Strangers in a Familiar Land

“In this volume of welcome substance, the pantheon of theorists of phenomenology is related with clarity to Christian identity formation amongst Thai converts. With a widely international scope in theoretical reflection and with localized Thai application in great qualitative depth, this study deserves warm appreciation in that context as much as in global missiological circles.”


—Christo Lombaard, University of South Africa





“This volume is a major contribution to the growing field of conversion studies in a non-Western world, where religious conversion is considered an act of disloyalty to the family, betrayal of one’s community, and anti-national. Dr. Blumenstock shows that conversion is not just spiritual, but a social-psychological process triggered by a vertical experience with the divine.”


—Joshua Iyadurai, author of Transformative Religious Experience





“In the new mission context, the Global South is Christianizing and the West is paganizing. Amid the complexity, we need missiological eyes to observe the Spirit’s movements. Blumenstock’s Strangers in a Familiar Land tracks what mission looks like from the inside, by examining how Thai Buddhist converts to the Christian faith renegotiate their identity to sustain their new faith in their old context.”


—Stuart Devenish, independent scholar, Melbourne, Australia





“A fascinating invitation to understand the lived experience of Thai Buddhists when they navigate a religious change to Christianity. . . . The result is an ‘expansive journey’ offering invaluable missiological and pastoral implications for Christian workers in Thailand and elsewhere.”


—Darren Cronshaw, Sydney College of Divinity