Read more
Free Enough to Grow provides an absorbing analysis of the multifaceted mission that gave rise to the Turkish Protestant movement. Delving into four central factors religious freedom, missionary activity, religious choice, and plausibility structures that have shaped the movement s development, author James Bultema draws upon an array of qualitative interviews, historical research, and thematic analysis to decipher the movement s first 55 years. Bultema explores the complex interplay of these factors, using hermeneutics and abductive reasoning to tease out his argument that imperfect but sufficient religious freedom created a fertile foundation for the growth of countercultural, vulnerable Turkish Protestant churches. In doing so, Bultema contributes an intriguing case study on the complicated give-and-take of Christian mission and religious freedom in a Muslim-majority context, an original framework of interrelating conceptual constructs, and an impressive mission history of the Turkish Protestant movement. Students of Turkey and mission and scholars of religious studies, missiology, and modern Christianity, be sure to engage with a rewarding reading of Free Enough to Grow: The Turkish Protestant Movement, 1961-2016.
List of contents
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Literary Roots.- Chapter 3. The Genesis and Growth of the Turkish Protestant Movement.- Chapter 4. Religious Freedom as the Seedbed for the Movement.- Chapter 5. Missionaries and the Sprouting of the Movement.- Chapter 6. Conversion and the Spreading of the Movement.- Chapter 7. Plausibility Structure and the Perpetuation of the Movement.- Chapter 8. Conclusion.
About the author
James Bultema (b. 1962), a graduate of Wheaton College (BA in Education), Denver Seminary (MDiv), and ETF Leuven (PhD in Theology and Religious Studies), lived in Turkey for 34 years, establishing and overseeing synergistic facilities and ministries. He has written chapters in edited books and articles in various journals, but Free Enough to Grow is his first monograph. He is an interdependent researcher, mission mentor, writer and speaker, living with his wife Renata in Malaga, Spain. They have three married children, translating into six treasured friends and one terrific grandchild—all close in spirit, but, sadly, not in space.
Summary
Free Enough to Grow provides an absorbing analysis of the multifaceted mission that gave rise to the Turkish Protestant movement. Delving into four central factors—religious freedom, missionary activity, religious choice, and plausibility structures—that have shaped the movement’s development, author James Bultema draws upon an array of qualitative interviews, historical research, and thematic analysis to decipher the movement’s first 55 years. Bultema explores the complex interplay of these factors, using hermeneutics and abductive reasoning to tease out his argument that imperfect but sufficient religious freedom created a fertile foundation for the growth of countercultural, vulnerable Turkish Protestant churches. In doing so, Bultema contributes an intriguing case study on the complicated give-and-take of Christian mission and religious freedom in a Muslim-majority context, an original framework of interrelating conceptual constructs, and an impressive mission history of the Turkish Protestant movement. Students of Turkey and mission and scholars of religious studies, missiology, and modern Christianity, be sure to engage with a rewarding reading of Free Enough to Grow: The Turkish Protestant Movement, 1961-2016.
