Early Missionaries Research Articles

From sanctus to shengren: mediating Christian and Chinese concepts of human excellence in early modern China

ABSTRACT In the 1580s, when the Jesuit missionaries Michele Ruggieri (1543–1607) and Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) established the first Jesuit mission in China, the terms “translatability” and “cultural incommensurability” were yet to enter the European lexicon, but these questions were addressed implicitly through the translation choices employed in the mission field. For the early missionaries, translatability had immense ramifications for their missionary practice. One of the foremost challenges was how to communicate in Chinese the concept of “sanctity,” which was central to Christian soteriology. There was a range of terms in Chinese intellectual and religious traditions that the Jesuits drew upon to translate sanctus such as shengren 聖人 zhenren 真人, and xian 仙, but each of these terms implied a certain commensurability between Christian and indigenous Chinese conceptions of human excellence. This paper will present a microhistory of early Jesuit attempts to translate sanctus in Chinese, and reflect upon the significance of these translation choices for the development of the Jesuits’ missionary strategy.

Hunting, Planting and Malaria: How Cameroonian Ecosystems Changed the Basel Missionaries’ Worldviews

How did the land change the missionary? Almost all early missionaries, sent by the Basel Mission to the African colony Kamerun of the German Empire, died of malaria ( Klimafieber). On the fourth day after arrival in 1886 the first missionary died. In any case, Cameroonian ecosystems reshaped the self-conception and worldviews of missionaries. They used hunter's language, romanticised and conquered the land and its imagined virgin forests; Basel missionaries became strangers to themselves – involved in plantation policy, violent against, but at the same time absolutely dependent on, the local population. Most anthropological or historical studies on the Basel Mission and other Protestant missions in Cameroon focus on politics, economics, education and how the missionaries did change the land. However, how African agency influenced missionaries’ perspectives and activities is rarely acknowledged or discussed, which has so far limited historiographical works to a humanocentric understanding of mission. The article explores how the worldviews of the missionaries (especially Friedrich Autenrieth, Paul Steiner and Heinrich Norden) were challenged by the natural environment. In particular, it investigates how concepts of God, mission, culture/nature and human were renegotiated and reshaped while working and travelling the land. This analysis of printed travelogues, novels and articles therefore combines the question of the missionaries’ reactions to climate, disease, fauna, flora and the montane environment with an examination of how these were presented to specific target groups. To concentrate on the agency of African ecosystems consequently decentres the historiography of Christian mission that has separated the human from the non-human agency of nature. 1

General studies, information and communication technology and contemporary mission in Africa

This study examines the relationship between general studies, information and communication technology (ICT), and contemporary evangelism in Nigeria. Information and communication technology (is defined as a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information. These technological tools and resources include computers, the Internet (websites, blogs and emails), live broadcasting technologies (radio, television and webcasting), recorded broadcasting technologies (podcasting, audio and video players, and storage devices) and telephony (fixed or mobile, satellite, visio/video conferencing, etc.). Contemporary evangelism and mission in Africa is a radical approach embarked upon by agents of modern religious thoughts and practices to expand the horizons of the mission of religion to mankind in the present dispensation through general studies (GS) and ICT programmes. Through the medium of ICT, Christian evangelism has received a boost in television, radio broadcasts, computers, and the Internet across cities and nations. This work is an attempt to examine the methods adopted by early missionaries in evangelising Africa vis-à-vis the modern techniques of GS and ICT, the challenges of mission, the concept of ICT and its various forms such as phones, television, radio, computers, and the Internet, and their relevance to mission. This work therefore adopted historical, missiological, and phenomenological approaches in the analysis of data.Contribution: This work discovers that radical development in communication across the globe has influenced and affected Christian methods and practices of carrying out ‘the mission of religion’ and its evangelical perspective, among others.

Perspectives on the Challenges of Christianity and African Traditional Religion throughout the Ages to Contemporary Times

The explosion of knowledge and education, the extension of communication to all corners of the globe and the mixing of disparate cultures and religious groups are just a few of the elements which challenge us in our efforts to grasp the spiritual dimensions of the reality in which we live and to present a relevant view of Jesus’ gospel to a morally and spiritually distracted world. Contemporary Christianity is the constant modification of New Testament religion to attract the unregenerate and carnal Christians, please the flesh, and be relatively acceptable to the world. According to Awolalu, J.O, Dopamu P.A [1], “the introduction of the foreign religions brought many challenges to the growth and expansion of African religion. In fact, some early missionaries predicted an extinction of the religion". African Culture is dynamic, and it cannot die as being canvassed in some quarters because it is a living institution.
 Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR) are two prominent belief systems that have coexisted and interacted in various ways throughout the history of Africa. While both hold significant cultural and spiritual significance for African communities, they also face unique challenges that impact their practice and relevance in contemporary African societies. This paper will explore and discuss different perspectives on the challenges faced by Christianity and African Traditional Religion in Africa, highlighting key issues that arise from their coexistence and interactions.

Contextuality, interculturality and decolonisation as schemes of power relations

Western imperialism and colonialism have tremendously affected the epistemological conception of Africa and Africans. In the same vein, early missionaries did not countenance the cosmologies and lived experiences of the Africans in their interpretation and application of the Bible. On the contrary, they imposed Western epistemologies and theological images on Africa. Although much work has been carried out in these areas, little attention has been devoted to how contextuality, interculturality and decolonisation are exercised in power struggles: the power to define what counts for Africa and Africans as they daily deploy the resources of the Bible. The author argues that contextuality, interculturality and decolonisation are schemes of power relations on the one hand and of owning the Bible on the other, rather than mere methods of biblical hermeneutics in Africa. As schemes of power, they reject imperialist agenda of unequal barter of cultural exchange claimed as civilising the African. Presenting contextuality as a finished product is a violation of the rights of Africans to productively apply the Bible as a text seeking understanding in a different clime from the West; it is also a denial of the reality of interculturality, and thus it ignites the need for decolonisation. By utilising conceptual analysis as a framework, it is argued that these schemes are beyond hermeneutical methods but have the power to resist the suffusing influence of Western theological suffocation in Africa.Contribution: This study argues that contextuality, interculturality and decolonisation are not mere hermeneutical methods for studying the Bible in context; they are instruments of struggle to liberate it from Western epistemological stranglehold.

Two Approaches by Dutch Missionaries to Communicating the Gospel in Seventeenth-Century Taiwan

Abstract Between 1624 and 1662, the Dutch East India Company operated a trading post in Taiwan. It employed missionaries who attempted to convert indigenous Formosans to Reformed Christianity by compiling texts in the Formosan language, Siraya. This article analyzes texts compiled in this language to establish how the Dutch missionaries used them to communicate the Gospel. This analysis shows that they adopted two distinct approaches to compiling texts in Siraya. Early missionaries, above all Robertus Junius, modified biblical texts such as the Ten Commandments and Lord’s Prayer, changing words and phrases to “speak to” the Formosan culture. His approach constituted a form of accommodation and was subsequently criticized by missionary colleagues in Taiwan. Later missionaries translated the biblical texts more literally. Nevertheless, they used a Formulary as a discursive textual space in which to explain and, to some extent, make the text relevant to the Formosans.

Eli and Susannah Wiggill: South African Saints

Eli and Susannah Wiggill: South African Saints

History of Sinology in Belgium Until the Open-Door Policy of the Late 1970s

AbstractThis article narrates the history of Belgian Sinology both before and since the birth of Sinology (1814) and of Belgium (1830). The overview also embraces a broader group of scholars by including Sinologists who were from Belgium but did not necessarily work there. The first part of the article focuses on Sinological practices by the early missionaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The second part covers the nineteenth and twentieth centuries until the Open-Door Policy of the 1970s. This part combines a broad chronological perspective with the history of individual persons and institutions. It includes topics such as the development of oriental studies and studies of religion, the teaching of Chinese language for commercial reasons, and the establishment of Chinese and Oriental institutes within and outside the universities.

Historical Perspectives of Disability and Special Education in Zambia

Formal education for the disabled children and people particularly the blind and the deaf children and adults originated during the colonial period when experts in communication skills for this category of people arrived from Europe. Like formal education for the able bodied pupils, education for the disabled or differently abled pupils and students is associated with the early missionaries in the colonial period. The missionaries in particular brought special education for the blind and deaf pupils. In Zambia, the first school for children with special education needs was at Magwero community in 1903 in eastern province by missionaries with a very small number of three pupils (two from Malawi and one from Zambia). Parents of children with disabilities such as deafness and blindness did not see the need to educate these children who in most cases faced discrimination within their families and community at large. The advent of missionaries who came from countries where education was for all children with learning abilities was the beginning of education for children with hearing and sight disabilities. This education was not located in all provinces in the country and this meant that parents who wanted to send children to school had to send them to these few schools. Consequently, a lot of disabled children could not access education. Currently, there are so many schools for children with disabilities in different parts of the country run by government and other institutions such as the church and NGOs. With international conventions made on the rights of the child, the government has made great strides in providing education for all children regardless of any challenges they may be facing. However, accessing secondary and tertiary education remains a serious challenge for many due to the fact that the infrastructure is not sensitive to the needs of such challenged students. In other words, there are few students at tertiary level with disabilities because of issues to do with cost of education, discrimination against disabled children at family level and the nature of infrastructure where one has to be aided to classes and other facilities. A lot of policies and legislation has been done but what is still lacking is full implementation in terms of provision of facilities and services right in institutions to fully meet the needs of pupils and students with disabilities in all the different parts of the country.

To eat or not to eat? : the curious affair of Western missionaries with Chinese food

What did Western Christian missionaries eat in China and why, for the most part, was it not Chinese food? This study focuses on two groups of missionaries and their foodways - the Portuguese Jesuits (Catholics) based in Macau between the 16th and 17th centuries, and the British and American Protestants in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the 19th and early 20th centuries - and aims to reveal what they ate, what they refused to eat, and why. While examining ideological and cultural factors that modelled the diet of Christian missionaries, this study also analyzes Western ideas, perceptions, and phobias regarding Chinese food. While the Jesuits did have some religious concerns when approaching Chinese cuisine, they, for the most part, embraced it. The Protestants, on the other hand, who arrived much later and during the peak of Western domination in China, acted from a position of power and rejected local food on cultural and ideological grounds as inferior, unhygienic, and potentially poisonous. The early missionaries came to "sell" Christianity and were willing to negotiate their way with Chinese cuisine and culture, "christening" some aspects of them and adopting them as their own. In the age of imperialism, on the other hand, Christian missionaries intended to "civilize" the Chinese by imposing on them both their religious beliefs and their lifestyle, including their foodways.

The Triple Bottom Line and Church Sustainability in Kenya

The religion of Christianity was firmly established in Kenya by European missionaries in AD 1844 and since then, it has grown to be the religion for 85.5% of the population. After Kenya gained political independence in AD 1964, numerous Christian denominations have established church congregations in all parts of the country and the competition for congregation members is high. The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) and other mainline churches are experiencing declining congregations due to the entry of the Pentecostal churches but the earlier Pentecostal churches are also experiencing the same phenomenon due to the new denominations which are being established in all parts of the country. This paper examines how the church can retain its relevance and sustainability in the country by operationalizing the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) model to gain and retain its congregations. The model approaches sustainability by considering an organization’s social, economic, and environmental strategies. These are what made the early missionaries to penetrate the African market as they established schools, technical and agriculture training institutions and health centers. At their schools and churches, they taught about the need to live in a clean environment and set an example with their church compounds. This paper discusses how the TBL is operationalized in the ACK to resolve the declining phenomenon.

Reflections on ethos and tenets of music in the Assemblies of God Uyo district, Akwa Ibom State

Music has always been an indispensable tool in any church setting. In Nigeria, the early missionaries appropriated music in liturgical services in form of hymn singing, chant and anthem as part of worship in the church. With continual apt growth of Christianity in Nigeria, Assemblies of God church evolved from the Pentecostal movement, with emphasis on the activity of the Holy Spirit and on holy living. Hence, contents and styles of music were made to suit the pattern and beliefs of Assemblies of God such as spirit motivated songs, evangelistic songs, mission songs and salvation songs other than the conventional hymns singing and anthems. This paper therefore attempts to highlight the distinctive traits of Assemblies of God, Uyo District, and its reflection on the music ministration. Also, it showcases the basics for music ministers (choristers and music directors) to include: musical background, spiritual life, social and leadership skills as fundamental principles, beliefs and moral conduct patterned by the beliefs of the church for quality service to God and humanity. Qualitative design and typical forms of data drawn from interviews, participant observations and relevant documents were applied in the study for data collection. The significance of this paper is to provide justifiable guidelines to every music minister to attain the required moral and music standard widely accepted and appreciated by God and man. With the findings, it recommends periodical re-orientation towards musical knowledge and spiritual relevance as regard to what Assemblies of God believe for effective music ministration

“Humanizing the Indios” Early Spanish missionaries’ struggles for natives’ dignity: Influences and impact in 16th Century Philippines

“Humanizing the Indios” Early Spanish missionaries’ struggles for natives’ dignity: Influences and impact in 16th Century Philippines

ADVOCACY FOR CONTEXTUALIZATION OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IN AFRICA

Though Christianity is the biggest religion in Africa (Johnson, 2018) its liturgy remains predominantly Western. Religion being a link between a community and its deity must be authentic and contextualized for it to have meaning. The introduction of Christianity and the damnation of the African culture by early missionaries, has contributed to the current worship style that can only truly be defined as foreign. Consequently, there has been retrogression over time of positive traditional worship practices that otherwise contribute to an authentic African liturgy. This paper seeks to demystify the notion that the African culture and its worship is entirely based on pagan practices and therefore void of emulative practices that can be used to enhance and contextualize worship. It seeks to illuminate the role that music plays in liturgy and worship within the African context. The method adopted for this study is qualitative and comparative approach. This study elucidates the fact that Africans are religious and contextualization of worship enhances and authenticates worship. It is a call on elite African musicians to educate church leaders and congregants on the need for contextualized worship based on idioms inherent within the African culture and worship. Recommendations on the incubation of contextualized African worship models; for both religious leaders and church musicians has therefore been made an integral part of this study.

Paul's Early Missionary Activities

바울 연구에 대한 초점은 신학에 맞추어져 왔다. 바울의 구원관, 인간관, 종말론, 기독론 등에 대한 연구가 산을 이룰 만큼 많다. 그렇지만 바울의 선교 활동, 특히 초기 선교 활동에 대한 연구는 상대적으로 미진하다. 이 논문은 바울을 신학적인 측면이 아니라 역사적인 측면에서 이해하기 위해서 바울의 선교 활동, 특히 초기 선교 활동을 살펴보았다. ‘침묵의 기간’의 선교에 대한 유일한 사료는 바울의 간단한 언급이다. 이 진술을 분석한 결과 바울의 주요 선교 대상은 유대인이었다. 그리고 바울은 아직 독자적인 교회를 세우지 않았다. 이는 일반적으로 생각하는 것과 달리 바울이 처음부터 이방인 선교에 매진하지 않았음을 의미한다. 바울의 1차 선교에 대한 분석은 사도 행전 서술의 특징을 파악하는데 초점을 맞추었다. 사도행전의 저자가 ‘바울 높이기’와 ‘반유대주의’라는 두 가지 담론을 가지고 1차 선교를 서술하였기에, 사도 행전 서술의 역사성이 낮음을 살펴보았다. 이는 사도행전의 진술을 액면 그대로 믿고 바울이 초기 선교에 큰 성공을 거두었다는 편견을 가지면 안 된다는 것을 의미한다.

Revisiting the Bible Translation of Robert Morrison and William Milne

The article revisits the collaborative project of two early missionaries to China, Robert Morrison and William Milne, who overcame the ‘practical impossibility’ of translating the Protestant Bible into Chinese in 1823. The issues of the doctrinal constraints, the influence of the contemporary English translations, faithfulness to the Hebrew text and cultural sensitivity to the target language will be raised with reference to concrete examples cited from their joint translation version. The creation account of Genesis and passages on the rendering of the biblical ‘sea monsters’ into Chinese will be selected for focused study in order to show how Morrison and Milne were influenced by the KJV but at times departed from it in their reading of the original Hebrew text. Furthermore, it is also noted that they have shown a certain degree of sensitivity to the Chinese cultural context in their choice of terminology in translating the biblical text into Chinese.

African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity: The Resilience of a Demonized Religion

African Traditional Religion Encounters Christianity: The Resilience of a Demonized Religion

“Missionary-Scholar” ― Early Protestant Missionaries Who Studied Korea

“Missionary-Scholar” ― Early Protestant Missionaries Who Studied Korea

Christianity and Masquerade Practices Among the Youth in Nsukka, Nigeria

ABSTRACT This article explores masquerade celebrations among the youth in the Nsukka area. Over a two-year period, youth masquerade celebrations were studied in the towns of Nsukka, Obollo and Umundu, and it was concluded that there were no reservations around participation, despite Christianity maintaining that these are pagan and fetish practices. Many reasons emerged for participation: attachment to Igbo culture, the quest to belong to the community/the question of identity, the communitarian aspect of masquerade celebrations, the challenges of inculturation, cultural revivalism, and the commercialisation of masquerades. Contrary to early (Western) missionaries’ prediction that Christianity would erode the Igbo people’s ‘fetish’, masquerades are thriving in Nsukka, perpetuated by the Christian youth in a bid to keep their cultural practices alive. This indicates that Christianity, despite its longstanding presence, has not succeeded in curtailing this growing phenomenon.

The First Hundred Years of the Augustinians in the Philippines(1565 -1665): Daily Life, Customs, and Traditions

Much has been written about the early missionaries in the Philippines especially about their contributions and their involvement in the country’s history. However, we know little about their daily life, customs, norms, and how they lived with the natives and evangelized them. They left their country to accompany and be of service to the spiritual needs of the voyagers, and to propagate the Christian faith to the new territories acquired by the Crown of Castile. The missionaries of the Augustinian Order arrived in 1565 and pioneered in the evangelization of the natives in the Philippines. They went from one island to another, establishing towns, building churches and convents, and continued to practice their religious vows and traditions under the new circumstances. The first hundred years of their presence reflects their ability to adopt and survive in a foreign land and demonstrate their ability to extend their influence on the lives of the 16th century Filipinos. With the extant materials available, such as the Libros de Gobierno at the archives of the Augustinian Philippine Province in the convent of Valladolid (Spain) which contain written records of the Provincial Chapters and other reports since 1572, this paper attempts to reconstruct the daily life of the Augustinians during their first hundred years (1565 – 1665) in the Philippines. This article provides perspectives on how they should be seen in their simplicity and efforts to bring Christianity to their fellow human beings regardless of race vis-à-vis the undeniable offenses committed by some of them and the vilification they received due to the mistakes of the few. The context of their quotidian life brings light on the issue and explains it.