The Anglican Church in Singapore

The Anglican Church in Singapore has a unique place both in the study of World Christianity and in the history of Southeast Asia. From its beginnings as a Church for colonial settlers, to its role as an unlikely agent of change in Singapore's postcolonial transition, and its reinvention as part of a highly prosperous, hyperglobalized, supercapitalist, aspiration-driven modern state, the extraordinary trajectory of the Anglican Church in Singapore merits considerable attention.
This study draws on archival material, incisive scholarship, and candid memoirs to chart the two-hundred-year history of Singapore's Anglican Church, through world wars and communist insurgency towards hard-won national independence and the unparalleled social transformation of today, but this book goes far beyond mere chronological narrative. The author's approach is inquisitive, rigorous, and ardently multidisciplinary, providing insights from theological, anthropological, political, and sociolinguistic perspectives.
Homing-in on critically important and currently relevant themes, this book subjects the colonial-era Anglican Church's social, ethnic, and interreligious engagement to scrutiny. The Church's more recent and controversial commitment to the Anglican Realignment movement and its unexpected reorientation towards Pentecostalism are thoroughly investigated. The remarkable case of Singapore's Anglican Church is indispensable for a complete understanding of World Christianity and Christianity in Asia today.

Edward Jarvis, PhD, is fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and an Anglican priest.

1"To Pave the Way for Better Things" - The Arrival of Church and Empire in Southeast Asia and Singapore
2"Desiring to Enter the Fold of Christ" - Struggling to Balance Priorities in a Missionary Church
3"Wherever the Sun Shines" - From the Victorian Mission Boom to the End of Empire's Golden Era
4"Between What is Christian and What is Western" - Evolving Outlooks in an Age of Change
5"The Church in Times of Suffering and Persecution" - The Second World War, the Japanese Occupation, and the Aftermath
6 "More Fruitful and Urgent Tasks" - The Postwar Church amidst Conflict, Controversy, and Merdeka
7"The Deepening and Renewal of Her Spiritual Life" - Tension and Transformation in Singapore's Anglican Church
8"Indifferent to the Agenda of the Western Theological Intelligentsia" - Singapore's Anglican Church: Realization and Realignment