Call and response: An anatomy of religious practice

Abstract

Since Durkheim, the importance of collective rituals in creating meaningful religious experience has been recognized. This article argues that to understand the outcomes of collective rituals, researchers should first understand the structure and dynamics of the rituals themselves. This article details the interactional practices of ‘call and response’ using conversation analysis (CA) to analyze video data gathered from Bible study meetings. Four fundamental responsive practices are identified: ‘continuing’, ‘agreeing’, ‘assessing’, and ‘confirming’. It is argued that these practices are resources through which religious doctrine is made relevant in the interpretation of personal experience, in a process that is both public and collective. Simultaneously, these practices are a mechanism through which religious faith is publicly proclaimed and validated. These practices thus form a fundamental link between religious culture and personal experience within a context of shared religious understandings.