Terence Chong (ed.): Pentecostal Megachurches in Southeast Asia. Negotiating Class, Consumption and the NationMirjam Lücking

ASIEN – Nr. 152/153 (2019) pp. 155–56

Singapore: ISEAS, 2018. 243 pp., 29.90 USD

This edited volume offers insights into various forms of Pentecostalism in Southeast Asia — a region that is associated with Islam, Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism, but less with Christianity.

Upon the initiative of Terence Chong, deputy director at the ISEAS — Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore, the book contains contributions from researchers from within the region who conducted ethnographic research in large Pentecostal churches in Southeast Asia. The introduction is followed by two chapters per country, with case studies from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. Analytical interest lies in the churches’ engagement with nationalism, class, neoliberalism, consumption and pop culture. In the introduction, Terence Chong exposes the simultaneity between universal, regional and local features of Pentecostalism…