Death in a Church of Life: Moral Passion during Botswana's Time of AIDS (The Anthropology of Christianity)

The Anthropology of Christianity

by Frederick Klaits

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.

Genres: Botswana

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Azalia Muchransyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book talks about how communities of churches in Botswana deal with death, especially in relation to HIV/AIDS. As other researches show that different places have their own unique nuances when it comes to HIV/AIDS-related issues, Klaits shows how HIV/AIDS in Botswana falls into the intersectionality of religion (Christianity), science, spiritual (e.g. witchcraft), and local wisdom (e.g. their beliefs about hot/cold blood, sexuality, and caregiving). Over the span of several years, Klaits did an ethnography research in Botswana which includes him living and interacting with the locals, being baptized by the church, learning about the language and trying to understand the layers of meanings on the interaction between people by interviewing and observing people’s everyday activities and interactions.His main subject is MmaMeipelo (a pseudonym), who was the leader of a Baitshepi Apostolic church in Gaborone. MmaMeipelo devoted her life to teaching Christianity when she got a calling after she stopped her business of selling alcohol to the local community. What is interesting is that Klaits also made his research richer by observing the teachings of other churches. Klaits main point of observation is how these Batswana churches deal with deaths caused by HIV/AIDS, which shows a more complicated matter than meets the eye as there is an intertwining of Christianity, Spirituality/local wisdom, and science.