Positioning in Discourse about Religious Belief and Practice in Superdiverse Contexts

Abstract

Religious beliefs and practices can and do shift depending on the context of the religious believer, and how they talk about those beliefs and practices may change depending on that context. This article focuses on how religious people position their religious beliefs and practices, and how the use and understanding of those religious positions can shift depending on contextual factors. It aims to present a method for analysing these shifts, using positioning theory and close discourse analysis. The conclusion argues that analysis of the dynamics of religious positioning has consequences for how religious belief is talked about and understood in contemporary society, how power is exercised in interaction about religion, and how people of different religious faiths and backgrounds come to understand one another and people of no faith in superdiverse settings.