Christian Circulations

Jean DeBernardi, professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta, has written an outstanding account of the evolution of evangelical protestantism in Southeast Asia. Christian Circulations: Global Christianity and the Local Church in Penang and Singapore, 1819-2000 (NUS Press, 2020) her third book from the National University of Singapore Press, reconstructs the complex relationships between European and Southeast Asian influences on Christian religion in two multi-cultural contexts. DeBernardi demonstrates the agency of local Christians, and the benefits of an historical approach that looks beyond linear denominational narratives to seek to understand the circulation of religious ideas.