Foundational Readings in Folk Religion

This bibliography provides foundational texts helping current and future missionaries to understand communicating Christ in animistic contexts. Another, more comprehensive bibliography, which will be online soon, will enable the researcher to find materials on certain topics (like divination) or about certain types of animism in the world (like Spiritism of Brazil, Cargo Cult in Melanesia, Voodoo in Haiti, African Traditional Religion, or New Age). If you have any suggestions or recommendations about this list, please e-mail me.

Gailyn Van Rheenen

Burnett, David. 1988. Unearthly Powers. Eastbourne: MARC.

Hiebert, Paul G., R. Daniel Shaw, & Tite Tienou. 1999. Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.

Hiebert, Paul G. 1982. The flaw of the excluded middle. Missiology. Vol. X, No. 1 (January 1982): 35-47.

Love, Rick. 2000. Muslims, Magic and the Kingdom of God. Pasadena: William Carey Library.

Moreau, A. Scott.Ed. 2002. Deliver Us from Evil: An Uneasy Frontier in Christian Mission. Monrovia, California: World Vision Publications.

Steyne, Philip M. 1989. Gods of Power. Houston: Touch Publications.

Van Rheenen, Gailyn. 1993. Cultural conceptions of power in biblical perspective. Missiology. Vol. XXI, No. 1 (January 1993): 41-53.

_________. 1996. Communicating Christ in Animistic Contexts. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.

Revised: October 21, 2002.