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Subject Area: Mission Studies
Muzorewa, Gwinyai Henry1990 0-88946-073-6 224 pages
Surveys various missiological approaches to formulate a theology of missions for Africa.
Kharlampovich, Konstantin Vasil’evich
2001 0-7734-7362-9 252 pages
A translation of K. V. Kharlampovich’s biography of a monastic missionary among the tribal people of western Siberia who was canonized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000. The translator’s interpretive essay makes clear that he merits a place in the history of Christian missions. It is an arresting portrait of an Orthodox hesychast driven to found a mission among the Altaian people. He also enunciated the first comprehensive plan for missionary activity in the Russian Church and translated the Hebrew scriptures into modern Russian. This work adds a significant piece to the mosaic of orthodox spirituality in its delineation of the struggle of far-sighted, highly creative monk against the forces of an entrenched bureaucracy.. Published in 1905 in Kazan’, Kharlampovich’s biography has not been previously translated. In addition to its significance for the study of Russian missions and Orthodox spirituality, it also makes a valuable contribution to the broader study of pre-Revolutionary Russian culture, Slavic history, and social and religious history of 19th-century Europe. With maps, facsimiles, and photographs.
Lehmann, Martin E.
1996 0-7734-8963-0 384 pages
Based on primary and secondary sources, this study evaluates Nommensen's basic beliefs, his missionary methods, collegial spirit, and his strategy from missiological, ecclesial and sociological perspectives. Face-to-face interviews with living relatives, native Bataks, and German colleagues have enabled the author to shed significant light on his methods, style, and achievements as a missionary. In dealing with his missionary endeavors in the context of his particular setting (among the Bataks of North Sumatra in Indonesia), the biography notes his interdependence in working with others and the kind of indigenization of the Christian faith he and his co-workers brought about.
Muyebe, Stanslaus C.
1999 0-7734-7985-6 220 pages
A historical analysis of the efforts of the catholic missionaries known as the Montfort missionaries, in Malawi. It examines the political, psychological, inter-denominational and economic contexts, drawing on government records and accounts by early African converts to the Church.
Kreitzer, Mark
2008 0-7734-4898-5 516 pages
Examines biblically and convenantally the origin, goal, dynamics, and role that ethnicity has played in multi-ethnic contexts in mission, civil, and ecclesial spheres.
Sweetman, Will
1999 0-7734-7928-7 212 pages
Published in 1630, Henry Lord's book was the first in English to be entirely devoted to discussion of Indian religions, and represents the first serious attempt to go beyond reports by travellers of the strange religious beliefs and practices that they had observed in India. Lord was a chaplain, rather than a missionary, and made a serious attempt to understand the religions rather than condemn them. The display was used as a source by later European writers on Indian religions, most notably François Bernier. By identifying the relevant persons (mythological as well as historical), groups, texts and places, this critical edition does much to make Lord's work more accessible.
Lazich, Michael C.
2000 0-7734-7733-0 408 pages
This biography critically examines the life and career of Elijah Coleman Bridgman. Bridgman was sent to the port of Canton in southern China in 1830 as a representative of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. One of the small number of Protestant missionaries who arrived in China prior to the Opium War, he played a key role as a pioneering scholar and cultural intermediary, laying the foundations for American sinology and shaping the development of early Sino-American relations. Editor of the world’s first major journal of sinology, The Chinese Repository, Bridgman became America’s first ‘China expert’. Among his other works was the first Chinese language history of the USA, and he also contributed greatly to the formulation of America’s first treaty with the Chinese government.
Oosthuizen, G. C.
1992 0-7734-9588-6 356 pages
Essays on how the African Independent/Indigenous Churches experience and interpret their religion, their relationship to the Black experience, and the effectiveness of religious expression with regard to their needs. Topics include oral history in the Nazaretha church, the Iviyo LoFakazi BakaKristu and other renewal movements, theological issues in African Independent Churches, healing, exorcism, and involvement and creative development.
Peden, W. Creighton
2004 0-7734-6593-6 428 pages
William James Potter is best viewed as a radical minister in the American freethought tradition during the second half of the 19th century. He shifted from his Quaker foundation to Unitarian Christianity, influenced by Transcendentalist thinkers, especially Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Parker. Later, influenced by Charles Darwin, he modified his transcendental perspective for a more empirical orientation. This collection makes available many of his collected essays and sermons.
Westmeier, Karl-Wilhelm
1995 0-7734-9141-4 468 pages
Based on extensive handwritten Moravian sources, but also using ethno-historical methods, this study evaluates the approach of the missionaries and the Native Americans' response in light of the reactions of the colonial whites who desired the destruction of the mission. It is an important contribution to the contemporary missiological debate on contextualization. It also explores the conflict between Church/mission and State/society in view of Americanization processes, examining early American racism and its effects beyond the closing of Shekomeko to the Native American communities at large, especially with regard to their growing resistance to the Christian message. It contributes not only to missiology but also to the ethnohistory of America and anthropology and sociology, especially in the narrower fields of peace and racial studies.
Cox, James L.
1991 0-88946-072-8 261 pages
Provides a theological, historical, and methodological analysis of the impact of Christian missions on indigenous cultures by examining Alaska as a case study. Demonstrates that Protestant missionaries carried a "gospel" of Western civilization intended to Americanize the native peoples of Alaska. Describes approaches taken among the Inupiat and Yuit peoples (translated: the "real people.")
Gribble, Richard
2009 0-7734-4701-6 248 pages
Examines Vincent McCauley’s great contribution to the church of Eastern Africa through his implementation of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). McCauley served the church in Eastern Africa for almost 25 years, implementing his ideas on the importance of indigenous clergy and education, which he had learned as a missionary in East Bengal.
Bate, Stuart C.
1999 0-7734-8023-4 384 pages
One of the most visible phenomena in African Christianity is the growth of churches and sects offering healing. It is happening throughout the continent but is most marked in South Africa. This volume examines this phenomenon from different angles to present a comprehensive understanding from medical, psychological, cultural, socio-economic, philosophical, and theological perspectives. Starting with this description of religious healing, Bate develops a theological model within which this experience can be articulated in terms of the Church's mission to heal. He does this using the increasingly important theological notion of inculturation.
Predelli, Line Nyhagen
2003 0-7734-6640-1 368 pages
With a focus on missionary women and men in the Norwegian Missionary Society in Madagascar and Norway, this study provides an in-depth examination of how gender relations are negotiated in a religious organization. The time period covered (1860-1910) coincides with colonial efforts of major European states. The book also discusses how aspects of class, race and sexuality must be taken into account in studies of gender relations in the missionary movement. It shows, for example, how marriage propositions and sexual relations between white missionaries and black converts were dealt with by the mission organization in Madagascar. Other topics include the attempts of Norwegian missionary women to impart a form of domesticity to Malagasy girls, their efforts to establish direct links with the broader feminist movement, and the gradual democratization of the mission organization both in Norway and Madagascar.
Farge, William J. S.J.
2002 0-7734-6918-4 156 pages
Through examples, the methods of translation and editing used by the mission press in its attempt to produce a native Christian literature for Japan is explored. Part One examines two translations of De Imitatio Christi - Contemptus mundi jenbu and the Kontemutsusu munji, a later version. Part Two examines Guia de Pecadores - Giya do pekadoru. The study details their background, structure and style, with a textual analysis and comparison. The author identifies the translations' Buddhist terminology, the only religious language available to the Jesuits in Japan, and explains how Buddhist terms were used to convey Christian ideas.
Kolapo, Femi James
2012 0-7734-2935-2 316 pages
Consists of the complete compiled transcriptions of a nineteenth-century Christian missionary in Nigeria. James Thomas was born into slavery, and then converted to Christianity. Later in his adult life he was transformed was rescued from slavery by a British anti-slave trade squadron. He was then turned into a Christian missionary who converted people and built churches in Nigeria. This book not only gives a rich history of certain regions of Nigeria in the nineteenth-century, it also shows how Christianity and the slave trade molded its history as well.
Sindima, Harvey J.
1992 0-7734-9574-6 164 pages
Examines the attempt of the Central African Mission, and the work of the Scots, as they sought to fulfill Livingstone's vision of a missionary enterprise engaged in trade and commerce between Britain, Scotland and Malawi. It develops a full picture of the Scottish enterprise by examining both their internal policies on conversion, education, African culture and relations with Malawians, and their external policies focusing on socio-political involvement. The study contributes to knowledge of Malawi in the areas of missiology, and colonial history and politics, and gives insight into the attitude of Scottish churches and the Foreign Office.
Carter, George E.
2010 0-7734-1289-1 184 pages
This exploration of Faure’s life provides not only the history of an individual but also information on the controversies in the political, spiritual, judicial and journalistic worlds which were shaping South Africa on the road to Union and apartheid.
Kilson, Marion
1991 0-7734-9728-5 160 pages
Presents a case study of a pioneering Protestant missionary wife and mother whose years in Japan spanned the Meiji era. Based upon personal correspondence and mission records, the portrait is organized sociologically rather than chronologically. Begins with brief discussion of the foreign missionary movement as a significant component of 19th century western expansion, sociological sketches of the contexts of her life, analysis of her social relationships, finally her role as mediator between Japanese and American culture. Contributes to the study of the American foreign missionaries movement and the understanding of late 19th century American women's lives while demonstrating the utility of anthropological categories and constructs in such studies.
Hokkanen, Markku
2007 0-7734-5341-5 672 pages
Examines medicine and health, colonialism and Christian missionary efforts in Central Africa through the case-study of the Livingstonia Mission of the Free Church of Scotland in Malawi between 1875 and 1930. The author describes ideas, practices and experiences of illness, health and medicine among missionaries, Africans and colonialists in the Northern Malawi region. This book contains two color maps.
Padgett, Alan G.
1992 0-7734-9157-0 196 pages
Discusses the nature of the church's mission in the world from a basis of sound scholarship on biblical, historical and systematic theology. Writing from a distinctly Wesleyan perspective, the essays consider mission in the context of Scripture, John Wesley, the growth of institutions, ecclesiological vision, social justice, church growth and religious dialogue.
Bassey, Magnus O.
1999 0-7734-8153-2 204 pages
Evidence abounds in the research literature to show that wherever the Protestant and Catholic missionaries met in Africa, opposition, antagonism and rivalry flared between them. In Nigeria, missionary rivalry was even more intense. Education was an essential part of their ‘civilizing' mission because it was a way of winning converts, training Nigerian workers and catechists, and creating a Nigerian middle class. However, the rapid expansion of education, particularly in southern Nigeria, was actually the accidental outcome of missionary rivalry rather than the result of an altruistic policy to provide expanded educational opportunities for the Nigerian populace.
Miller, Char
1986 0-88946-705-6 136 pages
This work includes examples of the new mission scholarship, which employs a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective. It is the 14th work in the Symposium Series.
Kirwen, Michael C.
1986 0-88946-047-7 224 pages
A complete syllabus devised for TEFO (Theological Education and Formation Overseas), as taught in Tanzania from August 1981 through June 1983.
Balia, Daryl M.
1993 0-7734-1950-0 300 pages
The unifying factor in this collection is that all the writers are involved at some level in the project of liberation inasmuch as they are mostly theological educators. Several propositions concerning the church in mission and evangelism are treated in such a way that they resonate strongly with `the new approach to the Christian mission' as propounded by Professor Willem Krige.
Fortier, Theodore N.
2002 0-7734-6926-5 196 pages
For scholars of anthropology there is a serious gap in works on Indian peoples of the Northwest, and the Columbia Plateau in particular. This study of the Coeur d’Alene people’s religion and spirituality, and its relationship to Jesuit/Catholic spirituality from the mid 19th century on is unique in the field. An important element is the examination of the Jesuit Spiritual Exercises and their place in mission identity.
Makwasha, Gift
2010 0-7734-3682-0 432 pages
Historical analysis of the evangelization of the Shona by both European missionaries and native evangelists examines the idea of a cross-cultural blending of Christianity and the Shona to create an Africanized Christianity. The author proposes a Christological approach where Jesus is seen as the ancestor par excellence in whom physical and spiritual needs are fulfilled.
Gill, Stewart David
1992 0-7734-9446-4 236 pages
This is the only study written of the United Presbyterians in Canada. It surveys the role and significant contributions of a Scottish Church in early 19th-century Upper Canada's (Canada West's) society and politics. It examines the place of the Secession Church in Canadian religious history and assesses the importance of Proudfoot's contribution. In particular, his views on the Church as being too Scottish and his attempts to make it more "Canadian" are considered. Shows how his faith shaped his view of politics and society and his conception of the role of the Church in Canadian society.
Obinna, Elijah
2013 0-7734-3041-5 280 pages
A fresh insight into the relationship between Scottish missionaries and the indigenous peoples in Africa which focuses on the outcomes of missionary activities in the process of imperial conquest and colonization among the Amasiri, of Ebonyi state in southeastern Nigeria.
Miller, Char
1988 0-88946-675-0 550 pages
Excerpts from the correspondence, never before published, of this pioneer missionary to Hawaii who played such a controversial role in the Islands' history. Records the crucial period when much of the indigenous leadership chose to convert to Christianity and may correct the generally negative caricature that survives in 19th- and 20th-century depictions of Bingham's work (such as Michener's Hawaii).
McKinley, E. H.
1986 0-88946-665-3 275 pages
Covers the first century of the Men's Social Service Department's existence. Includes a useful bibliography of materials in the Salvation Army archives.
Wagner-Wright, Sandra
1991 0-7734-9938-5 248 pages
Looks at the theological, institutional, and personal foundations for the establishment of the mission field in Hawaii Foreign Missions. Discusses New England Calvinist theology and its institutional commitment to missionary activity. Profiles members of the 1820 and 1823 missionary companies to Hawaii in terms of their theology, conversion experience, expectations of missionary life, and response to the Hawaiians.
Yamase, Shinji
2008 0-7734-5145-5 440 pages
Looks at the impact of Western Christianity on the native peoples of Mexico and Central America, as well as of China and Japan. The work thoroughly describes the collision of Christianity and paganism, asserting that the encounter is best understood via a full examination of their underlying cosmological points of view.
Davies, Daniel M.
1989 0-88946-069-8 512 pages
Biography of the pioneering founder of Methodism in Korea who played a crucial role in opening Korea to the West.
Whelan, Winifred
2011 0-7734-3952-8 368 pages
This text is an English translation of Sister Mary Garcia’s personal experience in Honduras. While describing the conflict between Church-backed agrarian reformers and land owners in Honduras during the late 1960s and 1970s, the book details how Sister Mary interacted with the campesinos, how she defended their interests, and how she transformed the Honduran Catholic Church’s image into a defender of the poor. The book further provides her account of the massacres at La Talanquera in 1972 and Los Horcones in 1975.
Verster, Pieter
2008 0-7734-5024-6 224 pages
Examines the purpose of the religious mission. Following Christ who Himself showed absolute humility, the essence of missions should be to humbly, but also boldly, proclaim the salvation in Him. Following this rationale, the study argues for its application to continent of Africa where poverty should be considered from the perspective of human beings’ responsibility before God.
Bonk, Jonathan
1990 0-88946-071-X 384 pages
Describes and analyzes the nature of and reasons for the gulf between the theory and practice of Western Christian missionary adaptation. Contributes to our understanding of the inseparable link between the medium and the message in the context of cross-cultural communication. Included among the "Fifteen Outstanding Books of 1990 for Mission Studies" by the editors of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research.
Mather, Richard B.
2010 0-7734-1314-6 96 pages
This double biography presents the multi-generational and cross-cultural impact of the missionary William Arnot Mather. William Mather who developed an ingenious system of transcribing the Scriptures into Chinese phonetic script spent his last years completing his phonetic Bible dictionary. Richard Mather expressed his own profound respect for China and commitment to promoting language and cultural literacy by pursuing another kind of missionary work: pioneering Chinese studies at the University of Minnesota. For nearly four decades, Richard made generations of grateful students “China
Pomedli, Michael
1991 0-7734-9731-5 196 pages
Presents a biographical synopsis of Kurelek's life and work, to better place each of the 21 paintings in the perspective of the artist's temperament. Each reproduction is followed by a commentary that is a highly informative blend of aesthetics, history, theology, linguistics, geography, and ethnography. The result is a sustained meditation on what actually transpired between the Hurons, Iroquois, and the eight French missionaries who were destined for martyrdom. This volume provides a valuable effort to enter into the vision of Christianity which animates the pictures themselves, and to account for what Kurelek was able to portray about the daily life and spiritual vision of the Jesuits and their companions, about the Hurons and the Iroquois. This book will be a useful introduction to the Christian experiment that was Huronia, and an initial interpretation of Kurelek's paintings. This volume combines an historian's objectivity, a scholar's criticism, and an art lover's enthusiasm.