“Born to Build a Nation”: Nepali Christians and Cultural Reimagination

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Protestant Christian community of Lalitpur, Nepal, this article explores the perspectives and experiences of young adult Nepali Christians who are resisting social pressure to emigrate and instead actively choosing to invest in life in Nepal. Their faith-driven commitment to Nepal, combined with a cosmopolitan global awareness, has resulted in the practice of what I call cultural reimagination. Understanding Christian conversion/transformation as a part of cultural reimagination offers a new perspective on the crucial rupture-vs-continuity debate within the anthropology of Christianity. Building off of Benedict Anderson’s idea of “imagined communities” and Walter Brueggemann’s idea of “prophetic imagination,” this article considers how these Nepali Christians rely on a sense of Christian calling to hopefully yet critically imagine the future of Nepal. Their example encourages Christians from around the globe to engage in prophetic, imaginative work within their own communities.