CFP: Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity in Southeast Asia: Church - Nation - World

Call for Paper - IAHR (Erfurt, Germany, 23-29 August 2015, http://www.iahr2015.org)

Panel: Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity in Southeast Asia:  Church – Nation – World

In the last decades, studies on Pentecostal/Charismatic movements have become a well established research field. This development mirrors the rising visibility of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians in the public sphere – may it be via media, public prayer rallies and intercessory marches in mega-cities, through active candidacies in local and national political settings, as well as through community and social engagement. As an effect of the same global Pentecostal discourse that posits believers as vehicles of the Full Gospel to their immediate surrounding and the world, others have opted to stay out of a deeper worldly engagement and found new meaning in concentrating on individual transformation, holiness, evangelization, and building their own congregation, which, in turn, gives them a higher profile in the public sphere as well.

Given newer geopolitical developments in the Pacific Rim, it is surprising that studies on Pentecostal/Charismatic movements in Southeast Asia have received only limited attention.

• What are the ways Pentecostal/Charismatic believers in this region engage and situate themselves within their local societies and in the world?
• What global networks are tapped, endorsed and criticized?
• How do they construe their identity, their notions of church and their role in the world and what does it mean to them?
• How are these articulations framed by themes, theologies and socio-political discourses and material conditions prevalent in their local contexts?
• How do Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians negotiate the limits these frames and material constraints put on them?

This panel invites scholars of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity in Southeast Asia to present research and case studies that interrogate the role of these religious movements in contemporary Southeast Asian societies pertaining to the aforementioned questions.

If you would like to contribute to the panel, please send us an abstract of app. 150 words (deadline September 10, 2014) by email toGiovanni.Maltese@wts.uni-heidelberg.de or to katja.rakow@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.

Giovanni Maltese
Doctoral Research Fellow
Religionswissenschaft und Interkulturelle Theologie
Theologische Fakultät, Universität Heidelberg
Kisselgasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg

Tel.: +49-(0)6221 / 54-3731 Fax: +49-(0)6221 / 54-3290
Email: giovanni.maltese@wts.uni-heidelberg.de
Web: http://theologie.uni-hd.de/rm
Email: giovanni.maltese@wts.uni-heidelberg.de
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