From Missions to Mission to Beyond Missions: The Historiography of American Protestant Foreign Missions Since World War II Dana L. Robert n 1964,R. Pierce Beaver, professorof historyof missions at unity. Similarly, American secular historians were captivated by I the University of Chicago Divinity School, wrote From an interpretation of Protestant missions as a symbol of American Missions toMission. In his book, this eminent American mission identity. Importantto both secular and churchhistorians was the historian reviewed the early part of the twentieth century and transition from missions to mission, from a pluralistic enterprise saw a Christianity that had ridden to success on the coattails of to the symbol of either national or ecclesiastical cooperation. But, Euro-Americanimperialismandprestige. Two worldwars,how­ as the social changes that Beaver described in 1964 accelerated ever, had demonstrated to growing nationalistmovements in the throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, both the religious vision developing world that Christianity was not part of a superior and the secular vision narrowed. By the late 1960s, there was culture and that, furthermore, it was an agent of colonialism. scarcely a work written on American Protestant missions that Beaver wenton to analyze the currentclimatefor world missions, did not focus on their role in promoting imperialism. Historical which included militant nationalism, urbanization, seculariza­ concernfor mission died like the chairs of missiology in mainline tion, repudiation of the West, and revivals of non-Christian Protestantinstitutions: interestwaseithergoneor confined to the religions. To move forward in such a context, he said, missions negative. must begin to cooperate among themselves and with younger, The 1980s witnessed an explosion of renewed scholarly non-Western churches on behalf of Christ's mission. Beaver saw interest in the history of American Protestant missions. The embodied in the World Council of Churches the beginning of acknowledgment of pluralism both in American society and new approaches to mission that would stress reconciliation over within American Protestantism freed mission history from its competition, and peace and justice issues alongside proclama­ captivity to unity. Intellectual historians discovered a full range tion. Missions from the West should become a common world­ of American mission theory that had lain forgotten in mission wide enterprise; pluralism must give way to unity. libraries for decades. Feminist historians recognized the domi- Beaver's small volume, its prescience notwithstanding, il­ lustrates the danger of historians drawing on the past in order to predict thefuture. The ecumenical movement that Beaver touted as the source of new forms of mission had within ten years so For many seminaries and modified the definition of mission that confusion over its mean­ ing was Widespread in mainline churches. When Beaver retired churches, "foreign missions" from the University of Chicago in 1971, his post was eliminated, became "universal mission," a practice followed in numerous mainline institutionsduring the only to evaporate 1970s. "Foreignmissions" had become "universalmission," only to evaporate into generalizations. Oddly enough, the North into generalizations. American evangelical missionaries whom Beaver described in 1964 as "sectarian and partisan," and as disrupting the unity of mission "for the first time in three hundred years" (p. 98), nance of women in the missionary movement and used the surpassed mainline missionaries in number and vigor. Today, ample documentation provided by mission sources to uncover with pluralism celebrated and competition among religions hidden angles on the history of American women. The "sectar­ fierce, with nondenominational missions dwarfing the efforts of ian" evangelicals that Beaver had excoriated in 1964 reached the old mainline, with indigenous Pentecostalism exploding in such a level of institutional maturity and ecclesiastical domi­ nooks and crannies around the world, theprospect for mission in nance that critical historical analysis became both possible and the twenty-first century is dynamic and diverse but bears little necessary. Church historians realized that missions were a cen­ resemblance to the top-down, unified witness Beaverenvisioned tral preoccupation not only of the mainline but of ethnic Ameri­ in 1964. It is the thesis of this essay that we have moved from cans, women, assorted subcultures, and Roman Catholics as "mission" to "beyond missions." welL From the ashes of "mission" reemerged "missions," a lively The road from "missions" to "mission" and "beyond mis­ and diverse enterprise, no longer able to fit comfortably into the sions," traveled so painfully by American Protestantism since outgrown garb of denominational history, Christian unity, or World War II, has been trod as well by the historians of North American identity. American missions. Mission history prior to World War II was Before the historiographic trail from mission singular to largely a denominational affair, told from the perspective of missions plural is explored, a caveat is in order. This article seeks efforts by individual denominations to spread their form of to cover only "foreign" missions, defined as those efforts to Christianity around the globe.' Beaver and other mission histo­ spread Protestant Christianity from North America to cultures rians of the post-World WarII generation envisioned the Protes­ and contexts outside its borders. The United States as a mission tant foreign mission enterprise through the lens of ecumenical field itself, including outreach to immigrants and to indigenous peoples of North America, deserves another full essay and cannot be considered adequately without including Roman Ca­ Dana L. Robert, a contributing editor, is Associate Professor of International tholicism. Arguments can be made that foreign missions should Mission, Boston University School ofTheology, Boston. include missions to native Americans prior to the conquest of 146 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH their territory by the United States, or that the convenient but International Bulletin missiologically archaic term "foreign" should be replaced by the nongeographic term "cross-cultural." However, for the sake of of Missionary Research convenience and to remain true to the way that American Prot­ Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the estants have generally used the term "foreign," this study will Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary exclude the historiography of North America as itself a mission Research 1977. Renamed INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH field. 1981. Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by Missions and the Mission of America Overseas Ministries Study Center 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A. The search for national identity, for a central unifying idea of Telephone: (203) 624-6672 what it means to be an American, dominated the work of Ameri­ Fax: (203) 865-2857 can intellectual historians during the mid-twentieth century as they addressed the subject of Protestants andforeign missions. Editor: Associate Editor: Assistant Editor: When the field of American intellectual history emerged be­ Gerald H. Anderson James M. Phillips Robert T. Coote tween the two world wars, historians anchored the meaning of Contributing Editors America to its concept of national mission. Unable to base their Catalino G. Arevalo, S.J. Dana L. Robert unity on common ethnic backgrounds, Americans apparently David B. Barrett Lamin Sanneh drew their identity from common purpose-shared commit­ Samuel Escobar Wilbert R. Shenk ment to democracy, voluntarism, individual rights, and free Barbara Hendricks, M.M. Thomas F. Stransky, C.S.P. enterprise. Norman A. Horner Charles R. Taber With the United States entering the fray against both Fas­ Graham Kings Tite Tienou cism and Communism, Ralph Gabriel published The Course of Gary B. McGee Ruth A. Tucker American Democratic Thought?To Gabriel and his followers, the Mary Motte, F.M.M. Desmond Tutu public function of the mission idea was so compelling that it Lesslie Newbigin Andrew F. Walls diverted attention from its historic roots in American Protestant C. Rene Padilla Anastasios Yannoulatos missions to non-Christians. When Gabriel, Perry Miller, and others created "American intellectual history" in the 1930s and Books for review and correspondence regarding editorial matters should be 1940s, they loosened the idea of mission from its theological addressed to the editors. Manuscripts unaccompanied by a self-addressed, context, secularized it, and made it the basis for Protestant­ stamped envelope (or international postal coupons) will not be returned. dominated national identity. For American intellectual histori­ Subscriptions: $18 for one year, $33 for two years, and $49 for three years, ans, to be an American meant de facto to adopt the Protestant postpaid worldwide. Airmail delivery is $16 per year extra. Foreign sub­ worldview. To follow the Protestant worldview meant to be in scribers must pay in U.S. funds only. Use check drawn on a U.S. bank, mission. Therefore, the syllogism concluded, to be an American Visa, MasterCard, or International Money Order in U.S. funds. Individual was to participate in mission. Foreign missions, in the plural, copies are $6.00; bulk rates upon request. Correspondence regarding sub­ became a manifestation