Editorial: Christianity and Multiple Identities

Within studies of World Christianity, an approach to identity construction and negotiation that foregrounds multiple identities has been gaining momentum in recent years. Some of this research has focused primarily on Christians with multiple religious identities. The most insightful work in this regard has combined a social-scientific approach with theological reflection, as seen in work from Catherine Cornille (2002), Peter C. Phan (2004), Peniel Jesudason Rufus Rajkumar and Joseph Prabhakar Dayam (2016), and André van der Braak and Manuela Kalsky (2017). In other research, the attention has been on how Christians construct and negotiate non-religious identities. For instance, in work on the Middle East, scholars such as Andrea Pacini (1998), Sidney H. Griffith (2008) and Kail C. Ellis (2018) vividly illustrate how Christians in the Middle East have negotiated a range of competing ethnic, national and cultural identities. Similarly, research on religion in Africa from J. D. Y. Peel (2015), Marloes Janson and Birgit Meyer (2016) and Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator (2018), among others, has advanced our understanding of the interdependence and fluidity of various cultural and social identities in multireligious settings. In line with this forward momentum, this special issue of Studies in World Christianity examines the topic of Christianity and multiple identities from diverse methodological approaches, conceptual lenses and geographic locations.Religious Studie

Christianity, Sexuality and Citizenship in Africa: Critical Intersections

Citizenship in sub-Saharan Africa has undergone profound changes in recent decades as part of wider social and political dynamics. One notable development is the emergence of Christianity, especially in its Pentecostal-Charismatic forms, as a public religion. Christian actors, beliefs and practices have increasingly come to manifest themselves in the public sphere, actively engage with politics, define narratives of nationhood, and shape notions of citizenship. A second major development is the emergence of sexuality as a critical site of citizenship and nationhood in postcolonial Africa. On the one hand, many political and religious leaders are invested in a popular ideology of the heterosexual family as the basis of nation-building, while on the other hand, LGBT communities are becoming more visible and claim recognition from the state. The contributions to this special issue engage these two contrasting developments, examining the interconnections between Christianity, sexuality and citizenship empirically and theoretically through case studies in various African contexts and from several academic disciplines and critical perspectives

Introduction: religion and conflict in local-global perspectives

Religious Studie