The Foreign Missionary Enterprise at Home: Explorations in North American Cultural History (Religion & American Culture)

This volume is the first to examine at length and in detail the impact of the missionary experience on American cultural, political, and religious history. This collection of 15 essays provides a fully developed account of the domestic significance of foreign missions from the 19th century through the Vietnam War. U.S. and Canadian missions to China, South America, Africa, and the Middle East have, it shows, transformed the identity and purposes of their mother countries in important ways. Missions provided many Americans with their first significant exposure to non-Western cultures and religions. They helped to establish a variety of new academic disciplines in home universitiesOColinguistics, anthropology, and comparative religion among them. Missionary women helped redefine gender roles in North America, and missions have vitalized tiny local churches as well as entire denominations, causing them to rethink their roles and priorities, both here and abroad. In fact, missionaries have helped define our own national identity by influencing our foreign, trade, military, and immigration policies over the last two centuries. Topics in the collection range from John Saillant's essay on the missions of free African Americans to Liberia in the 19th century to Grant Wacker's essay on the eventual disillusionment of noted writer Pearl S. Buck. Kathryn T. LongOCOs essay on the OC Auca martyrsOCO offers a sobering case study of the missionary establishment's power to, in tandem with the evangelical and secular press, create and record the stories of our time. William L. Svelmoe documents the improbable friendship between fundamentalist Bible translator William Cameron Townsend and MexicoOCOs secular socialist president Lizaro Cirdenas. And Anne Blue Wills details the ways many American groupsOCoblack, Protestant, Catholic, and MormonOCosought to convert one another, stead- fastly envisioning OC othersOCO as every bit as OC heathenOCO as those in far-off lands. "The Foreign Missionary Enterprise at Home" is an insightful, provocative collection that will stimulate much discussion and debate. It is valuable for academic libraries and seminaries, scholars of religious history and American studies, missionary groups, cultural historians and ethnographers, and political scientists. " This volume is the first to examine at length and in detail the impact of the missionary experience on American cultural, political, and religious history. This collection of 15 essays provides a fully developed account of the domestic significance of foreign missions from the 19th century through the Vietnam War. U.S. and Canadian missions to China, South America, Africa, and the Middle East have, it shows, transformed the identity and purposes of their mother countries in important ways. Missions provided many Americans with their first significant exposure to non-Western cultures and religions. They helped to establish a variety of new academic disciplines in home universities—linguistics, anthropology, and comparative religion among them. Missionary women helped redefine gender roles in North America, and missions have vitalized tiny local churches as well as entire denominations, causing them to rethink their roles and priorities, both here and abroad. In fact, missionaries have helped define our own national identity by influencing our foreign, trade, military, and immigration policies over the last two centuries. Topics in the collection range from John Saillant's essay on the missions of free African Americans to Liberia in the 19th century to Grant Wacker's essay on the eventual disillusionment of noted writer Pearl S. Buck. Kathryn T. Long's essay on the “Auca martyrs” offers a sobering case study of the missionary establishment's power to, in tandem with the evangelical and secular press, create and record the stories of our time. William L. Svelmoe documents the improbable friendship between fundamentalist Bible translator William Cameron Townsend and Mexico's secular socialist president Lázaro Cárdenas. And Anne Blue Wills details the ways many American groups—black, Protestant, Catholic, and Mormon—sought to convert one another, stead- fastly envisioning “others” as every bit as “heathen” as those in far-off lands. The Foreign Missionary Enterprise at Home is an insightful, provocative collection that will stimulate much discussion and debate. It is valuable for academic libraries and seminaries, scholars of religious history and American studies, missionary groups, cultural historians and ethnographers, and political scientists. Missions In Liberia And Race Relations In The United States / John Saillant -- The Serpentine Trail : Haitian Missions And The Construction Of African-american Religious Identity / Laurie F. Maffly-kipp -- Revolution At Home And Abroad : Radical Implications Of The Protestant Call To Missions / Mark Hanley -- From The Native Ministry To The Talented Tenth : The Foreign Missionary Origins Of White Support For Black Colleges / Jay Riley Case -- Organizing For Missions : A Methodist Case Study / Russell E. Richey -- Mapping Presbyterian Missionary Identity In The Church At Home And Abroad / Anne Blue Wills -- The Scientific Study Of Missions : Textbooks Of The Central Committee On The United Study Of Foreign Missions / Nancy A. Hardesty -- Open-winged Piety : Reflex Influence And The Woman's Missionary Society Of The Methodist Church In Canada / Marilyn F. Whiteley. Hotbed Of Missions : The China Inland Mission, Toronto Bible College, And The Faith Missions Bible School Connection / Alvyn Austin -- From India's Coral Strand : Pandita Ramabai And U.s. Support For Foreign Missions / Edith L. Blumhofer -- The General And The Gringo / William L. Svelmoe -- The Waning Of The Missionary Impulse : The Case Of Pearl S. Buck / Grant Wacker -- To Save Free Vietnam And Lose Our Souls : The Missionary Impulse, Voluntary Agencies, And Protestant Dissent Against The War / Scott Flipse -- In The Modern World, But Not Of It : The Auca Martyrs, Evangelicalism, And Postwar American Culture / Kathryn Long -- Evangelists Of Destruction : Missions To Native Americans In Recent Film / Jay S.f. Blossom. Edited By Daniel H. Bays And Grant Wacker. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [251]-323) And Index. "This collection of 15 essays provides a fully developed account of the domestic significance of foreign missions from the 19th century through the Vietnam War. U.S. and Canadian missions to China, South America, and the Middle East have, it shows, transformed the identity and purposes of their mother countries in important ways. Missions provided many Americans with their first significant exposure to non-Western cultures and religions. They helped to establish a variety of new academic disciplines in home universities - linguistics, anthropology, and comparative religion among them. Missionary women helped redefine gender roles in North America, and missions have vitalized tiny local churches as well as entire denominations, causing them to rethink their roles and priorities, both here and abroad. In fact, missionaries have helped define our own national identity by influencing our foreign, trade, military, and immigration policies over the last two centuries." "The Foreign Missionary Enterprise at Home is a collection that will stimulate much discussion and debate. It is valuable for academic libraries and seminaries, scholars of religious history and American studies, missionary groups, cultural historians and ethnographers, and political scientists."--BOOK JACKET.