Welcome to BPL's Anthropology of Christianity Research Guide!
This guide is designed to help students and researchers find library materials on the Anthropology of Christianity and to provide pathways for further exploration. The guide is organized by topic or theme accessible via the left-hand menu. Each section contains a short list of key works in the area as well as ideas for further exploration.
The field of the Anthropology of Christianity is still developing. Many of the current themes reflect historical trends within the broader discipline of anthropology which show up, for instance, in the scope of religions, denominations, or cultures studied. Within anthropology, the study of religion (and more specifically, Christianity) brings forth much debate as to methods, concepts, and goals -- this is reflected in the broad array of methodologies contained within the materials referenced in this guide.
Some sections include finding aids. These aids list subject headings relevant to that particular topic. Students and researchers should use those subject headings as search terms within the library catalog to retrieve only the most relevant results. These headings are normally useful when searching through journal literature as well.
There is no single home for materials on the Anthropology of Religion in the Library of Congress Classification System. Works are catalogued according to a variety of standards. Most often, this is by the geographic location of the anthropological study, but works blending disciplinary fields may be catalogued under theological headings, more general religious studies headings, or denominational headings. These factors make shelf-browsing difficult for materials in the Anthropology of Religion.
Therefore, the rest of this research guide has aimed for more-depth in listing specific works that might otherwise be difficult to locate.
This academic research center is located at the University of Georgia and offers events, publications, and blogs on this aspect of anthropology. They also have compiled an extensive bibliography of resources: https://research.franklin.uga.edu/tea/bibliography
