Paper short abstract:

A discourse analysis and cognitive semantic study how the visionary-based angel-image was changed by the later introduced notion of energy - in a Charismatic Christian group that re-enacts the Age of Apostles. I analyse the meaning-layers in this syncretic form of Christian and New Age spirituality.

Paper long abstract:

I conduct anthropological fieldwork in a Charismatic Christian movement since 2010. It re-enacts the Age of Apostles. This fundamentalist group (the Lights) was established by a folk prophet in 2008. It has members from Romania, Serbia, Hungary, and Slovakia. The vocabulary meaning of 'angel' cannot cover the particular (vernacular) meanings and its changes. I analyse the transformation of the angel notion with the method of discourse analysis and cognitive semantics.

It is a long process to become a Light (a core member, filled with the Holy Spirit). Newcomers encounter "threshold-narratives" (gradually dosed elements of the group's special common knowledge) that filter the outsiders and edify those who enter the inner sphere. The angel-image is one of these threshold-narratives. The prophet had many visionary journeys to Heaven and Hell, so he has a sturdy concept of the "real shape" of the angels: a rectangular form. Those who acquire these narratives change their cognition of transcendent reality.

The concept of energy was introduced by some members who were also engaged with esoteric spirituality: Reiki, yoga and energy healing, in 2010-2011. This caused a definite modification in the group's angel-image. It was not a simple meaning-exchange, but an over-structuring of the semantic frame. Some of the former meanings became passive knowledge, others remained as secondary meaning levels which could be called forth in a given situation. Cognitive reality is not consistent: cognition of concrete / abstract / metaphoric or metonymic meanings do not form a coherent doctrinal system, but a semi-systematized structure of separate meaning-layers.