AP/ANTH 4320 3.00 Ethnographic Approaches in the Anthropology of Christianity
This course provides an in-depth examination of anthropological theories and ethnographic approaches in the Anthropology of Christianity. With a focus on ethnographic texts and films, students are challenged to think about the relationship between culture, power, and diverse kinds of Christianity that shape gender, sexuality, kinship, social inequalities, social movements, ethical living, and political imaginations.
How do faith-based beliefs and values influence, and are influenced by, people’s identities, experiences, and worldviews? This course focuses on the diverse forms of Christian living by exploring the ways that Christians, located in various parts of the world, navigate work
and faith, church and culture, and morality and temporality. We will explore the micropolitics inherent in church-based cultures from conservative Protestant churches, multicultural churches, to evangelical megachurches. We will also consider the tension of living a Christian life in secular societies, the intergenerational impact of Christian followers in institutionalizing structures of inequality and death, such as colonialism, settler colonialism, dispossession, and slavery. We will examine ethnographic methods that attune us to Christian experiences in being and becoming Christian and the challenges and debates of a shared humanity, despite vast social and cultural differences. Throughout the course, we will critically engage with Christian perspectives on queer identities, conversion, miracles, scripture, and physical and spiritual wellbeing, and the meaning of being and becoming “good”, now and in the afterlife.
Course Director (Winter 2025): L. Davidson - lmdavids@yorku.ca