ANTHR 2436 - Anthropology of Christianity

@ (CA-AS)

Fall. 3 credits.

C. Garces.

This seminar will interrogate foundational and experimental works in the anthropology of Christianity, drawing on ethnography, history, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and film. Our course readings will move from a survey of late-antique Christian ritual and ascetic practices, to the emergence of church-state dynamics and contemporary political theologies. Students will learn to problematize Christian ethics in colonial and post-colonial encounters, and will familiarize themselves with the rhetoric of conversion, sacrifice and personhood. Among other topics to be explored in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox contexts, we will analyze charisma, grace, the soul, saintliness, universalization, redemption, secularity, and the close relationship between religious discourse and power.