Mission (Christianity)

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Christian mission is "an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith."[1]

Mission often involve sending individuals and groups, called "missionaries", to foreign countries and to places in their homeland for the purpose of proselytism (conversion to Christianity, or from one Christian tradition to another). This involves evangelism (preaching a set of beliefs for the purpose of conversion), and humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged. There are a few different kinds of mission trips: short-term, long-term, relational and ones meant simply for helping people in need. Some might choose to dedicate their whole lives to missions as well. Missionaries have the authority to preach the Christian faith (and sometimes to administer sacraments), and provide humanitarian work to improve economic development, literacy, education, health care, and orphanages. Christian doctrines (such as the "Doctrine of Love" professed by many missions) permit the provision of aid without requiring religious conversion.

History of Christian missions

Main article: Timeline of Christian missions

Apostolic Period through Medieval Period

The earliest examples of Christian missionary activity are those recorded in writings that would eventually come to form the New Testament. Early writings include the letters of Apostle Paul, written in the course of his missionary activity in Asia Minor and Greece. His activities were preceded by an expansion of Christianity from the first followers of Jesus in Jerusalem throughout Syro-Palestine. This is also described in the Acts of the Apostles.

The earliest Christian mission, then, the Dispersion of the Apostles, was active within Judaism, as Christianity had not yet split from Judaism. Whether a Jewish proselytism existed or not that would have served as a model for the early Christians is unclear, see Circumcision controversy in early Christianity#Jewish background for details. Soon, the expansion of the Christian mission beyond Judaism to those who were not Jewish became a contested issue, notably at the Council of Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul was an early proponent of this expansion, and contextualized the Christian message for the Greek and Roman cultures, permitting it to reach beyond its Hebrew and Jewish roots.

From Late Antiquity onward, much missionary activity was carried out by members of religious orders. Monasteries followed disciplines and supported missions, libraries, and practical research, all of which were perceived as works to reduce human misery and suffering and glorify the Christian God. For example, Nestorian communities evangelized parts of Central Asia. Cistercians evangelized much of Northern Europe, as well as developing most of European agriculture's classic techniques. St Patrick evangelized many in Ireland. St David was active in Wales.

During the Middle Ages, Ramon Llull (c. 1232 - c. 1315) advanced the concept of preaching to Muslims and converting them to Christianity by means of non-violent argument.[2] A vision for large-scale mission to Muslims would die with him, not to be revived until the 19th Century.

Additional events can be found at the timeline of Christian missions.

After the Sixteenth century

In the 16th century the proselytization of Asia was linked to the Portuguese colonial policy. With the Papal bull Romanus Pontifex the patronage for the propagation of the Christian faith in Asia was given to the Portuguese, who were rewarded with the right of conquest. The Portuguese trade with Asia was profitable and as Jesuits came to India around 1540, the colonial government in Goa supported the mission with incentives for baptized Christians.[3] Later, Jesuits were sent to China and further countries in Asia. With the decline of the Portuguese power other colonial powers and Christian organisations gain influence.

After the Reformation, for over a hundred years, occupied by their struggle with the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant churches as a whole were not missionary-sending churches.[4] But in the centuries that followed, the Protestant churches began sending missionaries in increasing numbers, spreading the proclamation of the Christian message to previously unreached people. In North America, missionaries to the native Americans included Jonathan Edwards, the well known preacher of the Great Awakening, who in his later years retired from the very public life of his early career. He became a missionary to the Housatonic Native Americans and a staunch advocate for them against cultural imperialism.

As European culture has been established in the midst of indigenous peoples, the cultural distance between Christians of differing cultures has been difficult to overcome. One early solution was the creation of segregated "praying towns" of Christian natives. This pattern of grudging acceptance of converts was repeated in Hawaii later when missionaries from that same New England culture went there. In Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Catholic missionaries selected and learned among the languages of the Amerindians and devised writing systems for them. Then they preached to them in those languages (Quechua, Guarani, Nahuatl) instead of Spanish, to keep Indians away from "sinful" whites. An extreme case were the Guarani Reductions, a theocratic semi-independent region established by the Jesuits.

From 1732 onwards the Moravian Church began sending out missionaries.

Around 1780, an indigent Baptist cobbler named William Carey began reading about James Cook's Polynesian journeys. His interest grew to a furious sort of "backwards homesickness", inspiring him to obtain Baptist orders, and eventually write his famous 1792 pamphlet, "An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of Heathen." Far from a dry book of theology, Carey's work used the best available geographic and ethnographic data to map and count the number of people who had never heard the Gospel. It formed a movement that has grown with increasing speed from his day to the present.

Carey's example was followed by a number of missions to seaside and port cities. The China Inland Mission (later the Overseas Missionary Fellowship) is one of the more famous. In the Church of England, the Church Mission Society (CMS) was founded in 1799[5] and went onto be active all around the world, including the Middle East. In the United States, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was chartered in 1812.

Thomas Coke, (d. 1814) the first bishop of the American Methodists, has been called "the Father of Methodist Missions". After spending time in the young American republic strengthening the infant Methodist Church alongside Episcopal colleague Francis Asbury, the British-born Coke left for mission work. During his time in America, Coke worked vigorously to increase Methodist support of Christian missions and raising up mission workers. Coke died while on a mission trip to India, but his legacy among Methodists - his passion for missions - continues.

Missionary preaching in China using The Wordless Book

The next wave of missions, starting in the early 1850s, was to inland areas, led by Hudson Taylor with his China Inland Mission. Taylor was later supported by Henry Grattan Guinness who founded Cliff College which exists today for the purpose of training and equipping local and global mission.

The new wave of missions inspired by Taylor and Guinness have collectively been called "faith missions" and owe much to the ideas and example of Anthony Norris Groves. Taylor was a thorough-going nativist, offending the missionaries of his era by wearing Chinese clothing and speaking Chinese at home. His books, speaking, and examples led to the formation of numerous inland missions, and the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM), which from 1850 to about 1950 sent nearly 10,000 missionaries to inland areas, often at great personal sacrifice. Many early SVM missionaries to areas with endemic tropical diseases left with their belongings packed in a coffin, aware that 80% of them would die within two years.

Additional events can be found at the timeline of Christian missions.

After 1870

By the 1870s Protestant missions around the world generally acknowledged the long-term material goal was the formation of independent, self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating churches. The rise of nationalism in the Third World provoked challenges from critics who complained that the missionaries were teaching Western ways, and ignoring the indigenous culture. The Boxer Rebellion in China in 1898 involved very large scale attacks on Christian missions and their converts. The First World War diverted resources, and pulled most Germans out of missionary work when that country lost its empire. The worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s was a major blow to funding mission activities.[6]

In 1910, the Edinburgh Missionary Conference was presided over by active SVM and YMCA leader (and future Nobel Peace Prize recipient) John R. Mott, an American Methodist layperson, the conference reviewed the state of evangelism, Bible translation, mobilization of church support, and the training of indigenous leadership.[7] Looking to the future, conferees worked on strategies for worldwide evangelism and cooperation. The conference not only established greater ecumenical cooperation in missions, but also essentially launched the modern ecumenical movement.

The next wave of missions was started by two missionaries, Cameron Townsend and Donald McGavran, around 1935. These men realized that although earlier missionaries had reached geographic areas, there were numerous ethnographic groups that were isolated by language, or class from the groups that missionaries had reached. Cameron formed Wycliffe Bible Translators to translate the Bible into native languages. McGavran concentrated on finding bridges to cross the class and cultural barriers in places like India, which has upwards of 4,600 peoples, separated by a combination of language, culture, and caste. Despite democratic reforms, caste and class differences are still fundamental in many cultures.

An equally important dimension of missions strategy is the indigenous method of nationals reaching their own people. In Asia this wave of missions was pioneered by men like Dr G. D. James of Singapore,[8] Rev Theodore Williams of India[9] and Dr David Cho of Korea. The "two thirds missions movement" as it is referred to, is today a major force in missions.

Most modern missionaries and missionary societies have repudiated cultural imperialism, and elected to focus on spreading the gospel and translating the Bible.[citation needed] Sometimes, missionaries have been vital in preserving and documenting the culture of the peoples among whom they live.

Often, missionaries provide welfare and health services, as a good deed or to make friends with the locals. Thousands of schools, orphanages, and hospitals have been established by missions. One service provided by missionaries was the Each one, teach one literacy program begun by Dr. Frank Laubach in the Philippines in 1935. The program has since spread around the world and brought literacy to the least enabled members of many societies.[citation needed]

During this period missionaries, especially evangelical and Pentecostal missionaries, witnessed a substantial increase in the number of conversions of Muslims to Christianity.[10] In an interview published in 2013 a leader of a key missionary agency focused on Muslims claimed that the world is living in a "day of salvation for Muslims everywhere."[11]

The word "mission" was historically often applied to the building, the "mission station" in which the missionary lives or works. In some colonies, these mission stations became a focus of settlement of displaced or formerly nomadic people. Particularly in rural Australia, missions have become localities or ghettoes on the edges of towns which are home to many Indigenous Australians. The word may be seen as derogatory when used in this context.

Additional events can be found at the timeline of Christian missions.

Contemporary concepts of mission

Modern missionary methods and doctrines among conservative Protestants

The Lausanne Congress of 1974, birthed a movement that supports evangelical mission among non-Christians and nominal Christians. It regards "mission" as that which is designed "to form a viable indigenous church-planting and world changing movement." This definition is motivated by a theologically imperative theme of the Bible to make God known, as outlined in the Great Commission. The definition is claimed to summarize the acts of Jesus' ministry, which is taken as a model motivation for all ministries.

This Christian missionary movement seeks to implement churches after the pattern of the first century Apostles. The process of forming disciples is necessarily social. "Church" should be understood in the widest sense, as a body of believers of Christ rather than simply a building. In this view, even those who are already culturally Christian must be "evangelized".

Church planting by cross-cultural missionaries leads to the establishment of self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating communities of believers. This is the famous "three-self" formula formulated by Henry Venn of the London Church Missionary Society in the 19th century. Cross-cultural missionaries are persons who accept church-planting duties to evangelize people outside their culture, as Christ commanded in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20, Mark 16:15–18).

The objective of these missionaries is to give an understandable presentation of their beliefs with the hope that people will choose to following the teaching of Jesus Christ and live their lives as His disciples. As a matter of strategy, many evangelical Christians around the world now focus on what they call the "10/40 window", a band of countries between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude and reaching from western Africa through Asia. Christian missions strategist Luis Bush pinpointed the need for a major focus of evangelism in the "10/40 Window", a phrase he coined in his presentation at the missionary conference Lausanne 1989 in Manila. Sometimes referred to as the "Resistant Belt", it is an area that includes 35% of the world's land mass, 90% of the world's poorest peoples and 95% of those who have yet to hear anything about Christianity.

Modern pioneering missionary doctrines now focus on inserting a culturally adapted seed of Christian doctrines into a self-selected, self-motivated group of indigenous believers, without removing them from their culture in any way.

Modern mission techniques are sufficiently refined that within ten to fifteen years, most indigenous churches are locally pastored, managed, taught, self-supporting and evangelizing. The process can be substantially faster if a preexisting translation of the Bible and higher pastoral education are already available, perhaps left-over from earlier, less effective missions.

One strategy is to let indigenous cultural groups decide to adopt Christian doctrines and benefits, when (as in most cultures) such major decisions are normally made by groups. In this way, opinion leaders in the groups can persuade much or most of the groups to convert. When combined with training in discipleship, church planting and other modern missionary doctrine, the result is an accelerating, self-propelled conversion of large portions of the culture.

A typical modern mission is a co-operative effort by many different ministries, often including several coordinating ministries, such as the Faith2Share network, often with separate funding sources. One typical effort proceeded as follows:

  1. A missionary radio group recruits, trains and broadcasts in the main dialect of the target culture's language. Broadcast content is carefully adapted to avoid syncretism yet help the Christian Gospel seem like a native, normal part of the target culture. Broadcast content often includes news, music, entertainment and education in the language, as well as purely Christian items.
  2. Broadcasts might advertise programs, inexpensive radios (possibly spring-wound), and a literature ministry that sells a Christian mail-order correspondence course at nominal costs. The literature ministry is key, and is normally a separate organization from the radio ministry. Modern literature missions are shifting to web-based content where it makes sense (as in Western Europe and Japan).
  3. When a person or group completes a correspondence course, they are invited to contact a church-planting missionary group from (if possible) a related cultural group. The church-planting ministry is usually a different ministry from either the literature or radio ministries. The church-planting ministry usually requires its missionaries to be fluent in the target language, and trained in modern church-planting techniques.
  4. The missionary then leads the group to start a church. Churches planted by these groups are usually a group that meets in a house. The object is the minimum organization that can perform the required character development and spiritual growth. Buildings, complex ministries and other expensive items are mentioned, but deprecated until the group naturally achieves the size and budget to afford them. The crucial training is how to become a Christian (by faith in Jesus Christ) and then how to set up a church (meet to study the Bible, and perform communion and worship), usually in that order.
  5. A new generation of churches is created, and the growth begins to accelerate geometrically. Frequently, daughter churches are created only a few months after a church's creation. In the fastest-growing Christian movements, the pastoral education is "pipelined", flowing in a just-in-time fashion from the central churches to daughter churches. That is, planting of churches does not wait for the complete training of pastors.

The most crucial part of church planting is selection and training of leadership. Classically, leadership training required an expensive stay at a seminary, a Bible college. Modern church planters deprecate this because it substantially slows the growth of the church without much immediate benefit. Modern mission doctrines replace the seminary with programmed curricula or (even less expensive) books of discussion questions, and access to real theological books. The materials are usually made available in a major trading language in which most native leaders are likely to be fluent. In some cases, the materials can be adapted for oral use.

It turns out that new pastors' practical needs for theology are well addressed by a combination of practical procedures for church planting, discussion in small groups, and motivated Bible-based study from diverse theological texts. As a culture's church's wealth increases, it will naturally form classic seminaries on its own.

Another related mission is Bible translation. The above-mentioned literature has to be translated. Missionaries actively experiment with advanced linguistic techniques to speed translation and literacy. Bible translation not only speeds a church's growth by aiding self-training, but it also assures that Christian information becomes a permanent part of the native culture and literature. Some ministries also use modern recording techniques to reach groups with audio that could not be soon reached with literature.

Among Roman Catholics

Vatican II made a deep impact on Catholic missions around the world. The Church's relations to non-Christian religions like Judaism and Islam were revisited.

A steep decline in the number of people entering the priesthood and religious life in the West has made the Church look towards laity more and more. Communities like Opus Dei arose to meet this need.

Inculturation increasingly became a key topic of missiological reflection for Catholics. Inculturation is understood as the meeting of the Christian message with a community in their cultural context.

Liberation Theology and liturgical reform have also been important in forming and influencing the mission of the Catholic Church in the 20th and 21st Centuries.

In relation to mission, Pope Benedict XVI has made the re-evangelization of Europe and North America a priority in his own ministry,[12] even while the upper leadership of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the college of cardinals has more members from Latin America, Africa, and Asia than ever before.[13]

Key documents on mission for Catholics during this period are Evangelii Nuntiandi by Pope Paul VI and Redemptoris Missio by Pope John Paul II.

Criticism

See also: Rice Christian

Westernization

Objections to missionary work among isolated, indigenous populations involve the claim that the goal of mission is to Westernize them. Such claims have been raised by indigenous rights groups organizations, such as Friends of Peoples Close to Nature and Survival International.

Communicating diseases

Missionaries, along with other travelers, brought diseases into local populations. Smallpox, measles, even the common cold, have been blamed on their arrivals.[14] David Igler of the University of California, Irvine, includes missionary activity as a cause of spreading germs. However, he says that commercial traders were the main agents of disease.

... other diseases arrived on non-commercial voyages; missionary activities certainly spread germs, and Spanish conquests had dispersed deadly germs in parts of the Americas and Pacific prior to the late eighteenth century. Yet, for the period between the 1770s and the 1840s, trading vessels were the main agents of disease, creating in the Pacific what Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie has called a "paroxysm" of the "microbian unification of the world." By 1850, the microbes of Europe, Asia, and Africa circulated in almost every Pacific population.[15]

Statistical patterns

Political scientist Robert Woodberry uses statistics to argued conversionary Protestants were a crucial catalyst in spreading religious liberty, education, and democracy. He shows that statistically the prevalence of such missionaries account for half of the variance in democracy in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.[16] In a 2014 Christianity Today article he remarks that "Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations."[17]

Controversy and Christian missionaries

“ "This proselytization will mean no peace in the world. Conversions are harmful to India. If I had the power and could legislate I should certainly stop all proselytizing ... It pains me to have to say that the Christian missionaries as a body, with honorable exceptions, have actively supported a system which has impoverished, enervated and demoralized a people considered to be among the gentlest and most civilized on earth".[18] ”

In India, Hindu organisations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh assert that most conversions undertaken by zealous evangelicals occur due to compulsion, inducement or fraud.[19] In the Indian state of Tripura, the government has alleged financial and weapons-smuggling connections between Baptist missionaries and rebel groups such as the National Liberation Front of Tripura.[20] The accused Tripura Baptist Christian Union is a member body of the Baptist World Alliance.[21]

"In mid-May, the Vatican was also co-sponsoring a meeting about how some religious groups abuse liberties by proselytizing, or by evangelizing in aggressive or deceptive ways. Iraq ... has become an open field for foreigners looking for fresh converts. Some Catholic Church leaders and aid organizations have expressed concern about new Christian groups coming in and luring Iraqis to their churches with offers of cash, clothing, food or jobs.... Reports of aggressive proselytism and reportedly forced conversions in mostly Hindu India have fueled religious tensions and violence there and have prompted some regional governments to pass laws banning proselytism or religious conversion.... Sadhvi Vrnda Chaitanya, a Hindu monk from southern India, told CNS that India's poor and uneducated are especially vulnerable to coercive or deceptive methods of evangelization.... Aid work must not hide any ulterior motives and avoid exploiting vulnerable people like children and the disabled, she said."[22]
In an interview with Outlook Magazine, Sadhvi Vrnda Chaitanya said "If the Vatican could understand that every religious and spiritual tradition is as sacred as Christianity, and that they have a right to exist without being denigrated or extinguished, it will greatly serve the interests of dialogue, mutual respect, and peaceful coexistence."[23]

Aid and Evangelism

While there is a general agreement among most major aid organizations not to mix aid with proselyting, others see disasters as a useful opportunity to spread the word. One such an occurrence was the tidal wave (tsunami) that devastated parts of Asia on December 26, 2004.[24]

"This (disaster) is one of the greatest opportunities God has given us to share his love with people", said K.P. Yohannan, president of the Texas-based Gospel for Asia. In an interview, Yohannan said his 14,500 "native missionaries" in India, Sri Lanka and the Andaman Islands are giving survivors Bibles and booklets about "how to find hope in this time through the word of God." In Krabi, Thailand, a Southern Baptist church had been "praying for a way to make inroads" with a particular ethnic group of fishermen, according to Southern Baptist relief coordinator Pat Julian. Then came the tsunami, "a phenomenal opportunity" to provide ministry and care, Julian told the Baptist Press news service.... Not all evangelicals agree with these tactics. "It's not appropriate in a crisis like this to take advantage of people who are hurting and suffering", said the Rev. Franklin Graham, head of Samaritan's Purse and son of evangelist Billy Graham.".[25]

The Christian Science Monitor echoes these concerns... "'I think evangelists do this out of the best intentions, but there is a responsibility to try to understand other faith groups and their culture,' says Vince Isner, director of FaithfulAmerica.org, a program of the National Council of Churches USA".[26]

The Bush administration has made it easier for U.S. faith based groups and missionary societies to tie aid and church together.

For decades, US policy has sought to avoid intermingling government programs and religious proselytizing. The aim is both to abide by the Constitution's prohibition against a state religion and to ensure that aid recipients don't forgo assistance because they don't share the religion of the provider.... But many of those restrictions were removed by Bush in a little-noticed series of executive orders -- a policy change that cleared the way for religious groups to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in additional government funding. It also helped change the message American aid workers bring to many corners of the world, from emphasizing religious neutrality to touting the healing powers of the Christian God.[27]

Christian counter-claims

Missionaries, say that the government in India has passed anti-conversion laws in several states that are supposedly meant to prevent conversions from "force or allurement", but are primarily used, they say, to persecute and criminalize voluntary conversion due to the government's broad definition of "force and allurement." Any gift received from a Christian in exchange for, or with the intention of, conversion is considered allurement. Voice of the Martyrs reports that aid-workers claim that they are being hindered from reaching people with much needed services as a result of this persecution.[28] Alan de Lastic, Roman Catholic archbishop of New Delhi states that claims of forced conversion are false.[29]

"'There are attacks practically every week, maybe not resulting in death, but still, violent attacks,' Richard Howell, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India tells The Christian Science Monitor today. 'They [India's controlling BJP party] have created an atmosphere where minorities do feel insecure.'"[30] According to Prakash Louis, director of the secular Indian Social Institute in New Delhi, "We are seeing a broad attempt to stifle religious minorities and their constitutional rights...Today, they say you have no right to convert, Tomorrow you have no right to worship in certain places."[31] Existing congregations, often during times of worship, are being persecuted.[32] Properties are sometimes destroyed and burnt to the ground, while native pastors are sometimes beaten and left for dead.[33][34][35][36][37][38][39]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Mission". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 8 January 2013. 
  2. ↑ Bridger, J. Scott (February 2009). "Raymond Lull: Medieval Theologian, Philosopher, and Missionary to Muslims". St Francis Magazine 5 (1): 1–25. Retrieved 7 January 2013. 
  3. ↑ Daus, Ronald (1983). Die Erfindung des Kolonialismus. Wuppertal/Germany: Peter Hammer Verlag. pp. 33, 61–66. ISBN 3-87294-202-6. 
  4. ↑ Roy, Olivier (2010). Holy Ignorance. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 48–56. ISBN 978-0-231-70126-6. 
  5. ↑ Ward, Kevin (2006). A History of Global Anglicanism. New York: Cambridge U Press. p. 34. 
  6. ↑ Erwin Fahlbusch, ed. The Encyclopedia of Christianity (1999) 1:301, 416-7
  7. ↑ Gairdner, Temple (1910). Echoes from Edinburgh 1910. London: Anderson & Ferrier. 
  8. ↑ James-Nathan, Violet (2000). "One". In Jonathan James and Malcolm Tan. That Asia May Know: Perspectives on Missions in Asia (40th Anniversary Commemorative Edition ed.). Asia Evangelistic Fellowship International. pp. 8–43. ISBN 0-646-39763-X. 
  9. ↑ "Indian Evangelical Mission". Retrieved 1 February 2014. 
  10. ↑ Miller, Duane Alexander (February 2010). "Woven in the Weakness of the Changing Body: the Genesis of World Islamic Christianity". CTFC 2. Retrieved 7 January 2013. 
  11. ↑ Blincoe, Bob; Duane Alexander Miller (January 2013). "The Day of Salvation for Muslims Everywhere: an interview with Bob Blincoe". Global Missiology 10 (2). Retrieved 7 January 2013. 
  12. ↑ Edwards, Tito (June 2010). "Benedict Opens New Evangelization of Europe and America Office". The American Catholic. Retrieved 18 January 2013. 
  13. ↑ Palmo, Rocco. "B16's October Surprise". Retrieved 18 January 2013. 
  14. ↑ Witmer, A. C. (September 1885). "The Islands of the Sea". The Gospel in all lands (New York, NY: Methodist Episcopal Church Mission Society): 437. Retrieved 2011-11-20. 
  15. ↑ Igler, David (June 2004). "Diseased Goods: Global Exchanges in the Eastern Pacific Basin, 1770–1850". The American Historical Review (Chicago, IL: American Historical Association) 109 (3): 693–719. doi:10.1086/530552. Retrieved 2011-11-20. 
  16. ↑ Robert D. Woodberry, "The missionary roots of liberal democracy," American Political Science Review 106.2 (2012): 244-274 / online
  17. ↑ http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/missions-rescuing-from-hell-and-renewing-the-world
  18. ↑ The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Volume 24, p. 476 Note: This quote isn't in this volume. In fact the volume only contains 474 pages
  19. ↑ Why Anti-Conversion Law needed
  20. ↑ Subir Bhaumik (18 April 2000). "Church backing Tripura rebels". BBC News. Retrieved August 9, 2007. 
  21. ↑
  22. ↑ Carol Glatz (May 19, 2006). "Legislating conversions: Weighing the message vs. the person". Catholic Online. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  23. ↑ Seema Sirohi (October 2, 2006). "Father Complex". OutlookIndia.com. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  24. ↑ "Religious aid groups try to convert victims". January 16, 2005. Retrieved June 19, 2013. 
  25. ↑ "In Asia, some Christian groups spread supplies - and the word". Knight-Ridder Newspapers. January 12, 2005. Retrieved June 19, 2013. 
  26. ↑ Jane Lampman (January 31, 2005). "Disaster Aid Furthers Fears of Proselytizing". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  27. ↑ "Bush brings faith to foreign aid". The Boston Globe. October 8, 2006. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  28. ↑ "Country Map - India". Persecution.com. Retrieved August 7, 2007.  (website requires anonymous creation of a username and password account to be able to view)
  29. ↑ Indian Express
  30. ↑ Ted Olsen (September 1, 2003). "Weblog: Missionaries in India Concerned as Hindu Activists Break Up Prayer Meeting". Christianity Today. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  31. ↑ Ted Olsen. "Weblog: Missionaries in India Concerned as Hindu Activists Break Up Prayer Meeting date=September 1, 2003". Christianity Today. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  32. ↑ "Christian murdered in Kerala". Christian Today - India Edition. February 14, 2007. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  33. ↑ "Two Nuns accused and held for trying to "convert" students". Evangelical Fellowship of India. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  34. ↑ "Five arrested for assaulting trainee priests in Panvel". Evangelical Fellowship of India. March 7, 2007. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  35. ↑ "Christians attacked in Jalampur, Dhamtari in Chhattisgarh". Evangelical Fellowship of India. January 10, 2006. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  36. ↑ Jacob Chaterjee (February 12, 2007). "Hindu radicals attack believers in Karnataka". Christian Today - India Edition. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  37. ↑ Jacob Chaterjee (February 20, 2007). "Hindu radicals attack Bible college students during outreach; two in critical condition". Christian Today - India Edition. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  38. ↑ Jacob Chaterjee (February 6, 2007). "Hindu radicals attack Christian prayer meeting in Bihar". Retrieved August 7, 2007. 
  39. ↑ Jacob Chaterjee (February 18, 2007). "Hindu fanatics oppose Christian-run orphanage and Bible center in Himachal Pradesh". Christian Today - India Edition. Retrieved August 7, 2007. 

Further reading

  • Anderson, Gerald H.,(ed.) Biographical dictionary of Christian missions, Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1998
  • Bainbridge, William F. Around the World Tour of Christian Missions: A Universal Survey (1882) 583 pages; full text online
  • Barrett, David, ed. World Christian Encyclopedia, Oxford University Press, 1982
  • Etherington, Norman, ed. Missions and Empire (Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series) (2008)
  • Gailey, Charles R. and Howard Culbertson. Discovering Missions, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2007
  • Glazier, Michael and Monika K. Hellwig, eds., The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia, Liturgical Press, 2004
  • Glover, Robert H. The Progress of World-Wide Missions, rev. by J. Herbert Kane., Harper and Row, 1960
  • Herbermann, Charles George. The Catholic Encyclopedia, The Encycylopedia Press, 1913
  • Herzog, Johann Jakob, Philip Schaff, and Albert Hauck. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 12 volumes, Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1910–11
  • Kane, J. Herbert. A Concise History of the Christian World Mission, Baker, 1982
  • Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of the Expansion of Christianity, 7 volumes, (1938–45), the most detailed scholarly history
  • MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (2009)
  • Moreau, A. Scott, David Burnett, Charles Edward van Engen and Harold A. Netland. Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, Baker Book House Company, 2000
  • Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. Penguin Books, 1986
  • Newcomb, Harvey. A Cyclopedia of Missions: Containing a Comprehensive View of Missionary Operations Throughout the World : with Geographical Descriptions, and Accounts of the Social, Moral, and Religious Condition of the People (1860) 792 pages complete text online
  • Pocock, Michael, Gailyn Van Rheenen, Douglas McConnell. The Changing Face of World Missions: Engaging Contemporary Issues And Trends (2005); 391 pages
  • Robert, Dana L. Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion (2009), 226pp; short survey
  • Tejirian, Eleanor H., nd Reeva Spector Simon, eds. Conflict, Conquest, and Conversion: Two Thousand Years of Christian Missions in the Middle East (Columbia University Press; 2012) 280 pages; focus on the 19th and 20th centuries.
  • Tyrrell, Ian. Reforming the World: The Creation of America's Moral Empire (2010) excerpt and text search
  • Tucker, Ruth. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya:From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions (2nd ed. 2004) excerpt and text search
  • Journal Social Sciences and Missions (Leiden: Brill), 1995-...
Positive or neutral
  • Gailey and Culbertson. Discovering Missions by ISBN 0-8341-2257-X
  • Johnstone Operation World ISBN 1-85078-357-8
  • Moreau, Corwin and McGree. Introducing World Missions ISBN 0-8010-2648-2
  • Olson, C. Gordon. What in the World is God Doing? Global Gospel Publishers, 2003
  • Parker, J. Fred. Mission to the World. Nazarene Publishing House, 1988
  • Van Rheenen Missions by ISBN 0-310-20809-2
  • Winter and Hawthorne, eds. Perspectives on the World Christian Movement ISBN 0-87808-289-1
Critical

External links

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