Understanding the rapid rise of Charismatic Christianity in Southeast Asia

• Main Author: Knowledge@SMU
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2010
• Subjects: Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/ksmu/242; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1241&context=ksmu
• Institution: Singapore Management University

There seems to be something about speaking in tongues, prophesy, sing-a-longs and loud music bands that augurs well with the well-heeled, educated, middle-class, ethnic Chinese Southeast Asian. Juliette Koning, a visiting professor at SMU, and her colleague first took notice of this as they were conducting research in the region; of how urban and upwardly mobile ethnic Chinese communities seemed to be drawn to this particular brand of Christian worship. An in-depth study that followed confirmed their observations. What's more, they found that while church attendances all across Asia have been expanding rapidly, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia are said to have some of the world's fastest-growing Christian communities.