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Who is a Christian?

Toward a dialogic approach in the anthropology of Christianity

James Madison University, garriowc{at}jmu.edu

Kevin Lewis O'Neill

Indiana University-Bloomington, email: kloneill{at}indiana.edu

This article aims to contribute to the continued formation of an anthropology of Christianity. We argue that anthropologists should adopt a more dialogic approach to the anthropological study of Christianity, one that shifts the concern from the problems posed by Christianity to anthropology, to the problems posed by Christianity to Christians themselves. In particular, we argue that the problem of determining who and what counts as a Christian is not a strictly anthropological problem, but is a potent source of debate within Christian communities. Attending to such debate offers a window into what is at stake in the lives of Christians themselves, and thus has the capacity to provide a non-essentializing foundation for the anthropology of Christianity as a comparative project. We begin with a review of recent anthropological literature and conclude with a set of ethnographic illustrations that show the import of such a shift for future research.

Key Words: Catholic • Christianity • comparison • dialogic • evangelical • Guatemala • Islam • mega-churches

Anthropological Theory, Vol. 8, No. 4, 381-398 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1463499608096645


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