Journey from the Rainbow Bridge Separated Christian Socialities in an Indigenous Truku Village of Taiwan

Abstract

‘Christianity’, one of the world’s major religions, refers to the general cosmological understanding centred on the belief in Jesus as the saviour, son of God, and the Bible, yet its nature is heterogeneous. Historically, Christianity has developed distinct forms and spread worldwide through a process of missionary activity. This ethnography charts the impact of the denominations of Presbyterianism and Pentecostalism in an indigenous village examining how adherents have become oriented by Christianity in different ways as they strive to become good Christians living in modern society. This ethnography focuses on a marginalized Austronesian-speaking Taiwanese group, the Truku, who face challenges stemming from their relatively powerless social circumstances. As they have sought ways to cope with the impacts of their colonised status, the Truku people have converted to Christianity: Presbyterianism, then Pentecostalism. These conversions have led the Truku to develop distinct attitudes and approaches to life prompting members to lead largely separate lives despite their shared Truku heritage. My overall argument traces the bifurcation of this formerly homogenous village into two radically divergent religious communities, and shows how the practitioners of these different Christianities have entered into differing processes of social change. I document how, in relation to their distinct worldviews, adherents variously cope with conflicting cosmologies, socioeconomic tensions, as well as a range of other difficulties in their lives. The findings of this research suggest that Christianity reconfigures understandings of the social constraints and forms of power that local adherents confront in the world. Through reshaping the principles of power, practitioners feel themselves no longer to be marginal or powerless, but become central conduits through which power flows. The reconfiguration of their differing worldviews orients practitioners onto divergent trajectories as good modern subjects, in ways shaped by their specific understandings, and practices of being good Christians.