conversion and communitas

Conversion and CommunitasAuthor(s): William M. ClementsSource: Western Folklore, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 35-45Published by: Western States Folklore SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1499151 .Accessed: 24/10/2014 07:21

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Conversion and Communitas WILLIAM M. CLEMENTS

American folk Christians, whose beliefs and practices flourish "apart from and alongside the strictly theological and liturgical forms of official religion,"' divide the population of the world into two categories. On one hand there are sinnerfolk, all persons who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior; on the other there are Christians. The factor which distinguishes individuals in one group from those in the other is a ritual experience; for Chris- tians are defined as those believers who have gone through a crisis conversion. When accompanied by formalized behavior, the tran- sition from sinner (a secular state) to Christian (a sacred state) is a classic instance of the rite de passage phenomenon characterized by Arnold van Gennep.2 For most folk Christians, the crisis conversion is the only major rite de passage of their religious lives; but one sizable faction, the Pentecostals, believe that there are other transforming rituals of spiritual value. The baptism of the Holy Ghost, the most striking of these, is an emotion-charged experience usually accompanied by glossolalia which initiates the average believer into an elite group of spiritually endowed Christians. As the crisis conversion and, to a lesser degree, the baptism of the Holy Ghost are basic features of the behavior systems of many American folk Christians, an understanding of these rituals is essential for comprehension of a major force in American folk culture. The purpose of this paper is to describe the rituals as they exist among white folk Christians-primarily Baptists and Pentecostals-in northeastern Arkansas and then to suggest that one source of the rituals lies in matters relating to social structure and its antithesis, what anthropologist Victor Turner calls "communitas."3

1. Don Yoder, "Toward a Definition of Folk Religion," Western Folklore 33 (1974): 14. This is one of five definitions that Yoder suggests as, possible for folk religion.

2. Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, trans. Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee (Chicago, 1960).

3. Victor W. Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago, 1969).

[35]


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The crisis conversion is the experience by which an individual becomes a member of a sacred group of Christian believers. Through the grace of God he accepts the fact that he is inherently sinful and recognizes that salvation from sin and its consequences is effected by dedication to Jesus Christ. The contention that this experience should be thought of as ritual hinges on the assumption that some sort of patterned or formalized behavior is operative. Basing my conclusions upon published conversion accounts, oral narratives, and personal observation of conversion experiences, I believe that the crisis conversion is characterized by patterned behavior with symbolic dimensions relevant to the ritual's social functions. This behavior primarily consists of vocalization and secondarily of physical movement and visionary trance.

The type of vocalization usually associated with all kinds of religious emotionalism is "shouting," a term which apparently refers to almost any vociferous outcry, intelligible or otherwise. Since shouting is quite closely connected with religious enthusiasm, it has sometimes been regarded as a sure sign of a crisis conversion. For example, during an interview concerning the history of a camp meeting in Sharp County, Arkansas, I asked the elderly informant if the meeting had been the scene of many conversions. He replied simply, "Yes, we had shouting all over the grounds."4 Accounts of camp meetings and protracted meetings from the nineteenth century often describe the cries of new converts. A good illustration is encouched in a couplet from a doggerel versifier whose rhymes were meant to derogate the emotionalism of camp meeting Protestants: "Or when their souls are rais'd to heav'n / A shout by all, at once is given."5 In most contemporary crisis conversions which I have observed, however, the tendency to shout represents ideal, not real behavior. Instead, vocalization manifests itself in sobbing and in choked whispers of "Thank you, Jesus." Whether male or female, old or young, all subjects whose conversions I have witnessed sobbed audibly throughout their experiences and evinced no em-

4. Interview with Church of the Nazarene layman in Calamine, Arkansas, on 12 October 1971.

5. A Camp Meeting Review, Containg [sic] the Proceedings of a Camp Meeting, and a Confutation of the Arguments Which Are Produced in Favor of the Same: Also Showing That They Are Not for the Good of Society, Written by a Visiter [sic] to One of the Meetings. Also Poems on Other Subjects (n. p., 1824), 18. A copy of this pamphlet is in the rare books collection at the University of Texas library in Austin.


CONVERSION AND COMMUNITAS 37

barrassment regarding their emotionalism. Their sobbing was shared by those seasoned Christians who helped them "pray through" to spiritual rebirth. On the basis of my observation of sobbing and other observers' descriptions of shouting, it is tempt- ing to suggest that some sort of emotion-charged vocalization always characterizes a crisis conversion.

The physical movement associated with religious emotionalism in general, and the crisis conversion in particular, has been called the "jerks," a series of spasms which often possesses sufficient force to prostrate the subject. Visitors to nineteenth-century religious exercises, especially on the American frontier, often came away shocked at the spectacle of converts writhing on the floors of tents and churches. For example, Frances Trollope, who attempted an unsuccessful commercial venture in Cincinnati in the 1830s, at- tended a camp meeting where the women "threw about their limbs with such incessant and violent motion, that [she] ... was [at] every instant expecting some serious accident to occur."6 Psychologist Frederick Morgan Davenport wrote of an individual who clutched a tree to steady himself during a crisis conversion but "was whirled round and round until the bark of the sapling peeled off in his grasp."' Writing from a different perspective, Methodist circuit rider Peter Cartwright recalled a sinner who refused to yield during a conversion experience and suffered a broken neck as a con- sequence of the fearful jerking.8s Among contemporary folk Chris- tians in northeastern Arkansas, I have never observed the jerks as a part of crisis conversion, but some sort of minimally patterned movement often accompanies the ritual. Most often this consists of clapping the hands or of raising and waving them above the head. This movement begins at a slow, rhythmic pace and gradually becomes faster and more frenetic as the climax of the experience approaches. That climax frequently occurs as the subject sweeps his arms dramatically heavenward and emits a particularly loud sob.

A visionary trance is virtually impossible to document on the basis of ethnographic observation. Occasionally I have seen a sub-

6. Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans, ed., Donald Smalley (New York, 1949), 172.

7. Frederick Morgan Davenport, Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals: A Study in Mental and Social Evolution (New York, 1905), 226.

8. Peter Cartwright, Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, ed., Charles L. Wallis (New York, 1956), 46.


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ject, usually a young girl, faint, but I hesitate to label this an in- tegral part of the ritual experience. Yet trances and visions are sometimes considered part of a crisis conversion, and printed accounts of conversions sometimes emphasize these phenomena. For example, Cartwright claimed, "Divine light flashed all around me"9 at his conversion. One of psychologist-philosopher William James's subjects recounted hearing a voice during his experience which urged, "Venture on the atonement, for you will die anyway if you don't."'0 Southwestern humorist Johnson Jones Hooper effectively burlesqued conversion visions when he had Captain Simon Suggs tell a camp meeting congregation of seeing an alligator during his crisis conversion."

Ideally the ritual of crisis conversion is experienced only once in each individual's life and thus operates as the threshold for mem- bership in the Christian community and perhaps for further en- counters with religious emotionalism. However, exceptions to this ideal may occur. If a folk Christian fails to conform to the code of behavior required of a Christian-if he "goes back into sin" or backslides-his status as a group member is jeopardized. For instance, if a folk Christian is caught drinking, he is liable to censure. If he is a Baptist, committing such a sin-especially when done re- peatedly-may be evidence that his crisis conversion was not valid and he, in fact, has never really been a true Christian. In order to become a Christian reintegrated into the group he must undergo another crisis conversion, which all hope will this time prove to be a legitimate mystical experience. A Pentecostal caught sinning would also need to go through some sort of reintegrating experience. While Pentecostals recognize that an individual who has had a valid crisis conversion can "fall from grace" into sin, they believe that that individual must have some kind of new experience anal- ogous to the original ritual in order to restore a right relationship with God.

To summarize this point, I contend that the crisis conversion,

9. Cartwright, 38. 10. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human

Nature, Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902 (New York, 1929), 245.

11. Johnson Jones Hooper, Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs, Late of the Talla- poosa Volunteers, ed., Manly Wade Wellman (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1969), 111-126.



usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience, should be viewed as ritual. Its function is primarily integrative, but interestingly many subjects themselves emphasize that it often occurs when they are struggling to resist religious involvement-for instance; when spitefully wearing a short skirt and make-up to a religious exercise or nourishing a grudge against some enemy. The symbolically relevant ritual behavior consists of standardized vocalization (shouting, sobbing), conventionalized movement (the jerks, hand clapping), and visions. It should be noted, of course, that these kinds of behavior may characterize religious emotionalism outside the boundaries of this ritual, but the crisis conversion usually marks the first occurrence of such behavior in a religious context for the individual. Before suggesting the symbolic value of crisis conversion behavior, the other major rite de passage of American folk Christians must be described.

While the crisis conversion is the most important initiatory ritual in the lives of folk Christians, those who belong to a loosely bound aggregation of groups designated as Pentecostal believe that subsequent rites de passage, if not requisite, are certainly recom- mended. Chief among these rituals, and the one which gives Pente- costals their name, is the baptism of the Holy Ghost-also called "Spirit-baptism," "receiving the Holy Ghost," and the "infilling of the Holy Ghost"-which occurs, according to the theology of most Pentecostals, sometime after the subject has successfully en- tered the Christian community through a crisis conversion. Draw- ing upon the apostles' experience on the day of Pentecost for their precedent, Pentecostals assert that a Christian who has achieved the proper spiritual state will receive some sign that the Holy Ghost has begun to use him as a medium for divine activity. The sign of the baptism of the Holy Ghost is almost always glossolalia. This tongue-speaking behavior is to be regarded as an external indicator that a particular inner condition, the presence of the Holy Ghost in one's life, has been attained. After this experience, the subject may become a vehicle through whom the Holy Ghost's power periodically operates. This power is made manifest in the nine "gifts" of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophe- cy, discernment (the ability to distinguish between spirits), speaking in tongues, and the interpretation of glossolalic utterances.

A consideration of ritual behavior during Spirit-baptism reveals


40 WESTERN FOLKLORE

that vocalization is obviously the prominent feature. Although in- formants insisted that speaking in tongues was not essential to the experience, they could provide no illustrations of baptisms of the Holy Ghost without glossolalia. When speaking in tongues occurs, it is usually a relatively stylized utterance whose meaning is unknown to the speaker. Changes in pitch, tempo, and timbre seem to reflect affective developments in the subject as the experience approaches its climax.12 In a manner similar to the crisis conversion, the behavior during the baptism of the Holy Ghost may also involve clapping and waving of hands and sometimes a trance.

The baptism of the Holy Ghost should be regarded as a gateway to a completely new kind of religious career during which the subject serves as an enduring medium for the Holy Ghost's operations. The continued presence of the Holy Ghost is demonstrated by evidence whose frequency of occurrence varies from daily to every few months. One such evidence is recurrent glossolalia. Speaking in tongues on a relatively regular basis helps a believer to maintain his spiritual fervor, allows him an exclusive channel of communi- cation with God when the unknown language is heavenly rather than earthly, and permits the Holy Ghost to make prayer requests which the intellect of the subject may not recognize as necessary. Nevertheless, glossolalia at the moment of Spirit-baptism is not regarded by Pentecostals as the only external evidence that the Holy Ghost is active in a mature Christian's life.

Another evidence of the presence of the Holy Ghost is the power to heal physical ailments. In this situation the Holy Ghost uses the Spirit-filled believer for the channeling of healing power to the sick and injured. Resulting cures may be gradual or miraculously instantaneous. Together with the seven other divine activities men- tioned above, tongue-speaking and healing constitute spiritual gifts available only to those who have been baptized of the Holy Ghost.

As ritual, the baptism of the Holy Ghost is quite similar to the crisis conversion. It overtly functions integratively to initiate Chris- tians into an elite group of spiritually endowed believers, but may operate latently in other ways as suggested below. Yet the baptism of the Holy Ghost occurs only when a believer is receptive, and it often must be assiduously sought. The behavior usually character-

12. Felicitas D. Goodman, Speaking in Tongues: A Cross-Cultural Study of Glos- solalia (Chicago, 1972).



istic of this ritual is vocalization (glossolalia), but some sort of movement and trance may occur as well. An additional similarity between these major rites de passage of American folk Christians lies in their symbolism and sociological sources.

In a recently published analysis of ritual behavior, Victor Turner has emphasized the significance of what van Gennep calls the "liminal" stage in a rite de passage. This is the period of actual transi- tion, after the subject has shed his former secular status, but before he has become a member of the sacred group into which he is pass- ing. Liminality is thus a condition without socially defined identity. As Turner puts it, "Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial."'3 As a nonsocial being, the liminal subject generally behaves in ways not in accordance with his usual manner; in fact, he may violate some of his society's implicit and explicit proscriptions. Turner argues that while a subject experiences liminality, he comes into contact with a model for "human interrelatedness" which stands in antithetical juxtaposi- tion to social structure. This model is called "communitas." While society is usually modeled as a highly structured system of hier- archical categories characterized by politics, economics, or tradi- tion, communitas is unstructured or minimally structured as a community of equal individuals submitting only to the authority of the supernatural or its representatives.'4

Under most circumstances liminality is a fleeting experience, enduring only as long as the liminal stage of the rite de passage. Hence, one experiences what Turner calls "existential communitas," and the behavior and ceremonial apparatus during the ritual symbolize the subject's nonsocial position. However, the contact with communitas may be appealing, especially for those who rank low in the hierarchy of social structure. Therefore, attempts may be made to establish a normative communitas which persists over a length of time. This communitas must ultimately revert to social structure however, as the need for organization develops.'5 It is my contention that the crisis conversion involves the subject in existential communitas. According to the ideals of Christianity,

13. Turner, 95. 14. Turner, 96-97. 15. Turner, 132.


42 WESTERN FOLKLORE

communitas is preferable to structure, so after completing his rite de passage, the subject tries to participate in a normative communitas with his fellow folk Christians. Since normative communitas is innately doomed to reversion to structure, the folk Christian may make an effort, as communitas slips from him, to recapture his original experience of this unstructured state. Thus, Pentecostals suggest the need for additional rites de passage during which contact is again made with existential communitas. In other words, Pente- costal folk Christians seem to rejuvenate the slipping normative communitas of their religious involvement by periodically return- ing to existential communitas, first during the baptism of the Holy Ghost and later during the continued operation of the Holy Ghost in their lives through the nine spiritual gifts. Folk Christians of other theological bent, such as Baptists, may rejuvenate communitas by means of generalized religious emotionalism outside the para- meters of ritual. The presence of ritualized existential communitas subsequent to the crisis conversion among Pentecostals may re- inforce the notion that members of Pentecostal groups are less like- ly to find satisfaction in their social identities than Baptists and thus turn to communitas for compensation.16

The argument that crisis conversion involves the subject in existential communitas gains support from the testimony of in- formants and from observed behavior. Behavior during the crisis conversion ritual symbolizes opposition to social structure, for ritual subjects are stripped of their social identities as mature, decorous adults and act in ways that are socially unacceptable in normal circumstances. Persons doubly violate the conventions of society through symbolic behavior during crisis conversions. First, they act in fashions that are at least implicitly taboo. For example, the overt emotionalism that always accompanies a crisis conversion contradicts the typical proscription on public displays of emotion in most American social situations. Especially relevant is the spectacle of grown men sobbing in a most "unmanly" manner. Another socially censured aspect of conversion behavior is the loud vocal-

16. Sociojournalist Vance Packard has intimated in his chapter title "The Long Road from Pentecostal to Episcopal" that Pentacostals are regarded as low in social status both esoterically and exoterically. See The Status Seekers: An Exploration of Class Behavior in America and the Hidden Barriers That Affect You, Your Com- munity, Your Future (New York, 1959), 194-206.



ization and violent movement. Decorum is violated, and the un- involved observer may be scandalized by trespasses against the be- havioral norms of structured society. Second, conversion subjects break through the boundaries of their particular roles in social structure. As one informant said, "When you get at the foot of the cross, the ground's level, you know, whether you're rich or poor. And so-well, you know-person's standing in life won't affect him."17 The idea that many claim to have been converted at mo- ments of resistance suggests that the social roles of the subjects are perceived as being directly challenged by the experience. In other words, this ritual of existential communitas sometimes affects individuals who are doing their utmost to maintain an identity in social structure apart from the Christian community. For example, a young woman told me that she had been converted during a religious service at which she had shown her lack of interest in the proceedings by wearing her shortest skirt and heavy make-up.'s Her social role as coquette was thus pointedly confronted by the symbol-laden behavior of the ritual. Like other conversion subjects, she moved outside of social structure into the brotherly, nonsocial atmosphere of communitas.

After this brief contact with communitas, folk Christians become members of groups which offer at least token adherence to the preservation of a communitas-like state beyond ritual. The normative communitas which represents the ideal of American folk Chris- tians is symbolically served by the trait of egalitarianism, a basic feature of most Protestant polity which has been especially emphasized by groups at the folk level. The doctrine of the "priesthood of all believers" is taken quite literally by folk Christians. This is manifest in their addressing spiritual leaders by the egalitarian term "Brother" rather than the respectful "Father" or "Reverend." The use of this term of address extends to all their fellows, for in talking to or about coreligionists, folk Christians invariably append "Brother" or "Sister" to a proper name and eschew artificial, status- charged expressions like "Mr.," Mrs.," "Dr.," or "Professor." This sort of terminology is symptomatic of the desire for normative com-

17. Interview with Missionary Baptist minister in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on 21 June 1973.

18. Interview with Pentecostal woman in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on 24 July 1973.


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munitas and in some groups may be the only evidence that such a desire ever existed.

Communitas is an ideal state and always becomes corrupted by structural intrusions. Some groups like the Franciscans may at- tempt to prohibit these intrusions by institutionalizing communitas, but folk Christians generally have neither apparatus nor in- clination to erect great institutional edifices. Pentecostals must rely on new rituals during which existential communitas again replaces social structure. As with crisis conversion, Spirit-baptism and other subsequent operations of the Holy Ghost in a Christian's life involve the subject in two kinds of symbolically nonsocial behavior. Once again, intense and overt emotionalism, loud vocalization, and violent movement violate standards of social decorum. At the same time, when a subject speaks an unknown language or heals a physical ailment, he acts beyond the personal limitations which structured society has arranged for him. An uneducated subject who speaks or interprets a language unfamiliar to himself and others in his milieu goes beyond the bounds of his intellectual and experi- ential background. When a layman effects a miraculous cure, he has transcended his social position. Yet the act of glossolalia or faith healing does not result in a new social position for the subject, for it is really the Holy Ghost who is active. The subject who heals does not become a healer; he is the medium through whom the Holy Ghost operates the gift of healing. Next week this individual may prophesy and another may heal. Both will be behaving in ways not defined by social structure; they will be without social identity. This repeated involvement in existential communitas should ac- tually be regarded as a substitute for, not a rejuvenation of normative communitas. The Pentecostal does not live in perpetual communitas. Rather he finds this state attractive enough to merit his periodic return to it from the realm of social structure.19

The symbolic value of behavior characteristic of the rites de passage of American folk Christians reflects the nonsocial position of ritual subjects. Although the point must not be pressed too strongly, it is certainly true that many folk Christians are poor, un-

19. An application of Turner's concept of communitas to the whole congregation at certain American religious exercises has been proposed by Dickson D. Bruce, Jr., And They All Sang Hallelujah: Plain-Folk Camp-Meeting Religion, 1800-1845 (Knox- ville, Tennessee, 1974).



educated, and without social prestige. Hence, it might be argued that these rituals which obviously integrate individuals into the sacred community of Christianity also function in a compensatory manner. Individuals who may not be receiving complete satisfaction through their existence in social structure receive the oppor- tunity in ritual to discover a replacement for structure where their lack of social commodities is irrelevant.

Arkansas State University State University, Arkansas


Article Contentsp. 35p. 36p. 37p. 38p. 39p. 40p. 41p. 42p. 43p. 44p. 45

Issue Table of ContentsWestern Folklore, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 1-90Front Matter [pp. 34-34]Editorial Statement [pp. 1-2]Concepts of the Past in Folkloristics [pp. 3-22]The Implied Obeah Man [pp. 23-33]Conversion and Communitas [pp. 35-45]Robert Gordon Sproul, 1891-1975 [pp. 46]Topics &CommentsFolk Themes on the Carillon [pp. 47-52]Kennedy in Camelot: The Arthurian Legend in America [pp. 52-59]Cokelore [pp. 59-65]The Place of Folklore and Folkloristics in California Community Colleges [pp. 65-71]

Notes &QueriesThe Chicago Folklore Prize [pp. 72]The San Francisco Museum of Art [pp. 72-73]Minority Studies Conference [pp. 73]Earthquake Erotica: Some Bawdy Lore from the Los Angeles Catastrophe of 1971 [pp. 73-74]The Abortionist's Advertisement [pp. 74]The Electronic Pocket Calculator: Joke 1 [pp. 75]

Book ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 76-78]Review: untitled [pp. 79-80]Review: untitled [pp. 80-82]Review: untitled [pp. 82-83]Review: untitled [pp. 83-85]

Film ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 86-87]Review: untitled [pp. 87-89]Review: untitled [pp. 89-90]

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conversion and communitas

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