Practising Ecumenism Through Boundary Work and Meta-Coding

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4604256
AutoresThomas G Kirsch (0000-0002-6521-4128, University of Konstanz, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume44
Fascículo2
Páginas345-359
Data de publicação2018-03-04
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057070.2018.1425068
OpenAlexW2789680650
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork on religion in Zambia, this article engages critically with approaches that suggest that ecumenism necessarily occurs across socio-religious boundaries. I argue that the objective of ecumenism – namely, good-willed co-operation between religious practitioners who are otherwise separated from each other in terms of their institutional affiliations – can also be attained through boundary work and use of the meta-codes ‘non-Christian – Christian’ and ‘Christian –“real” Christian’. I contend that using these meta-codes in the logic of what has been called ‘fractal recursion’ allows people to stress situationally the existence of commonalities between religious practitioners and/or religious groupings that, at other points in time, are perceived to be different from each other. In this way, the shifting of categorical boundaries produces ecumenical reality effects

Boundary-work · Ecumenism · Epistemology · Ethnography · Political science · Social science · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · Anthropology · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development