CTEAPOD J. Derrick Lemons

Martyn Percy, Former Dean of Christ Church-Oxford, discusses rapid religious change through the lens of theology.

In a world of swift and sweeping cultural transformations, few have seen changes as rapid and dramatic as those experienced by the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea in the last four decades. A remote people never directly "missionized," the Urapmin began in the 1960s to send young men to study with Baptist missionaries living among neighboring communities. By the late 1970s, the Urapmin had undergone a charismatic revival, abandoning their traditional religion for a Christianity intensely focused on human sinfulness and driven by a constant sense of millennial expectation. Exploring the Christian culture of the Urapmin, Joel Robbins shows how its preoccupations provide keys to understanding the nature of cultural change more generally.

Each guests discusses rapid religious change through the lens of their ethnographic research.

Each guests discusses rapid religious change through the lens of their ethnographic research.

Debra Mason, University of Missouri, presiding 

• Maria Len Rios, University of Georgia

• John Blake, journalist at CNN.com and former religion writer at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution  

• Audrey Galex, Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting

Tanya M. Luhrmann, Stanford University, presiding
-Devaka Premawardhana, Emory University, Continuities of Change: ‘Traditional’ Religion and the Convertible Self
-Jon Bialecki, Independent Scholar, An Eldritch Singularity: theorizing rapid [religious] change
-Courtney Handman, University of Texas-Austin, The Conservatism of Conversion: Continuity Thinking in 20th Century Protestant Missions
-Rachelle Scott, University of Tennessee, Invented traditions: The power of history during rapid religious change in Thailand
-Joseph Hellweg, University of Florida—Respondent