Journal article
'Break Down These Walls': Space, Relations, and Hierarchy in Fijian Evangelical Christianity
Rachel Morgain
OCEANIA | WILEY | Published : 2015
DOI: 10.1002/ocea.5077
Abstract
Patterns of sociality in Fijian evangelical Christianity differ from the mainline Fijian Methodist church in being notably less integrated with relations of vanua and chiefly hierarchy, leading scholars to speculate as to whether such traditions are more individualised. Analysing teachings, hymns, worship styles and spatial arrangements within a prominent Fijian Pentecostal ministry, I explore how sociality is produced through the interaction of spatial, conceptual, and embodied processes. Competing dynamics of hierarchy and equality, connections and boundaries, are mobilised within an overall framework that emphasises individual moral authority and personal relationship with God. Through th..
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Awarded by ARC
Funding Acknowledgements
This research was made possible through funding from the ARC Laureate project 'Engendering Persons, Transforming Things: Christianities, Commodities and Individualism in Oceania' (FL 100100196). I wish to express my thanks to the Christian Mission Fellowship for permission to carry out this research. For their myriad insights, I am grateful to University of the South Pacific students who discussed my research during their Religious History class, participants at the 'Gender and Person in Oceania' workshop held at The Australian National University (October 2011) and the Australian Association of Pacific Studies Conference (April 2012), and the editors of this volume.