Anthropology in Seminary: The Theology of Origin, Nature and Destiny

By William Bergkamp

If you ask most people what comes to mind when they hear the word anthropology, the usual response might contain words like “artifacts,” “dust” or “caves.” When Linda Thomas, associate professor of theology and anthropology at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), speaks about anthropology she has something very relevant in mind. “Any religious leader spiritual leader, or minister who is going to be a leader today has to be culturally literate in terms of really understanding that there are diversities of cultures, languages, peoples and ways of being in the world.” Leading students into the challenges and rewards of this cultural literacy might be the best way to summarize the unique and valuable work that an anthropologist does on a seminary campus. “One must stretch oneself,” she says, “to understand not only the culture of origin from whence they come, but to venture out and learn about other cultures.”

Students who accept this invitation to cultural literacy have an able guide in Thomas, who conducted extensive field research. The centerpiece of this field work was in South Africa, at St. John’s Apostolic Faith Mission, a church located in the township of Guguletu outside of Capetown. Between 1991 and 1996, Thomas spent nearly two years with the congregation, observing their lives, worship and rituals, difficulties and their own unique way of being in the world.

While separated by culture and experience, Thomas claims that the lives of these Christians in South Africa is relevant to theological studies on an American seminary campus. When a new and different setting is encountered, it causes reflection on where you have been. “In anthropology,” she says, “the trick is when I decide to learn the particularities about someone else and their culture, I end up finding out more about myself.”

There is a double benefit that arises from this type of exploration in a theological setting. On one hand, it provides valuable tools to a seminary that has a large international student population. “What is marvelous about LSTC,” she says, “is the great diversity of international students who are here, particularly in the doctoral program.” Upon recounting a meeting an LSTC graduate working in South Africa, she concluded: “We have to make sure that what we are teaching can be digested and usable in the context to which these students are going.”

At the same time, the cultural literacy engendered by such studies also assists American students in their own preparation for ministry. One way that anthropology does this is by providing tools for evaluation and critique of their own context. We must be careful, she notes, not to fall into a mindset that “my way as an American is the best way…or the only way.” By studying the differences in cultures, and by recognizing that the evaluation is not about something being better or worse, we will be able to overcome much of the danger of ethnocentrism.

In the classroom, Thomas provides students—international and American—with ample opportunities to examine the actions of other cultures. “The work that I do in a course called “Religion and Culture” honors the variety of cultures, and gives students a chance to argue with different scholars, and to come up with their own theoretical basis for what it is they want to do.” The course contains a substantial unit on ritual that examines a broad range of human activities. In one class text, “The Gift” by Marcel Mauss, students explore the ritual of gift-giving in ancient societies and the obligations that accompany gifts when they are given. Other human activities that the class examines include Communion, rites-of-passage and funerary customs. “Often religious rituals really connect particular rituals with what is happening in the life cycle.” Examining these activities enables a comparison that illuminates the role they play in our lives. Even baseball provides the class with a venue to study the complexities of ritual actions.

“A fish doesn’t know it’s in water, and we don’t realize that we’re in a particular culture. But when we decide to enter other waters and notice that it’s warmer or cooler, then we can begin to see what the similarities and differences are.” With the help of professors like Linda Thomas our visions of others, and ourselves, will achieve the clarity necessary to lead the church into the next generation.

Thomas joined the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago faculty in 2000, after nearly 15 years of academic experience in Methodist seminaries, the most recent being Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., where she also served as the director of The Center of the Church and the Black Experience. Prior to her work in theological education she served as pastor for two congregations in New York. She received a doctorate in cultural and social anthropology from The American University in Washington D.C. in 1993. The fruit of her field work in South Africa may be seen in her book, “Under the Canopy: Ritual Process and Spiritual Resilience in South Africa,” (University of South Carolina Press, 1999), available for purchase through the Lutheran School of Theology book center.
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William Bergkamp is in the master of arts degree program at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.