New Books in Sociology Laurie Denyer Willis, "Go with God: Political Exhaustion and Evangelical Possibility in Suburban Brazil" (U California Press, 2023)
Jul 11, 2025
Laurie Denyer Willis, a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, shares insights from her book on Evangelical faith in Rio's suburban communities. She discusses how political exhaustion reshapes local engagement and how faith offers a pathway to resilience in the face of state violence. The conversation weaves personal and community narratives, focusing on motherhood's role in fieldwork and the dynamics of empowerment among evangelical women, all amid Brazil's complex sociopolitical landscape.
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Shift from Policing to Evangelicalism
- Laurie Denyer Willis intended to research policing and pacification in Rio's favelas but shifted focus to evangelicalism as locals found politics less relevant.
- This shift led to years of ethnographic work centered on understanding evangelical faith's role in their community's life and future.
Politics of Salvation over Demands
- Evangelicalism offers a personal, intimate politics of salvation rather than collective political demands.
- It provides hope and community in daily life, contrasting with exhausting and risky protest movements under a violent, neglectful state.
Ethnography as Self-Making
- Writing ethnography can be a mode of self-making and radical openness, requiring us to embrace discomfort and shift perspectives.
- Laurie engaged deeply with evangelical communities despite prevalent dismissiveness toward their faith, aiming to convey their lived experience truthfully and politically.
