Anthropology of Christianity studied

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- A U.S. anthropologist says he is exploring deep theoretical biases that make Christianity a difficult subject for anthropological studies.

Joel Robbins of the University of California-San Diego says anthropologists have almost no track record of studying Christianity, a religion they have generally regarded as not exotic enough to be of interest.

Robbins argues the study of anthropology relies on a basic theoretical assumption that is antithetical to Christian assumptions.

Anthropology, he writes, is "a science of continuity" while Christianity emphasizes decisive breaks and the temporal ruptures that allow people to make claims of beginning anew after conversion.

"Christian ideas of time and belief emphasize radical discontinuities both in people's experience (at conversion) and in world history (at Jesus' birth and at his second coming)," Robbins says, "while anthropologists have always stressed the continuity of cultural traditions through time.

"By denying Christian cultural status in the places (we) study -- denying that it is a meaningful system like others and one with its own coherence and contradictions -- anthropologists actively charter their own lack of interest in it."

His article is to be published in the journal Current Anthropology.

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