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Vol. 6, No.2 nternatlona• April 1982 etln• Evangelization and Civilization uring a transatlantic crossing in 1938, a steward on the by technological and other overlays. In Christian mISSIon "it DQueen Mary said approvingly to a young American mis would be folly to proceed without a clear historico-social analysis sionary appointee, "Missionaries are empire builders." Is that of any situation before taking action." statement-made even in the last, fading days of colonialism-a valid assessment of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century missionary enterprise? An international panel of four missiologists, speaking to the On Page American Society of Church History in December 1980, came to grips with that question in a probing examination of "Missionary 50 Evangelization and Civilization: Protestant Ideologies in the Imperialist Era, 1880-1920": Missionary Motivation in the Imperialist Era Hans-Werner Gensichen insists that the Volkskirche concept, Introduction propagated by German missionaries, was rooted in traditional cul William R. Hutchison ture. But tribal churches found it increasingly difficult to with 52 I. The Germans stand the onslaught of modern secular civilization. Charles W. Hans-Werner Gensichen Forman says that when American imperialism engulfed the Philip 54 II. The Americans pines, missionaries did not generally oppose it; but they spent Charles W Forman more time challenging the government to high purposes than in 57 III. The Scandinavians praising its accomplishments. Torben Christensen sees evangelism Torben Christensen as the primary concern of the early Danish Missionary Society, be 60 N. The British cause "true culture and civilization could exist and thrive only on Andrew F. Walls the basis of converted and regenerated humanity." Andrew F. 64 V. Comment Walls acknowledges that British missionary opinion in the imperi William R. Hutchison al era took the empire for granted, regarding Britain as the princi pal Christian influence in the world. Yet "this was balanced by an 65 The Legacy of A. G. Hogg insistence ... that the profuse variety of the human race prefigures Eric! Sharpe a similar variety of the kingdom of God." Eric J. Sharpe portrays the life of missionary educator-philos 70 Western Medicine and the Primal World opher Alfred George Hogg (1875-1954). Hogg served for thirty View five years as a professor at Madras Christian College in British Russell L. Staples India, ministering among Hindus with unfailing sympathy, accu racy of thought, and courtesy of dialogue. 72 Toward a New Missiology for the Church In "Western Medicine and the Primal World-View," Russell Simon E. Smith, S.! L. Staples maintains that effective communication-beyond a sur face level-depends on an ability to think in the categories and 74 Book Reviews logic of the other person's world-view. Simon E. Smith, S.J., reports a thought-provoking dialogue on 94 Dissertation Notices a new missiology for today's church. The participants recognize the futility of trying to homogenize the world's pluriform cultures 96 Book Notes of issionaryResearch Evangelization and Civilization: Protestant Missionary Motivation in the Imperialist Era" Introduction William R. Hutchinson his symposium constitutes one stage in a longer-range systems of ideas for which, [aute de mieux, we are using the term T collaborative study of "Missionary Ideologies in the Im "ideologies." This means that although we shall frequently discuss perialist Era, 1880-1920." The prospectus for this larger study (in implementation or behavior-what actually happened in the mis which some twenty scholars, at present, are engaged) contained sion fields-we are trying principally to gain clarity about what it language that may help in clarifying the authors' objectives in the was the Western churches or societies thought and asserted. We initial papers presented here: consider it sufficiently ambitious, in this first step toward larger scale comparative analyses, to layout and compare the stated ra The aim will be to provide description and comparison, both of the tionales of the movement during one crucial period. stated purposes of the missionary movement in this period and of The third limitation, our virtually exclusive concentration on the presuppositions and motivations informing the enterprise. The Western conceptions of the missionary enterprise, also raises serious project will focus principally, though not exclusively, on Protestant questions with which the committee planning this project has examples. struggled extensively. One need not rehearse all the arguments; Investigators will be asked especially to consider the attitudes of missionary spokesmen toward the colonialism of the era, and to our decision was that we should not claim, fundamentally, to be analyze the ways in which both spokesmen and missionaries may examining the missionary movement through any but Western have operated as collaborators or as critics of imperial expansionism. eyes, perceptions, and categories. More particularly, we shall inquire about the extent to which mis It is at this point that the project is most clearly a prolegom sionaries in this period considered themselves responsible for the enon, a kind of staging area. One acknowledges this not out of spread of "Christian civilization"; and how such civilizing obliga modesty, but precisely to make the point that a subsequent com tions were reconciled with the primary goal of evangelization, which parative analysis, fashioned from non-Western perspectives, will in some eras had been thought to preclude any direct preoccupation be the main story-or at least should be chapter two in any further with civilizing activities. development of this field. We hope that, in pursuing these central questions, investigators The difficulty, of course, is that one can easily see arguments will take note of variations in ideology, not just among the several "sending" cultures, but between missionary spokesmen or support for making the non-Western perceptions chapter one. Catherine ers at home and their workers in the various missionary fields. We Albanese, in her new history of American religion, seeks to combat also expect, of course, that the writers will discuss the more striking the "mainstream" bias in traditional scholarship by examining the changes that occurred over time, particularly where these changes nonmainstream religions first; by treating first the "manyness" of constituted responses to criticism at home or, more important, to American religion, and only then the "oneness."! Investigators of pressures and changed conditions in the "receiving" societies. mission history might in the same way reverse the usual order of Finally, although we have thought it best to limit our focus to things and gather non-Western perceptions first, thus decreasing the 1880-1920 time period, we shall encourage writers to refer, as the chances that the scholarly agenda will be further confined in much as is necessary and appropriate, to preceding and subsequent its traditional Western categories. phases of the foreign-mission movement. For European and American scholars to "organize" non-West ern perspectives is, however, equally problematic-scarcely a rem At least three of the self-limitations stated or implied in that edy for the scholarly Eurocentrism identified (if also exaggerated) description deserve some elaboration: they speak to definitional by Edward Said or, before that, by Mssrs. Gallagher and Robin problems that arise in any research on missions, especially if it son." We chose, therefore, to focus quite consciously on Euro adopts a determinedly comparative methodology. American ideology, and to make it clear that we appreciate the The first such limitation involves our concentration on Protes dangers inherent in that decision. tant missions. In what Professor Walls likes to call the high impe Having described three of the more difficult choices made in rial era, a study of missions that omits the French might be designing this project, I should add a final word about the ambi considered "Hamlet without Hamlet"-or at least as The Three Mus tious overall intentions that made such stringent delimitations keteers without d'Artagnan. To be sure, we have commissioned sev necessary. One reason comparative history is such a "young" or eral papers on Catholic missions for the Missionary Ideologies unexplored discipline-after all these centuries-is that genuine project. Yet, despite misgivings, we have found it wisest to con comparative analysis (as opposed, for example, to mere "side-by centrate on comparisons within Protestantism. The 'analyses of side" cataloguing of national or societal histories) is enormously Catholic missions will serve as "controls"; we do not pretend that they will offer an adequate number or range of Catholic compara tive examples. * These four papers, together with Professor Hutchison's introductory and We have, second, agreed to concentrate on ideas; and on those concluding remarks, have been adapted from a panel presentation-orga nized and moderated by Professor Hutchison-at the Washington, D.C. meetings of the American Society of Church History in December 1980. William R. Hutchison is Charles Warren Professor of American Religious History at The authors acknowledge with appreciation the support of the Lilly En Harvard University. dowment. 50 International Bulletin of Missionary Research demanding even after one has managed to control for a large num ber of the relevant variables. Confronted,

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