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On Malaita in Solomon Islands, an evangelical Israelite-inspired movement centers on a distinctive time-consciousness that reads the historical past and present as prophetic signs of an imminent future. This book examines how these ‘prophetic histories’ interweave biblical narrative, theological reflection, local accounts, kastom practice, spiritual journeys and Old-Testament political theory. Michael Maeliau, the movement’s foremost leader, casts the resulting stories as divine messages. His theological reasoning transcends time, space, hierarchy and surface identity, to uncover the true essence of Malaita and establish a theocracy on the island. At the movement’s core lies a prophetic order that integrates events, scripture and kastom while foregrounding the agency of God and divine revelations.
“This is a thought-provoking and insightful book. It does a good job of analysing theological and secular-political impulses and projects within the same frame, recognising that each set of interests shapes the others and never insisting that one determines the other.” • Matt Tomlinson, Australian National University
Jaap Timmer is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Macquarie University, Sydney and a former Senior Fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies. He has published numerous articles on religion, history and sovereignty in Indonesian Papua and Solomon Islands. His recent research explores historicity, heritage and the notion of a ‘cosmic polity’ among the Asmat of Papua.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Temporal Order of Malaita’s Divine Covenant
Chapter 1. Pioneers of Prophecy
Chapter 2. Entering Malaita in the Time That Remains
Chapter 3. Kinshipping for Malaita’s Deep History and Kingdom
Chapter 4. The Temporalization of Prophetic Histories
Chapter 5. Political Consequences
Conclusion: Movement, Past and Mystery
References
Index