Suffering and Hope – Ian Gibson

As soon as I began meeting Christians in the Nepali city of Bhaktapur, I noticed the importance of a particular type of story in their lives. When I asked someone, “how did you become a Christian?’ they would usually give a long and fluent answer, a narrative that had been told with minor or major variations many times before….
I wanted to find a subject for my research that would allow me to study Bhaktapurian social change at its cutting edge; I was also attracted to human stories that reflected dramatic change on a personal level. I had heard that increasing numbers of people were converting to Christianity and being a Christian myself I was naturally interested in this phenomenon. When I began to visit churches, I quickly realised that here was the type of field site I was looking for.Suffering and Hope: Christianity And Ethics Among The Newars of Bhaktapur – Ian Gibson (religious book)