New Books Network Laurie Denyer Willis, "Go with God: Political Exhaustion and Evangelical Possibility in Suburban Brazil" (U California Press, 2023)
Jul 11, 2025
Laurie Denyer Willis, Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, discusses her book, which explores the intersection of Evangelical faith and political engagement in suburban Brazil. She highlights the rise of evangelical movements amid political fatigue and state violence in Rio de Janeiro. The conversation reveals how women in intimate religious spaces foster resilience and community. Denyer Willis also shares insights on ethnography, personal narratives, and how motherhood influences research on spirituality and societal inequality.
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From Pacification to Evangelicalism
- Laurie Denyer Willis went to study pacification in Rio but was redirected by locals to focus on evangelicalism.
- This shift revealed deeper state-community relationships shaped by violence and faith.
Politics of Salvation Concept
- Evangelicalism offers a politics of salvation, not just political demands, by providing intimate, hopeful futures.
- It replaces exhausting political activism with embodied spiritual acts that carry deep political meaning.
Ethnography as Self-Making
- Writing ethnography is a form of self-making and radical openness to new ways of knowing.
- Laurie wanted to honor interlocutors' feelings honestly against common derision of evangelical belief.
