a grounded ethnographic grasp of the subject formation of a nun within her calling.

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向上帝呼唤：一位天主教修女宣誓中的事件、叙述与主体构成

文献强调了年轻女性成为修女过程中的制度形成，或者认为她的动机源于对社会和经济流动性的期望。这篇文章聚焦于修女的召唤作为事件（Badiou 2001；Humphrey 2008），向主体揭示了它的真相，并通过她对它的忠诚来重建她。然而，它的验证和实现只有在会众生活的结构化形成和纪律中才能完成。通过对南印度喀拉拉邦两个土著天主教修道院修女生活的民族志分析，文章表明，她们经常不得不与家人抗争才能接受自己的召唤。会众认可一位年轻女性的呼吁的真实性，同时要求通过祈祷和冥想不断重新审视。因此，修女的呼唤通过制度的形成被编码在公式化的结构中，但它的感官和想象体验是她独有的。文章通过分析区分召唤事件和叙述事件，将傅科式的纪律实践理解与阿兰·巴迪乌的单一事件思想相结合，对修女在召唤中的主体构成进行了有根据的民族志把握。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Critical Research on Religion RELIGION-

CiteScore

1.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Critical Research on Religion is a peer-reviewed, international journal focusing on the development of a critical theoretical framework and its application to research on religion. It provides a common venue for those engaging in critical analysis in theology and religious studies, as well as for those who critically study religion in the other social sciences and humanities such as philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, and literature. A critical approach examines religious phenomena according to both their positive and negative impacts. It draws on methods including but not restricted to the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, Marxism, post-structuralism, feminism, psychoanalysis, ideological criticism, post-colonialism, ecocriticism, and queer studies. The journal seeks to enhance an understanding of how religious institutions and religious thought may simultaneously serve as a source of domination and progressive social change. It attempts to understand the role of religion within social and political conflicts. These conflicts are often based on differences of race, class, ethnicity, region, gender, and sexual orientation – all of which are shaped by social, political, and economic inequity. The journal encourages submissions of theoretically guided articles on current issues as well as those with historical interest using a wide range of methodologies including qualitative, quantitative, and archival. It publishes articles, review essays, book reviews, thematic issues, symposia, and interviews.