RELIGIOUS CONVERSION AS PUBLIC TESTIMONY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DEMOS SHAKARIAN ARCHIVAL TEXTS AND KAZAKHSTAN-BASED YOUTUBE NARRATIVES

Margulan  ALPYSBAY; Dinara  UTEBAYEVA; Saltanat  KOISHYBAYEVA

doi:10.32523/3080-1281-2026-155-2-152-165

Authors

Margulan ALPYSBAY Аl-Farabi Kazakh National University Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1988-3654
Dinara UTEBAYEVA Аl-Farabi Kazakh National University Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5371-9738
Saltanat KOISHYBAYEVA Ankara University Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32523/3080-1281-2026-155-2-152-165

Keywords:

religious conversion; religious testimony; conversion narrative; charismatic Christianity; Demos Shakarian; Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International; archival texts; Kazakhstan; YouTube testimonials; media space

Abstract

This article examines the testimonies of religious conversion based on two different media. The first is archival texts stored in the space of Demos Shakarian meetings and Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International, as part of the charismatic Christian movement of the XX century. The second is identity cards published in Kazakhstan on YouTube. It is not taken that these data fully describe the religious practice itself. Rather, the article focuses on how a person publicly interprets the change he has experienced, in what words he conveys it, and what meanings he relies on.

What is different about this study is that it analyzes the two corps as two separate environments that made it possible to testify, rather than simply comparing them by country or period. The author considers religious turning stories not only as a personal biography but also as a type of narrative aimed at a specific audience. This study shows what topics are most common in testimonies, what events are associated with the internal transformation of a person, and how religious language is built in each environment. The results of the study suggest that religious testimony always reflects not only personal experience but also the social, religious, and media space that created the conditions for the expression of this experience.

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