An Introduction to Theologically Engaged Anthropology

ABSTRACT

The burgeoning field of theologically engaged anthropology has facilitated an overdue dialogue among anthropologists and theologians. The theologically engaged anthropology project created the stratified and transformational research frameworks. The stratified framework encourages anthropologists and theologians to collaborate on common religious topics while maintaining boundaries between each discipline, lest each loses its integrity. The transformational framework encourages anthropologists and theologians to cross the border between their two disciplines to facilitate discovery of new insights about religion. This special journal issue of Ethnos presents multiple examples of theologically engaged anthropology that illustrate the value of both frameworks. In this introduction, I invite readers to observe four themes that emerge from the papers. Each illustrates the value of additional theologically engaged scholarship.

KEYWORDS:

• Theologically engaged anthropology
• stratified framework
• transformational framework
• theology
• ethnography

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the John Templeton Foundation for funding the collaborations that led to the development of research frameworks for theologically engaged anthropology. I also would like to thank my collaborators including Alister McGrath, University of Oxford; Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Harvard University; Joel Robbins, University of Cambridge; Don Seeman, Emory University; Brian Howell, Wheaton College; Paul Kollman, University of Notre Dame; Jon Bialecki, University of Edinburgh; Timothy Larsen, Wheaton College; Michael Rynkiewich, Asbury Theological Seminary; James Bielo, Miami University-Ohio; Khaled Furani, Tel Aviv University; Sarah Coakley, University of Cambridge; Fenella Cannell, London School of Economics and Political Science; Naomi Haynes, University of Edinburgh; Martyn Percy, University of Oxford; Tim Jenkins, University of Cambridge; Nicholas Adams, University of Birmingham; Matt Tomlinson, Australian National University; Philip Fountain, Victoria University of Wellington; and, Joe Webster, Queen's University Belfast. I would also like to thank the reviewers of this introduction for their valuable insights.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In function, the stratified framework was used by some anthropologists before our project began (e.g. Coleman 2010; Das 1984; Davies 2002; Rappaport 1999) but our working group coined this term to acknowledge theologically engaged anthropology that focuses on boundaries. Alister McGrath’s chapter (2018) was especially influential in choosing this name.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the John Templeton Foundation under [grant number #55329].