Beginning with first-hand observations of responses to the epidemic in Kenya and Malawi, this chapter introduces the central argument of this book: AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa cannot be understood without reference to religion. The chapter also provides a first glimpse of the book’s terrain. These include: changes in local discourses about salvation, sickness, and caregiving in the wake of AIDS; international policy debates focusing on the relative efficacy of abstinence vs. condoms as the primary approach to HIV prevention; analogies to major historical epidemics, highlighting that the...

Beginning with first-hand observations of responses to the epidemic in Kenya and Malawi, this chapter introduces the central argument of this book: AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa cannot be understood without reference to religion. The chapter also provides a first glimpse of the book’s terrain. These include: changes in local discourses about salvation, sickness, and caregiving in the wake of AIDS; international policy debates focusing on the relative efficacy of abstinence vs. condoms as the primary approach to HIV prevention; analogies to major historical epidemics, highlighting that the tensions between different moral interpretations of “plague” are a universal tendency, not an AIDS-specific phenomenon. Finally, the data sources, general theoretical approaches, and layout of the book are described.