Radical Habits of the Heart: Emotions, Embodiment and Strong, Individual Commitment in Ancient Radical Religion

More than two decades of intense radical religion research since 9/11 has brought attention to radicalisation, violence, and radical beliefs, and a strong emphasis on Islam in the contemporary era. Yet, radical religion is as burning an issue for societies today as ever, and individuals persist in staying committed.

Strong, individual commitment shapes any form of radical religion, but it is rarely studied empirically, let alone historically.

RADHEART ambitiously proposes to analyse how strong individual commitment is expressed and cultivated in ancient forms of Judaism and Christianity.

Strong, religious commitment is approached as radical habits of the heart, i.e. emic models of the self’s felt experience of strong commitment.

With an innovative theoretical framework that combines the aesthetics of religion and experience-oriented anthropology, RADHEART focuses on how an emotionally intense, strong religious commitment is expressed in and cultivated by ancient media.

RADHEART offers high-gain insights by 1) comparing radical habits of the heart across the two ancient religions that were most seminal for later formations, 2) reframing the study of radical ancient religion by tackling the pervasive vocabulary of interior organs and the body in ancient poetry and narratives about strong commitment, and 3) instead of focusing on beliefs, terms, and conceptual reflections, RADHEART scrutinises the roles of the embodied self and emotionality in radical religion.

Research has focused on the collective character of ancient religions, disregarding the crucial role of individual strong commitment and it has seen ancient emotions as lacking in affectivity.

RADHEART breaks with these trends and enquires into strong, individual religious commitment in two media forms: poetry and narrative.

RADHEART asks how they express and model strong commitment and how they affect their audiences across the axes of textuality, mediality, and practice.