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The Confession as Retrospective Narrative: A Genre for Ethnographically-Driven Theology

In: Ecclesial Practices
Author:
Todd Whitmore Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Concurrent Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, USA, Whitmore.1@nd.edu

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Online Publication Date:
03 Jun 2021
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Abstract

The fieldwork experience often manifests itself to the researcher as a tangled cluster of thoughts and feelings that is difficult to write into accessible prose. However, pre-set narratives reduce the subjects of the fieldwork to being mere exemplifications of arguments worked out in advance. This article offers the confession as a kind of retrospective narrative that at once renders the field experience accessible to the reader and maintains the three-dimensional fullness of the lives of the fieldwork subjects. The author draws on his work among persons with opioid use disorders to display the possibilities.

Title:
The Confession as Retrospective Narrative: A Genre for Ethnographically-Driven Theology
Article Type:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/22144471-bja10010
Language:
English
Pages:
73–88
Keywords:
opioid crisis; addiction; confession
In:
Ecclesial Practices
In:
Volume 8: Issue 1
Publisher:
Brill
E-ISSN:
2214-4471
Print ISSN:
2214-4463
Subjects:
Practical Theology, Theology and World Christianity

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