Constructing a Kazak Christian Identity Using Collective Memory and Critical Contextualization

Constructing a new identity is at the heart of this study. It develops a system of cultural identity by utilizing collective memory theory and a translation model of critical contextualization to analyze Kazak Christian practices. The reconstituted memory is integrated with contextualized biblical understandings in Alexander Laszlo's four-step synthesis model. The result is social reconstitution of Kazak identity as Kazak Christian identity. A case study regarding Christian marriage to a non-Christian, and participant observations of the complete Kazak Bible publication, and Kazak learning style, are examined and evaluated to understand how Kazak cultural identity influences Christian life and religious practices.;One case and two participant observations demonstrate that Kazak Christians are exposed to Kazak Muslim interpretations of Christian life. Such interpretations emerge from Kazak collective memory generated on the national level by a politically motivated master narrative, and on the local level by commemorative feasts, landscapes, and Kazak language, which are all endowed with Muslim meanings and remembrances of ancestors.;The study asserts that collective memory is manipulated according to which memories are deemed important to local groups and national memory makers. Therefore, Christians are able to establish their identity within Kazak culture and begin to transform society with their new life ways. There is also an indication that Bruce Privratsky's four parameters of collective memory are helpful for understanding Kazak religious beliefs and practices.