Christian Mission Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a W orld Religion Dana L. Robert © 2009 Dana L. Robert. ISBN: 978-0-631-23619-1 99778800663311223366119911__11__pprreettoocc..iinndddd ii 1111//1199//22000088 66::5522::0011 PPMM BLACKWELL BRIEF HISTORIES OF RELIGION SERIES This series offers brief, accessible and lively accounts of key topics within theology and religion. Each volume presents both academic and general readers with a selected history of topics which have had a profound effect on religious and cultural life. The word ‘history’ is, therefore, understood in its broadest cultural and social sense. The volumes are based on serious scholarship but they are written engagingly and in terms readily understood by general readers. Published Heaven Alister E. McGrath Heresy G. R. Evans Islam Tamara Sonn Death Douglas J. Davies Saints Lawrence S. Cunningham Christianity Carter Lindberg Dante Peter S. Hawkins Spirituality Philip Sheldrake Cults and New Religions Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley Love Carter Lindberg Christian Mission Dana L. Robert Forthcoming Judaism Steven Leonard Jacobs Ethics Michael Banner Reformation Kenneth Appold Monasticism Dennis D. Martin Apocalypse Martha Himmelfarb Shinto John Breen and Mark Teeuwen Sufism Shahzad Green 99778800663311223366119911__11__pprreettoocc..iinndddd iiii 1111//1199//22000088 66::5522::0011 PPMM Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion Dana L. Robert A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication 99778800663311223366119911__11__pprreettoocc..iinndddd iiiiii 1111//1199//22000088 66::5522::0011 PPMM This edition first published 2009 © 2009 Dana L. Robert Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publish- ing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Dana L. Robert to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trade- marks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the under- standing that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robert, Dana Lee. Christian mission : how Christianity became a world religion / Dana L. Robert. p. cm. – (Blackwell brief histories of religion series) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-631-23619-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-631-23620-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Missions–History. I. Title. BV2100.R554 2009 266.009–dc22 2008047762 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12.5pt Sabon by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Singapore by C.O.S. Printers Pte Ltd 1 2009 99778800663311223366119911__11__pprreettoocc..iinndddd iivv 1111//1199//22000088 66::5522::0011 PPMM For Marthinus Louis Daneel 99778800663311223366119911__11__pprreettoocc..iinndddd vv 1111//1199//22000088 66::5522::0011 PPMM Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments x Introduction 1 Part I The Making of a World Religion: Christian Mission through the Ages 5 1 From Christ to Christendom 7 From Jerusalem into “All the World” 10 The Creation of Catholic Europe, 400–1400 21 2 Vernaculars and Volunteers, 1450– 31 Bible Translation and the Roots of Modern Missions 32 The Revitalization of Catholic Missions 36 The Beginnings of Protestant Missions 41 Voluntarism and Mission 44 Protestant Missionary Activities in the Nineteenth Century 48 3 Global Networking for the Nations, 1910– 53 The Growth of Global Networks 56 International Awakenings 60 Awakening Internationalism 64 Postcolonial Rejection of Christian Mission 67 Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans in Mission 69 99778800663311223366119911__22__ttoocc..iinndddd vviiii 1111//1122//22000088 11::1100::3322 PPMM viii Contents Part II Themes in Mission History 81 4 The Politics of Missions: Empire, Human Rights, and Land 83 Critiques of Missions 87 Missionaries and Human Rights 98 Missionaries and the Land 107 5 Women in World Mission: Purity, Motherhood, and Women’s Well-Being 114 Women as Missionaries 118 Purity and Gender Neutrality 119 The Mission of Motherhood 124 Women’s Well-Being and Social Change 131 6 Conversion and Christian Community: The Missionary from St. Patrick to Bernard Mizeki 142 Who Was St. Patrick? 144 Bernard Mizeki, “Apostle to the Shona” 159 Missionaries and the Formation of Communal Christian Identities 171 7 Postscript: Multicultural Missions in Global Context 173 Bibliography 178 Index 193 99778800663311223366119911__22__ttoocc..iinndddd vviiiiii 1111//1122//22000088 11::1100::3322 PPMM List of Illustrations Maps 1 Christians by region in 400 8 2 Christians by region in 1600 32 3 Christians by region in 2010 54 Figures 2.1 Matteo Ricci and leading Chinese Christian Xu Guangqi 41 2.2 Tamil Bible translated by Ziegenbalg 43 2.3 William Carey and Mrityunjaya, his Indian assistant 46 3.1 World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910 55 3.2 V. S. Azariah, first Anglican bishop from India 56 4.1 David Livingstone memorial statue, Victoria Falls 86 5.1 Annalena Tonelli in Somalia 115 6.1 Icon of St. Patrick 145 6.2 Icon of Bernard Mizeki 160 6.3 Bernard Mizeki’s baptismal portrait 161 7.1 Apostolic evangelist preaching in Zimbabwe 175 99778800663311223366119911__33__ppoossttoocc..iinndddd iixx 1111//1122//22000088 11::1100::4488 PPMM Acknowledgments There is an old joke about a man who wrote a very long letter to his son, ending with the postscript, “I’m sorry I wrote such a long letter. I didn’t have enough time to write you a short one.” After twenty-five years of teaching mission history and finding it endlessly fascinating, I have taken an eternity to write a “brief” history of my major field of research. Part of the struggle lies in deciding what must be included, and what can be left out. But another challenge is that the historiography of Christian mission has been changing rapidly. Before the mid twentieth century, a narrative of European expansion dominated the field. By the mid 1960s, the subject of Christian mission – if noticed at all – was treated as a form of western hege- monic discourse wedded to economic and cultural imperialism, or European colonialism. Studies by nonwestern historians often focused on the limita- tions and advantages of mission in relation to nation-building or the cre- ation of communal identities. By the late twentieth century, mission historians emphasized the complexity of intercultural and interreligious encounters, including the need to put indigenous leaders at the center of the picture. Women’s studies have entered the field, with gender finally recognized as an important dynamic in the mission process. Postcolonial perspectives vary widely, but in general both the missionary and the convert are treated as agents of hybridity, as cultural brokers in the border-crossing production of worldviews. For theologians, the study of mission history has continued to emphasize missions’ role in the transmission and creation of theologies. For ordinary believers, the missionary remains an exemplar of piety and embodiment of Christian identity. I am indebted to many scholars who have shaped the above-mentioned perspectives. I find much merit in multiple approaches, and a discerning reader will find traces of them in my text. But in this study, which is meant to introduce missions as the object of historical rather than theological analysis, I argue that mission history can be explained as a series of b oundary 99778800663311223366119911__33__ppoossttoocc..iinndddd xx 1111//1122//22000088 11::1100::4488 PPMM