ANTHR 3408 - [Global Christianity and Politics]

(crosslisted) RELST 3408
(HB) (CA-AS)

Fall. Next offered 2017-2018. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

C. Garces.

This class will explore the intimate relationship between politics and Christianity in a variety of key global contexts, drawing on ethnography, history, philosophy, and film. Our course readings will move from a survey of Christian ritual and ascetic practices, to the rise of church-state dynamics and contemporary political theologies. Students will learn to problematize Christian ethics in colonial and postcolonial encounters, and will familiarize themselves with the rhetoric of conversion, sacrifice, and personhood. Among other worldly topics to be explored in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox faiths, we will analyze prophecy, charisma, grace, the soul, saintliness, universalization, redemption, oath-taking, secularism, and the close relationship between “religious discourse” and power.