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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. An analysis of the reception and appropriation of the Bible by Manobo Christians in Central Mindanao, Philippines David Wilson McMahon DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 2017 i DECLARATION This is to certify that the work contained within has been composed by me and is entirely my own work. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Signed: ________________________________ ii Acknowledgments In working on this thesis I have accrued a huge debt of gratitude to a large number of very gracious, hospitable, and generous people. I begin by acknowledging my gratefulness to the multitude of people in Mindanao, Philippines who gave me help and made my research possible. My life among the Manobo of central Mindanao began back in 1990, when my wife Irene and I, with our children, took up residence in a Manobo village in the Tigwa valley, San Fernando, Bukidnon. Since then our lives have been immeasurably enriched, in a multitude of ways, through the lives of those Manobo we lived among and learned from. In the making of this thesis I was blessed with the help of Albert Catua, good friend and president of the Manobo Bible Church Association of Mindanao who facilitated my access to the congregations of the Manobo Bible Church Association of Mindanao (MABCAM), and who, with his wife Maryjane graciously hosted me in their home for one of my periods of fieldwork. For the additional phases of my data collection I have others to thank. The high school students of the MABCAM dormitory in Santo Niño, Talaingod, along with their guardians, Rene and Sally Laurnel kindly welcomed me into their home for a period of weeks. The same can be said for the high school students of the MABCAM dormitory at Halapitan, San Fernando, who with their guardians, also provided me with space to live and work for a time. All of these were generous in their hospitality, sharing with me their table and being wonderful companions when a day’s work was over. I must also thank Dayang Amir, long-time friend to Irene and me, who opened her home when I needed to base in Valencia, Bukidnon, for the final period of my fieldwork. Others provided me with different kinds of very practical assistance in Mindanao. Rene Laurnel took time out on a number of Sundays to make recordings for me in church services in zone three. Jimmy and Arcely Lumasay did the same for me in zone four. These three greatly increased my data-gathering capacity and I am very grateful for their willing spirits. It goes without saying that I am also indebted to the numerous MABCAM church leaders who willingly gave me access to their congregations and allowed me to record their sermons and Sunday school lessons, and to the many members who granted me time for interviews. In addition, I wish to thank my OMF friend and colleague, Adolf Annen who loaned me a motorcycle for my two periods of fieldwork in Mindanao; a generous provision that saved me time and made the task of travelling in the highlands of central Mindanao much easier than it might have been. I need also to say a big thank-you to OMF colleague, Jay Hallowell, current field director of OMF Philippines, who granted me access to the OMF archives in Manila. From within the University of Edinburgh, I acknowledge my gratitude to the Scholarships Committee of the School of Divinity who generously provided me with iii assistance in meeting the tuition costs of my degree. When I began this period of study in Edinburgh, my primary supervisor was Dr Elizabeth Koepping. To her I am grateful for the help she gave me in getting started on this whole process. Her expertise in cultural anthropology, the skills of fieldwork and academic writing provided me with the perfect start to doing research. Following Dr Koepping’s retirement in 2014, Professor Brian Stanley, director of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, became my primary supervisor. To Professor Stanley I am deeply grateful. His experience as an established scholar and supervisor of students meant that I lacked nothing by way of the guidance and wisdom that any student needs in order to complete a PhD thesis. His prompt responses to my work, his judicious analysis and comments, as well as generosity with his time have kept me on the road to completion. I also wish to thank those who provided me with accommodation in Edinburgh during my frequent visits. For the first year of my studies, long-time friends Jonathan and Christiane Idle made me welcome at their home in Dunbar. More recently I have enjoyed the hospitality of Sue and Cameron Rose in Edinburgh. To both of these couples I say “thank-you”, for your big hearts and open homes. As I approached the end of the writing process I was blessed with the help of friend and expert proof reader Michelle McFadden. Without Michelle’s keen eye for detail, and professional knowledge of her craft, this thesis would not have been fit for purpose. Thank-you Michelle. I wish also to express my appreciation to First Antrim Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland. As our home congregation they provided me with financial assistance for my study and were a constant source of strength—always interested in my progress and always encouraging me to keep to the task. Finally I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation for the enduring help and love of my wife Irene. Irene encouraged me to get started on this research and has been unwavering in her support throughout the entire process. She has worked and earned while I have studied and written. She has put up with my absences for long periods in the Philippines and Edinburgh. She has helped me keep my focus when my enthusiasm for the whole project frequently flagged and I would rather have been doing something else. For the successful completion of this thesis I owe more to her than anyone else. Wilson McMahon Edinburgh, September, 2017 iv Contents DECLARATION...................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .............................................................................................. iii Abstract ................................................................................................................x Lay Summary of Thesis ........................................................................................ xi Table of Figures .................................................................................................. xii Chapter One. Introduction ................................................................................... 1 Listening to the Ordinary Reader ............................................................................. 1 Subsidiary Themes ................................................................................................... 5 Reception and Appropriation .......................................................................................... 5 Bible Translation ............................................................................................................ 11 Placing the Study within the Context of Christianity in the Philippines ................ 13 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 18 Primary sources .............................................................................................................. 18 Data Collection ............................................................................................................... 19 Analysing the Data ......................................................................................................... 23 Outline of the Thesis ...................................................................................................... 24 Chapter Two. Christian Mission and the Bible in Mindanao ................................ 29 The Philippines and Spanish Catholicism ............................................................... 30 The Nature of the Church/State partnership ................................................................. 33 A Dispersed Populace and Shortage of Missionary Personnel ...................................... 35 The Challenge of Religious versus Diocesan authority .................................................. 36 Spanish Catholicism in Mindanao .......................................................................... 37 The Intricacies of Appropriation and the Emergence of a Filipinized Catholicism 41 Spain, the Bible and the Philippines ....................................................................... 43 The Protestant Mission .........................................................................................

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