This article intervenes in an ongoing debate as to whether or not Christianity introduces individualism into the lives of its converts. Drawing on an ethnographic account of Emmanuel, a French Catholic Charismatic community, it demonstrates that, counter to the argument that in social cases where Christianity is central, individualism emerges as a prominent value, in some cases it is relationalism that shapes Christian ethical aspirations. I argue that differences observed across contexts in expressions of value and configuration of personhood may be the result of the varied manners in which divine presence is experienced and understood to inhabit the world across Christian communities. Bringing God into the centre of ethnographic analysis in accounting for these differences broadens the debate's comparative reach, while underscoring the manner in which divine agency shapes the ethical aspirations of religious persons and their orientations to social others. Considering the ethical and political implications that one's orientation to the social can have, further investigation is called for into the manner in which the divine is experienced and invoked in social and ritual life.

中文翻译：

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神圣的社会：基督教的关系主义与世界的重新魅力

本文就基督教是否将个人主义引入其信奉者的生活进行了持续的辩论。它借鉴了法国天主教魅力团体伊曼纽尔（Emmanuel）的人种学研究，表明，与以基督教为中心的社会案例中，个人主义作为一种显着价值出现的观点相反，在某些情况下，关系主义塑造了基督教的道德诉求。我认为，在各种背景下观察到的关于价值和人格构型的差异可能是经历和理解神的存在以各种方式居住在整个基督教社区的方式的结果。考虑到这些差异，将上帝带入人种志分析的中心，拓宽了辩论的比较范围，同时强调了神的代理人塑造宗教人士的道德诉求以及他们对社会他人的取向的方式。考虑到一个人对社会的取向可能产生的伦理和政治影响，因此需要进一步研究神在社会和仪式生活中的经历和运用方式。