In some form, all of humanity is in search of the meaning to life and creating purpose in the world. One of the main goals of anthropology as a discipline is to understand the way people create meaning though practice. Through the study of ritual, kinship, and linguistics, and other meaning creating structures one can understand the values of a culture. This leaves no exception to religious practice. Tonya Luhrrmann embarks on a provocative study of Christianity and the reasons why belief in God is plausible. This psychoanalytic ethnography maps out the Christian faith in a way that at first appears to discredit its authenticity. However; her writing reveals the commonality of all of humanity’s search for meaning beyond ourselves. Christianity …show more content…
However, Luhrmann’s writing is honest to the experiences and practices that many followers have from a wide range of denominations. Her research is not to discredit religion and belief in God, but to show why and how it is so meaningful in people’s lives. However, she uses psychology to discuss what she sees. Since she uses scientific language it draws on tensions between science and religion because there are not many spaces to think about faith in this way especially within the church. Her work is brilliant in that it broadens the scope for the way that Christianity can be conceptualized. It pushes boundaries, and dismantles dividing walls. A similar work could be produced by a Christian only if the hegemonic walls of discourse would be torn down. Luhrmann experienced the breakdown of the scientific and religious divide in finding that writing down prayers is encouraged, “This is particularly striking to an anthropologist because some anthropologist and historians have argued that it was literacy and eventually print culture that enabled science to emerge by creating a source of truth and memory outside the fallible human mind” (Luhrmann, 54). Language and discourse is a powerful tool, yet not something to be limiting for endeavors of thought. Christian nomenclature evolves from historical events and cultural practices, which embodies specific connotations and …show more content…
There are ways regardless of religious proclivity that humans commonly mentally process the external world. As Lurhmann explains, “These principles guide many of us, whether evangelical Christians or not. We are more likely to treat thoughts that we experience as spontaneous, stronger, or more meaningful; as containing hidden, important knowledge we should attend to” (Luhrmann, 67). This commonality shows that we are all seeking the something beyond ourselves. Religion fills a space of desire that is continuously satiated through practice. James Smith avers, “Rather than thinking of human persons as static containers for ideas or beliefs, this way of thinking about humans as intentional emphasizes that our being-in-the-word is always characterized by dynamic “ek-static” orientation that “intends” the world or “aims at” the world as an object of consciousness” (Smith, 48). The theory of the mind explores the ways that the human mind is a tool to bring people closer to their ultimate loves. As intentional creatures aiming towards something, all our being is used to achieve this goal. In finding that there are common mental processes regardless of religion and beliefs, this speak to the way God created humans to function. Perhaps God created our minds to have the capabilities to be trained so that we aim ourselves towards the heavenly kingdom through our own