Abstract:

My ethnographic project constitutes two years of participant observation at five churches that have self-identified as progressives and which regularly study popular texts that challenge traditional theological assertions. The research in which I am engaged most closely locates itself within the division of the anthropology of Christianity that focuses upon the language or ideology through which the Christian subject is constructed, maintained, and legitimized (Stromberg 1993; Harding 2000; Keane 2007). More specifically I look at study and discussion groups featuring popular theological texts and seek to delineate the identity constructed through the interplay between the texts and their readers in a group setting.

Author: Rebekka King