Christianity and Ethical Struggle --- Contemporary Discussions in the Anthropology of Religion University of St Andrews Anthropology Society Webinar

The contemporary world witnesses the struggle in articulating ethical life with advancing technology, enduring social institutions, and competing understandings of the good. The missionisation of Christianity and the evolution and continuation of its institutions and rituals in contemporary society resonate with and stir up these ethical struggles at different sites across the world. The University of St Andrews Anthropology Society invites four anthropologists of religion to a discussion on the interaction between Christianity and contemporary ethical struggles. Join us for this exciting event as we explore the Christian underpinnings of anthropology's ethical roots.

Speakers:

Dr Richard Irvine

Dr Richard Irvine is a Lecturer of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. His research interests span anthropology of religion and the environment with fieldwork experience in the UK and Mongolia. Dr Irvine examined Catholic religious life in his previous research on the basis of his fieldwork in an English Benedictine monastery. He is going to talk about monastic accounts of struggles with acedia for a contemporary understanding of isolation, despondency, and boredom.

Dr Joel Robbins

Dr Joel Robbins is the Sigrid Rausing Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Dr Robbins is interested in both the anthropology of religion and values. At present, he is pursuing these linked interests by working on a project focused on what he has called “the anthropology of the good”. He is also beginning to develop a new project focused on religious higher education to explore the intellectual and elite dimension of contemporary religions.

Dr Maya Mayblin

Dr Maya Mayblin is a Senior Lecturer of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. Since 2001, She has conducted most of her ethnographic research on Roman Catholicism in Brazil and some, more recently, in Scotland. Her latest article explores the source of the institutional agency of the Roman Catholic Church from the double sexual lives of the Brazilian Priests.

Dr Jon Bialecki

Dr Jon Bialecki is a Lecturer of Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. Dr Bialecki's academic interests include the anthropology of religion, anthropology of the subject, ontology and temporality, and religions' language ideology. His recently published book, ‘A Machine for Making Gods: Mormonism, Transhumanism, and Speculative Religion' is a fascinating ethnography looking at the intersections between religion, technology, and speculation.