Evangelical Christianity is among the most powerful religious movements in the world today. Driven by the mandate to “bring new souls to Christ,” as well as the demands of born-again faith and biblical orthodoxy, evangelicals along with televangelists, revivalists, and missionaries, pursue a wide array of social, cultural, and even commercial enterprises, inspiring all manner of innovation, indoctrination, and controversy. This course takes a serious look at evangelicalism from an anthropological perspective. Covering topics such as revivalism, Biblicism, contemporary Christian media, missionization, and gender ideology, we will consider multiple dimensions of evangelicalism as lived religion, an explore its active role in shaping many of the key cultural movements, debates, and historical transformations that have defined secular modernity, from confessional notions of self and society to conflicts over religion and science and the separation of church and state. Our aim will be neither to evaluate nor justify evangelical Christianity but rather to better understand the depth and complexity of its global influence in the contemporary moment.

This syllabus was created for the Young Scholars in American Religion program.

Omri Elisha
Author

Queens College, City University of New York
Institution

Public College or University
Institution Type

Syllabus
Resource Type

Undergraduate Course
Class Type

2015
Date Published

Anthropology, English
Discipline

Protestant
Religous Tradition

Gender/Women/ Sexuality, Popular Culture/Media/Music/Sports
Topics