The Internationalization of the Protestant Missionary Movement Between the World Wars Dana L
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The First Globalization: The Internationalization of the Protestant Missionary Movement Between the World Wars Dana L. Robert he global vision intrinsic to Christianity-one world, internationalism withthe kingdom of God. Particularlyin North Tone kingdom of God under Jesus Christ-has been the American mainline Protestant churches it became difficult to motive and purpose behind much missionary fervor. Driven by distinguish internationalism from the mission impulse itself. this idealistic vision, the mission of the church nevertheless has Although internationalism was central to mainline Protes beenconductedwithinhumanhistory. Modemmissionsemerged tant missions in the 1920s and 1930s, scholars have not used it as in the context of the Enlightenment, the industrial revolution, an interpretive framework for the missionary issues of the era. and the subsequent expansion of capitalism and modernization. Many have preferred to interpret the interwar period in light of With its internal logic of universalism, or catholicity,' Christian the Kraemer/Hocking debate or in relation to the tension be mission of necessity finds itself in dialogue with the secular tween evangelistic and social gospel approaches to missions. globalizing tendency of the historical moment-whether Euro This essay explores the relationship between internationalism pean expansionism, Western capitalism, or the World Wide and indigenization in the mission movementbetween the world Web. 2 wars, with primary reference to a North American conversation. The Anglo-American Protestant missionary movement of I hope to demonstrate that internationalism and indigenization the 1920s and 1930s functioned within the globalizing discourse were two sides of the same coin. of "internationalism"-amoral vision of oneworld thatemerged The globalizing vision of one world stood in tensionwith the after the horrors of World War I and stemmed from the idealism cultural particularities that emerged in relationship to the global ofWoodrowWilson'sFourteenPoints.Internationalismlaunched context itself. Internationalism demonstrated all the complexity a massive pacifist movement, brought into being the League of that bedevils globalization in the early twenty-first century-a Nations and the World Court, and established the idea of the shiftingset ofbothsecularandreligiousdefinitions, andassump right of self-determination for all peoples.' Important sectors of tions of universality both challenged and affirmed by nationalis the Protestant missionary movement embraced international tic or particular ethnic identities. In this study I place the mission ism-they helped shape it, participated in it, and defended and thought of the 1920s and 1930s in the larger context of interna critiqued it at a grassroots level. In their most optimistic phase tionalism, and then explore briefly the parallels with globaliza during the 1920s, mission advocates were accused of confusing tion today.' Missions and the Developm.ent of Christian Internationalism. he internationalist agenda emerged quickly among ments like the YMCA and the World's Student Christian Federa T youngadults, many of them university students, whose tion (WSCF) had already spread throughout the colleges of generational cohorts died by the millions in the trenches of Europe, Asia, South Africa, and the United States. From 1889 to Europefrom 1914to1918.OnJanuary8,1918,PresidentWoodrow 1892 Luther Wishard of the World Committee of the YMCA Wilson of the United States put forth the Fourteen Points as a toured Japan, China, India, and parts of Africa to organize basis for ending the war. Among the points was the idea of the student YMCAs, visiting 216 mission stations in twenty coun self-determination of minority peoples, the end of the Ottoman tries. Missionaries, who considered theYMCA a partnerin youth Empire, the return of European territory under the imperial work, were its strongest supporters in so-called mission lands. control of the Axis powers, and the founding of the League of The YMCA also sponsored the StudentVolunteer Movement for Nations as a forum for resolving international disputes. In May ForeignMissions (SVM),founded in 1888.In 1889thefirst YMCA 1919 the terms of the Treaty of Versailles became public, reveal foreign secretaries arrived in Japan and China. By the early 1940s ing that instead of reconciliation among nations, there would be nearly 600 Western men had been involved in planting orga economic punishmentof the Centralpowers so severethata new nized youth work in Christian colleges in mission lands across basis for continued conflict was created. Then the U.S. Senate the globe. With its focus on developing indigenous leadership, refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which coupled with the the YMCA quickly developed a partnership model whereby decision of theUnited Statesnot to join the League of Nations, set foreign secretaries workedalongside and thenunderindigenous in motiona Widespreadinternationalistmovementamongyoung studentleaders. The WSCF, founded in 1895,piggybackedon the adults determined to achieve lasting peace based upon Wilson's YMCA and to some extent was an extension of it. Archbishop Fourteen Points. Nathan Soderblom of Sweden, leader in both the Life and Work Prior to World War I international Christian student move- and the Faith and Order ecumenical movements during the 1920s, reminisced that it was the YMCA, beginning with his Dana L.Robert, acontributing editor, is theTrumanCollins Professor ofWorld attendance at evangelist Dwight Moody's Northfield, Massa Mission, Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts. This chusetts, conference for college students in 1890, that gave him essaywas prepared with the supportof the Currents in World Christianity his "world-wide vision of ecumenical Christianity.:" Project. It waspresented in July2001 at theconference "Interpreting ContemGiven the missionary focus and international connections of porary Christianity: Global Processes and Local Identities," held in the student Christian movements before World War I, it was a Hammanskraal, South Africa. logical though not uncontested step for the younger generation 50 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH to merge the missionary agenda into the internationalism of the International Bulletin postwar period. Already Christian students had sustained a of Missionary Research Christian vision for world unity, and the WSCF maintained its formal unity across the battle lines during the war. As Christian Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the students and church leaders reestablished friendships across Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary national boundaries after the end of hostilities, the international Research 1977. Renamed INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH ist agenda of pacifism and international unity created a new 1981. Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by rationale for missionary commitment that seemed progressive Overseas Ministries Study Center and modern. Internationalism provided a new discourse, a new 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A. way of talking about missions for well-educated mainline Prot Tel: (203) 624-6672 • Fax: (203) 865-2857 estants. E-mail: [email protected] • Web: http://www.OMSC.org The transformation of mission organizations into interna Editor: Contributing Editors: tionalist ones occurred across the board in mainline Protestant Jonathan J. Bonk Catalino G. Arevalo, S.J. C. Rene Padilla colleges and student movements in the United Kingdom and the David B.Barrett James M. Phillips United States during the 1920s. A few examples here will suffice. Associate Editor: Stephen B.Bevans,S.V.D. Dana L. Robert In his history of the British Student Christian Movement, Robert T. Coote Samuel Escobar Lamin Sanneh Tissington Tatlow, an Anglican student volunteer who became Paul G. Hiebert Wilbert R.Shenk the SCM general secretary, eloquently described the transforma Assistant Editor: Jan A. B.Jongeneel Brian Stanley tion of his own consciousness into internationalism. In 1925 the Daniel J. Nicholas Sebastian Karotemprel, S.D.B. Charles R. Taber ManchesterQuadrennialConferenceof the Britishstudentmove David A. Kerr Tite Tienou ment drew 1,600 participants from twenty-nine countries. In Senior Contributing Editor Graham Kings Ruth A. Tucker Gerald H. Anderson Anne-Marie Kool Desmond Tutu addition to fellowship, worship, and singing, there were inspir Gary B.McGee Andrew F. Walls' ing speakers, the most memorable of whom was T. Z. Koo, head Mary Motte, F.M.M. AnastasiosYannoulatos of student work for the YMCA in China. Speaking on the topic "The New China," Koo described the work of social reconstruc Books for review and correspondence regarding editorial matters should be tion being undertaken under the Nationalist government. Re addressed to the editors. Manuscripts unaccompanied by a self-addressed, maining in England for a few weeks after the conference, Koo stamped envelope (or international postal coupons) will not be returned. visited church leaders and addressed various gatherings of Subscriptions: $23 for one year, $41 for two years, and $57 for three years, students. Tatlow witnessed a meeting between Koo and the postpaid worldwide. Airmail delivery is $16 per year extra. Foreign sub archbishops of Canterbury and York and later recalled, "He scribers must pay in U.S. funds only. Use check drawn on a U.S. bank, stood, a slender