From Khmer Folk Buddhism to Evangelical Christianity: The contribution of experiences of conversion for understanding the practice of evangelism in Cambodia.

Abstract

This study investigates conversion from Khmer Folk Buddhism (KFB) to Christianity in Cambodia in the 21st Century, and seeks to contribute to evangelism in Cambodia. Rambo's model of conversion was used to organize the information and KFB is proposed as a descriptive term for missionaries. Similarities were noted between conversion in early Buddhism and contemporary Christianity. The key question was: what is the personal conversion experience of ordinary Christians? Participants were asked to tell the story of how they came to follow Jesus. An important contribution are the voices of Khmer Christians. The transcripts were analysed using linguistic, phenomenological, and narrative methods. Linguistic methods showed that Preah Ang, was the most common name used for God. It was shown how the participants know God relationally and conversion was described as God touching the heart. The phenomenological analysis produced a meaning statement which showed how conversion requires communication about God. The agency of participants was expressed by thinking about the gospel and deciding to believe it. Conversion included an awareness of the active presence of God. The narrative inquiry focused on critical events which revealed that crisis often preceded conversion and two patterns were identified. Crisis experienced as part of normative life development and unexpected crisis, both often resulted in a change of location and contact with multiple Christians. Finally, positioning, client posture, and non-transactional evangelism were offered as practices to improve cross-cultural evangelism in Cambodia. Reflexive evangelism and mission as culture-making were discussed as concepts for the wider mission community.

Date of Award	9 Jan 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Benjamin Pugh (Supervisor) & RMS UnKnown (Supervisor)