Copyright © 2014 Barry Mark Morris All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation, or instruction. MOTIVATION FOR COSTLY MISSIONS: A COMPARISON OF THE JOURNALS OF THOMAS COKE AND WILLIAM CAREY __________________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary __________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________________ by Barry Mark Morris December 2014 APPROVAL SHEET MOTIVATION FOR COSTLY MISSIONS: A COMPARISON OF THE JOURNALS OF THOMAS COKE AND WILLIAM CAREY Barry Mark Morris Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ George H. Martin (Chair) __________________________________________ M. David Sills __________________________________________ James D. Chancellor Date ______________________________ This work of sacrifice and joy is dedicated to my loving wife, Cindy, who lived these pages with me. Without her dedication and love this dissertation would have been impossible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . vii PREFACE . viii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION . 1 Problem . 3 Thesis . 3 Purpose . 4 Definitions . 6 Background . 9 Literature Review . 11 Limitations and Delimitations . 16 Methodology . 18 2. PRECEDENT FOR SACRIFICIAL SERVICE FROM SCRIPTURE AND EARLY CHURCH FATHERS . 21 Sacrificial Service . 24 Biblical Precedent . 41 Early Church Fathers . 51 3. THE SOUTH ASIA JOURNAL OF WILLIAM CAREY . 56 Source of the Journal . 57 Highlighted Journal Entries . 75 Observations and Significance . 101 iv Chapter Page 4. THE SOUTH ASIA JOURNAL OF THOMAS COKE . 106 Source of the Journal . 107 Highlighted Journal Entries . 127 Observations and Significance . 156 5. OBSERVATIONS AND QUESTIONS . 161 Observations Regarding Risk, Evangelism, and Resolve . 163 Questions . 182 6. IMPLICATIONS FOR MISSIONARIES AND SENDERS . 200 Missions and the Business of Risk Management . 201 Final Implications . 212 Closing Thoughts . 220 Appendix 1. WILLIAM CAREY JOURNAL ENTRIES: RISK AND SACRIFICE . 223 2. THOMAS COKE JOURNAL ENTRIES: RISK AND SACRIFICE . 225 3. WILLIAM CAREY JOURNAL ENTRIES: RESOLUTE MOTIVATION . 228 4. THOMAS COKE PERSONAL LETTERS AND OTHER SOURCES: RESOLUTE MOTIVATION . 230 5. THOMAS COKE JOURNAL ENTRIES: RESOLUTE MOTIVATION . 234 6. WILLIAM CAREY JOURNAL ENTRIES: EVANGELISM . 236 7. WILLIAM CAREY MEMOIR : VARIOUS TOPICS . 237 8. THOMAS COKE JOURNALS AND LETTERS: MISCELLANY . 250 9. JIRI SCHMIDT LETTERS OF LEAVE-TAKING . 263 10. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ROHRER: INTERNATIONAL MISSION BOARD . 265 11. LETTERS OF DAVID SCOTT SCUDDER: MISSIONARY IN SOUTHERN INDIA . 267 12. LETTER OF MISSIONARY RESOLVE: REV. J. FURNISS OGLE . 268 v Appendix Page 13. MISSIONARIES WHO DIED IN ACTIVE SERVICE: INTERNATIONAL MISSION BOARD . 270 14. MARTYRED MISSIONARIES DURING THE SAD CRISIS OF 1900 . 274 15. COKE’S 1786 PROPOSED MISSION FUND . 277 16. MISSION TO CEYLON REGISTRY FOR 1814 . 282 17. SERAMPORE LETTERS . 283 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 285 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BMS Baptist Missionary Society founded in Northamptonshire, England CCI Crisis Consulting International FSA Fort Sherman Academy IMB The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention The Society Baptist Missionary Society founded in Northamptonshire, England vii PREFACE I am a sinner compassionately adopted into God’s family. Charlie and Audrey lovingly raised me, modeling Christ and pointing me to the Savior. My extended family exemplified the lessons my parents taught. Second Baptist Church of Memphis nurtured me and introduced me to missions. James Hatley taught me to live for the lost. Ken King and Keith Spurlock discipled me. God made me acceptable to an amazing best friend and life-partner, Cindy Stringer. She and I work daily, side-by-side in God’s mission field. God blessed us with our daughters and sons-in-law: Emily and Sam, Betsy and John, and Kelly and John. God gave us the great joy of outstanding grandchildren. God preserved Cindy through a horrendous battle with Multiple Myeloma and magnified his glory through her testimony. Her suffering has led us to increasingly cherish Jesus and one another. Bill Hendricks taught me to think theologically. Bill Smith mentored me in evangelism and church planting. Keith Parks supported us as hope seemed lost, when two American team members were taken hostage. That hostage event led to my examination of this dissertation topic. The International Mission Board gave us our best friends and partners, offering the mechanism of support and service to the least reached. Mike Stroope, Jerry Rankin, Sam Shaw, Rick Warren, and Ken Winter entrusted me with leadership. My doctoral committee—James Chancellor, David Sills, and George Martin— patiently prodded me to excavate truths deep below the surface of missionary pragmatics. Colleagues and friends patiently endure with me as God chips away at my rough edges, transforming me into something a bit more useful. Cindy—she has loved me. She has taught me how to learn and how to teach. viii Cindy is God’s instrument to make me more useful to Jesus. God continues to shape us into his likeness. Through this study, God has deeply etched on my heart, selected passages from the journals of Thomas Coke and William Carey. I desire that each reader ascertain treasures in the words and lives well penned by Coke and Carey. Mark Morris Memphis, Tennessee December 2014 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The journals of Thomas Coke and William Carey reveal similar motivations and comparative practices that could be deemed both perilous and normative for pioneer missionaries across continents and eras. If missionary behavior historically gravitates toward personal risk and uncertain safety for pioneer missionaries and their families, what are the ramifications for mission senders and supporters today? This treatise asserts that contemporary missions’ senders can expediently employ lessons ascertained through the journals and letters of Thomas Coke and William Carey. This dissertation seeks to discover these lessons, apply them to contemporary contexts, and consider the consequences of employing said lessons. Carey’s and Coke’s South Asia journals originated on the day of departure for Asia, as both Carey and Coke embarked from the shores of Great Britain. William Carey’s 1793-1795 journal records his voyage to India and nearly a year and a half of his early ministry in India. 1 Thomas Coke’s journal commenced on December 30, 1813, and ended abruptly with his death at sea, shortly after his last entry on February 21, 1814. 2 In addition to these brief journals, the study draws upon other letters and journals from both men, as well as from observations by their families and colleagues. Since Coke’s South Asia journal was cut short by his unfortunate death, and since he kept copious notes on his other mission voyages, Coke’s earlier missionary journals and his 1William Carey, The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey , ed. Terry G. Carter (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2000). 2Thomas Coke, The Journals of Dr. Thomas Coke , ed. John A. Vickers (Nashville: Kingswood, 2005), 253-62. 1 voluminous correspondence are significant sources of his self-reflection. Thomas Coke was an evangelical Methodist who died leading the inaugural Methodist missionary envoy to Ceylon (Sri Lanka). William Carey was the cobbler who pioneered Baptist work into India. Both men wrote historical treatises that shook their respective denominations to action. According to John Vickers, “At the end of 1783, he (Coke) circulated his first Plan of the Society for the Establishment of Missions among the Heathens. ”3 Coke’s proposal was an appeal and an organizational strategy that was published in a pamphlet circulated widely in 1786 as An Address to the Pious and Benevolent, Proposing an Annual Subscription for the Support of Missionaries in the Highlands and Adjacent Islands of Scotland, the Isles of Jersey, Guernsy, and Newfoundland, the West Indies, and the Provinces of Nova Scotia and Quebec .4 Nine years after Coke’s original Plan of the Society William Carey published An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. 5 Students of missions are familiar with Carey’s Enquiry, but few are aware that Coke’s Plan of the Society preceded Carey’s Enquiry. Susan Thorne writes, “The first intimations of that more ambitious and self-propelling missionary program for which the Victorians were renowned came from the Methodists.” 6 Thorne references Coke’s Plan of the Society and the resultant 1787 launch of Methodist work in the West Indies. How striking that both men articulately constrained their denominations, amidst significant resistance, toward 3John A. Vickers, Thomas Coke: Apostle of Methodism (London: Epworth, 1969), 67. 4Thomas Coke, An Address to the Pious and Benevolent, Proposing an Annual Subscription for the Support of Missionaries in the Highlands and Adjacent Islands of Scotland, the Isles of Jersey, Guernsy, and Newfoundland, the West Indies, and the Provinces of Nova Scotia and Quebec (London: J. Paramore, 1786). 5William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens: In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of Further Undertakings Are Considered (Leicester: Printed