Critical Christianity: Translation and Denominational Conflict in Papua New Guinea

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Courtney Handman

Critical Christianity

Translation and Denominational Conflict in Papua New Guinea

Courtney Handman

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English

University of California Press
26 November 2014

Series: The Anthropology of Christianity

In Critical Christianity, Courtney Handman analyzes the complex and conflicting forms of sociality that Guhu-Samane Christians of rural Papua New Guinea privilege and celebrate as ""the body of Christ."" Within Guhu-Samane churches, processes of denominational schism-long relegated to the secular study of politics or identity-are moments of critique through which Christians constitute themselves and their social worlds. Far from being a practice of individualism, Protestantism offers local people ways to make social groups sacred units of critique. Bible translation, produced by members of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, is a crucial resource for these critical projects of religious formation. From early interaction with German Lutheran missionaries to engagements with the Summer Institute of Linguistics to the contemporary moment of conflict, Handman presents some of the many models of Christian sociality that are debated among Guhu-Samane Christians. Central to the study are Handman's rich analyses of the media through which this critical Christian sociality is practiced, including language, sound, bodily movement, and everyday objects. This original and thought-provoking book is essential reading for students and scholars of anthropology and religious studies.

By: Courtney Handman
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Volume: 16
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9780520283756
ISBN 10: 0520283759
Series: The Anthropology of Christianity
Pages: 328
Publication Date: 26 November 2014
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction PART ONE. MISSIONS 1. Sacred Speakers or Sacred Groups: The Colonial Lutheran Church in New Guinea 2. Linguistic Locality and the Anti-Institutionalism of Evangelical Christianity: The Summer Institute of Linguistics 3. Translating Locality: The Ethno-Linguistics of Christian Critique PART TWO. CHRISTIAN VILLAGES 4. Revival Villages: Experiments in Christian Social and Spatial Groups 5. The Surprise of Speech: Disorder, Violence, and Christian Language after the Men's House PART THREE: DENOMINATIONS 6. Events of Translation: Intertextuality and Denominationalist Change 7. Mediating Denominational Disputes: Land Claims and the Sound of Christian Critique 8. Kinship, Christianity, and Culture Critique: Learning to Be a Lost Tribe of Israel in Papua New Guinea Notes References Index

Courtney Handman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Reviews for Critical Christianity: Translation and Denominational Conflict in Papua New Guinea

Handman offers a careful analysis of the doings and sayings of New Life Christians. -- L. Lindstrom CHOICE Courtney Handman's Critical Christianity...display[s] some of the best work being done right now in the anthropology of Christianity. Marginalia, Los Angeles Review of Books Critical Christianity deserves to be read widely beyond its immediate audience of scholars of language, Christianity, and Melanesia for the way it both opens up, and begins to answer, fresh questions about critique and sociality, translation and ritual semiosis, and intersections between anthropology and theology. Oceania Handman provides an important new perspective on how Christianity might be considered not merely the object of critique but also a space for and means of social and cultural critique. American Anthropologist