"Over the past fifteen years the ethnographic study of Christianity across cultures has emerged as one of the most dynamic and widely followed of fields in the anthropology of religion.#xA0;Howell's Christianity in the Local Contextis one of the finest among these new studies in the anthropology of Christianity.#xA0; His study is presented in an eminently readable and vivid prose, but also touches on questions of faith, identity, and politics at the heart of contemporary discussions of religion and modernity.#xA0;This is a book that will appeal to religious studies scholars, as well as anthropologists and is well suited for courses in the cross-cultural study of Christianity."--Robert W. Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and Director, Program on Islam and Civil Society, Boston University.