Handbook of Leaving Religion <UN> Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion Series Editors Carole M. Cusack (University of Sydney) Benjamin E. Zeller (Lake Forest College, USA) Editorial Board Olav Hammer (University of Southern Denmark) Charlotte Hardman (University of Durham) Titus Hjelm (University College London) Adam Possamai (University of Western Sydney) Inken Prohl (University of Heidelberg) volume 18 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bhcr <UN> Handbook of Leaving Religion Edited by Daniel Enstedt Göran Larsson Teemu T. Mantsinen leiden | boston <UN> This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. More information about the initiative can be found at www .knowledgeunlatched.org. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019038016 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1874-6691 ISBN 978-90-04-33092-4 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-33147-1 (e-book) Copyright 2020 by the Authors. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. <UN> Contents Notes on Contributors VIII 1 Leaving Religion: Introducing the Field 1 Daniel Enstedt, Göran Larsson and Teemu T. Mantsinen Part 1 Historical and Major Debates 2 Leaving Hinduism 13 Clemens Cavallin 3 Leaving Buddhism 28 Monica Lindberg Falk 4 Leaving Religion in Antiquity 43 Jörgen Magnusson 5 Leaving Judaism 55 Lena Roos 6 Leaving Christianity 67 Teemu T. Mantsinen and Kati Tervo-Niemelä 7 Leaving Islam 81 Christine Schirrmacher Part 2 Case Studies 8 Leaving Hinduism: Deconversion as Liberation 99 Michael Stausberg 9 Leaving Theravāda Buddhism in Myanmar 116 Niklas Foxeus <UN> vi Contents 10 Leaving Vipassana Meditation 130 Masoumeh Rahmani 11 Leaving Orthodox Judaism 142 David Belfon 12 Leaving the Amish 154 David L. McConnell 13 Leaving Evangelicalism 164 Philip Salim Francis 14 Leaving Pentecostalism 175 Teemu T. Mantsinen 15 Leaving Roman Catholicism 186 Hugh Turpin 16 Leaving Mormonism 200 Amorette Hinderaker 17 Leaving Islam for Christianity: Asylum Seeker Converts 210 Nora Stene 18 Leaving Islam from a Queer Perspective 220 Erica Li Lundqvist 19 Leaving New Religions 231 Carole M. Cusack 20 Non-Religion and Atheism 242 Caleb Schaffner and Ryan T. Cragun Part 3 Theoretical and Methodological Approaches 21 Historical Approaches to Leaving Religion 255 Ryan Szpiech <UN> Contents vii 22 Geographical and Demographic Approaches to Leaving Religion 267 Lily Kong and Orlando Woods 23 Statistical Approaches to Leaving Religion 278 Isabella Kasselstrand 24 Sociological Approaches to Leaving Religion 292 Daniel Enstedt 25 Psychological Approaches to Leaving Religion 307 Kyle Messick and Miguel Farias 26 Narrative and Autobiographical Approaches to Leaving Religion 323 Peter G. Stromberg 27 Media and Communication Approaches to Leaving Religion 335 Teemu Taira Index 349 <UN> Notes on Contributors David Belfon is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion and the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies. His main area of scholarly interest is leavetaking from conservative religious groups, especially how narratives relate to identity change. His dissertation explores the mechan- ics of leavetaking among formerly-Orthodox Jews in Toronto, investigating how social and religious boundaries and the institutionalisation of religious identity facilitate individualised disaffiliation. Clemens Cavallin is Associate Professor in religious studies at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and has done research within Vedic religion, Ritual theory and Catho- lic studies. His latest book is a biography of the Canadian novelist and painter Michael O’Brien. Ryan T. Cragun is a professor of sociology at The University of Tampa. His research focuses on Mormonism and the nonreligious and has been published in various scholarly journals. He is also the author of several books. Carole M. Cusack is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. She trained as a medievalist and her doctorate was published as Conversion Among the Ger- manic Peoples (Cassell, 1998). She now researches primarily in contemporary religious trends and Western esotericism. Her books include (with Katharine Buljan) Anime, Religion and Spirituality: Profane and Sacred Worlds in Contem- porary Japan (Equinox, 2015), Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith (Ashgate, 2010), and The Sacred Tree: Ancient and Medieval Manifestations (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011). She has published widely in scholarly journals and edited volumes. Daniel Enstedt is an Associate Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His current areas of research are contemporary religion in West- ern Europe, the sociology and psychology of religion, and he has examined questions about sexuality and Christianity through fieldwork and interviews with Christian LGBTQ-people, and priests that take a critical stance towards same-sex unions, as well as questions concerning leaving Islam in present-day <UN> Notes on Contributors ix Sweden. Enstedt has co-edited the ARSR volume Religion and Internet (Brill 2015), and a volume about lived religion (in Swedish), Levd religion. Det heliga i vardagen (2018). Miguel Farias has been a Research Fellow and Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford and is the founding director of the Brain, Belief, & Be- haviour Lab at Coventry University. He works on the psychobiology of beliefs and rituals, including pilgrimage and meditation practices. In 2017 he won the William Bier award, given by the American Psychological Association, Division 36, for his work on the psychology of religion and spirituality. His most recent book project is the Oxford Handbook of Meditation. Niklas Foxeus is a research fellow at the Department of History of Religions, ERG, Stockholm University. He received his PhD from that department, with a dissertation en- titled “The Buddhist World Emperor’s Mission: Millenarian Buddhism in Post- colonial Burma” (2011). He is currently a Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities Research Fellow. His research examines varieties of Burmese Buddhism, including esoteric congregations, meditation, prosperity Buddhism, possession rituals, and Buddhist nationalism. Amorette Hinderaker (Ph.D., North Dakota State University) is an Associate Professor and the Convener of Debates at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Her research focuses on religious organisations and has been published in the Western Journal of Communication, Journal of Communication and Religion, Communication Studies, and Southern Journal of Communica- tion. She also directs and coaches the competitive TCU Speech and Debate Team. Philip Salim Francis PhD is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Maine Farmington and Director of Seguinland Institute. His recent book is called When Art Disrupts Religion: Aesthetic Experience and the Evangelical Mind (Oxford University Press). Isabella Kasselstrand is Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Bakersfield, where she teaches courses in quantitative analysis, sociology of religion, and secularity and nonreligion. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of <UN> x Notes on Contributors Edinburgh (2014). Using mixed methods, her research explores secularisation in Northern Europe and the United States. Lily Kong Professor Lily Kong's research focuses on social and cultural change in Asian cities, and has studied topics ranging from religion to cultural policy, creative economy, urban heritage and conservation, and smart cities. She has won re- search and book awards, including from the Association of American Geogra- phers and the Singapore National Book Development Council. Her latest book on religion, co-authored with Orlando Woods, is Religion and Space: Competi- tion, Conflict and Violence in the Contemporary World (2016). Göran Larsson is