Realising contingent religious subjects through relational spaces of missionary encounter

• Main Author: WOODS, Orlando
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: Missionary encounter; religious subject; relational space; STM; Singapore.; Asian Studies; Religion
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3421; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4678/viewcontent/apv12315.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper explores the ways in which the religious subject can be a contingent position that is responsive to the broader socio-religious context within which it is expressed. These contingencies are acutely observed amongst short-term missionaries (STM), who seek out encounters with difference in pursuit of a more cosmopolitan subjectivity. Yet, whilst spaces of missionary encounter are inherently relational, the missions literature has tended to downplay the effects of relationality on the realisation of these subject positions. By focussing on the experiences of Singaporean missionaries working amongst Christian communities in Southeast Asia, I contribute a more nuanced and less predetermined understanding of the dynamics that underpin intra-Asian missionary encounters. Drawing on interviews conducted with Singapore’s STM community, I explore how materiality and new media can structure encounters and subject positions within relational missionary space. I also emphasise the limits of relational space by highlighting its untranslatability beyond the missionary terrain.