Sociology of Religious Emotions in Everyday Life (Case Study: Tehran University Students)

  A sociology of religious emotions in Iranian studies becomes important due to the fact that we are living in a religious society. Up until now, in the domain of sociology of religion, there has not been enough attention to the emotional dimension of religious experience. This research takes a sociological approach toward emotions, and especially, it aims to interpret religious emotions of two groups of university students.
Qualitative method has been used for this research through in-depth interviews with 12 members of Student Basij Organization and Nahad Rahbari in Tehran University. One of the notable concepts that can be applied to understand religious emotions is the term “emotional regime”, introduced by Linda Woodhead and Ole Riis (2010). Emotional regime emphasizes the dialectical relation among “individual”, “society” and “symbol”. From this relation, 12 processes can be produced with six processes representing a balanced model and six processes representing an unbalanced situation. When the model is balanced, it can be considered as a cycle entailing processes such as “consecration”, “subjectification”, “externalization” and “internalization”, “objectification”, “insignation”. In an unbalanced situation, the model contains processes such as“ultra- consecration”, “ultra-subjectification”, and “ultra-externalization”, “ultra-internalization”, ultra-objectification”, “ultra-insignation. This emotional regime model highlights the role of symbols in shaping religious emotions. Therefore, in this study researchers used this concept to interpret religious emotions of university students. We have applied a qualitative method to explore religious emotions. The research field is Tehran and research subjects include the active members of “Student Basij Organization and Nahad Rahbari”. The data was gathered using in-depth interviews. Theoretical sampling was applied to collect new cases. The process of sampling continued until reaching theoretical saturation, which occurred after the seventh case was interviewed but sampling continued up to 12th case. For analyzing the data, directed content analysis was used. The words of all respondents were interpreted and evaluated, and then all elements of the model were distinguished and represented.
Discussion of Results and The result of data analysis shows that the emotional regime of the studied students inclines towards ultra-subjectification. That is, a situation in which religious symbols are considered as something powerful (not a man-made object) with the potential to stimulate and rise religious emotions dramatically. Students experience severe religious emotions in relation to three different religious symbols, namely “animate”, “inanimate” and “semi-animate” symbols. For example, all respondents believed in the healing power of the Karbala soil and other objects and fabrics bounded to the shrine of the Imams. Although this model is very notable for interpreting religious emotions, it has some restrictions. This article tried to address some of these problems. For example, it should be noted that although by highlighting emotions as an integral part of social explanation, this model tries to give emotions their deserved role; it has a rather mechanical approach towards emotions. But having a closer look, it is clear that this model is rooted in Durkheimian and Parsonsian approaches that highlight the role of social structure for shaping emotions. In Woodhead and Riis’s model, the community imposes emotional structures on individuals through processes such as internalization and insignation. So we believe other approaches that start from a micro level are needed to complete this model