Local, regional and worldly interconnections: The Catholic and United Churches in Lihir, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

At the local level, globalisation has often been interpreted as being passively accepted or heroically resisted. In the specific context of Christianity in the Lihir Islands, Papua New Guinea, this paper challenges both conceptualisations. The trajectories of the Catholic and United churches in Lihir began similarly but have diverged: neither can be cast simply as localised or globalised. To understand the complex historical, local, regional and global manifestations and interconnections of Lihirian Christianity I draw inspiration from Tomlinson's suggestion of 'complex connectivity'.