Christian Mission Research Articles

Colonialism and Modern Tamil Grammar Writing Tradition

Tamil Grammar boasts a rich and Enduring tradition. The Evolution of Grammatical texts has occurred consistently, adapting to societal shifts and the demands of the times. From the ancient Tholkappiyam to contemporary grammar books, the evolution reflects diverse perspectives on the Tamil language, shaped by the necessity of creating comprehensive guides. A significant transformative phase unfolded during the colonial era, influencing the development of grammar. This article delves into the formation and establishment of modern Tamil grammar writing in the later period of Tamil Grammar works crafted by colonial authorities and Christian missionaries.

Exploring the Potential of Open Distance Learning in Teacher Education in Kenya: Opportunities and Challenges

In the Kenya’s vision 2030, education is recognized as a social pillar, it is expected that Kenya will become a middle income country with high quality of life to its people. Education is an important ingredient to a country’s development. The quality of an education system is highly dependent on the quality of its teachers. A country cannot develop beyond the quality of its teachers. The main aim of this paper is to explore the potential of open and distance learning to the development of teacher education in Kenya. The paper traces the historical development of teacher education in Kenya from the second half of the nineteenth century when western education was introduced to Kenya by the Christian missionaries. The history method of research has been used in the study. Data were also collected by means of literature review. The teacher education in Kenya is concerned with the training of early childhood teachers, primary teacher education, diploma teacher education, secondary teacher education and technical teacher education. Most of these teacher education programmes and other post qualification trainings are done through the traditional face to face model. Most of these teacher education programmes are not efficient and cost-effective. Kenya needs a comprehensive search to finding a cost-effective, conducive, efficient and comprehensive way of training teachers. It is our view that a search should include the use of open and distance learning as a viable solution to the training of teachers. Open distance learning should be seen as a complementary to the traditional mode of training teachers in Kenya. This paper holds that for teachers to effectively contribute to Kenya’s vision 2030, the teachers should be given the most appropriate tools during training and during practice-including the content knowledge, skills and attitude so as to make them work as professionals who will bring the desired change. Finally, this research highlights the need of open and distance learning to the development of teacher education in Kenya.

‘Social Dimension’ in Christian Mission: An Appraisal of Social Mission of the Church in India

The social dimension of the Christian mission played a vital role in the mission of the church. This has to do with uplifting the poor, eradicating social evil, reflecting fraternity, bringing social justice, seeing the progress of better humanity, peace, unity, etc. With the arrival of colonial rule in India, the mission of the church appeared to be engaged in so many social activities. Foreign missionaries arrived with their strategy, but with the pressure of colonial rulers in India, they could have achieved exactly what the mission of the church was supposed to be. However, an attempt to strengthen society is always as appreciable as service to God in favour of human beings. In the present era, the social dimension has gone down in the mission of the church. Therefore, it is important to research for better humanity when one thinks of the service of the church. Even amid difficulties in the church, social division is seen as a service to God. Here I appeal for continuing the social acts in Indian society in service of God as a reflection of the true mission of church. For this article, I have used the technique of socio-historic analysis in an ethno-religious approach.

Пути христианизации Скандинавии. IX–X века

Prior to the baptism of the rulers of Scandinavian countries and introduction of Christianity as an official religion, Scandinavians for several centuries familiarized themselves with Christian ideas and practices, on the one hand, in the course of trade connections, Viking expeditions, service as mercenaries in Western and Eastern Europe and, on the other hand, through missions from Germany and England. Contrary to traditional view that Christian missions, especially those launched from Hamburg-Bremen Archdiocese, played the dominant role in the process of Christianization of Scandinavia, recent studies give them an insignificant place since their results (which are understood as the baptism of rulers and nobles) are ‘negligible’. Representatives of both trends rely mostly on the information of written sources. An important, though yet understudied and ungeneralized source on the problems of ‘Christianization before Christianization’ are archaeological materials that can throw light on the time, intensity, and forms of the penetration of Christianity to the North. The purpose of this article is an attempt to collect at least some of the relevant archaeological materials and suggest their preliminary interpretation in comparison with the information from written sources. The main categories of possible evidence in material culture are burial customs, artifacts, and church construction. However, the interpretation of both single burials and finds like crosses or cruciform pendants as Christian is ambiguous in most cases. In the context of the discussed problem, the materials of large necropolis, first and foremost in Birka, are best studied at the moment, as well as the construction of early churches preceding stone buildings of the 12th an 13th centuries. These materials show that burials that can be interpreted as Christian and churches (built by missionaries or Christian neophytes) concentrate in the areas of intensive missionary activities. It testifies its productiveness in dissemination of Christian ideas in Scandinavia in the 9th and 10th centuries. Along with churches built by missioners in the largest trade centers like Birka, Hedeby, and Ribe, houses intended for divine service, usually rather small in size, were erected by recently baptizes nobles or stórbondir on their farms.

The Queen's Urdu: Translating Colonial Secularity in Victoria's 1858 Proclamation

This article argues that Queen Victoria's Proclamation of 1858, marking the transfer of power from the East India Company to the crown, ushered in a new era of colonial secularity. “Colonial secularity” refers to the myriad ways that normative distinctions between religion and not-religion emerged and proliferated in colonial contexts. The proclamation committed not to interfere in religion, but “religion” is circumscribed, reconceptualized largely as a matter of private conscience set against the purview of the state. As this article explores, it is according to this logic that the abolition of Islamic criminal law after the proclamation could register as noninterference in native religion. At the same time, Christian missionaries contested the proclamation's notions of neutrality to carve out a space in which they might operate.

East Asian languages in Lord’s Prayer collections, ca. 1600–1900

This paper provides a survey of versions of the Lord’s Prayer translated into several East Asian languages as they are attested in collections since the end of the 16th century. This is when the first relevant example appeared in print, namely a Literary Chinese version provided by a Jesuit missionary. The various versions are contextualized with a view on their creation and dissemination, often but not always involving Christian missionaries, and their textual interrelations are considered. The languages covered here are chiefly Literary Chinese (as well as other Sinitic languages later on), Japanese (and later Ryukyuan) and Korean.

The Challenge of Christian Mission in Japan

The Challenge of Christian Mission in Japan

Apostasy in Islam and Christian Mission of Evangelization

Apostasy in Islam and Christian Mission of Evangelization

Dialogue Between Christian Love and Pancasila Values According to Driyarkara

This article discusses Christian love and the essence of Pancasila values according to Driyarkara. This secondary research (desk research) uses a qualitative approach with Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic analysis method. This research critically examines Driyarkara's writings regarding the Pancasila and the Christian Religion. Driyarkara reflected deeply on the essence of the Pancasila as being love for God. Driyarkara's findings regarding love as the essence of the Pancasila will be used as a starting point to explain the relationship between the Pancasila and Christian love. The synthesis of the dialogue between the two becomes the basis for explaining how to become a Pancasila Christian. This article finds several things. First, the point of convergence between Pancasila and Christian love lies in love itself. In the light of the church's faith, Christian love which comes from Christ is the soul, while love as the essence of the Pancasila is its embodiment in the life of the nation and state. Second, the implementation of the Pancasila by Christians is a manifestation of their duty to take part in Christ's mission in the world, namely to proclaim the Kingdom of God which is nothing other than the complete welfare of humans. The research concludes that for a Christian there is no other way to become a Pancasilaist than by truly being a Christian who fundamentally implements Christ's love for others.

충청 지역 여성독립운동의 성격과 공적

The history of the Korean women’s independence movement was not only an anti-Japanese independence movement that sought national independence, but also a human liberation movement that sought to break away from feudalism within the nation. Ironically, it was only during the independence movement when the country was taken away that awareness of Gender Equality began to take root in society. In the course of Korea’s modern history, women’s activities have achieved remarkable growth compared to the previous era, but research results are still insufficient to give meaning.
 In modern times, the Christian gospel brought about an awakening that women had not experienced in the pre-modern feudal era. Since the Bible women educated by Christian missionaries had a greater ability to spread the gospel than any other missionaries, the Bible women can be evaluated as the leading figures who achieved great results in the Christian gospel and women's liberation in the Chungcheong Province.
 Women in Chungcheong Province were able to learn the Korean alphabet and overcome illiteracy by studying the Bible with female missionaries and Bible women from the Southern Methodist Church. Memories of learning and strong faith brought awareness and strengthened women’s inner self, giving them the strength to overcome any adversity.
 Feudalism persisted in the Chungcheong Province for a long time compared to other regions, and women were dismissed as socially inferior and in need of education. It can be said that the process of enlightenment and modernization for women in Chungcheong was more painful than any other region due to the dominance of the patriarchal idea that women are subordinate to men. This is because the long tradition of Confucianism, which was built as a moral system, and the wall of conservatism were that thick. Modern enlightened women had the dual task of reforming feudal society internally and opposing the Japanese imperialist invasion force externally, but women who did not enjoy the benefits of education remained stuck in medieval thinking even into modern times. Nevertheless, in the colonial system, women fought for the value of national liberation above their own liberation, and entered the independence movement with the determination that women's liberation could never be achieved without national liberation.
 Rather than staying in the Chungcheong province, women in Chungcheong left traces of an active independence movement by moving to other regions or abroad. Therefore, the Chungcheong region could not create an ecosystem for the independence movement where the women's movement could develop. At the time of the National Debt Compensation Movement in 1907, national debt compensation organizations were created by women in various regions, but they were not found in any of them in the Chungcheong Province. In addition, although the Geunwoohoe(근우회), which was founded in 1927 as the women’s only unified cooperative front organization, developed into a national organization, the fact that no branches were established in the South Chungcheong rigion speaks for this phenomenon.
 Although the proportion of women who participated in the March 1st Movement and the student movement is significantly lower than in other regions, we can see that awareness of women in gender and class discrimination is changing significantly as we witness the dedication and sacrifice of Chungcheong women who led the March 1st Movement. Along with these changes of the times, women’s worldview and historical awareness also changed significantly, leading to the realization that an intact community could not be maintained without women’s participation. In this way, the vision of building an independent nation-state without gender discrimination could finally be unified.

Navigating the Direction of Christian Literacy Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In an era where materialism is refined in various ways, what does it mean for theism to live with this era? Rather, as progress in understanding materials coincides with technological prosperity through materials, material-centered worldviews such as posthumanism and new materialism are increasing in breadth and depth. However, when this question is transposed into the space of university liberal arts education, the question changes as follows: Can the teachings of Christianity still be relevant in the era of artificial intelligence? This essay attempts to explore an answer to this question. Three reflective approaches are needed for this attempt. First, reflection on where the teachings of Christianity are positioned within university education. Second, reflection on the era of techno-capitalism, represented by artificial intelligence. Third, reflection on Christian teachings for university liberal arts education, considering both the Christianity’s position within the era and the characteristics of the era of artificial intelligence. The conclusions for each reflection will suggest Christian literacy, challenges posed by artificial intelligence, and the necessity of Christian teachings in university liberal arts education through the reinterpretation of spirituality. The proposed argument is that in terms of position, it is Christian literacy rather than Christian missions; in understanding the contemporary situation, it is the two challenges posed by artificial intelligence to humanity; and in facing these challenges, the direction of education should be spiritual education through the reinterpretation of spirituality. The goal of this essay is to present the actuality of this reinterpretation through the methodological concept of transversal traversing. By doing so, it aims to imagine one theoretical alternative on how Christian literacy in the era of artificial intelligence can be applied in the field of university liberal arts education.

Scorsese'nin Silence Filmi Üzerinden Sessizliğe Yaklaşımlar: Batı ve Doğu Perspektifleri Arasında Bir Karşılaştırma

Silence, the film, revolves around Christian missionaries who traveled to Japan in the 17th century to propagate Christianity and explores their interactions with the local population. The film portrays silence by strongly associating it with martyrdom and alludes to the suffering of Jesus Christ. This glorification of silence reveals findings related to Western perspectives and an Orientalist attitude. These findings will be analyzed according to Orientalist theory, a theory that investigates Western culture's tendency to exoticize and dominate Eastern cultures, in order to examine how the Western missionaries in the film observed and represented Japanese culture. The analysis will employ content analysis methodology to delve into the themes, symbols, and representations in the film. Additionally, it will draw upon Edward Said's theory of Orientalism and the concept of self-Orientalism. The film identifies instances where the Western representation associates silence with martyrdom and belittles Eastern culture. Examples such as the claim that the Japanese people do not understand Christianity, the depiction of Japan as a barren land, the presentation of Japanese characters as stereotypical figures, and the relegation of Eastern spiritual traditions to a lower status all demonstrate the denigration and marginalization of Eastern culture by the Western perspective. Furthermore, the fact that the film is based on a novel written by a Japanese author necessitates an examination of self-Orientalism.

Analisa Perumusan Konsep Ketuhanan Menurut Perspektif Thomas Beighton (1790-1844) Dalam Karya Inilah Kunci Pengempar (1841) Analysis of the Formulation of the Concept of Divinity from Thomas Beighton’s (1790-1844) Perspective in the Work Inilah Kunci Pengempar (1841)

Writing and printing are among the fields pioneered by the London Missionary Society (LMS) missionaries since their arrival in the Straits Settlements at the beginning of the 19th century AD. Thomas Beighton (1790-1844) was involved in this role, particularly within the Malay Muslim community of Penang. This required from Beighton, a mastery of the Malay language and Jawi script, which enabled him to produce a large number of works in that language. Therefore, this study which uses textual content analysis will concentrate on one of Beighton’s works dealing with the concept of divinity entitled, Inilah Kunci Pengempar (This is the Centrifugal’s Key), published in Penang in 1841. Through this work, Beighton has used a metaphysical approach in his writing to spread Christianity in the country. As a result, Beighton was discovered attempting to apply the concept of divinity based on the concept of trinity, which refers to God: the Father (Allah), Son of God (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit in all descriptions. This shows the efforts of the Christian missionaries at that time, who were enthusiastic about spreading the religion, including learning Arabic and comprehending certain concepts in both divine matters and Islamic law (the Shari‘ah).

Private Sector Participation and the Development of University Education in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, 1999-2021: A Historical Analysis

The main thrust of this paper is to historicise the involvement of the private sector in the development of university education in Nigeria in the Fourth Republic. While the first set of private universities began during the Second Republic, the year 1999 marked the commencement of the birth of the second set of private universities in Nigeria. The year 2021 was when the last batch of private universities was granted provisional licences of operation by the Federal Government through the National Universities Commission. There is no doubt that the history of educational development in Nigeria has its origin in the activities of the private sector, that is, Christian missions. Their involvement in the development of western education in the country between the late 19th and 20th centuries was mainly confined to the provision of primary and secondary education. Up to the birth of the Fourth Republic in 1999, the provision of university education in the country was exclusively the responsibility of both the Federal and the State governments. Although an attempt was made during the Second Republic, 1979–1983, to encourage private sector participation, this eventually failed. The present paper argues that availability and accessibility to high-quality university education can be meaningfully achieved through public-private collaboration as seen in developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Western Europe. Active involvement of non-state actors would help the government to mobilize financial resources to meet more pressing public service needs. The methodology adopted for this work is historical, qualitative and quantitative, utilising materials from both primary and secondary sources.

Service-learning as anti-oppressive practice: Promoting partnerships to advance the Christian mission to serve the least of these

Service-learning, especially from a critical perspective, is a method of education that aims to bring students into relationships with community members to foster mutual understanding and give opportunity for shared learning and service. Universities that are compelled by their faith to seek justice may be the most effective at implementing service-learning programs when they are grounded in the justice and love of God. Herein, I report on a service-learning program that aims to advance the Christian mission by serving the least of these. I discuss lessons learned along the way and give examples from our partners.

Portrayal of the Matuas in the Christian Missionary Writings

The paper exposes the socio-economic condition of the early 20th-century Matua community of Bangladesh. It unfolds how the Matuas strived for elevation to the mainstream of national life. They desired for upliftment by securing their rightful and logical position in the broader arena dismantling untouchability and social exclusion imposed on them. They took education as the most suitable medium to make them worthy for every sphere of life. It tells the Australian Baptist missionaries’ outlook on the Matuas and their remarks on the Matuas’ uplifting activities as well as the Matuas’ gradually changing views on life and society. It reflects why the missionaries came to Orakandi. Every single issue of the community has been presented on the basis of the experiences of four missionaries who worked among the Matuas and/or collected a vast knowledge on this once despised backward class of people. Among the four missionaries, three are from the 20th century, and the rest one is from the 21st century and their four relevant books have been selected for this study. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), Vol. 68(2), 2023, pp. 241-261

Воспитание ребенка в Западной Африке (народ аватиме, Гана)

The Avatime education system was seriously transformed under the influence of Christian missionaries and European civilization, therefore the author used unstructured interviewing, questioning and the anthropological method of participant observation to reconstruct the autochthonous, pre-colonial worldview and identify the basic principles of the Avatime children's socialization. The most important feature in the autochthonous Avatime culture was the community and the moral principles guarded by the elders: the deities who established these rules were far from people, and ancestral spirits served as mediators between their world and the human world. The elder became the governor — a representative of the people world who knows the traditions but already close to ancestral spirits. Education systems changed depending on the stage of child development. Nevertheless, the goal of education naturally and intuitively pursued from childbirth, remained unchanged and consisted in assimilation of the individual to other members of the community through the formation of their behavior in generally accepted model. Procreation is a public duty, so a child takes the place prepared for him in the lineage, clan, community and in the Universe as a whole.

Swami Vivekananda, Hindu Dharma and ‘Social Ethics’ in the Nineteenth Century

In nineteenth-century colonial India, Hindu Dharma was attacked by colonial machinery and Christian missionaries for lacking social ethics and morality, with an understanding that Christianity had an ‘inherent and timeless’ social ethic and was concerned with the social upliftment of the poor. This paradigm to criticise Hinduism was also extended to criticise those Hindu intellectuals, especially Swami Vivekananda, who were deliberating over the question of ethics and morality, intending to make Hindu Dharma an agent of social change. These developments in Hindu Dharma were criticised as an outcome of or reaction to Christian social ethics and thereby were declared inauthentic in both colonial and post-colonial periods. By historicising and contextualising the concept of Christian social ethics and morality, this paper debunks the propaganda that concern for the poor and the marginalised was an ‘inherent and timeless’ feature of Christianity.

Research on the Localization of Modern Christian Church Architecture: A Case Study of Hangzhou Sicheng Hall

Christian churches have had great importance in Western classical architecture since the introduction of Christianity into China, which to better integrate into the local community and improve public acceptance, Christian churches were built in China with the characteristics of traditional Chinese architecture. At the same time, it retains the plane shape and spatial sequence similar to that of Western churches and has evolved into the image of "combining Chinese and Western" today. In order to study the localization characteristics of Protestant churches built in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province under the historical and humanistic background. This paper takes "Sicheng Church", the oldest existing Christian church in Hangzhou, as the research object. Through literature research and field research. Based on the analysis of the development history of the church, the location selection, plane shape, architectural style, and architectural decoration of the church building, the retention and localization characteristics of the church building and their influencing factors are discussed, and the root cause of localization in the Christian mission and church construction is obtained.

MUSICAL ACTIVITY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES AT THE COURT OF THE QING EMPERORS OF THE 17TH–18TH CENTURIES

The article raises the problem of the significance of European missionaries’ musical activities at the court of the Qing emperors during the Golden Age and attempts to integrate Western art into palace musical life. A critical review of existing Russian-language sources leads the author to the conclusion that there is a lack of information on the topic of the article as well as some freedom in the interpretation of known historical facts in scientific articles. The author sees the possibility of filling gaps in this area of musicology in a detailed study of documents of the era, primarily diaries, letters, reports and other missionaries’ correspondence. Primary scholarly sources include Father Ripa's Diary, Father Du Halde's Description of the Chinese Empire, compiled from the correspondence of French Jesuits, and Father Amiot's work on the history of Chinese music. The author considers these books to be significant; however, they are not, of course, the only documents that help shed light on the scale and depth of the functioning of European music, theory and practice in the space of Chinese musical culture, which is closed, self-sufficient and by its nature not related to Europe. Works on music theory, created by order of and jointly with the Kangxi Emperor, are proof of a considerable interest in the West. In the palaces, the presence of a large number of European instruments, with which a Western-style ensemble could be formed, as well as attention to European clothing and wigs in which the emperor dressed his musicians, is indicative. In conclusion, the author finds that the musical activities of Christian missionaries produced certain results. On the one hand, organic interaction with European music and its deep understanding did not happen at the end of the 18th century. On the other hand, regardless of the subjective attitude of one or another emperor towards the Jesuits, the idea of ​​introducing musical theoretical ideas and practices of European music-making into everyday life gradually became a reality only owing to their persistent, regular and purposeful promotion. At the same time, a reverse process was underway - the missionaries’ research instinct led to the creation of memoirs and books on the history and acoustics of Chinese music, and contributed to its active promotion in European intellectual circles.