Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
10-2013
Abstract
This paper incorporates a melange of ideas into a new understanding of evangelical Christian growth. Existing explanations of growth are well rehearsed within the social sciences, and draw clear distinctions between the characteristics of evangelical organisations and the structural contexts in which they operate. A number of theoretical and empirical assumptions render such explanations applicable in some countries, but not others. Drawing on empirical data from Sri Lanka, I argue that closer examination of the recursive relationship between organisation (agency) and context (structure) will lead to recognition of the fact that growth is a spatially defined process, with evangelical organisations being tied to localities in complex and multifarious ways. A heuristic device - the structural mosaic - is proposed and developed in order to account for the growth of evangelical Christian groups in hostile environments around the world.
Keywords
evangelical Christianity, geographies of religion, Sri Lanka, productions of space, religious growth, structural mosaic
Discipline
Asian Studies | Religion
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
Volume
38
Issue
4
First Page
652
Last Page
664
ISSN
0020-2754
Identifier
10.1111/tran.12004
Publisher
Wiley: 24 months
Citation
WOODS, Orlando.(2013). The spatial modalities of evangelical Christian growth in Sri Lanka: Evangelism, social ministry and the structural mosaic. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(4), 652-664.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2426
Copyright Owner and License
Author
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12004