Beyond Mediation

An Anthropological Understanding of the Relationship Between Humans, Materiality, and Transcendence in Protestant Christianity

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7099480
AutoresIngie Hovland (0000-0002-2926-6326, University of Georgia, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen86
Número2
Páginas425-453
Fecha de publicación2017-08-29
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jaarel/lfx054
OpenAlexW2768539399
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas24
Referencias citadas33

How does a relationship come about between religious practitioners and supernatural beings? According to the mediation turn—which has recently taken hold in the material religion field and the anthropology of religion—religious 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 group—namely 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

Aesthetics · Christianity · Epistemology · Materiality (auditing · Mediation · Protestantism · Religious experience · Social science · Sociology · Transcendence (philosophy · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Christian Theology and Mission · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies