Abstract

Since integration is preferable to compartmentalization, problems of the identity or posture of the Christian anthropologist in academic or professional contexts are examined. The question is then asked, can there be a "Christian anthropology?" If so, what are its distinctive features and what difference does it make in the doing of anthropology? David Bidney's concept of "metaanthropology" is explored, adding fundamental contrasts between naturalistic and supematuralistic presuppositions, Sidney's basic concerns of metaanthropology, "the problems of cultural reality and the nature of man," are discussed, respectively, in terms of distinctive Christian positions on mankind as the culture-bearing species in the Image of God and on the matter of human origin.