A matter of belief
Subtitle: Christian conversion and healing in north-east India
By: Vibha Joshi
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 298
ISBN-13: 9780857455956
Subjects: Christianity; Spiritual healing; Healing; Christianity and other religions; Church history
Description: "Nagaland for Christ" and "Jesus Saves" are familiar slogans prominently displayed on public transport and celebratory banners in Nagaland, northeastern India. They express an idealization of Christian homogeneity that belies the underlying tensions and negotiations between Christian and non-Christian Naga. This religious division is intertwined with that of healing beliefs and practices, both animistic and biomedical. This study focuses on the particular experiences of the Angami Naga, one of the many Naga peoples. Like other Naga, they are citizens of the state of India but extend ethnolinguistically into Tibeto-Burman south-east Asia. This ambiguity and how it affects their Christianity, global involvement, indigenous cultural assertiveness and nationalist struggle is explored. Not simply describing continuity through change, this study reveals the alternating Christian and non-Christian streams of discourse, one masking the other but at different times and in different guises.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p.         ) and index.
Table of contents: title: A mountainous state; title: Classifying spirit and sickness; title: Religion of practice; title: Traditional healers; title: A brief history of Christian evangelisation; title: In the Naga Hills; title: Contemporary Christianity and the healing spirit; title: Church and healing.