Protestant Christianity in the Indian diaspora : abjected identities, Evangelical relations, and Pentecostal visions / Robbie B.H. Goh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goh, Robbie B. H., 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Protestant churches--India.

Protestant churches.

East Indians--Foreign countries--Religion.

East Indians.

Protestantism.

Identification (Religion).

East Indian diaspora.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (275 pages) : illustrations, map, photographs

Place of Publication:

Albany, [New York] : SUNY Press, 2018.

Summary:

This is the first comprehensive study of Protestant Christian religious identities in the Indian diaspora. Using qualitative interview methods, Robbie B. H. Goh captures the experiences of Indian Protestants in ten different countries and regions, describing how Indian communal Christian identities are negotiated and transformed in a variety of diasporic contexts ranging from Canada to Qatar. Goh argues that Christianity in India, developed within discrete and varied "ecologies," translates in the diaspora into a model of small communal churches that struggle with issues of community maintenance, evangelical growth, and Pentecostal influences. He looks at the significance of Christianity's "abject" position in India, the interplay and tension between evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, Pentecostalism's insistence on religious endogamy (particularly among women), intrareligious differences along generational lines, the actions of Hindutva hard-line elements, and other factors, in the construction and transformation of diasporic religious identities and affective attachments to India.

Contents:

Protestant Christianity in the Indian diaspora: the nature and scope of this project

The Christians of India: religious identities, communal feeling, and the dialectics of (dis)engagement

The (re)constitution of regional/communal identities in the Indian Christian diaspora: cultural negotiation, familial tensions, Pentecostal/Evangelical influences

Insistent Ruths: women, marriage and gendered spiritual roles

Leaps of faith: Evangelicalism and/or Pentecostalism, supernatural transformations, and transnationalism

India in the diasporic imaginary: Christianity, class, values, and religious affect

Indian Christians: (not) at home in the world.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438469447

1438469446