“In All Things God Works”: Ambivalent Agency and Christian Labor in Turkish Religious Marketplaces

Abstract

This dissertation looks at how Protestant Christians in Turkey understand God to be “at work” in the world and their role in carrying out that work in the strategies and practices of growing and sustaining Christian community amid minority religious politics and global professionalized religious activities. I theorize “ambivalent agency” or the tension Christians experience when discerning God’s will and their role in it. I explore ambivalent agency in three areas: unity efforts among Christians, the transnational project of “Christian mission,” and responses to state power and political engagement. In unity efforts, the tension between divine activity through individuals and the collective “Body of Christ” produces both possibilities for inclusion and limitations. In missionary work - where I develop the concept of “mission labor” - ambivalent agency shapes unequal relationships between foreign and local workers. In responses to state power, it allows Protestants to engage politically while interpreting challenges as part of God’s plan. In each case, agentive ambivalence allows Christians to act with meaning and responsibility, while deferring final outcomes to God. I argue there is productive potential in this ambivalence, engendered from the paradoxes of their faith, as both an instrument of power and a source of humility, reflexivity, and hope.