Luhrmann’s When God Talks Back. Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. A Critical Reflection of her Findings and Approach

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, grade: 1.0, Queen’s University Belfast (School of History and Anthropology), course: Social Anthropology, language: English, abstract: In this essay I will seek to summarise and critically engage with the theories Luhrmann developed, the findings she made, and importantly, the approaches she used in the formation of her book When God Talks Back . In doing so, I hope to shed more light onto the field of the anthropology of religion by exploring the broader applications of her work. I intend to introduce this essay in the same way Tanya Luhrmann (2012) introduces her book; with perhaps some of the most intriguing and pertinent questions that challenge both the modern day understanding of religion, and indeed, the anthropologists who study it. How are rational, sensible people able to sustain belief in an endlessly powerful, yet completely invisible God, in an environment of overwhelming scepticism? And, how does this God become real for these people? Luhrmann sought to answer these questions through long-term ethnographic fieldwork amongst evangelical Christians, more specifically, congregants of the Vineyard churches across America.