Christianity in the Local Context: Southern Baptists in the Philippines (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion) (Hardcover)

“Over the past fifteen years the ethnographic study of Christianity across cultures has emerged as one of the most dynamic and widely followed of fields in the anthropology of religion. Howell’s Christianity in the Local Context is one of the finest among these new studies in the anthropology of Christianity.  His study is presented in an eminently readable and vivid prose, but also touches on questions of faith, identity, and politics at the heart of contemporary discussions of religion and modernity. This is a book that will appeal to religious studies scholars, as well as anthropologists and is well suited for courses in the cross-cultural study of Christianity.”--Robert W. Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and Director, Program on Islam and Civil Society, Boston University

How do Filipino Baptists who sing in English, quote from James Dobson, and download sermon illustrations from Alabama understand themselves, and their faith, as “local?” Comparing four congregations of Southern Baptists in the Philippines, Howell argues that Christianity becomes a local context as aspects of daily life are brought together with the obviously borrowed elements of the faith. This book moves away from the split of “global” and “local” to find out how Southern Baptists are able to create a “transcendent locality.” Told in rich ethnographic detail, Christianity in the Local Context argues that Filipino Baptists are actively constructing themselves in terms of a global faith that they have made their own.