Acknowledgments First, acknowledgments must go to the Vineyard Christians who shared with me, as well as with the numerous Christians from outside the Vineyard, who were equally generous with their thoughts, energy, and time. This includes the members of the Society of Vineyard Scholars; there can be no better gift for an ethnographer than a group of sharp-minded (and sharp- eyed) intellectuals who belong to the movement being studied! Professor Roy Brooks at the USD School of Law was the first to suggest to me that I might have a career in academics—though I suspect he thought it would be in a different discipline. During my protracted association with it, the University of California, San Diego, anthropology department has provided numerous mentors and colleagues. As for mentors, I am in debt to Suzanne Brenner, Tom Csordas, Jonathan Freedman, Michael Meeker, Steve Parish, David Pedersen, Melford Spiro, and Kathryn Woolard. Colleagues to whom I am indebted include Yoav Arbel, Chris Augsbuger, Sowparnika Balaswaminathan, Waqas Butts, Andrew Cased, Julia Cassaniti, Julien Clement, Jason Danely, William Dawley, John Dulin, Eli Elinoff, Ted Gideonse, Timothy McCajor Hall, Candler Hallman, Jordan Haug, Eric Hoenes del Pineal, Nofit Itzhak, Julia Klimova, Leslie Lewis, Katherine Miller, Marc Moskowitz, Joshua Nordic, Marisa Petersen, Ryan Schram, Greg Simon, Heather Spector Hillman, Allen Tran, Brendon Thornton, Deana Weibel-Swanson, and Leanne Williams. There are others I have shamefully overlooked; forgive me. I finished my dissertation while serving as a wide-eyed, inexperienced visiting assistant professor at Reed College. I don’t want to contribute to the legend of “Olde Reed,” but it was certainly an interesting experience trying to think through the anthropology of Christianity at a school whose unof- ficial motto is “Atheism, Communism, and Free Love.” I’d like to thank ix x / Acknowledgments Doctor Robert Brightman, Rebecca Gordon, Jiang Jing, Anne Lorimer, Tahir Naqvi, Sonia Sabnis, Paul Silverstein, Nina Sylvanus, and Emma Wasserman. Reed was also where I became acquainted with Rupert Stash, who was also with me when I returned to teach at UCSD for four years. My time at the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Social Anthropology was one of the intellectually happiest, and most productive, times of my life; almost the entirety of this book was written while I was there. I regret, daily, that family circumstances have kept me from staying there in my capacity as lecturer. Some of the colleagues and students at Edinburgh were old friends and some were new, but they all did their share in making that atmosphere, and hence this book, possible. I’d like to thank Richard Baxstrom, Francesca Bay, Tom Boylston, Janet Carsten, Jacob Copeman, Jamie Cross, Magnus Course, Alexander Edmonds, Stephan Ecks, Jamie Furniss, Ian Harper, John Harries, Naomi Haynes, Luke Heslop, Casey Hines, Lotte Hoek, Laura Jeffrey, Tobias Kelly, Lucy Lowe, Siobhan Magee, Diego Malara, Rebecca Marsland, Adam Marshall, Maya Mayblin, Alex Nading, Alice Nagel, Yi Qiao, Jeevan Sharma, Jonathan Spencer, Alice Street, Dimitri Tsintjilonis. While he was not at the University of Edinburgh, Adam Reed was a frequent and fascinating interlocutor while I was at Auld Reekie. Of those at University of Edinburgh, Tom Boylston, Magnus Course, Naomi Haynes, and Maya Mayblin bore a particularly heavy burden of conversation and hospitality. Additionally, Tom Boylston and Naomi Haynes also read sub- stantial sections of a much more raw iteration of this manuscript, something that was even further beyond the call of duty. Numerous others have contributed to this book. Some I have known for significant periods of time. Some have been kind enough to invite me to work out in public some of the initial thoughts that became this book. Some were kind enough to accept my invitations! Some made small gestures but with the right spirit and at the right times. Finally, some I have never met in per- son but have still been kind enough to help me. I imagine many of the people listed may not be aware of their labors, and certainly none of them should be blamed for any imperfections in this project’s fruition. With that in mind, I would like to thank Razvan Amironesei, Andreas Bandak, Daniel Barber, James Bielo, Joshua Brahinksy, Fenella Cannell, Liana Chua, Simon Coleman, Vincent Crapanzano, Kathy Creely, Girish Daswani, Omri Elisha, Matthew Engelke, Annelin Eriksen, Doug Erickson, John Evans, James Faubion, Brian Goldston, Courtney Handman, Elisa Heinämaki, Jacob Hickman, Martin Holbraad, Jessica Johnson, Angie Heo, Marcel Henaff, Rebekka King, Brian Howell, Derrick Lemons, Ian Lowrey, Ruth Marshall, Caleb Maskell, Charles Matthews, Megan McCready, Keith McNeal, Mark Mosco, Minna Opus, Acknowledgments / xi Gretchen Pfeil, John Rasmussen, Bruno Reinhardt, Bambi B. Schieffelin, Michael Scott, Rupert Stash, Michael Stevenson, Anna Strhan, Matthew Tomlinson, Todne Thomas, and Joseph Webster. Near the very last days of this manuscript’s preparation, I was fortunate enough to attend the “Problems in the Study of Religion” 2016 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, which had Charles Matthews and Kurtis Schaeffer as directors. The vigorous interdisciplinary discussions there helped me develop a better sense for what I was trying to say in my conclusion, so I would like to thank Charles and Kurtis, as well as the other participants (David Anderson, Torang Asadi, Lilian Calles Barger, Neilesh Bose, Candi K. Cann, Natalie Carnes, Andrew Crislip, Rebecca Draughon, Diana Galaretta, Gregory Price Grieve, Ravi Gupta, Jean Heroit, Benjamin Hertzberg, Samuel Kessler, Sean Larsen, Catherine Osborne, Jeffrey Perry, Bharat Ranganathan, Sarah Rollens, Mary Ruth Sanders, Peter Schadler, Ben Schewel, Randall Stephens, Ashley Tate, Victor Thasiah, and Matthew Whelan). I also wish to acknowl- edge my debt to the editorial team at the University of California Press (espe- cially Reed Malcolm and Kate Hoffman). From submission to publication they saw this book through with an exquisite degree of professionalism. With the exception of a few snippets, this book is made up almost entirely of new material, though ethnographic depictions herein are also part of my “Disjuncture, Continental Philosophy’s New ‘Political Paul,’ and the Question of Progressive Christianity in a Southern Californian Third Wave Church,” American Ethnologist 36, no. 1 (2009): 110–23; “The Bones Restored to Life: Dialogue and Dissemination in the Vineyard’s Dialectic of Text and Presence,” in The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Biblicism, edited by James Bielo, 136–56 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2009); and “No Caller I.D. for the Soul— Demonization, Charisms, and the Unstable Subject of Protestant Language Ideology,” Anthropological Quarterly 84, no. 3 (2011): 679–703. I would like to thank these journals and presses for their generosity. Although the theoretical language used has changed considerably in an effort to create a series of relays between the other arguments in this book, the sections that use these ethnographic sketches are in essence making the same claims as those found in the original articles and book chapter. The same goes for spoken presentations. Elements of this book (often in larval or mutated form) have been presented in talks and at events at the University of Edinburgh, the London School of Economics, Rice University, the University of Toronto, William & Mary College, University of Copenhagen Center for African Studies, Reed College, the University of California San Diego, and Midway Contemporary Art. xii / Acknowledgments Tanya Luhrmann has intersected my academic life in many different ways, at many times; and yet, our almost simultaneously deciding to take up the Vineyard as an object of ethnographic interest was done with each entirely unaware of the other. Given her rightful stature and influence, she could have starved my career of oxygen, and extinguished the diagram for fire. Instead, she has been supportive without fail, which is strikingly kind considering how different our ethnographies have ended up. If memory serves, I first met Joel Robbins when I found him in my graduate student office, perusing my bookshelf; he had wandered in from an office almost literally directly across the hall. He was a friend long before he was a mentor and editor, and I like to imagine there is a primacy to that first capacity even today. He has done so much for me, but most of all, he has given me perhaps one of the most vital of academic gifts: problems. I have endless debts that go beyond the academy: friends and relatives, who I will keep anonymous primarily as a favor to them. I will acknowledge that I have parents—Herman and Dolores—and that they have been tire- lessly supportive. Judy, my wife, also has sacrificed and supported me in ways impossible to fully rehearse. She of course has parents, and they have also been indefatigable with their time and enthusiasm, and so thanks go Jim and Masako’s way, too. But beyond anything and anyone else, there is my daughter, Clio. She was named after the muse of history (for some odd rea- son, the then nonexisting field of social science was not awarded a distinct muse by Hesiod). She has lived up to her name. Clio, this book is for you..