Synopses & Reviews
This deeply insightful ethnography explores the healing power of caring and intimacy in a small, closely bonded Apostolic congregation during Botswanaand#8217;s HIV/AIDS pandemic. Death in a Church of Life paints a vivid picture of how members of the Baitshepi Church make strenuous efforts to sustain loving relationships amid widespread illness and death. Over the course of long-term fieldwork, Frederick Klaits discovered Baitshepiand#8217;s distinctly maternal ethos and the and#147;spiritualand#8221; kinship embodied in the churchand#8217;s nurturing fellowship practice. Klaits shows that for Baitshepi members, Christian faith is a form of moral passion that counters practices of divination and witchcraft with redemptive hymn singing, prayer, and the use of therapeutic substances. An online audio annex makes available examples of the church membersand#8217; preaching and song.
Review
and#8220;This book is a valuable contribution to the study of HIV/AIDS. . . I would highly recommend it to anyone.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This [book] will provoke new, creative, and sustainable ways of designing and implementing AIDS prevention and treatment policies.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The [book] is rich and detailed, both meticulous and expansive.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A long-awaited contribution from one of the most insightful researchers in the field . . . it does not disappoint.and#8221;
Synopsis
"Klaits' work is not only a major contribution to the anthropology of religion and the social scientific literature on AIDS, but also a significant intervention into debates on how Africanists should approach their understandings of sociality and relatedness."and#151;Matthew Engelke, author of
A Problem of Presence: Beyond Scripture in an African Church"The reader gets the sense of being a welcome party to a close conversation. Klaits sustains a direct, clear, humane, and jargon-free voice, and we come away with a radically challenged understanding of what it means in an African church to be 'born anew'."and#151;Richard Werbner, author of Tears of the Dead: The Social Biography of an African Family
About the Author
Frederick Klaits, a cultural anthropologist, teaches in the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University.