Salvation in Melanesia
Salvation in Melanesia
Becoming a New Person
in Churches in Fiji and
Papua New Guinea
Michael Press
LEXINGTON BOOKS/FORTRESS ACADEMIC
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
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Copyright © 2020 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
Excerpts from Michael Press, Kokosnuss und Kreuz. Geschichten von Christen im Pazifik (Neuendettelsau: Erlanger Verlag für Mission, 2010) reprinted with permission of Erlanger Verlag für Mission und Ökumene.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Press, Michael, 1963- author.
Title: Salvation in Melanesia : becoming a new person in churches in Fiji and Papua New Guinea / Michael Press.
Description: Lanham : Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020011643 (print) | LCCN 2020011644 (ebook) | ISBN 9781978709935 (cloth) | ISBN 9781978709942 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Fiji—Church history. | Christianity—Fiji. | Papua New Guinea—Church history. | Christianity—Papua New Guinea.
Classification: LCC BR1495.F5 P74 2020 (print) | LCC BR1495.F5 (ebook) | DDC 279.53—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011643
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011644
Contents
Prologue The Quest for Christian Renewal
3 Renewal
4 Pentecostal Ways of Growing in Faith
5 Becoming a New Person
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
The Quest for Christian Renewal
Christianity has had a major impact on the cultural formation of Pacific Islander identities. Pacific Island Christians used to refer to the historical transformation brought about by Christian mission as conversion from darkness to light, from sin to salvation, from taboo to freedom, or from traditional to modern life. This period of initial conversion is finished and only a few people have still personal memories of pre-Christian times. However, conversion and renewal still play a major role in the life of Christians in the South Pacific Islands. The impact of the initial conversion continues, because the receiving parties were actively forming the religion. Secondly, the conversions are reenacted today in personal spiritual conversion. Many Christians regard transformation as the chief aim of their religious life and many churches proclaim the necessity of this aim.
Today, this aim attracts many Christians away from the historical churches which arrived first in the islands, and toward the new churches. Pentecostal churches in particular claim that they convert superficial or “nominal” Christians into true believers and thus fulfill the promises of the New Testament. Of course, the historical churches dispute this claim, knowing that they started with the same aim of conversion and renewal. They criticize the new churches for their unjustified proselytizing. Having been an observer and participant of Christianity in both Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG), it seems important for me to assess these claims for transformation and renewal.
This book explores the religious attitudes of Christians in two Protestant churches: the Methodist Church in Fiji (MCF) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea (ELCPNG). It is based on my observations, research, and fieldwork during my time as a lecturer at the Pacific Theological College in Suva, the capital of Fiji. The Methodist Church in Fiji comprises around 70 percent of the indigenous Fijians (population about 900,000). It is the first mission church and until today the biggest church in the Fiji Islands. The ELCPNG with around 1.4 million members or 18 percent of the population is the second biggest church after the Catholic Church in PNG (population around 7.8 million).
I begin exploring the history of mission in both churches showing that the form of Christianity in these churches is the result of their history, beginning with the early mission, when patterns of traditional religion merged with the received Christianity, forming a specific Melanesian type of Christianity.1 The conflicts and fusions are outlined between the indigenous Melanesian perceptions of religion and the central Christian doctrine of salvation and renewal. The central part of the book analyzes experiences and life stories to show how the Christian faith has changed individuals and their communities and the ways by which churches educate their members about their faith.
Salvation is the center of the Christian understanding of the believer’s relationship to God. Christian doctrine has described salvation as the process from accepting oneself as a sinner, who has lost the fellowship with God, to the restoration of this fellowship through faith by turning to Jesus Christ, who is the savior through his atoning death on the cross. Biblical faith has its center in the differentiation between the grace of God which is revealed in the gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection and human sin revealed through the law of God.
But how is this concept of salvation perceived by Melanesian Christians? Previous research has asserted that religion in Melanesia is focused on the question of how to gain access to a better life and that in Papua New Guinea the relationship to God is basically utilitarian, serving the goal of acquiring material and spiritual well-being for the community and individuals. In this framework, religion follows a pattern of reciprocity, reward, and punishment.2 Abiding by the law will be rewarded by God. The reward is deserved in this life, because the afterlife is of far less concern than the material blessings here and now. Garry W. Trompf has claimed that the logic of retribution is the overall framework for the society and religion in Papua New Guinea.3 Pastors of the ELCPNG indicated that in the Melanesian context it is difficult to accept the concept of God’s unconditional grace, because people want to do something for their salvation.4 In addition, the concept of salvation through the death of Christ