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Abstract

This thesis examines the imbrication of secularism and religious diversity in Singapore by focusing on evangelical Christians and their commitment to fulfill the biblical mission imperative (Matthew 28:19, NIV). Over the past decades, Singapore has developed into a culturally significant hub for evangelical Christianity in Asia and today serves as an important base for both international and homegrown missionary organizations, training institutes, Bible schools, and mass media outlets (DeBernardi 2008b; R.B.H. Goh 2009).

The self-understanding of many evangelical churches as mission-oriented is commonly framed within a broader prophetic narrative that assigns Singapore a unique God-given destiny to become the “Antioch of Asia,” an epicenter for mission outreach and global evangelism. Against this background, the thesis argues that the “Antioch” narrative has become a powerful force within the contemporary evangelical imaginary, generating alternative symbolic territorialities and temporalities that seek to resignify the spiritual telos and developmental ethos of the postcolonial city-state (D.P.S. Goh 2010).

At the same time, the realization of these alternative spatiotemporal imaginaries challenges established ideas of the urban public sphere and the state-defined boundaries between the secular and the religious. Within an environment in which the government exercises strong legal and bureaucratic control over religious affairs, evangelicals develop flexible strategies to negotiate their position as Christian citizens in relation to Singapore’s ethno-religious diversity and the secular self-understanding of the state.

Drawing on empirical data collected during field research between 2013 and 2015 and subsequent research, this thesis contributes to broader debates on religious diversity and secularism within the interdisciplinary study of religion.