Ch.13 – The Great CenturyAnd beyond – 1792 to 1910The Age of Modern Missions Begins

Introduction

• The period spans more than 100 years• 1792 – Founding of Carey’s BMS• 1910 – First WMC in Edinburgh

• Christianity reached more peoples and entered more cultures in this span than in any preceding century

• This expansion was mostly Protestant and ecumenical – working through independent mission societies

• We can only touch on some highlights

European Beginnings (1792-1810)

• William Carey and associates• Other Societies Multiply• Missionary Pioneers Emerge

(1792-1810) William Carey & Associates

• William Carey founds the BMS (1792)• Pioneered the voluntary

denominational society• Philosophy of Missions

was surprisingly modern• Widespread preaching• Distribution of the

Bible in the vernacular• Church Planting• Study of non-Christian

religions• Ministerial training

• Serampore Trio – 1799 Marshman, Ward, Carey• Forty translations of

the Bible• Dozens of mission

stations• Many grammars and

dictionaries• Three sons follow• Social reform• Horticultural

research

(1792-1810) Missionary Societies Multiply

• London Missionary Society – 1795• Scottish and Glasgow Missionary

Society – 1796• Netherlands Missionary Society –

1797• Church Missionary Society of the

Anglicans – 1799• British and Foreign Bible Society -

1804

(1792-1810) Missionary Pioneers Emerge

• Henry Martyn – Calcutta – 1806• Worked for East India Company• Translations of NT into Urdu,

Persian, Arabic

• Robert Morrison – China – 1807• Worked for East India Company• Chinese bible done after 17 years

• LMS – Tahiti - 1796 – poor initial results

• John T. Vanderkemp – South Africa – 1799

American Involvement (1810-1832)

General observations• The entry of American mission societies was a major factor in the

expansion of Christianity during this period• American Christian thinking about missions was shaped by

expansion into the frontier which blurred the lines between home and foreign missions

• Having already admitted an obligation to reach the American Indian, it was a short step to admitting the obligation to all people everywhere

• Until William Carey’s model stimulated thinking in the US, the frontier church extension and missions to the American Indian absorbed the energies of US Christians

American Involvement – Mission SocietiesMission societies organized between 1810 and 1832• American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1810)

• Student movement at Andover Seminary and Williams College supplied the first missionaries

• Studying infant baptism to have an answer for the Baptist missionaries in India led to the switch of the Judsons and Luther Rice from Congregationalists to Baptists

• Rice returned to the US to raise support for Judsons and self

• Formation of the General Mssionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the USA for Foreign Missions – “Trienniel Convention” (1814)

• American Bible Society (1816)• Methodist Episcopal (1819), Protestant Episcopal (1821),

Presbyterian (1831), and Evangelical Lutheran (1837)

American Involvement – Missionaries

• Adoniram Judson – usually considered “the first American foreign missionary.” (actually was George Lisle in 1782, a freed slave who returned to Jamaica to plant a church.

• Hiram Bingham (1820) – Hawaii – with 20 others

• Lott Cary and Colin Teague (1821) – Liberia – former slaves, first Baptist church on African continent.

• George Dana and Sarah Boardman (1827) – Burma – worked among Karens of the north – many converts

Pioneer Missionaries – From Europe

• Robert Moffat (1816)– South Africa – really a lay missionary, holistic approach, paternalistic.

• John Philip (1820) – South Africa - Supporter of rights for blacks in SA, advocated social reforms which led to the exodus of Afrikaners northward

• John Williams (1817) – Pacific South Seas – island hopped until killed and eaten by cannibals in 1839

• Alexander Duff (1830) – Calcutta – targeted upper-caste Hindus – founded missions chair at his home seminary

European and American Missiology

(1832 – 1865)Venn-Anderson-Wayland Trio• Anderson, head of ABCFM, two convictions

• Christian religion and civilization will triumph• The gospel, once implanted, will result (under the guidance of the

Holy Spirit) in true religion, sound learning, and indigenous Christian civilization

• Venn – CMS – developing “three-self formula”• Wayland – Triennial Convention – agreed with Anderson that

missions had become paternalistic• All three mandated more indigenous methods – later forgotten

or ignored – rediscovered in 20th century

Outstanding Events and Missionaries (1832 – 1865)

Significant Events• SBC forms (1845) results in FMB (now IMB)

and HMB (now NAMB) – now largest mission agencies in the world

• East India Company dissolved – religious pluralism in India aids Christianity’s spread

• Japan opens (1858)• China treaties (1848,1858, 1860)• Second evangelical awakening

Outstanding Events and Missionaries (1832 – 1865)

Outstanding Missionaries• Thomas Birch Freeman (1838) – Gold

Coast• Gutzlaff (1826 and on) – controversial• David Livingstone (1841 and on) –

medical missions, crusader against slave trade

• Henry Townsend (1844) – Nigeria – Yorubas

• John Taylor Jones (1843) – Thailand • Allen Gardiner (1850) SA, Pfander

(1829) Islam, Nommensen (1862) - Sumatra

The Golden Age of Colonial Missions (1865-1910)

Philosophy of Mission• Colonialism – the lesser of two

evils• Indigenous Principles – rejected• Social Gospel and Higher

Education – eroded the focus on evangelism and church planting

• Other religions – first glimmer of shift from radical exclusivism to inclusivism

Colonialism

• Ambivalence characterizes the attitude of most missionaries• Gave access to many new fields• Fostered political development in

some areas• Suppressed the slave trade and

inter-tribal warfare

• Missiologically Evil• Gunboat commercialism• Exploitation of indigenous peoples• Fostered resentment toward

western Christianity

Indigenous Principles

• Philosophical loyalty to A-V-W formula

• Practically• Pious paternalism – the view that

the indigenous church needs the mission organization to lead it and make wise decisions for it.

• Benevolent imperialism – Keeping the local churches dependent on the European mission organization financially and for leadership.

Social Gospel and Higher Education

• Mission strategy continued to major on individual conversion and church planting leading to social transformation

• Education metamorphosed from practical and industrial to academic and professional

• Christian professionals began all kinds of social ministries on the mission field

• Some groups began to shift from evangelization to civilization of the native peoples

Other Religions

• Mission strategy and theology embraced a radical discontinuity view for most of the period

• Late, theological liberalism views other cultures as “bridges” to the gospel or broken lights to be repaired by Christianity

Faith Missions

• Hudson Taylor (1865) – China Inland Mission• Interdenominational• No education requirement for

missionaries• Headquarters in China• Adopted native dress• Focused on intineration evangelism

• North Africa Mission, CMA, SIM, AIM

• Fueled by fundamentalist movement

Missions at the end of the century

Missionary movement was a hodgepodge of four kinds of agencies:

• Interdenominational• Denominational• Faith Missions• Specialized Missions – medical, etc

Outstanding Missionaries

• Timothy Richard (1870) Welsh Baptist, China, worked with intellectuals

• John Nevius (1890) China, indigenous principles revolutionized Korean work

• Joseph Neesima (1874) Japanese national, Doshima U, many Japanese Christian leaders

• Mary Slessor (1876) from Scotland to Nigeria, pioneer woman missionary

Outstanding Missionaries

• Lottie Moon (1873) SBC to China, evangelist & church planter. Died of malnutrition

• William & Ann Bagby (1881) SBC to Brazil

• Pablo Besson (1881) to Argentina. Campaigned for religious rights

• Amy Carmichael (1893) to India, rescued young girls from prostitution

• Christian Keysser (1887) to Irian Jaya• Samuel Zwemer (1890s) “Apostle to

Islam”

World Mission Conference of 1910

• 1200 representatives, many nations• Reflected the Christian attitude of the

time• Optimistic• Believing in Manifest Destiny• Espousing evangelical triumphalism

• Essential motivation behind the optimism of Edinburgh was pietistic

• Latourette characterized the missionary enterprise as basically altruistic