Dr Naomi Haynes
Job Title
Senior Lecturer and Chancellor's Fellow

Room number
G.1Street (Address)
22 George SquareCity (Address)
EdinburghCountry (Address)
UKPost code (Address)
EH8 9LDResearch interests
Research interests
Christianity, Political economy, Southern Africa, Hierarchy, Values, Economic anthropology, Religion And Ritual, Theology
Topics interested in supervising
I welcome inquiries from students interested in the anthropology of Christianity, the anthropology of religion, economic anthropology, and southern Africa
If you are interested in being supervised by Naomi Haynes, please see the links below (open in new windows) for more information:
Background
I am a social anthropologist working at the intersection of religion and political economy. Broadly speaking, my research explores how religious ideas (like prosperity), practices (like giving offerings), and structures (like churches) interact with what we might usually think of as the “non-religious” parts of life. My work to date has been based on ethnographic research in Zambia, but I am first and foremost a comparative anthropologist of Christianity, interested in the diverse forms taken by this religion around the world.
My first major research project examined the impact of Pentecostal Christianity, especially the so-called “prosperity gospel,” on urban Zambian social life. I showed how Pentecostal adherence allowed believers to develop new forms of patron/client relationships. These relationships were especially compelling to people in mining communities because they were insulated from the boom and bust of the extraction economy. This project resulted in my first book, Moving by the Spirit: Pentecostal Social Life on the Zambian Copperbelt.
My second project has taken a much wider frame, examining the work of Christian nationalist activists in Lusaka. Zambia is the only African country to make a constitutional declaration that it is a “Christian nation.” During the presidency of Edgar Chagwa Lungu (2015-2021), Christian ideas were mobilized by the Zambian government to an unprecedented degree, prompting numerous state-led initiatives aimed at “actualizing” what Zambians simply call, “The Declaration.” Research for this project has been funded by a “Future Research Leaders” grant from the Economic and Social Research Council and a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship.
In addition to these projects, I have an ongoing interest in interdisciplinary research between theology and anthropology, and in the analytical possibilities that are opened up through non-secular theoretical frames.
I am a co-editor of the monograph series, “New Directions in the Anthropology of Christianity” with Bloomsbury Academic Press. I also curate “The Christian Nation Project,” an online space exploring the theme of Christian nationhood through text and multimedia installations.
Works within
Publications by user content
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Haynes N. Presidents, priests, and prophets: Covenantal Christian nationalism and the challenge of Biblical analogy. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 2022 Dec 14;1-18. Epub 2022 Dec 14. doi: 10.1111/1467-9655.13866 |
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Havea J, Tomlinson M, Al-Azem T, Rasanayagam J, Juewei V, Mair J et al. Dialogues: Anthropology and theology. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute . 2022 Mar;28(1):297-347. Epub 2022 Jan 17. doi: 10.1111/1467-9655.13667 |
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Derrick Lemons J, Handman C, Bialecki J, Coleman S, Haynes N, Mayblin M et al. Book forum on Joel Robbins’ Theology and the Anthropology of and Christian Life. History and Anthropology. 2022;33(4):516-547. Epub 2022 Sept 1. doi: 10.1080/02757206.2022.2119232 |
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Haynes N. Concretizing the Christian nation: Negotiating Zambia's National House of Prayer. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 2021 Aug 1;41(2):166–174. doi: 10.1215/1089201X-9127037 |
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Haynes N. Taking dominion in a Christian nation: North American political theology in an African context. Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. 2021 Jun;43(2):214-232. Epub 2021 Jun 29. doi: 10.1163/15700747-bja10036 |
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Haynes N. The expansive present: A new model of Christian time. Current Anthropology. 2020 Feb 29;61(1):57-76. Epub 2020 Feb 3. doi: 10.1086/706902 |
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Lauterbach K, Daswani G, Haynes N. Cathedrals and Critique 2020. |
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Haynes N. Lungu’s Livingstone: Where does the idea that Zambia is a Christian nation come from? Africa is a Country. 2019 Nov 20. |
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Haynes N. A Christian covenant in concrete. The Immanent Frame. 2019 May 7. |
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Haynes N. The benefit of the doubt: On the relationship between doubt and power. Anthropological Quarterly. 2019 Jan 31;92(1):35-57. |
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Hickel J, (ed.), Haynes N, (ed.). Hierarchy and Value: Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order. Berghahn Books, 2018. 170 p. (STUDIES IN SOCIAL ANALYSIS). |
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Haynes N. Why can’t a pastor be president of a “Christian Nation"? Pentecostal politics as religious mediation. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. 2018 May;41(1):60-74. Epub 2018 May 17. doi: 10.1111/plar.12244 |
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Haynes N. Contemporary Africa through the theory of Louis Dumont. Sociologia and Anthropologia. 2017 Dec 31;7(3):715-734. doi: 10.1590/2238-38752016v733 |
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Haynes N. Moving by the Spirit: Pentecostal Social Life on the Zambian Copperbelt. 1 ed. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. 224 p. (The Anthropology of Christianity). doi: 10.1525/california/9780520294240.001.0001 |
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Haynes N. Learning to pray the Pentecostal way: Language and personhood on the Zambian Copperbelt. Religion. 2017;47(1):35-50. Epub 2016 Oct 21. doi: 10.1080/0048721X.2016.1225906 |
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Haynes N, Hickel J. Introduction: Hierarchy, value, and the value of hierarchy. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice. 2016 Dec 1;60(4):1-20. doi: 10.3167/sa.2016.600401 |
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Haynes N. Theology on the Ground. In Lemons JD, editor, Theologically Engaged Anthropology. Oxford University Press. 2016 |
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Haynes N. “Zambia Shall be Saved!”: Prosperity Gospel Politics in a Self-Proclaimed Christian Nation. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 2015 Aug;19(1):5-24. 1. doi: 10.1525/nr.2015.19.1.5 |
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Haynes N. Egalitarianism and Hierarchy in Copperbelt Religious Practice: On the Social Work of Pentecostal Ritual. Religion. 2015. Epub 2015 Jan 14. doi: 10.1080/0048721X.2014.992106 |
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Haynes N. Change and Chisungu in Zambia's Time of AIDS. Ethnos. 2015;80(3):364-384. Epub 2013 Nov 25. doi: 10.1080/00141844.2013.858056 |
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Haynes N. Affordances and Audiences: Finding the Difference Christianity Makes. Current Anthropology. 2014 Dec 1;55(S10):357-365. Epub 2014 Nov 19. doi: 10.1086/678285 |
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Robbins J, (ed.), Haynes N, (ed.). The Anthropology of Christianity: Unity, Diversity, New Directions. s10 ed. 2014. (Current Anthropology). Epub 2014 Nov 19. |
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Haynes N. On the Potential and Problems of Pentecostal Exchange. American Anthropologist. 2013 Mar;115(1):85-95. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2012.01537.x |
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Haynes N. Pentecostalism and the Morality of Money: Prosperity, Inequality, and Religious Sociality on the Zambian Copperbelt. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 2012 Mar;18(1):123-139. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9655.2011.01734.x |
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Bialecki J, Haynes N, Robins J. The Anthropology of Christianity. Religion Compass. 2008 Nov 1;2(6):1139–1158. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00116 |
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