Stromberg, “Christian Charismatics”

Stromberg, Peter. 2013. Christian Charismatics, Anthropologists, and Truth: A review essay on Tanya Luhrmann’s When God Talks Back. Pastoral Psychology.

Abstract: Throughout her career, anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann has inquired into the nature of belief. One focus of her efforts has been the question of how outsiders can grasp the beliefs of groups whose fundamental convictions differ from their own. In the work reviewed here, these concerns play out in a study of the Vineyard church, a charismatic Christian group. As she presents her ethnographic account of the group, Luhrmann also addresses theoretical questions about the evaluation of truth across different cultural contexts.