Overview

"In postcolonial Singapore and Malaysia, Pentecostal megachurches dominate the Christian landscape, but  the ""big four"" Protestant churches-Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Brethren-remain religions of heritage for many. Sixty Malaysian and nineteen Singaporean assemblies identify themselves as Christian Brethren, and most trace their roots to independent local churches formed in Penang and Singapore in the 1860s. After World War II, former Brethren elders founded new independent churches, from charismatic local churches and Pentecostal megachurches to a small network of Exclusive Brethren assemblies. This study is a transregional history of the Brethren movement and its emplacement in Singapore and Malaysia, but is also a history of discontinuous continuities that have shaped the modern field of religious practice in China and Southeast Asia."

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9789813251090

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A landmark publication on two counts. It not only re-inserts the historical significance of the Brethren churches in Malaysian and Singaporean Christianity, but also provides an important point of departure for future scholarship on the intersections between this stream of Christianity and socio-cultural and political shifts in modern postcolonial nation-states in the region. - Studies in World Christianity

Author Information

Jean DeBernardi is professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta who has done extensive ethnographic and archival research focusing on Singapore, Penang, and two UNESCO World Heritage sites in China, Wudang Mountain, a popular pilgrimage site for Southeast Asian Daoists, and Wuyi Mountain, a famous tea-growing area in Northern Fujian.

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