Traffics of the Sacred and the Secular: Christianity and Citizenship in Asia

Christianity in Asia, particularly its relationshipwith the state, offers an important counterpoint to studies of global Christianity.While Christians constitute the majority in countries like the Philippines, Christianity is largely a minority religion in the region.1 Christian groups in Asia are compelled to engage secular institutional structures, goals, and aspirations in order to negotiate a space for themselves in the nation-states they inhabit. These everyday struggles challenge understandings of Christian groups in the global south as operating independently of the state, phenomena that draw primarily from studies on Christian groups in Africa and Latin America andwhich have been used as evidence of an emerging Christendom that transcends the state.2 The Asian Christian experience is diverse and complex. While some Asian states like Singapore and the People’s Republic of China are staunchly secular in orientation and largely see themselves as adopting a balanced approach in managing the different religious faiths operating within respective national boundaries, others such as Sri Lanka and Thailand incorporate religious myths to reinforce political legitimacy and religious elements into governing approaches, at times privileging one religious faith over the other. Christian responses to this uneven political terrain is varied. Some groups choose towork within state-sponsored frameworks while others actively manage the state through careful positioning and deliberate compartmentalisation of church activities. At times, Christian groups in Asia have also contested state goals and expectations.3 These struggles by Christian groups to engage nation-states are