Loading...

Indigenous Christianity in Madagascar

The Power to Heal in Community

by Cynthia Holder Rich (Author)
©2011 Monographs XX, 190 Pages
Series: Bible and Theology in Africa, Volume 13

Summary

Madagascar is a poor country with very little power on the world stage. As a former French colony, Madagascar’s wealth has often been viewed as available to others with more power to take and use as they please. This trend continues today; while its unique flora and fauna and potential mineral resources excite international business, government, and conservation interests, for the most part, the lives of Malagasy people receive little attention.
In this context of powerlessness, an indigenous Christian movement offers empowerment and healing to people with mental illness. The movement, little-known outside the country, has offered care and community to many of society’s outcasts for over a century. The impact of the movement’s work is so great that national health officials depend on the movement for mental health services, which are woefully lacking outside the movement’s camps.
In this volume, the movement’s strategies for caring in community are explored, particularly focusing on understandings and uses of power among the powerless. The book includes discussion of power use and abuse by colonial, missionary, ecclesial, national, and international forces, analyzes relationships between the powerful and powerless, asks theological questions about power and the Jesus movement worldwide, and invites conversation on the potential power of the building of communities of care for people with mental illness in other contexts globally, to work toward healing, justice, and health.

Details

Pages
XX, 190
Year
2011
ISBN (PDF)
9781453907962
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433114168
DOI
10.3726/978-1-4539-0796-2
Language
English
Publication date
2012 (February)
Keywords
healing church in Madagascar power colonialism missions missionary theology Madagascar mental illness post-colonial Christian healing shepherds
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2011. XX, 190 pp.

Biographical notes

Cynthia Holder Rich (Author)

Cynthia Holder Rich, theologian, pastor, and author, received her PhD in theology and development from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, writing on the intersection of ecclesiology, missiology, and development strategies among the Protestant churches in Madagascar. She has published widely in academic journals on Madagascar, race and culture in the church, and disability, and edited The Fifohazana: Madagascar’s Indigenous Christian Movement (2008). She has taught at theological schools in Madagascar and the United States, and now directs ecclesio.com, where participants converse on issues facing the church in the world.

Previous

Title: Indigenous Christianity in Madagascar
book preview page numper 1
book preview page numper 2
book preview page numper 3
book preview page numper 4
book preview page numper 5
book preview page numper 6
book preview page numper 7
book preview page numper 8
book preview page numper 9
book preview page numper 10
book preview page numper 11
book preview page numper 12
book preview page numper 13
book preview page numper 14
book preview page numper 15
book preview page numper 16
book preview page numper 17
book preview page numper 18
book preview page numper 19
book preview page numper 20
book preview page numper 21
book preview page numper 22
book preview page numper 23
book preview page numper 24
book preview page numper 25
book preview page numper 26
book preview page numper 27
book preview page numper 28
book preview page numper 29
book preview page numper 30
book preview page numper 31
book preview page numper 32
book preview page numper 33
book preview page numper 34
book preview page numper 35
book preview page numper 36
book preview page numper 37
book preview page numper 38
book preview page numper 39
book preview page numper 40
210 pages