Hybrid Lecture: Manfred Hutter – “Bringing Christianity to Thai Society"

30 June 2023, 4:00 pm, by AAI Webmaster

Photo: Manfred Hutter, cropped

We kindly invite you to this hybrid lecture on Friday, June 30, 2023, at 16:00–18:00 h (CEST/MESZ).

Topic: “Bringing Christianity to Thai Society"

Lecturer: Professor Dr. Manfred Hutter
Affiliation: Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn

Date/Time: 30.06.2023 (Friday), 16:00–18:00 h (CEST/MESZ).
Language: This hybrid lecture will be held in English.

Place: Universität Hamburg
             Asien-Afrika-Institut, room O-221
             Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Flügel Ost ("East Wing")
             20146 Hamburg

Zoom Link: https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/64563521222?pwd=OEdSbENCOUV2Ynl5ZUdnNG5mM1pwQT09
Zoom Meeting-ID: 645 6352 1222
Zoom Passcode: hgtlecture

Topic:

Since the middle of the 19th century Christian missionaries started activities for spreading their religion in Thailand. The paper will mainly focus on two topics of this process.

The one refers to the Bible as a core text for Christian missionaries: Here one can observe differences between Protestant and Catholic missionaries in the use of the Bible, but also regional differences between Christians among tribals in the north of Thailand, among central Thai and Thai-(Lao) in the northeast.

The other topic focusses on challenges for Christianity in order to adapt to Thai society and culture. Here I want to discuss some examples which show how Christian communities make use of Thai or Buddhist symbolism for teaching of popularizing Christian topics or values.

In conclusion one can say that “Christianity” can only be used vaguely as a western umbrella term for one religion, which in Thailand is recognized in five “denominations”. This makes it always necessary to avoid neglecting the Christian pluralism in Thailand.

Photo: Manfred Hutter, cropped

Lecturer:

Professor Dr. Manfred Hutter (b. 1957) has been full professor of Comparative Religion in the Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of Bonn since 2000. His teaching and research focusses both on the history of religions and contemporary issues, the first topic mainly related to Pre-Islamic religions in the Middle East (Ancient Near East and Ancient Iran), the second topic refers to religious minorities in mainland Southeast Asia and their relations to Buddhist surroundings.

We thank the Hamburg Society for Thai Studies for the cooperation. 

All this information can also be found on our Instagram account and on our our flyer.