Download PDF: Figueroa-Ray, Love Disruption Abstract Rev. Dr. Miguel Balderas grounds his ministry to majority-white congregations in a decision to love and impose this love upon his congregants, whether or not they return it. This choice is embodied in both
Download PDF: Kim RV, Faith in Flux By Devaka PremawardhanaPhiladelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. 232 pages. $49.95. The spread of Christianity worldwide during the twenty-first century cannot be discussed without the success of Pentecostalism. While the heavy presence of
Download PDF: Klassen RV, Imitating Christ in Magwi Todd WhitmoreLondon: T&T Clark, 2019. 400 pages. $29.95. In 2006, Joel Robbins’ article “Anthropology and Theology: An Awkward Relationship?” argued that the newly emerging dialogue between anthropology and theology had transformative potential
Download PDF: Curtis, Turning the Wheel Practical Matters is proud to publish Issue 12, Revolutions and Re-Imaginations: New Directions in Religious Practices and Practical Theology. We are grateful to the authors, peer reviewers, and supportive colleagues who helped us bring
Download PDF: RV Landorf, Egypt in the Future Tense By Joska Samuli SchielkeBloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015. 260 pages. $30.00. What does it mean to “live the good life?” How do individuals navigate the spaces between frustration and hope, dreams
Download PDF: Whitmore, Narrow is the Way Abstract Previous efforts to discern whether Christian scholars have a place in the university have focused on orthodoxy—whether professors can speak and write according to their faith. This article focuses rather on orthopraxy—whether
Download PDF: Cho, Issue 11 Intro Practical Matters is proud to publish Issue 11: Migrations and Religious Practices. Our hope was to bring together scholars and practitioners to critically reflect on the intersection of human migration, religion, and identity. As the
Download PDF: Cuddeback-Gedeon, Nothing About Us Without Us Abstract As the number of Christian theologians engaging ethnographic research increases, there have been several scholarly conversations about how the power and privilege of the researcher impacts knowledge and relationships in fieldwork.
Download PDF: Mingo, Making Lemonade with Substitute Sugar Abstract Using displacement data and oral histories that I began collecting after the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, this paper analyzes the experiences of families who made the small college town of
Download PDF: Joseph, Decentered Vision of Diaspora Space Abstract In this article, I examine the decentered vision of diaspora space that emerges from the encounters with difference present in theological ethnography, the migrant experience, and the pilgrim Church. I first
Download PDF: Bielo, Materializing-the-Bible Absract Throughout the world there are over 200 sites that materialize the Bible, that is, sites that transform the written words of biblical scripture into physical, experiential attractions. These sites are definitively hybrid, integrating religion and entertainment,
Download PDF: Kidd and Spurrier, Presences and Absences Introduction This Practical Matters issue 6 returns to themes that emerged in our Spring 2010 issue, which explored how an interdisciplinary conversation between theologians, anthropologists and scholars of religion contributes to the doing and creating of
Download PDF: Stone, Perspectives on Ecclesiology Edited by Pete Ward Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. 262 pages, $50.00 As the first in a projected series on the topic of ecclesiology and ethnography, this inaugural volume, edited by Pete Ward, offers a “proposal”
Download PDF: White, Invisible Users By Jenna Burrell Cambridge and London: The MIT Press, 2012. 248 pages. $30.00. Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana is ethnographer Jenna Burrell’s contribution to the Acting with Technology series published by MIT
Download PDF: Howard, Beyond Belief Abstract Cultural anthropologists often disagree on the ethnographic method that researchers are supposed to employ. Ethnographers are caught between contravening methodologies that either entirely immerse the researcher within the culture being studied, leading to limited objectivity,
Download PDF: Wigg-Stevenson, Reflexive Theology Abstract The ethnographic theologian’s subject position in relation to the Christian communities she studies is fundamentally different from that of an anthropologist or sociologist in relation to his fields of study. Therefore, social science understandings
Download PDF: Browning, Epistemological Privilege Abstract Ethnographic researchers often work outside of the boundaries of their own social location and lived experience. Yet when we cross the borders of our own lived knowledge, we are faced with the question of who
Download PDF: Hoesley, What Matters Edited by Courtney Bender and Ann Taves New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. 296 pages. $29.50. Recent research on the category of the “secular” has demonstrated that secularism is a discursive project embedded in relations of