Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission EncounterUniversity of California Press, 3. jaan 2007 - 336 pages Across much of the postcolonial world, Christianity has often become inseparable from ideas and practices linking the concept of modernity to that of human emancipation. To explore these links, Webb Keane undertakes a rich ethnographic study of the century-long encounter, from the colonial Dutch East Indies to post-independence Indonesia, among Calvinist missionaries, their converts, and those who resist conversion. Keane's analysis of their struggles over such things as prayers, offerings, and the value of money challenges familiar notions about agency. Through its exploration of language, materiality, and morality, this book illuminates a wide range of debates in social and cultural theory. It demonstrates the crucial place of Christianity in semiotic ideologies of modernity and sheds new light on the importance of religion in colonial and postcolonial histories. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 53
Page 1
... kinds of Protestantism, and for Milton the question of human freedom was as much at stake in how one speaks as it was in how one is governed. His dis- agreement was not with the words of the published prayers in themselves: “But suppose ...
... kinds of Protestantism, and for Milton the question of human freedom was as much at stake in how one speaks as it was in how one is governed. His dis- agreement was not with the words of the published prayers in themselves: “But suppose ...
Page 3
... kind of human subject does such a concept of agency pre- sume? In what kinds of actions ought that subject to engage? What kinds should it avoid? In order to answer these questions, I explore the dilemmas raised when Dutch Calvinist ...
... kind of human subject does such a concept of agency pre- sume? In what kinds of actions ought that subject to engage? What kinds should it avoid? In order to answer these questions, I explore the dilemmas raised when Dutch Calvinist ...
Page 18
... kinds of materiality, the more encompassing con- cept of semiotic ideology seems to be called for. In this book, language ide- ology plays a central role, but this role links it to other semiotic domains. It is a matter of semiotic ...
... kinds of materiality, the more encompassing con- cept of semiotic ideology seems to be called for. In this book, language ide- ology plays a central role, but this role links it to other semiotic domains. It is a matter of semiotic ...
Page 19
... kinds of processes ( changes in speech registers are not produced by the same causes and do not have the same consequences as those in theo- logical doctrine , institutional arrangements , or economic value ) . Second , in any given ...
... kinds of processes ( changes in speech registers are not produced by the same causes and do not have the same consequences as those in theo- logical doctrine , institutional arrangements , or economic value ) . Second , in any given ...
Page 20
... kinds of practices and institutions affect one another within a representational economy, but it is the logic of a semiotic ideology that helps bring the effects into alignment. Thus, in a debate about correct ways of praying, for ...
... kinds of practices and institutions affect one another within a representational economy, but it is the logic of a semiotic ideology that helps bring the effects into alignment. Thus, in a debate about correct ways of praying, for ...
Contents
1 | |
Part I Locating Protestantism | 35 |
Part II Fetishisms | 147 |
Part III Purifications | 253 |
References | 291 |
Index | 315 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abstract actions adat agency agents Anakalang Anakalangese ancestral Anthropology belief Calvinism Calvinists Catholic century chapter Christian claims colonial Comaroff concept context contrast conversion creed culture discourse discussion distinction divine doctrine Dutch effects efforts encounter ethnographic evangelical example exchange expression fetishism freedom function Gereja Kristen Sumba global iconoclasm idea immaterial implications inculturation individual Indonesian instance Keane Kerk Kruyt Kuyper language ideology linguistic marapu followers marapu ritual material means meat mediation mission missionaries moral narrative narrative of modernity neo-orthodox Netherlands objectification objects one’s Onvlee pagan past Pentecostal people’s persistence persons Pietist political practices prayer Princeton problem Protestant Protestant Reformation Protestantism purification Reformed Churches religion religious religious conversion representational economy ritual speech role scriptural secular semiotic form semiotic ideology sense sincerity social society speak speaker spirits Sumbanese tion tradition transformation Umbu Neka University Press Waingapu West Sumba Wielenga Zending
Popular passages
Page 70 - APOSTLES' CREED I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord...
Page 70 - I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting, Amen.
Page 93 - CIVILIZATION, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
Page 37 - Or aught by me immutably foreseen, They trespass, authors to themselves in all, Both what they judge and what they choose...
Page 70 - Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose from the dead ; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
Page 95 - It is a harsher, and at times even painful, office of ethnography to expose the remains of crude old culture which have passed into harmful superstition, and to mark these out for destruction.
Page 76 - The first set of practices, by "translation," creates mixtures between entirely new types of beings, hybrids of nature and culture. The second, by "purification," creates two entirely distinct ontological zones: that of human beings on the one hand; that of nonhumans on the other.