In Realness through Mediating Body: The Emergence of Charismatic/Pentecostal Communities in Beirut, Oleg Dik combines an ethnography of Charismatic and Pentecostal churches in Beirut with a wider useable theory of ritual, realness, and the body. Dik conducts fieldwork among five Charismatic and Pentecostal churches and groups in Beirut to understand the development of these movements in the Lebanese postwar context. Guiding his research is his definition of ritual as what the body does to mediate between the world of the practitioners (both as individuals and communal bodies) and the meta-narrative that they espouse—what is generally considered the most real. As Dik argues, examining ritual at the level of bodies and bodily action allows us to best understand the ways ritual reflects and changes the social structures and meta-narrative in which rituals are performed. Furthermore, focusing on bodily action prevents researchers from “redescription,” or imposing a separate meta-narrative on a ritual that disregards that embraced by the practitioners themselves. For Lebanese Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians, ritual is the bodily mediation between the world and the meta-narrative of the Bible and the work of the Holy Spirit. Dik thus contributes to what he asserts is the still understudied field of the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements in the Middle East.

Dik's ethnography is based on his participant observation of Charismatic/Pentecostal congregations—some independent and evangelical, some as movements within traditional churches—in Lebanon between 2008 and 2011. He includes a brief background of the introduction of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in Beirut in the 1950s and 1960s, which became more prevalent during the heavy wartime of the 1980s and the postwar recovery process since the 1990s. Dik postulates that the extreme disruption of social and economic life during Lebanon's civil war between 1975 and 1990, and the subsequent capitalist development after the war, created opportunities for Charismatic and Pentecostal congregations to grow in strength and number. Dik underscores how Charismatic/Pentecostal rituals are cathartic in light of these various social divides and pressures—the “extreme otherness” of these rituals, including shouting, dancing, and fainting, is a form of release as well as a sign of power in contrast with the powerlessness experienced in socioeconomic realms. Additionally, the community fostered among Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches served as a necessary alternative amid significant family breakdown, particularly in a society in which family is so important. While Dik notes how these developments have affected Lebanese Christians, he rejects the explanation of “deprivation theory” which reduces the adoption of new religious practices to material scarcity. He argues that by focusing on bodily action we can understand the social and material context as well as the meta-narrative of the Lebanese Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians themselves, which underscores the role of the Holy Spirit and divine agency.

Dik also discusses some of the challenges faced by these congregations. For instance, Dik explores the relationships between Charismatic and Pentecostal churches and the traditional churches which have a rich, lengthy, and powerful history in Lebanon. He identifies three main “modes of relation” between Charismatic/Pentecostal groups and traditional churches: Indifference/ignoring; competition/antagonism (in which traditional churches label Charismatic and Pentecostal movements as Western/foreign and disconnected from society, and Charismatic and Pentecostal churches deem traditional churches as “empty”); and attraction/mutual influence/cooperation (151). He also discusses some of the sociopolitical challenges that Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians face in the context of a divided city and religiously divided society; many still experience fear of and anger toward those in other religious groups, though in some cases they try to overcome this through outreaches to these communities. Dik also observed a general sense of disempowerment compared to the larger religious communities in the country, especially since the war. Furthermore, since Charismatic and Pentecostal churches emphasize the avoidance of politics and associate politics with immaturity or even idolatry, an ongoing challenge is to both change Lebanese society without directly engaging the politics pervasive among it.

Through this ethnographic work, Dik suggests a new theory of realness and ritual. He acknowledges a distinction between an immanent framework (which gives ultimate meaning to what can be observed and sensed) and transcendent framework (which gives ultimate meaning to divine agency and supernatural realities) of understanding reality and urges scholars to reconsider what he regards as this false dichotomy. Thus, his theory of ritual is designed to apply in both contexts. While the charismatic and Pentecostal Christians among whom Dik worked generally operate under a transcendent framework, Dik devotes some of his text to demonstrating how many of the assumptions and approaches of his own discipline and other social sciences are similar.

Like in many books, there are some weaknesses. The book is not immediately accessible; to read Dik's ethnography of the Lebanese Charismatic and Pentecostal churches one must also wade through at times lengthy discussion of philosophy of realness or philosophy of action (conversely, scholars primarily interested in theory of ritual or philosophy of realness must glean this through detailed narration of Lebanese charismatic/Pentecostal churches). Dik's discussion of the historical and political background of the Lebanese context is also simplistic and underdeveloped. A basic background of the history, society, and government of Lebanon (or even more robust footnotes on this) would have been helpful.

Yet this book has many strengths as well. Dik is refreshingly candid about his own position and the need to critique the approaches of his own discipline, and some of his narrative of his fieldwork is engagingly written. Furthermore, scholars interested in the Church (and particularly the Charismatic and Pentecostal church) in the Middle East, in Pentecostalism in general, and in the church in contexts of conflict and social upheaval will find Dik as a rich interlocutor and this work a useful point of comparison with other contexts. Finally, it is especially relevant for those researching the meaning and role of ritual, as Dik challenges the boundaries of this field.