The Missionary as Stranger: A Phenomenological Analysis of Christian Missionaries' Encounter with the Folk Religions of Thailand

Abstract

Two major dimensions of strangeness, the cognitive and normative, are distinguished in Schuetz's classical phenomenological model of the transition from strangeness to familiarity. It is argued that there is a category of stranger roles whose role obligations encourage a cognitive, but preclude a normative transition from strangeness to familiarity. The argument is examined on empirical data on Christian missionaries in Thailand. Specifically, the changing attitudes to local beliefs in spirits (phii) and their accommodation into the missionaries' worldview are examined. It is found that the missionaries tend to 'Christianize' the spirits, thus modifying their worldview, but not changing it fundamentally.