GROWING CHURCHES:
PHILIPPINE |
The ubiquitous Philippine Jeepney |
| Through a comparative study of three congregations of Baptists in the Philippines, my research looks at global-local processes of religious development in the post-missionary non-Western church. Although a substantial amount of literature has focused on the contact between Western missionaries, colonialism and various non-Western peoples, I am seeking to explore the subsequent development of these religious movements and their changing but ongoing relationship to non-local institutions, ideas, and traditions. | 
One of the churches in the study. |
At the Bagnio City Market. |
Funded by two grants from the Pew Foundation and a National Science
Foundation, I spent 17 months in Baguio City, Philippines, focusing on
three congregations within a single denomination, but representing different
social, ethnic and economic positions. By comparing how these congregations
conceive of themselves as members of a global religious movement and members
of a specific local, regional and national context, I intend to demonstrate
processes of change that will speak to religious movements elsewhere and
global-local dynamics generally.
Nov. 2000 |