INDIGENOUS CHRISTIANITY: EARLY MISSIONARY ENCOUNTERS AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN NIAS, INDONESIA (1865-1908)

Through a critical analysis of missionary and colonial archives, this thesis explores the complex interplay between traditional ‘immanentist’ Nias culture and ‘transcendentalist’ Christianity brought by German missionaries during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The early encounter between Nias culture and Christianity offers an example of a process through which syncretism arises. The thesis engages with recent discussions in the fields of history and anthropology of religion. Divided into three parts, the thesis traces the roots of religious syncretism by examining traditional Niasan culture, initial Niasan interpretations of Christianity, and the process and nature of cultural change. Part I investigates traditional Niasan culture before the arrival of missionaries by critically examining historical sources, challenging common misassumptions in contemporary scholarship, and identifying four key categories of traditional culture. Part II examines the early encounter between Niasans and missionaries, analyzing Niasan reactions and interpretations of Christianity. It explores how traditional cultural categories shaped these interpretations and how mutual misunderstandings and disappointments arose, as Niasan interpretations often diverged from the transcendentalist vision of the missionaries, leading to selective appropriation and rejection of Christian teachings. Part III addresses the emergence of a distinct Niasan Christianity. Here, the thesis discusses the subversion of Christian and missionary meanings, facilitated in particular by the translation of Christian texts into Nias language, and the destabilisation of Niasan culture under the influence of Christianity and colonial expansion. The thesis aims to move away from the historical focus on missionary history and instead foregrounds the role of traditional Nias culture in the interpretation of Christianity and the process of culture change, in order to show the Niasans as agents (rather than passive victims) of resistance and conversion. The missionaries’ failure to understand the beliefs, culture and behaviour of the Niasans meant that they were far from in control of the creation of this local Christianity, and inadvertently contributed to the development of a distinct form of Christianity in Nias.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Dinkelaar, Bianca

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Haustein, Jörg

• Nias
• Missionaries
• Indonesia
• Indigenous Christianity
• Rhenish Mission
• Syncretism
• Hybridity
• Bible Translation

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/65a5651b-84fa-4195-a2ef-b714fc6c6bbd/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.118490

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/384518