Off-road religion? A narrative approach to fundamentalist and occult orientations of adolescents

Results of qualitative biographical research on Christian fundamentalist co nverts and de converts, and on occultist adolescents are presented and docu mented using case studies. Research focused on life themes and on biographi cal processes and transformations. Contrastive comparison of the cases resu lted in typologies of Christian fundamentalist biographies and of "ways of dis-enchantment". These indicate that obligation to a tradition is no longe r the model for religious socialization. Its competitors are biographical t rajectories which can have the following characteristics: heresy is taken f or granted, religious search is like an open life-style preference (accumul ative heretic); ritual coping with life themes is predominant; and religiou s search follows the motive of sensation seeking. A typology of religious s tyles is applied as an interpretive framework for (a) explaining the format ion of fundamentalist orientations and (b) understanding development and tr ansformation in religious biographies. (C) 1999 The Association for Profess ionals in Services for Adolescents.