Death in a Church of Life: Moral Passion during Botswana's Time of AIDS (The Anthropology of Christianity) (Volume 8)

ISBN: 0520259661

Author: Klaits, Frederick

Condition: New

This deeply insightful ethnography explores the healing power of caring and intimacy in a small, closely bonded Apostolic congregation during Botswanas HIV/AIDS pandemic. Death in a Church of Life paints a vivid picture of how members of the Baitshepi Church make strenuous efforts to sustain loving relationships amid widespread illness and death. Over the course of long-term fieldwork, Frederick Klaits discovered Baitshepis distinctly maternal ethos and the spiritual kinship embodied in the churchs nurturing fellowship practice. Klaits shows that for Baitshepi members, Christian faith is a form of moral passion that counters practices of divination and witchcraft with redemptive hymn singing, prayer, and the use of therapeutic substances. An online audio annex makes available examples of the church members preaching and song.