RI.~ ~ .... · B Iromthe O~ MISSIONARY RESEARCH LIBRARY 3041 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N. Y. 10027 Summer , 1972 Vol. XX I I I , No .8 LIBRARY Subs cription: $3 a ye ar; 1-15 copi e s , 35¢ Broadway (a t 120th Street ), New York, N. Y . 10027 Telephone: (Area 212) 662 -7100 each ; 16 -50 copie s, 25¢ each ; EDITORIAL AND CIRCULATION OFFICE more t han 50 cop ies , 15¢ each Room 678. 475 Riverside Drive, New York, N. Y . 10027 T el ephone : (Area 212) 870-2 175 NO TICE TO SUBSCRIBERS: Due to cir cumstances of printing and distribution over which the editor ha s no control, t he Occasiona l Bul let i n has fallen f ar be hind publication schedule . The present number i s designated Summer, 1972 . Ba ck issue s wi l l be pub l ished du r ing t he remai nde r of the year. R.P.B. THE MISSIONARY IMPULSE by Donald C. Lord Texas Woman's University It is fashionable among his t orians to interpret political, rel igi ou s , and social r eforms as the produ cts of me n i nsecure about their status i n society. One manife s t at ion of this interpretation is t he psychoanalysis of an indi v id~ al .r e fo r me r by some modern s cholar . But a more t ypical pr ocedure i s t o f ind common , unconscious , instinctive ki nds of be ­ havior which sugge st the anxi eties of the group which turned its members i nto ref or me r s i n an effort t o gain s tatus i n the society that had r ejected t hem. The most famous ex amples of t his school of t hought are David Donald' s analysis of t he abol i t ionists and Richard Hofstadter 's study of the progressives . l Thi s appr oach has not ye t been appl i ed t o the missi onary movement , but one can suspect that t he status- r evolution scholars would l ook for s i gns of restlessness, f r ustration, anxiety, and co nscientious s tat us-seeking i n the missionary 's background , and for a wide range of subconscious assumptions and impulse s in his concept of his cal l i ng . The mission­ ar y ' s quest for martydom, his wil lingness t o suffer i n a hostile environment, and hi s utopian notions ab out the result s of hi s work, would all come under close scrutiny from such a scholar . But a s t udy of t he many diar ies l eft behind by the 19th-cent ury mis s i on­ aries t o Thailand suggest that the se questions, and this approach , are not ve ry useful to an understanding of the missionary impulse , ma i nly because the co nve ntional tools of intellectual history indicate that the ological assumpt ions were at the he ar t of the missionary i mpulse; simple Christian opt i mi sm can be a motivating force a s dist i nctive and powerful as status-seeking . Fur thermore , while al l people have ul t er ior mo t i ve s , men often me an what they say, no mat ter how deep-seated and devious t heir inner mo t ivations might be . The missionar i es who jour neyed t o Thailand in the 19th ce ntur y make an inter esting case study on t he missionary impul se. The diaries of s ix of t he f i r s t e ight Prote stant mis sion­ 2 aries to Tha i land , or those of their wi ve s , are now depos i t ed in Ame r ican archives . The letters of the r emaining two were reprint ed in the Mis sionary Heral d, a pe riodical widely read by the 19th-century churchmen. I n addi t ion to these i mport ant manuscr ipts, many other cont emporary Thail and missionari e s l e f t written records of their exper iences . 2 The most important journal kept by the apostles to Tha iland i s that of Dan Bea ch Br adley, a medical missionary who l abored in the Land of t he White Elephant as a doctor , publisher , pr i nter , diplomat, and evangel ist from 1835 un til his death i n 1873. The detailed twent y ­ five vo lume Bradley diary i s one of t he most impor t ant documents of both the missionar y movement and Thai hist or y. Born in Marcellus, New York , in 1804, Bradley was raised in a pious Congregational i s t atmosphere by his f at her, the Reverend Dan Bradley . He recorded few import ant spirit ual de velopments in h is lif e unt i l 1825, when Marcellus sust a i ned a revival that was so power ­ ful it tran sf or med Bradley from a store clerk i nto a miss i onar y . The Marcel lus revival was not unique s i nce Bradl ey ' s home wa s situated i n the hear t of Western New York, an area so ch aract erized by fiery religious revivals that it i s known as the Burned-over District. The se revivals were produc ed by the intellectual attack mounted by certain 19th­ century theol ogians against the Calvinistic concept of a God t hat divided people i nt o two clas ses- -the saved and the damned -- an assumption alien to the democratic ideology of the pe r iod . 3 Until r e cently , t he causes of religious revivals have been misunderstood as irrational outpourings of t he spirit. But as Wi l l iam McLoughlin has shown , revival s are usual ly caused by serious t heological reorientations and the ecclesiast i cal conflict s t hey set off. Due to this particular theologi cal collision, the Second Great Awakening wa s characterized by the ascendency of l ay control over the clergy, the r egeneration of i nt erdenominational brother hood , the r epla cement of dogma by ethical concern, and the replacement of Calvinist i c predestination by the free will of Armini us. Ar mini an views as t hey ap pear ed in America can be summed up brief l y by stating that the Arminian s did not believe in the concept of the chosen few . Each ind i vi dual could be chosen i f he acquired the ne ce ssary grace through a program of good works . This simple concept spread eventually t o become a search fo r Christ ian per fe ct ion which culminated in the reform movements of the early 19th century. The Armi nians ' confrontation with the Calvi nists, which r esult ed in the rise in Ame r ican society of Chr istian ethics over Chr isti an dogma , coupled with t he indi vidual' s search f or personal f ait h and holiness , was the poor man ' s Tr ans cendent alism. The se attacks upon Calvinism, and the sense of social r e sponsi­ b i l i ty t hey created, made the religious revival which permeated Western New York t he progenitor of the Soc ial Gospel . Samuel Robb i ns, an Andover gr aduat e and Thailand mission­ ary, s p o l~ e for h is col leagues when he stated t hat missionaries were not concerned only wi t h s oul s. They l abored for the "elevation of the whole man" to accomplish "t he wi l l of God on eart h. ,,4 It should be not ed, however, that there wa s no great i ntel l e ct ual "shoot-out " in America between the Calvinists and the Armi nians , but rather a gradual modi f ication of the t wo theologies until the once great chasm bet ween them was br i dged and t he i r di fferences bl urr ed . No better illus t r at i on of t his exists t han the changing mot i vat ion for the mi ssionary enterprise. Before the rise of the American Boar d of Commis sions for Foreign Missions (ABCFM ) i n 1810 , Gloria Dei, Christ ian compassion for the eternal loss of immor tal souls, the ne ce s sity of being co -workers with Chr ist as advocated by J onathan Edwards, and the concept of disinterested benevolence stressed by Samuel Hopkins , were the dominant forces of t he mission i mpul se. 5 But by the time the f i rst overseas mission boards were created, the glory of God ceased to be t he pr ime mot ivating factor in the missionary i m­ pulse , and benevolence was no longer "disintere s t ed". Christ ian compassion and co -worki ng with Chris t were sti l l strong mo t i vat i ng forces, but othe r, more powerful impulse s had been ge ner at ed . 3 One of the se, oddly enough , was national ism. I t was no co i nc idence that American na tion­ al i sm and or gani zed missionary e ndeavor were created a t t he same t ime . The Tha iland mi s sionarie s and the l ay members of the Bangkok society of ten commented on t he inter ­ r elationship be t wee n Christianity and ci vi l i zat ion .