Reason and Revival in Asia-Pasifika (CH2040P)

Content

This unit traces stories of Christianity in Asia-Pasifika, including Australia, from the 1700s to the 1900s. Looking at the lives and work of women, Indigenous leaders, writers, and missionaries, we will ask how did colonialism impact the experience of faith? And how did theology and local historical contexts combine to shape churches and societies? We will explore the rhetoric of reason from the Reformed tradition and expressions of revival from Evangelicalism. We will interpret a variety of historical sources ― memoir and biography, hymns and church journals, literature and artefacts. Using contemporary historical methods, such as material history, literary history and the history of emotions, we will seek to understand the experience of lived faith in particular contexts. Finally, we will gain an understanding of change and continuity in Christian practice and belief in the region where we serve.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

Prerequisite 18 points of CH or CT

Pedagogy

Seminars, workshops, shared learning experiences, and student-led research aimed at gaining critical understanding of students' own past and/or present contexts.

Indicative Bibliography

• Ernst, Manfred (ed.). Globalization and the Re-Shaping of Christianity in the Pacific Islands. Suva: Pacific Theological College, 2006.
• Gardner, Helen B. Gathering for God: George Brown in Oceania. Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2006.
• George, Sam (ed). Diaspora Christianities: Global Scattering and Gathering of South Asian Christians. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018.
• Handasyde, Kerrie. God in the Landscape: Studies in the Literary History of Australian Protestant Dissent. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
• Jacobs, Karen, Chantal Knowles, and Chris Wingfield (eds). Trophies, Relics and Curios?: Missionary Heritage from Africa and the Pacific. Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2014.
• Kim, Kirsteen and Sebastian C. H. Kim. A History of Korean Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
• Lake, Meredith. The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History. Rev. ed. Sydney: NewSouth Press, 2020.
• O’Brien, Glen and Hilary Carey, eds. Methodism in Australia: A History. Burlington: Ashgate, 2015.
• Piggin, Stuart and Robert Linder, Attending to the National Soul: Evangelical Christians in Australian History, 1914-2014. Melbourne: Monash University Press, 2019.
• Sivasundaram, Sujit. Nature and the Godly Empire: Science and Evangelical Mission in the Pacific, 1795-1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Assessment