Named Book of the Year by Books and CultureThroughout 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 discredited religious beliefs. 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.
#3074296 in Books 2014-09-24Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 5.80 x .80 x 8.60l; .0 #File Name: 0198703724336 pages
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. A frustrating treatment of an important subjectBy DAJThe early centuries AD saw a dramatic change in the nature of religion in the civilized regions of Eurasia; especially the Mediterranean and Middle East. It wasn't the replacement of polytheistic religions with Christianity; as the misleading title of this book would suggest. Christianity was just the most visible example of the shift in thinking. It was really a process of convergent evolution among different groups; spurred by the rise of multicultural empires and the resulting cultural interaction. Many of the elements we think of as fundamental; or at least common; traits of a religion—a fixed set of fundamental beliefs; a religion-based system of ethics; a canon of sacred texts; and a presence across multiple cultures—were invented or became much more important in this period. In the Roman Empire; many polytheistic traditions started developing in this direction; even if they didn't go as far down that road as Christianity; Judaism; or Zoroastrianism.This fundamental shift doesn't seem to have been discussed much until fairly recently; because Christianization tends to overshadow the wider development. Rüpke aims to describe how religion in the Roman Empire was changing; focusing particularly on the polytheistic cults. The problem is that; aside from short sections like the introduction or the opening of Part Three; the book doesn't address the overall topic very directly. Instead; it jumps around from subtopic to subtopic without connecting them very clearly. A chapter will use a very specific example; like the Lex Ursonensis; the Shepherd of Hermas; or the role of the Pontifex Maximus; to illustrate its particular subtopic; and spends most of the chapter analyzing the example. The broader conclusions to be drawn from the example often appear only briefly at the end of the chapter. Those conclusions are often insightful; but they feel underdeveloped.I hope there will soon be a cohesive analysis of the way religion changed in the Roman Empire. This book doesn't pull the disparate trends and pieces of evidence together well enough to fill the gap. Instead it feels rather like a precursor to a broader treatment of the topic. The scholarly audience that the book is clearly aimed at will find it useful enough for that purpose; but for me it's a disappointment.
