Traditional Romani Christianity vs Pentecostal and neo-Protestant Christianity: A grounded picture of religiosity and spirituality among the Roma in the twenty-first century in Slovakia

Through the example of specific locations settled by the Roma population in Slovakia, the study offers a grounded picture of Romani religiosity and spirituality in the twenty-first century. The author provides a brief overview of the analytical grasping of this phenomenon in the scientific community, as well as remarks on the seemingly neutral analytical terms used for the description of religiosity and spirituality among the Roma, which may contain clichés or be eventually culturally and intellectually colonialist. Based on multi-sited ethnographies in Slovakia, the author elucidates how traditional Romani Christianity is confronted with Pentecostal and neo-Protestant Christianity, which are considered non-traditional within the traditionally Roman Catholic Slovakia. To avoid scientific exotization of Romani religious culture, the author describes the main elements of traditional Romani Christianity based on the emic insights of non-Pentecostal Roma from various localities and through the lenses of the Pentecostal discourse (converts and pastors). She also mentions the fluid and postmodern features of Romani Christianity, which have preserved numerous traditional elements fluidly mixed with post-traditional and ultra-modern forms of spirituality and religiosity.

Transcending the Past: Singing and the Lingering Cold War in the Korean Christian Diaspora

Protestant music in South Korea has received little attention in ethnomusicology despite the fact that Protestant Christianity was one of the most popular religions in twentieth-century Korea. This has meant a missed opportunity to consider the musical impact of a religious institution that mediated translocal experiences between South Korea and the United States during the Cold War period (1950s–1980s). This article explores the politics of music style in South Korean diasporic churches through an ethnography of a church choir in California. I document these singers’ preference for European-style choral music over neotraditional pieces that incorporate the aesthetics of suffering from certain Korean traditional genres. I argue that their musical judgement must be understood in the context of their lived and remembered experience of power inequalities between the United States and South Korea. Based on my interviews with the singers, I show that they understand hymns and related Euro-American genres as healing practices that helped them overcome a difficult past and hear traditional vocal music as sonic icons of Korea's sad past. The article outlines a pervasive South Korean/Korean diasporic historical consciousness that challenges easy conceptions of identity and agency in music studies.

The Struggle of NZV in Spreading the Gospel in Garut, West Java, Indonesia, in the Early 20th Century

Based on a widely accepted view, the spread of Christianity in Indonesia was backed up by Dutch intervention. This article argues that the assumption is not entirely right. In some regions, the Dutch colonial and European settlers paid little attention to Christian missions. Garut, for example, was a city in the Priangan Residence that served as an economic center for the Dutch. Islamic influence was very strong in Garut. Therefore, when the NZV reached Garut in 1899, it received no support from the Dutch colonial administration. The effort to spread Protestant Christianity was initiated by the Chinese people. The strong Islamic influence in Garut became the main barrier preventing people's conversion to Christianity. Even though at the beginning of the 20th century there was no direct resistance, but secretly the Islamic leaders fought back by building negative perceptions of both the Netherlands and Christianity by labeling them as kafir and unclean.

Sejarah dan Dampak Misi Kristen di Kampung Besiq, Kutai Barat Tahun 1966

The existence of the Dutch ruling in Indonesia brought the development of Protestant Christianity. Continued with the entry of zending who came with the spirit of Pietism (pious people who practice God's word) which in principle prioritizes repentance, teaching faith experiences in daily life and in worship. They were sent to carry out the mission of preaching the gospel to all mankind who do not yet believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In West Kutai, Christianity is also growing rapidly as evidenced by the existence of the majority of people who embrace Protestant Christianity. One of them is Besiq village, which is located in the interior of West Kutai, Christianity has also developed in this village where the majority of the people embrace Protestant Christiani

Liberal Protestantism at Michigan

In the later nineteenth century the University of Michigan under President James Angell was often seen as a model of a modern university friendly to Christianity. Early in his tenure the university was accused of discrimination in preferring Protestant Christianity to Roman Catholicism, Judaism, or atheism. Angell responded to the satisfaction of a state investigating committee that while the school was Christian, it was not sectarian in the sense of teaching any one theology in preference to another. The emphasis was on building moral character rather than relating theology directly to other learning. Throughout the rest of the century this was the prevailing resolution of the tension between the Christian heritage and modern scientific research ideals. Characteristic was a volume, Religious Thought at the University of Michigan (1893), published by the Student Christian Association at Michigan. It represented a broad Christian ethical emphasis and included a presentation by John Dewey.

The Hunan Bible Institute (Biola-in-China): A Stronghold of Fundamentalist Bible Training in China, 1916—1952

The Protestant Church in China has been deeply shaped by the fundamentalist movement of the early twentieth century. As happened in America, Bible schools featured very prominently in the movement in China. The Hunan Bible Institute (HBI) was one of the most important Bible schools, and thus constitutes a good case study for this kind of key fundamentalist institution in China. By tracing its historical trajectory from 1916 to 1952, this study argues (1) that HBI embodied the vision and rationale of the fundamentalist theological training and (2) that HBI was not just a school, but also a platform where some of the most influential figures and ministries of the Chinese fundamentalist camp converged. It became a hub of spreading dispensationalism within China, and a powerhouse of the revivals sweeping across the country in those decades. This fact highlights the critical roles and significance the Bible schools held for the fundamentalist movement in China of the early twentieth century. (3) HBI’s identity as ‘Biola-in-China’ demonstrates a deep interrelationship between the fundamentalist camps in China and America. The strong, but troublesome relation between HBI and Biola attests to intensifying tension between the Chinese Church’s independence and foreign missions’ control. By training church leaders and providing a fundamentalist ministry platform, HBI exerted considerable influence on the formation of conservative Protestant Christianity in China.

Lost to Presence: The Entanglements of Writing, Protestant Christianity, and Empire in the 19th-Century Southern Africa

This essay takes interest in a dialectical relationship between writing as affirmation and writing as a system of codification. It explores this dialectic as it relates to the interaction between Sotho-speaking communities and Protestant Christian missionaries in the 19th-century Southern Africa. It shows that this dialectical relationship dissolves truth as a construct of writing as affirmation because it is informed by an ontology of force that conceives of truth (Christian truth in this case) as an outcome of victory over an adversary. This ontology of force, in which Christianity participates, is a consequence of a modern metaphysics that splits individual and divine will. Cut off from participation in divine will, the autonomous will of Protestant Christian missionaries became the basis for organizing the world of the 19th-century Sotho speakers. This opened doors for Christianity to participate in the broader imperial project of the racial subordination of colonized people that Sotho speakers resemble. The consequence of this was not only the delegitimization of personhood as a construct of indigenous African religion, but also the introduction of conceptions of personhood that partook of race and racism.