Abstract
The scholarship on the history of Protestant missions to Puerto Rico after the Spanish American War of 1898 emphasizes the Americanizing tendencies of the missionaries in the construction of the new Puerto Rican. There is no doubt that the main missionary motif during the 1890s was indeed civilization. Even though the Americanizing motif was part of the evangelistic efforts of some missionaries, new evidence shows that a minority of missionaries, among them Presbyterians James A. McAllister and Judson Underwood, had a clear vision of indigenization/contextualization for the emerging church based on language (Spanish) and culture (Puerto Rican). The spread of Christianity was successful not only because of the missionaries but also because native agents took up the task of evangelizing their own people; they were not passive spectators but active agents translating and processing the message of the gospel to fulfill their own people’s needs based on their own individual cultural assumptions. This article problematizes the past divisions of such evangelizing activities between the history of Christianity, mission history, and theology by analyzing the native ministries of Adela Sousa (a Bible woman) and Miguel Martinez in light of the teachings of the American missionaries. The investigation claims that because of Puerto Rican agents’ roles in the process of evangelization, a new fusion between the history of Christianity, mission history, and theology emerged as soon as new converts embraced and began to preach the gospel.
Highlights
Puerto Rico became the first colony of the United States, initiating a process by which the island became an object of the political, economic, cultural, and ideological apparatus of the United States
This article problematizes the past divisions between the history of Christianity, mission history, and theology by analyzing the native ministries of Adela Sousa and Miguel Martinez in light of the teachings of the American missionaries
The assumption that native Christians would follow the missionaries in their quest to Americanize Puerto Rico is more nuanced and complicated than previous research on the Americanization process of Puerto Rico has shown
Summary
History is often written by the ones in power. The history written by Presbyterian missionaries often contained the term “a native helper.” In most cases the missionaries did not reveal the gender of the “native helper,” but in a few instances the native helper was recognized as a Bible woman. Underwood appointed Sousa as a Bible woman to visit the sick, encourage the members of the church, and to minister to the “upper class women” in their homes He said, “It is a delight to see the wonderful grasp she has on Scripture truth, and her wise, tactful and convincing manner of presenting the gospel. Victoriano Fernandez, a helper to Underwood and later the editor of La Voz Evangélica, toured the towns of Aguadilla, Moca, San Sebastian, Lares, and Isabela to present and propagate the weekly periodical He noticed during his visit to San German that Angel Arroyo Rivera and Trinidad Dominguez were in charge of the work while Lheureaux attended the Presbyterian General Assembly. The other major group working to establish Christianity in Puerto Rico was native male workers, among them Miguel Martinez
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