Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion / Edition 1

by Dana L. Robert

Overview

CHRISTIAN MISSION

“Dana Robert distils a quarter of a century of her research into an erudite and accessible single-volume account of how Christianity became the largest religious tradition in the world. There is no better place for any reader to start becoming informed about this important subject.”
David Hempton, Harvard University

“Remarkable for the range and depth of the material Robert is able to pack into so short a book. Reliable and readable, it is especially valuable for its treatment of the relation between western and non-western missionary activity.”
David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley

“Dana Robert’s richly textured book shows us that the history of Christian missions is far from being merely a European colonial story, and will be immensely valuable to students and general readers who are concerned to uncover the historical roots of Christianity’s current status as a truly global faith.”
Brian Stanley, University of Edinburgh

The Gospels record that Christ commanded his disciples to “go forth and teach all nations.” Thus began the history of Christian mission, a phenomenon which brought about massive shifts in the nature and practice of Christianity, and one that many say reflects the single most important movement of intercultural encounter over a sustained period of human history.

To understand Christianity as a global movement, therefore, it is essential to study the role of mission – defined as the transmission of the Gospel across cultures. Erudite and enlightening, this brief book explores the 2,000 years of mission history, covering topics such as the meaning of the missionary through history, gender and missions, and missions in culture and politics. Given that in the twenty-first century, Christianity is now largely practiced outside the West, Christian Mission is an inspirational and invaluable resource to broaden our understanding of the nature of Christianity as a truly multi-cultural world religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631236191
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	03/09/2009
Series:	Wiley Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion , #25
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dana L. Robert is the Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and the History of Mission at Boston University. She is the author or editor of numerous works on the history of Christian missions and non-western Christianity, including American Women in Mission: A Social History of their Thought and Practice (1997).

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Table of 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

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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

" Dana Robert distils a quarter of a century of her research into an erudite and accessible single-volume account of how Christianity became the largest religious tradition in the world. There is no better place for any reader to start becoming informed about this important subject."
–David Hempton, Harvard University

"Remarkable for the range and depth of the material Robert is able to pack into so short a book. Reliable and readable, it is especially valuable for its treatment of the relation between western and non-western missionary activity."
–David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley

"Dana Robert's richly textured book shows us that the history of Christian missions is far from being merely a European colonial story, and will be immensely valuable to students and general readers who are concerned to uncover the historical roots of Christianity's current status as a truly global faith."
–Brian Stanley, University of Edinburgh

Editorial Reviews

"Despite these concerns, Christian Mission is a valuable addition to the growing literature on world Christianity . . . our overall understanding of Christianity as a world religion is significantly increased by Robert's work." (Christian Century, 8 March 2011)

"This work is a valuable contribution to the subject." (CHOICE, December 2009)"Roberts helpfully reminds the readers that this...must be understood by accounting for the various players and settings in which it unfolds: "It is important to study the spiders, but it is equally important to notice the web" (177).Christian Mission, appropriate as a college or graduate level text, is a commendable introduction to those seeking to make sense of this tangled web." (Missology, 2010)"[This book] does a lot of things (including a chronological and thematic study of 2000 years of Christian mission!). Along the way, Robert points out that Christian missionaries have done much good for the societies they have entered." (The Gospel Coalition, January 2010)

"A masterful survey of mission in Christian history from the very origins of the religion to the present. … It should be required reading for any undergraduate course on Christianity or world religions." (International Bulletin of Missionary Research, October 2009)

"Robert unerringly focuses on the most important issues. She is especially good on the persistence of gender issues in mission history." (Christian Century, October 2009)

From the Publisher