Description
Book SynopsisMercenaries and Missionaries examines the relationship between rapidly diffusing forms of capitalism and Christianity in the Global South. Using more than two hundred interviews in Bangalore and Dubai, Brandon Vaidyanathan explains how and why global corporate professionals straddle conflicting moral orientations in the realms of work and religion. Seeking to place the spotlight on the role of religion in debates about the cultural consequences of capitalism, Vaidyanathan finds that an apprehensive individualism generated in global corporate workplaces is supported and sustained by a therapeutic individualism cultivated in evangelical-charismatic Catholicism.
Mercenaries and Missionaries uncovers a symbiotic relationship between these individualisms and shows how this relationship unfolds in two global citiesDubai, in non-democratic UAE, which holds what is considered the world''s largest Catholic parish, and Bangalore, in democratic India, where the Catholic Chu
Trade Review
Vaidyanathan's brilliant ethnography breaks ground in the study of capitalism in the Global South.
* Choice *
A fascinating portrait of a certain section of the transnational professional class. It provides an important and sensitive analysis of how such professionals, especially those from developing countries, struggle to integrate their Christian faith with their career ambitions.
* Journal of the American Academy of Religion *
