Journal of Contemporary Religion
Volume 33, Issue 1, 2018, Pages 53-69

‘Hijab envy’: the visible angst of immigrant Christians in a pluralist Canada (Article)

Macdonald A.*
  • a Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States

Abstract

This article explores the predilection of Christians of immigrant background to perceive themselves as a disadvantaged group in the new reality of Canada’s growing religious diversity. The present inquiry challenges loss as the definitive emotional register for Christian engagement with Canada’s new religious minorities, demonstrating that religious minorities have elicited begrudging admiration and envy from their Christian counterparts. This inquiry insists that contemporary Canada, not ‘Christian Canada’, is the most important frame for understanding the perceptions and predilections of the Christians in this study. It argues that pluralist ideals, the policy instruments, and social practices that carry these ideals and the cultural forums that display and debate these ideals shape not only the ‘attitudes’ of young Christians, but also the regimes of visibility in which and from which they operate. While scholars impute an increasing visibility to religion, this article demonstrates that the array of affects between viewer and viewed are highly variable and context specific. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Author Keywords

politics of religious visibility Muslim expressive repertoire Religious pluralism in Canada second-generation immigrant Christians

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85041122757&doi=10.1080%2f13537903.2018.1408277&partnerID=40&md5=e9679b826444ea09a0a411b27833c387

DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2018.1408277
ISSN: 13537903
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English