When talking with God
In her book “When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God,” T.M. Luhrmann ’81, a professor of anthropology at Stanford University, explores the evangelical experience in the United States, Ghana, and India through an anthropological and psychological lens. Luhrmann will deliver the William James Lecture on Thursday at Harvard Divinity School at 5:15 p.m. She spoke with the Gazette about her work and the ways that members of evangelical communities worship and pray. GAZETTE: You studied folklore and mythology at Radcliffe. What sparked your interest in those topics, and what inspired you to go on to study social anthropology at Cambridge University? LUHRMANN: I was always interested in the way the stories we told ourselves shaped us in fundamental ways. I wanted to know more, so I went to graduate school. And I loved the presence of the past in Cambridge. I ended up living in John Harvard’s rooms...