Download or read book The Possibility of Anthropological Fideism written by Da Zhi Zhong and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2004 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, D. Z. Zhong establishes a methodological principle for cross-cultural research, called anthropological fideism. While anthropologists take for granted that natives don't really believe the unintelligible or inexplicable things they say, and what they say should express a deeper social meaning, Zhong contends that if we have a translation manual that can interpret a foreign language, and if natives are asserting honestly, then what natives say still express natives' belief, no matter how absurd it seems. His anthropological fideism entails that in fact we can, and indeed we should, happily live with others' differences while taking them literal.
Download or read book Anthropology and Theology written by Douglas Davies and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-18 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropology and Christian Theology have traditionally interpreted religion in quite different ways and have often been thought of as hostile to one another. In fact, a fundamental concern for human experience lies at the heart of both disciplines. This innovative book takes a new look at key anthropological and theological themes, and explores the intricacies of their interplay throughout history and in the present. Sacrifice, embodiment, ritual, incarnation, symbolism, gift and power are all related in ways that shed new light on religious behaviour and belief. Detailed analysis of fundamental Christian rites shows how they help generate emotional meaning and inspire philosophical ideas, and demonstrates how the body serves as a vehicle for religious beliefs. Through an examination of these issues and much more, Davies reveals how religious rituals help people to become secure in their sense of identity. This accessible foray into new territory is essential reading for anthropologists, theologians, or anyone interested in religion who is seeking new interpretations of familiar themes.
Download or read book On Knowing Humanity written by Eloise Meneses and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Chapter authors -- Introduction -- 1 Engaging the religiously committed other: Anthropologists and theologians in dialogue -- PART I Epistemology for ethnography -- 2 Mystery: To know and be known in ethnography -- 3 Stranger: A biblical teaching as an anthropological resource -- 4 Witness: A post-critical and biblical epistemology for a committed anthropology -- 5 Humility: A Christian impulse as fruitful motif for anthropological theory and practice -- 6 Mission: Agnes C.L. Donohugh, early "apostle for ethnography"--PART II Ontology for anthropology -- 7 Principalities: Insights from practical theology for a transformed applied anthropology -- 8 Divine: The multiple expressions of the sacred in Andean ontology -- 9 Calling: Implications of the transcendent for love and purpose in migration -- 10 Trinity: Conceptual tools for an interdisciplinary theology of culture -- 11 Anthropology in the mirror of theology: Epistemology, ontology, ethics (an afterword) -- Index
Download or read book Anthropology in Theological Perspective written by Wolfhart Pannenberg and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2004-08-23 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comprehensive study, a renowned theologian examines the anthropological disciplines-human biology, psychology, cultural anthropology, sociology and history-for their religious implications. The result is a theological anthropology that does not derive from dogma or prejudice, but critically evaluates the findings of the disciplines. Pannenberg begins with a consideration of human beings as part of nature; moves on to focus on the human person; and then considers the social world: its culture, history and institutions. All the elements of this multi-faceted study unite in the final chapter on the relation of human beings to their history.
Download or read book Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life written by Joel Robbins and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-29 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropological theory can radically transform our understanding of human experience and offer theologians an introduction to the interdisciplinary nature between anthropology and Christianity. Both sociocultural anthropology and theology have made fundamental contributions to our understanding of human experience and the place of humanity in the world. But can these two disciplines, despite the radical differences that separate them, work together to transform their thinking on these topics? Robbins argues that they can. To make this point, he draws on key theological discussions of atonement, eschatology, interruption, passivity, and judgement to rethink important anthropological debates about such topics as ethical life, radical change, the ways people live in time, agency, gift giving, and the nature of humanity. The result is both a major reconsideration of important aspects of anthropological theory through theological categories and a series of careful readings of influential theologians such as Moltmann, Pannenberg, Jüngel, and Dalferth informed by rich ethnographic accounts of the lives of Christians from around the world. In conclusion, Robbins draws on contemporary discussions of secularism to interrogate the secular foundations of anthropology and suggests that the differences between anthropology and theology surrounding this topic can provide a foundation for transformative dialogue between them, rather than being an obstacle to it. Written as a work of interdisciplinary anthropological theorizing, this book also offers theologians an introduction to some of the most important ground covered by burgeoning field of the anthropology of Christianity while guiding anthropologists into core areas of theological discussion. Although theoretically ambitious, the book is clearly argued throughout and written to be accessible to all readers in the social sciences, theology, and religious studies interested in the place of religion in social life and human experience.
Download or read book Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion written by Michael Banton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-11 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the basic questions of social structure were elucidated there came a quickening of interest among social anthropologists in the study of religion. Chapters in this book include: · Religion as a Cultural System (Clifford Geertz) · Colour Classification in Ndembu Religion (Victor W. Turner) · Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation (Melford E. Spiro) · Fathers, Elders and Ghosts in Edo Religion (R.E. Bradbury) · Territorial Groupings and Relgion among the Iraqw (Edward H. Winter). First published in 1966.
Download or read book Encounters of Body and Soul in Contemporary Religious Practices written by Anna Fedele and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social scientists and philosophers confronted with religious phenomena have always been challenged to find a proper way to describe the spiritual experiences of the social group they were studying. The influence of the Cartesian dualism of body and mind (or soul) led to a distinction between non-material, spiritual experiences (i.e., related to the soul) and physical, mechanical experiences (i.e., related to the body). However, recent developments in medical science on the one hand and challenges to universalist conceptions of belief and spirituality on the other have resulted in “body” and “soul” losing the reassuring solid contours they had in the past. Yet, in “Western culture,” the body–soul duality is alive, not least in academic and media discourses. This volume pursues the ongoing debates and discusses the importance of the body and how it is perceived in contemporary religious faith: what happens when “body” and “soul” are un-separated entities? Is it possible, even for anthropologists and ethnographers, to escape from “natural dualism”? The contributors here present research in novel empirical contexts, the benefits and limits of the old dichotomy are discussed, and new theoretical strategies proposed.
Download or read book The Slain God written by Timothy Larsen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-08-29 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout its entire history, the discipline of anthropology has been perceived as undermining, or even discrediting, Christian faith. Many of its most prominent theorists have been agnostics who assumed that ethnographic findings and theories had exposed religious beliefs to be untenable. E. B. Tylor, the founder of the discipline in Britain, lost his faith through studying anthropology. James Frazer saw the material that he presented in his highly influential work, The Golden Bough, as demonstrating that Christian thought was based on the erroneous thought patterns of 'savages.' On the other hand, some of the most eminent anthropologists have been Christians, including E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, and Edith Turner. Moreover, they openly presented articulate reasons for how their religious convictions cohered with their professional work. Despite being a major site of friction between faith and modern thought, the relationship between anthropology and Christianity has never before been the subject of a book-length study. In this groundbreaking work, Timothy Larsen examines the point where doubt and faith collide with anthropological theory and evidence.
Download or read book Anthropologica written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Redeeming Anthropology written by Khaled Furani and published by . This book was released on 2019-08-04 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Redeeming Anthropology lifts a veil on anthropology as a modern academic discipline, constituted by its secular sovereign reason and membership in the Enlightenment-bequeathed university. Mining anthropology's biographical corpus, Khaled Furani reveals ways theology has always existed in itsrecesses, despite perpetual efforts at immuring encroachment by this banished other. Anthropologists have alternatively spurned, disregarded, and followed forms of religiosity, transmuting their theistic engagement in their professional work. Centrally, if unwittingly, theology remains inanthropology's consummate rite of ethnographic immersion, defying precepts on the autonomy of reason and knowledge production by immersing the seeker in the sought-after. Nevertheless, anthropology ultimately commits idolatry by largely adoring the concept of Culture, and its constructs, andupholding itself as pre-eminently an ethical triumph. Furthermore, by limiting its horizons to finite categories of "human" and"natural," anthropology entangles itself in "worship" of the State and conclusively of the sovereignty principle that powers modern reason. Recovery from idolatry mightarrive should anthropological reason become attuned to its fragility, cease to fear theistic reason, and open pathways toward revitalization through revelation.
Download or read book American Book Publishing Record written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Redeeming Anthropology written by Khaled Furani and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Redeeming Anthropology lifts a veil on anthropology as a modern academic discipline, constituted by its secular sovereign reason and membership in the Enlightenment-bequeathed university. Mining anthropology's biographical corpus, Khaled Furani reveals ways theology has always existed in its recesses, despite perpetual efforts at immuring encroachment by this banished other. Anthropologists have alternatively spurned, disregarded, and followed forms of religiosity, transmuting their theistic engagement in their professional work. Centrally, if unwittingly, theology remains in anthropology's consummate rite of ethnographic immersion, defying precepts on the autonomy of reason and knowledge production by immersing the seeker in the sought-after. Nevertheless, anthropology ultimately commits idolatry by largely adoring the concept of Culture, and its constructs, and upholding itself as pre-eminently an ethical triumph. Furthermore, by limiting its horizons to finite categories of "human" and"natural," anthropology entangles itself in "worship" of the State and conclusively of the sovereignty principle that powers modern reason. Recovery from idolatry might arrive should anthropological reason become attuned to its fragility, cease to fear theistic reason, and open pathways toward revitalization through revelation.
Download or read book Finitude and Theological Anthropology written by Jan-Olav Henriksen and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As finite humans, we are dependent, limited, situated, and vulnerable, and our understanding of ourselves and the world is constantly facing boundaries and restrictions. This book explores how finitude's different dimensions, and its ambiguities, may be understood within the framework of Christian theological anthropology. This study inverstigates different understandings of finitude's role in human life, and argues why these may benefit theological anthropology. An analysis and discussion of recent contributions and the possible relations between them not only help us to gain a richer picture of finitude's impact on human life, but may also contribute to a deeper understanding of the anthropological dimensions of religion. A further outcome of the analysis is that we are then able to define more clearly on what terms there is, from a phenomenological point of view, a possible relation between common human experience of finitude and the understanding of the world present in religion.
Download or read book Theological Anthropology written by J. Patout Burns and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Treated thematically under the headings 'The Gnostic Movement,' 'Christian Platonism,' and 'Fourth Century Developments,' it is possible to see how different ideas of humanity could lead to varieties of theological interpretation."--Donald Skyes
Download or read book The Anthropology of Religious Conversion written by Andrew Buckser and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2003-08-18 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anthropology of Religious Conversion paints a picture of conversion far more complex than its customary image in anthropology and religious studies. Conversion is very seldom simply a sudden moment of insight or inspiration; it is a change both of individual consciousness and of social belonging, of mental attitude and of physical experience, whose unfolding depends both on its cultural setting and on the distinct individuals who undergo it. The book explores religious conversion in a variety of cultural settings and considers how anthropological approaches can help us understand the phenomenon. Fourteen case studies span historical and geographical contexts, including the contemporary United States, modern and medieval Europe, and non-western societies in South Asia, Melanesia, and South America. They discuss conversion to Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Spiritualism. Combining ethnographic description with theoretical analysis, authors consider the nature and meaning of conversion, its social and political dimensions, and its relationship to individual religious experience.
Download or read book Beyond Fideism written by Olli-Pekka Vainio and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the postmodern turn, every tradition seeks the right to have their own rules of rational discourse. The crucial question is: are there ways to communicate between the traditions so that the traditions do not need to give up their identities in order to take part in conversation? Vainio examines the basic assumptions behind well known types of Christian theology and seeks ways in which they might interact with one other and with other non-Christian traditions without capitulation of their identities. Vainio claims that there are religious identities that can be negotiated and communicated, and that there are ecclesiastical doctrines which can be meaningfully discussed among churches. This book explores three key areas: analysis of the uses of 'fideism' within classical Christian theology; clarification of different types of theological method that seek to express the task of theology in contemporary setting; an explanation of the contours of religious identity and rationality which takes seriously both classical Christian identity and pluralistic contexts where most of the Christian communities dwell nowadays. The proposal for "negotiability" of Christian identity draws together ideas from, among others, virtue epistemology, reformed epistemology, communitarianism, and feminist sensibilities.
Download or read book The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 1034 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Articles on all aspects of anthropology.
