Sermons

Anthropological interest in the sermonic practices of speaking and audition has increased since anthropologists of religion reduced their focus on belief as the basis of religion and paid closer attention to practical and bodily forms of worship. This turn was more or less simultaneous with the global rise of Pentecostalism, which led researchers to recognize the effects of sermons beyond cognition, extending to the emotions, senses, and bodies of listeners. Similar effects are also observed in sermons in some Islamic contexts: specific embodiments and gestures are valued as appropriate signs of pious affect and acceptance of the divine word. Ethnographic accounts of sermons have revealed the interactions between the sermonic medium and other forms of media and communication, and the effects of these convergences for publics and counterpublics. By studying how sermons interact with other media, anthropologists have shed light on the ways in which religious faith and pious dispositions inhere in citizenship, political subjectivity, and identity.