The Anglican Church in Singapore: Mission and Multiculture, Renewal and Realignment [Hardcover]

The Anglican Church in Singapore has a unique place both in the study of World Christianity and in the history of Southeast Asia. From its beginnings as a Church for colonial settlers, to its role as an unlikely agent of change in Singapores postcolonial transition, and its reinvention as part of a highly prosperous, hyperglobalized, supercapitalist, aspiration-driven modern state, the extraordinary trajectory of the Anglican Church in Singapore merits considerable attention.

This study draws on archival material, incisive scholarship, and candid memoirs to chart the two-hundred-year history of Singapores Anglican Church, through world wars and communist insurgency towards hard-won national independence and the unparalleled social transformation of today, but this book goes far beyond mere chronological narrative. The authors approach is inquisitive, rigorous, and ardently multidisciplinary, providing insights from theological, anthropological, political, and sociolinguistic perspectives.

Homing-in on critically important and currently relevant themes, this book subjects the colonial-era Anglican Churchs social, ethnic, and interreligious engagement to scrutiny. The Churchs more recent and controversial commitment to the Anglican Realignment movement and its unexpected reorientation towards Pentecostalism are thoroughly investigated. The remarkable case of Singapores Anglican Church is indispensable for a complete understanding of World Christianity and Christianity in Asia today.

Jarvis has a gift for sifting through extensive and diverse archival material to find the key figures whose lives are pivotal in the controversial history of the Anglican church. In this volume, the under-researched relationship between colonizers and Christians in Singapore is explored historically and in engaging narrative style. l.