18 Horst Grunder CHRISTIAN MISSION and COLONIAL

Horst Grunder

CHRISTIAN MISSION AND COLONIAL EXPANSION - HISTORICAL AND STRUCTURAL CONNECTIONS

1. The Epoch-Making Character of the Alliance befiiueen Mission and Colonialism

"In fact hardly any explorer or conquistador sailed without chaplains in his company, who raised the cross and preached Christianity as soon as they set foot on shore."1 This statement by the English explorer, colonial promoter and functionary Harry Hamilton Johnston, made in the late 19th century, pays tribute to the dose connection between the extension of Christian missions and the expansion of European power - a connection that, indeed, can hardly be denied historically Examining the historical process of the expansion of the European colonial powers since the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of discovery in the 15th century, as well as that of the expansion of Christianity since then, one has to acknowledge an amazing congnuty. In short: The two processes developed, both chronologically and regionally, almost parallel - if not always equally successfully. This is a fact that will be dealt with later. We may therefore conclude that the beginning of Iberian expansionism not only marked the beginning of European colonial rule over most of the globe - more than 85 % of the earth's surface, as David K. Fieldhouse once calculated - but, moreover, the beginning of the world's conquest by Christianity, which, as a matter of fact, after the triumph of Islam in the Near East and North Africa, figures as the European religion.

This modem alliance between mission and colonialism is based on pre- vious historical developments. Already in classical antiquity the Christian mission attached itself to Jewish colonial enterprise and Roman imperial expansion. One landmark in the development of this alliance is Constantine's victory over his adversary Maxentius by the Milvian bridge in 312 A.D., not only because this event resulted in the successive political tolerance, pref- erence, and promotion of Christian faith, but also because it marked that point in the history of Western Christian expansion where the interests of state and Church began to merge: for, as much as evangelization promised to further the expansion of empire, so did imperial expansion promise to further the spreading of the Gospel. Thus, from then on, missionary enterprise became the business of emperors, kings, and princes, who no longer separated political from religious interests. In this context, Augustine's definition of the "bellum iustum" served a church wanting to justify armed conflicts of her 19

own. This formula of the "just war," which was hardly ever questioned prior to the 20th century, allowed the church to sanction both the "war against heretics" as a means for the purification of the institution within and the "war against heathens" as a means for the dissemination of Christian faith without Since Pope Gregory I, therefore, war became an accepted means for the dissemination of Christianity ("missionary war"). It has been claimed that subsequent European colonialism was rooted wholly in Gregory's concep- tions.

The dose connection between the cross and the sword, which existed since late antiquity and developed into the aggressive programme of religious and political world conquest during the Middle Ages, continued well into modem times. In the context of Portuguese and Spanish (colonial) expansion, it ac- quired global meaning. At the same time, the medieval concept of the univer- sal idea of "orbis christianus" was revived once more after almost vanishing during the late Middle Ages, because, underlying the political and military goal of superseding and finally subjugating Islam, there was the visionary notion of a restored "orbis christianus," in which the former Christian terri- tories of the Orient would be reunited with the Occident in one global Christian empire. Nevertheless, neither the Spanish nor the Portuguese expansion may be considered as "crusades." They belong to a new era - the rise of European mercantilism - although the dissemination of the Christian faith as a motive did not lose its impact and, in the end, survived in its secularized or, at least, inseumen&hzed form. Anyway, "It is God's will" remained a valid argument - explicitly or implicitly - until the definitive end of European expansionism.

Henceforth, the Catholic powers Portugal and Spain did not only initiate modem colonialism, they also laid the foundations on which the modem alliance of Christian mission and colonial expansion was built. After their political decline in the late 16th century these Catholic powers were suc- ceeded by the "Protestant" powers Holland, England, and Denmark. Their entrance into colonial history marks the general beginning of Protestant missionary expansion. As had their Catholic predecessors, the Protestants regarded European secular colonialism and imperialism as a means of ful- filling Providence. Christian missionaries of all creeds and denominations were united in the common belief that European expansionism was a mani- festation of God's decree to spread His kingdom in the world. As late as the 1950s, a white bishop in Tanganyika could speak of colonialism as "a tool in the hands of providence."' There can hardly be found a more obvious , example to document the dose partnership between colonial state and colonial mission, which lasted well into the time of decolonization.