The Karen and the Politics of Conversion
The history this essay explores confirms the claim that a combination of political backdrop, social change, tribal religion, and cross-cultural appropriation of the gospel has positively contributed to religious conversion among the ethnic Karen in Burma from their primal religion to Christianity. T...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Brill
2016
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In: |
Church history and religious culture
Year: 2016, Volume: 96, Issue: 3, Pages: 325-345 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Burma
/ Karen
/ Christianity
/ Conversion (Religion)
/ Ethnic identity
/ History 1824-1948
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RelBib Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history KBM Asia |
Further subjects: | B
Burma
Karen
Burman
ethnicity
nationalism
Christianity and Buddhism
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Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
Summary: | The history this essay explores confirms the claim that a combination of political backdrop, social change, tribal religion, and cross-cultural appropriation of the gospel has positively contributed to religious conversion among the ethnic Karen in Burma from their primal religion to Christianity. This essay further contends that Christianity has protected the Karen from Burman coercion and assimilation, continued to differentiate them from the Burman, and will likely protect them from Burman aggression and absorption in the future, proving the historical truth that the fate and future of the Karen are tightly bound up with Christianity. It is also observed that the Karen would have been assimilated into the religion, culture, language, and ethnicity of the Burman had they refused to convert from their ancestral religion to Christianity. |
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ISSN: | 1871-2428 |
Contains: | In: Church history and religious culture
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/18712428-09603001 |