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Institution Building, Charisma, and Politics of Regulation in the Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement in Singapore

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Institution Building, Charisma, and Politics of Regulation in the Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement in Singapore View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarBank@NUS STRUGGLING WITH THE SPIRIT: INSTITUTION BUILDING, CHARISMA, AND POLITICS OF REGULATION IN THE PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT IN SINGAPORE CHUA WEI HAO BENJAMIN (B.Soc.Sci. (Hons), NUS) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2015 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety. I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used in the thesis. This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously. ________________________ CHUA WEI HAO BENJAMIN 17th August 2015 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This journey wouldn’t have been possible without the support of so many people: To Professor Vineeta Sinha, thank you so much for your supervision and guidance this entire time. I’ve learnt so much from you back from taking your SC3101 Social Theory class in my undergraduate days. Your insights and input into this piece of work have been invaluable in helping mould it from a raw research problem to the (hopefully) more polished thesis that is before your eyes. To my respondents, this work would have been utterly impossible without your willingness to share your personal stories, with their own fair share of ups and downs, to an insignificant graduate student like me. Rest assured, your stories are not merely data for a sociological project, but have been a personal inspiration for me. Thank you once again. To my church friends, thank you for the prayers as well as bearing with my constant blabbering about this work with all of you. I love Sociology, and it inevitably flows out to the daily conversations that I have. I know many of you are interested to read this piece due to my endless publicity. Well, it’s finally here! I hope you find it enjoyable and not too disappointing. To my fellow Masters graduate students, what a ride it has been. I will miss the times we had in the graduate room generating enough noise to scare away any foolish soul who thought they could even attempt to do any serious work there. You guys have been a source of encouragement, joy, and laughter. And I know that all of you will go forth from here towards extremely bright futures. To my parents, thank you for bringing me up and allowing me to indulge in doing this for two years. You two have allowed me to live my dream in so many ways. Lastly, this thesis is dedicated to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. May this humble piece somehow glorify Your great name. Benjamin Chua August 2015 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION PAGE…………………………...…………………………….………...i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……….………………………………………………………ii TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………..………………………………….iii SUMMARY…………….……….….…………………………………………………....vi LIST OF TABLES……………………………………….………………..……………viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 1.1 SETTING THE PROBLEMATIC ............................................................................... 1 1.2 CONTEXTUALIZATION ......................................................................................... 4 1.2.1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF P/C ............................................................................. 4 1.2.2 THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE IN SINGAPORE ............................................... 8 1.2.3 HISTORY OF P/C IN SINGAPORE ................................................................ 11 1.3 CONCEPTUALIZATION OF P/C ........................................................................... 15 1.4 RESEARCH PROBLEMATIC ................................................................................. 16 1.5 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 17 1.6 THEORETICAL INFLUENCES ............................................................................... 22 1.7 PROSPECTUS ..................................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................... 27 2.1 METHODOLOGICAL POSITION .......................................................................... 27 2.2 METHODS IN USE .............................................................................................. 30 2.3 POSITIONALITY AND REFLEXIVITY ..................................................................... 34 2.4 SAMPLING AND ACCESS .................................................................................... 37 CHAPTER III: CONFRONTATION IN THE HISTORICAL DENOMINATION 40 3.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 40 3.2 THREE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF HISTORICAL CHURCHES............................ 42 3.2.1 CONFRONTATION AND PARTIAL RUPTURE ............................................... 42 3.2.2 UNEVENNESS OF PERSONAL RENEWAL .................................................... 45 iii 3.2.3 SPIRITUAL GOVERNANCE AND ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY ................... 49 3.3 THE END RESULT: ISOMORPHISM IN ORGANIZING PRACTICE .......................... 55 3.4 STRATEGIES EMPLOYED .................................................................................... 60 3.5 ALTERNATIVE PRACTICES: “DEVIANCE” IN HISTORICAL CHURCHES ................. 65 3.6 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................ 70 CHAPTER IV: INNOVATION IN THE INDEPENDENTS ...................................... 78 4.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 78 4.2 TWO MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF INDEPENDENTS .......................................... 80 4.2.1 AUTONOMOUS LEADER-CENTRIC CONGREGATIONAL CULTURES ........... 80 4.2.2 ADVENTURES: LOW BARRIERS TO ENTRY AND EXIT ................................. 82 4.3 VARIETY AND SPECIALIZATION ......................................................................... 89 4.4 NORMATIVE PRESSURES ................................................................................... 94 4.5 NETWORKS AS SELF-GOVERNANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION ............................ 97 4.6 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS .......................................................................... 107 CHAPTER V: INHERITANCE AND INNOVATION: THE POLITICS OF “TRANSMISSION” ...................................................................................................... 114 5.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 114 5.2 TRANSMISSION AND THE PENTECOST EXPERIENCE ....................................... 115 5.3 PROCESSES OF TRANSMISSION ....................................................................... 119 5.3.1 “TRANSMISSION” IN THE INDEPENDENT SPHERE ................................... 120 5.3.2 TRANSMISSION IN THE HISTORICAL DENOMINATIONAL SPHERE .......... 124 5.4 INHERITANCE AND INNOVATION: THE POLITICS OF “TRANSMISSION” ......... 128 5.5 TENSIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS ...................................................................... 131 CHAPTER VI: CONCLUDING REMARKS ............................................................ 138 6.1 SYNTHESIS ....................................................................................................... 138 6.2 MAPPING THE DISCUSSION ............................................................................ 141 6.3 THE FUTURE OF PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC CHRISTIANITY IN SINGAPORE 144 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 153 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 181 iv APPENDIX A ................................................................................................................. 181 APPENDIX B ................................................................................................................. 183 v SUMMARY This thesis is an analysis of how Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity (p/c) doctrine and practice is organized and reproduced in the myriad of organizational forms that make up the p/c ecosystem in Singapore. Through a qualitative methodology, I examine p/c leadership as the medium in which practice is organized within and across congregations. I use a neo-institutional approach to argue that these leaders are embedded in different institutional environments which influence their autonomy to organize. These environments provide not only normative but also cognitive models of organizing and relating to one another. One significant element of influence by these environments is in how they foster varying politics of regulation. Different politics of regulation shape how religious difference in the form of concrete organizational practice is interpreted among two main strands of p/c, those in historical denominations and those who are independent. Historical denominations exhibit an overt politics of regulation observed through hierarchical governance structures where religious difference is often deviantized. This leads to an overall routinization of charisma and isomorphism in organization. Independents on the other hand exhibit a more latent politics of regulation through voluntary peer level accountability groups. Religious difference is often not deviantized
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