If I Confess with My Mouth: Boundary Markers, Conversion Narratives and Autistic Belief Practices

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Williams, C. & Cundill, H. (2024). If I Confess with My Mouth: Boundary Markers, Conversion Narratives and Autistic Belief Practices. Religions, 15(12), 1554. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15121554

Publication date: 20 Dec 2024 Added to AutiHub: 5 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Claire Williams *
  2. Helena Cundill

Abstract

This article considers evangelical conversion and the practices that are associated with it. Evangelicals use the giving of oral testimony as a method of illustrating the change that occurs at conversion. This becomes, the authors argue, a boundary marker that cannot be bridged by autistic people who do not communicate using speech. Making use of Acts 15 as a hermeneutical tool to address the lived experience of people who have otherwise not been included, we argue that the example of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak is a model for proxemics as a declaration of faith. The evangelical belief in conversionism is maintained, but a non-speaking autistic person is able to demonstrate this in other ways, following the haemorrhaging woman’s example.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 28 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
37
With a DOI
13
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
24
3 / 37 (8.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
24 / 37 (64.9%)
References with detected author names
16 / 37 (43.2%)
Without detected author names
21
Without a structured title
24
Without a stable identifier
24
References with raw author names still to review
21
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
31
From DOI or external metadata
27
From validated raw bibliography text
4
Raw names already validated
4
Raw names still to review
22
13 / 31 (41.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 18 / 31 (58.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
4 / 31 (12.9%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 4 / 13 (30.8%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 4 / 30 (13.3%).
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