Previous research has asserted that religion in Melanesia is focused on the question of how to gain access to a better life and that in Papua New Guinea the relationship to God is basically utilitarian, serving the goal of acquiring material and spiritual well-being for the community and individuals. In this framework, religion follows a pattern of reciprocity, reward, and punishment.2 Abiding by the law will be rewarded by God. The reward is deserved in this life, because the afterlife is of far less concern than the material blessings here and now. Garry W. Trompf has claimed that the logic of retribution is the overall framework for the society and religion in Papua New Guinea.3 Pastors of the ELCPNG indicated that in the Melanesian context it is difficult to accept the concept of God’s unconditional grace, because people want to do something for their salvation.4 In addition, the concept of salvation through the death of Christ on the cross is hardly acceptable in Melanesia, because suffering used to prove a broken relationship to God while prospering indicates a good relationship.
The tensions between the Melanesian framework of religion and the Christian understanding of salvation have created a specific Melanesian form of faith. This book will compare the lived faith of Christians in Fiji and Papua New Guinea with the Christian doctrines in order to establish the typical elements and problems, which occur through the encounter of Melanesian and Christian religious perspectives. In this comparison Christian doctrines refer to the Protestant teachings about faith and salvation expressed by Martin Luther and modified by John Wesley, the founding fathers and persons of reference for the two churches which are researched. Since both theologians have claimed to be interpreters of the Bible, especially the teachings of the New Testament about salvation, all doctrines need to be related to the Bible as their norm.
In the years 2005 until 2008 I conducted forty semi-structured narrative interviews in the ELCPNG and another thirty-five interviews in Fiji, with Methodist and a few Pentecostal Church members. A workshop was held with students of the ELCPNG Senior Flierl Seminary in Logaweng, enabling the students to interview six church members in rural areas of the ELCPNG. I interviewed church members in the five areas: Asaroka and Goroka in the Highlands and Madang, Finschhafen, and Lae at the coast. Half of the interviewees live in urban areas, half in rural areas. I interviewed mainly pastors and church leaders (thirty-five interviewees in Papua New Guinea and Fiji); the rest are church members, mostly male (thirteen female interviewees). The purpose of the interviews was not to present a representative account but to compare individual life stories or experiences of transformation in faith following the method of narrative interviewing.5
All interviews were conducted in confidentiality, and the names of interviewees are withheld by mutual agreement. All interviewees agreed that the interviews are published in this book. They were asked to describe their religious experiences and the changes which they experienced in their relationship with God. They were encouraged to narrate the stories of their faith development in detail. All interviews were transcribed and indexed using qualitative data software. The interviews were analyzed according to typical features of transformation in faith, which will be explained in chapters 2, 3, and 4. I have used some interviews as examples of conversion or renewal stories, especially in chapter 3. In addition, I used the archives of the two churches: the archive of the Neuendettelsau mission in Germany (concerning the Lutheran Mission in PNG), the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney concerning the reports from the Methodist Mission in Fiji, and the library of the Pacific Theological College in Suva, which holds a number of unpublished theses about these churches.
Chapter 1 of this book provides a brief overview about the methods and theology of early Christian mission, using sources from the missionaries and the respective church histories. Some of the Methodist and Lutheran missionaries gave detailed account of their observations, which allows some reconstruction of how the mission changed the pre-Christian religion and how it was actively adapted by the Melanesian people in the process of reception. The purpose of this chapter is to sketch the major principles employed by the respective missions and the reactions of the indigenous people to them. For instance, in preaching salvation for sinners the missionaries were confused by the lack of guilt feelings on the side of the converts, which they expected from their own conversion experience. The revival-movements of the nineteenth century, most notably in Methodism, focused on the inner experience of conversion and holiness. Some Lutheran missionaries concluded that the idea of the unconditional atoning love of God, which he showed in the death of Christ, was too difficult for Melanesians to grasp; others established Christian communities in which the law of God was regarded as gateway to the blessings of God. The latter proved successful, because it matched with traditional Melanesian patterns of the relationship with the gods. In Fiji, the Methodist missionaries kept working for a second personal conversion and for ongoing sanctification and provided the means for achieving this in class-meetings and revivals. However, these means changed to defining the marks of a good Christian according to moral behavior.
Chapter 2 outlines how the Christian faith is experienced in Fiji and PNG concerning the perceptions of God. It explains the main images of God used by Christians in Fiji and PNG; furthermore, how the culture shapes the experiences and expectations of faith with regards to the family, the clan, and the land. The most important views of the relationship to God are explained in more detail—the relationship of law, retribution, and punishment, which are often subsumed under the biblical image of God as Father. Which representations of the person in its relation to God and the society are employed?
Chapter 3 brings into focus the understanding of renewal and conversion. It asks how transformation is experienced, which factors support or hinder it and which steps are commonly necessary in order to enable and sustain the transformation. Conversion was not only the aim of the Christian mission but also the aim of the present churches to convert Christians from sinners to saints or from passive to active Christians. How do the churches form the members’ perceptions of their relationship with God, and how successful are the churches’ strategies for renewal? How do people respond in their religious search for a better life? How do they integrate their conversion into their life story in the cultures of Fiji and PNG? There are different influences such as the Melanesian religious focus on well-being and reciprocity, the evangelical emphasis on surrender to Christ and God’s laws, or the emphasis on practical experience and proofs. The relationship between religious individualism and the cultural and communal patterns will be discussed.
Both the Methodist Church in Fiji and the ELCPNG emphasize renewal and conversion, but often this transformation does not happen. This explains the attraction and success of the Pentecostal churches, whose principal goal is to convert passive Christians into inspired and “born again” Christians. Methodist and Lutheran Christians have converted to the Pentecostal churches. Therefore, chapter 4 explores and compares features of the Pentecostal perception and practice of renewal in Fiji and PNG, based on interviews with Pentecostal Christians. According to the Pentecostal doctrine, experiences of the Holy Spirit are a necessary “second work of grace.” The cooperation of the believer in the formation of the inner person is a necessary feature of life in the Spirit.6 Do the Pentecostal churches promote a modern individualistic type of religion or do they continue pre-Christian patterns of religious experiences?
Chapter 5 makes a theological evaluation of the transformation into a new person which is promised in the Christian tradition and experienced by many Christians in Fiji or PNG. How did the encounter between Christian mission with its (salvation) historical worldview and the mythological Melanesian religion shape and modify the Christian teachings? What has prevented the transformation into the new person and what supported it? Sociological and anthropological perspectives are included in the analysis about the ways of Melanesian Christians since they met with the global world during the time of the mission. Many Christians have lived, experienced, and taught Christian faith in a certain way whereby obedience to the law of God is expected to return blessings and well-being. Has this prevented transformation through the renewing power of the Christian faith? In order to answer this question I outline the theology of the Reformation, in particular Martin Luther, who opposed a type of religion which has some similarities with the type of religion that I encountered in Fiji and in PNG. John Wesley’s theology of experiential moral development
