Beyond Mediation: An Anthropological Understanding of the Relationship Between Humans, Materiality, and Transcendence in Protestant Christianity
How does a relationship come about between religious practitioners and supernatural beings? According to the mediation turnwhich has recently taken hold in the material religion field and the anthropology of religionreligious communities use sensational forms to mediate the presence of an otherwis...
| Published in: | Journal of the American Academy of Religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2018]
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Africa
/ Protestant Church
/ Mission
/ Object (Philosophy)
/ Mediation
/ Human being
/ Transcendence
/ History 1800-1900
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| RelBib Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KBN Sub-Saharan Africa KDD Protestant Church RJ Mission; missiology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | How does a relationship come about between religious practitioners and supernatural beings? According to the mediation turnwhich has recently taken hold in the material religion field and the anthropology of religionreligious communities use sensational forms to mediate the presence of an otherwise invisible transcendent. This article will apply the mediation framework to a case study of a particular Protestant groupnamely world-renouncing, evangelical missionaries in nineteenth-century Southern Africa. I will argue that in this case the concept of mediation limits our understanding of the multiple God-human relationships involved. This raises questions concerning how and in which contexts the mediation turn can be analytically useful. In conclusion, the article will suggest that there is a dynamic range of modes of relating God and humans in Protestant Christianity, including modes that go beyond mediation. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfx054 |