Transnational Christian Activities in a Colonial Setting

Abstract

This paper looks at the issue of transnational Christian activities in a colonial setting through a case study of the overseas missionary work of the Nippon Seikôkai (NSKK). Missionary work in the Japanese overseas empire offers an example of Western and Japanese missionary societies and missionaries working in a colonial setting where the colonial overlord was neither European nor Christian but still intent to use religion for the benefit of its imperial rule. As the example of the NSKK shows after 1937 nationalistic concerns rather than transnational ones had become the dominant force behind Japanese overseas missionary work.