Evangelical Yoga: Cultural Appropriation and Translation in American Religions

In this interview, we discuss yoga as a new American phenomenon and the way that some evangelical Christians practice it. Brown provides a historic overview of bodily–religious practices in America, starting with mesmerism, occultism, osteopathy, and chiropractic in the nineteenth century. These practices challenged the standard "heroic" model of medicine: Instead of the patient experiencing torturous medical treatments, a practitioner simply realigns the patient's body or does a quick procedure. Such bodily practices blurred, in some cases, with Pentecostal and Holiness Christians' use of prayer as a medical treatment.