Bibliograph

Death in a church of life, moral passion during Botswana's time of AIDS, Frederick Klaits

Type

Label

Death in a church of life, moral passion during Botswana's time of AIDS, Frederick Klaits

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

illustrationsmaps

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Death in a church of life

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

Frederick Klaits

Series statement

Anthropology of Christianity, 8

Sub title

moral passion during Botswana's time of AIDS

Summary

This deeply insightful ethnography explores the healing power of caring and intimacy in a small, closely bonded Apostolic congregation during Botswana's 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 Baitshepi's distinctly maternal ethos and the 'spiritual' kinship embodied in the church's 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

Classification