Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia

by Lumsdaine, David Halloran

• ISBN13: 9780195308242
• ISBN10: 0195308247
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This is one of four projected volumes to emerge from a massive, Pew-funded study that sought to answer the question: What happens when a revivalist religion based on scriptural orthodoxy participates in the volatile politics of the Third World? Is the result a democratic politics of the ballot box, or is it more like an authoritarian politics of command from on high? Does the evangelical faith of the Bible hinder or promote a politics of the ballot box? At a time when the global-political impact of another revivalist and scriptural religion - Islam - fuels vexed debate among analysts the world over, these volumes offer an unusual comparative perspective on a critical issue: The often combustible interaction of resurgent religion and the developing world's unstable politics. The present volume considers the case of Africa, the region with the world's fastest expanding population. Christianity, especially in its evangelical and Pentecostal forms, has acquired many millions of new adherents in Africa in recent decades. The attitudes and behavior of these believers could have vast consequences for growth, development and democratization. In his introduction, editor Terence Ranger provides a historical overview. The book then offers individual case studies of six countries: Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, and Mozambique. The contributors, mainly younger scholars based in Africa, bring first hand-knowledge to their chapters and employ both field and archival research to develop their data and analyses. The result is a groundbreaking work that will be indispensable to everyone concerned with the future of this volatile region.

Author Biography

David H. Lumsdaine is Professor of Political Studies at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. He is author of Moral Vision in International Politics: The Foreign Aid Regime, 1949-1989.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Contributors	p. xxiii
Abbreviations	p. xxvii
Evangelical Christianity and Democratic Pluralism in Asia: An Introduction	p. 3
The Christian Community in China: The Leaven Effect	p. 43
Emulating Azariah: Evangelicals and Social Change in the Dangs	p. 87
Ethnicity, Civil Society, and the Church: The Politics of Evangelical Christianity in Northeast India	p. 131
Evangelicals and Politics in Indonesia: The Case of Surakarta	p. 155
Evangelicals and the Democratization of South Korea Since 1987	p. 185
Consolidating Democracy: Filipino Evangelicals between People Power Events, 1986-2001	p. 235
References	p. 285
Index	p. 317
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