God or Tidibe? Melanesian Christianity and the Problem of Wholes

Abstract

The article examines the claim that some Melanesian Christians are caught between cultures; between a Melanesian ‘relationalism’ and a Christian ‘individualism’. It is suggested that such an argument attributes Western knowledge conventions and dilemmas, where understanding involves distinct but connected whole orders of knowledge, to Melanesians. The article questions the appropriateness of this. To illustrate the issue, case studies of understanding Melanesian Christianity from a historical and anthropological perspective are considered and it is shown that interpretive problems arise by being caught between these disciplinary wholes. It is argued instead that Melanesian Christians are not caught between cultures. Rather, the diverse forms of Melanesian Christianity express conventional Melanesian concerns about certainty, power and truth, concerns that are nonetheless influenced by Christian conceptions and conduct.