Missions and Empire

by Norman Etherington

Overview

The widespread idea that Christian missions went hand in hand with Imperialism and colonial conquest is challenged here by a group of eminent historians. By showing the variety of missions and the vital role played by indigenous men and women, they place missions in a long historical perspective. Special attention is paid to emerging themes such as the missionary role in anthropology, gender relations, language, medicine, and decolonization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199253487
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/26/2008
Series:	Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	9.15(w) x 6.28(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Norman Etherington received his BA and PhD degrees from Yale University. He joined the History Department at the University of Adelaide as a Lecturer in 1968 and was subsequently appointed Reader in History. In 1989 he moved to the University of Western Australia taking up the position of Professor and Chair of History. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, a past President of the Australian Historical Association, a Member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a Member of the International Association for mission studies, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Norman Etherington1. Prelude: The Christianizing of British America, Eliga H. Gould2. Missionaries and Empire: An Overview 1700-1914, Andrew Porter3. Humanitarians and White Settlers in the Nineteenth Century, Alan Lester4. Where the Missionary Frontier Ran Ahead of Empire, John Barker5. Christian Missions and the Raj, Robert Eric Frykenberg6. New Christians as Evangelists, Peggy Brock7. 'Trained to Tell the Truth': Missionaries, Converts, and Narration, Gareth Griffiths8. Women and Cultural Exchanges, Patricia Grimshaw and Peter Sherlock9. Language, Paul Landau10. New Religious Movements, Robert Edgar11. Anthropology, Patrick Harries12. Education and Medicine, Norman Etherington13. Decolonization, David Maxwell

Editorial Reviews

"Etherington accepted an unwieldy charge in agreeing to edit this collection, and he deserves great credit for producing a book that is finely nuanced, thoroughly coherent, and accessible. Etherington's introduction provides a flexible and comprehensive framework with which to connect the thirteen essays that follow. It is a brilliant introduction, offering a clear overview of the historiography, as well as concise explanations of the collection's thematic composition and analytical priorities. This book features essays of uniformly high quality that articulate many important parts of the relationship between missions and empire."—Kevin Grant, Hamilton College

From the Publisher