Religious Narratives in Life-History Research

Abstract

In this article we attempt to clarify the methodological basis of sociological analysis of the phenomena of religious experience through the prism of phenomenological perspective. The author describes conceptual frameworks for understanding personal religious experience in terms of narrative, narrative identity, and life history. The author suggests that the nature of religious experience devoid of universal character and closely related with specific features of categorization and interpretation of reality in each of the religious traditions. The paper argues that a particular religious tradition or a clearly defined religious community use the common narrative patterns. These common narrative patterns describe and prescribe certain models and rules of community inclusion. That is why the researcher’s task is the search of such «official» narrative models and patterns of argumentation in religious narrative.