Sin, Atonement, and Christian Ways of Life
The topics of sin and salvation have played important roles in anthropological work on Christianity. But surprisingly, theological debates about atonement have not. From an anthropologist’s perspective, theological discussions of this topic are particularly rich because they are diverse and unsettled. Correlating the range of cross-cultural ethnographic data on approaches to issues of sin and salvation with the range of positions on atonement found in theological debate, this chapter argues that drawing concepts from the theological literature can not only help anthropologists recognize patterns of ethnographic variation in this area, but can also help them to make some important contributions to the currently developing anthropology of ethics. And for theologians, this chapter provides an opportunity to consider with fresh data the different kinds of social lives diverse theologies of atonement support. These arguments are developed through ethnographic materials from Papua New Guinea and sub-Saharan Africa.