Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia

by David Halloran Lumsdaine

Overview

Although a minority of the Asian population, Protestants in Asia are a fast-growing group. What are the political implications of this evangelical Christianity? In some cases, religion has enabled poor and marginalized people to gain greater prosperity, self-confidence and civic skills, and more open-minded and democratic societies. But does religion have the kind of cultural currency needed to generate political changes in governments such as China's? Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia provides six case studies on China, Western India, Northeast India, Indonesia, South Korea, and the Philippines. The contributors, mainly younger scholars based in Asia, bring first hand-knowledge to their chapters. The result is a groundbreaking work, indispensable to everyone concerned with the future of the region.

Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia is one of four volumes in the series Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in the Global South and grew from a 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? At a time when the global-political impact of another revivalist and scriptural religion - Islam - fuels debate, these volumes offer an unusual comparative perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195308242
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/13/2009
Series:	Evangelical Christianity and Democracy I Series
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Preface Timothy Samuel Shah vii

Contributors xxiii

Abbreviations xxvii

Evangelical Christianity and Democratic Pluralism in Asia: An Introduction David H. Lumsdaine 3

1 The Christian Community in China: The Leaven Effect Kim-Kwong Chan 43

2 Emulating Azariah: Evangelicals and Social Change in the Dangs Sushil J. Aaron 87

3 Ethnicity, Civil Society, and the Church: The Politics of Evangelical Christianity in Northeast India Sujatha Fernandes 131

4 Evangelicals and Politics in Indonesia: The Case of Surakarta Bambang Budijanto 155

5 Evangelicals and the Democratization of South Korea Since 1987 Rev. Dr. Joshua Young-gi Hong 185

6 Consolidating Democracy: Filipino Evangelicals between People Power Events, 1986-2001 David S. Lim 235

References 285

Index 317