Missionary Societies in the Evangelical Churches: Origins and Characteristics

• Authors: Roberto Catalano

Title variants

PL

Missionary Societies in the Evangelical Churches: Origins and Characteristics

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The present study attempts to describe one of the most interesting phenomena in the history of missions: the birth and development of the Missionary Societies, which arose between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. The beginning was linked to the humble story of a simple shoemaker, turned Baptist pastor and a missionary in India but it soon developed within all main Churches of the Reformation. Characteristic of the phenomenon was the spontaneity of giving life to societies aiming at preaching the Gospel overseas. It was a novelty in the Reformation world as the missionary venture had found a difficult ground to develop in the first two centuries after Luther and Calvin. These societies were capable in reasonably short time to develop their own pastoral guide-lines and policy and their members in the overseas missions committed themselves to social issues and educational projects as part of the evangelising project. The article examines these elements and other aspects trying to highlight also unavoidable limitation encountered in the process.

PL

Artykuł opisuje jedno z najciekawszych zjawisk w dziejach misji – powstanie i rozwój stowarzyszeń misyjnych, na przełomie XVIII i XIX w. Początek tej historii był skromny i wiązał się z doświadczeniem prostego szewca, który został pastorem baptystycznym i misjonarzem w Indiach. Jednak wkrótce jego doświadczenie zostało przejęte przez wszystkie Kościoły wywodzące się z reformacji. Cechą charakterystyczną tego procesu była spontaniczność w tworzeniu stowarzyszeń, których celem było głoszenie Ewangelii w krajach zamorskich. Dla świata protestanckiego była to nowość, gdyż w pierwszym i drugim wieku po dokonaniach Lutra i Kalwina jego zaangażowanie misyjne było niewielkie. W relatywnie krótkim czasie stowarzyszenia zdołały wytworzyć własne dyrektywy duszpasterskie, a ich członkowie na misjach zaangażowali się także w projekty społeczne i edukacyjne, ściśle związane z działalnością misyjną. W artykule ukazano także pewne ograniczenia, które były związane z działalnością stowarzyszeń misyjnych.

Keywords

EN

Missionary Societies; Evangelical Churches; mission methodology; Bible; laity; voluntarism; spontaneity; Missionary Societies; Evangelical Churches; mission methodology; Bible; laity; voluntarism; spontaneity

PL

stowarzyszenia misyjne; Kościoły ewangelickie; metodologia misji; Biblia; świeccy; woluntaryzm; spontaniczność

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Annales Missiologici Posnanienses
• Year: 2014
• Issue: 19
• Pages: 107-135

Dates

published

2014-01-01

Contributors

author

Roberto Catalano

References

• Aughton P., Endeavour: The Story of Captain Cook’s First Great Epic Voyage, London: Cassell & Co., 2002.
• Baptist Confession of Faith, ed. W.L. Lumpkin, Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1969.
• Bevans S.B., Schroeder R.P., Constant in Context. A Theology of Mission for Today, Quezon City and Bangalore: Claretian Publications, 2004.
• Bosch D.J., Transforming Mission. Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, Maryknoll: Orbis Book, 2011 [1st edition 1991].
• Carey W., An Enquiry, into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, London: The Carey Kingsgate Press Limited (new facsimile edition), 1961.
• Cook J., The Journals, ed. P. Edwards, London: Penguin Books, 2003.
• Cook J., A Voyage Round the World, ed. G. Forster, vol. 1-2, University of Hawaii Press, 2000 (published first 1777 as: A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty’s Sloop Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years, 1772, 3, 4, and 5).
• George T., Faithful Witness: The Life of William Carey, Birmingham: New Hope Publishers 1991 (2nd ed. Christian History Institute, 1998).
• Glenn Hinson E., William Carey and Ecumenical Pragmatism, “Journal of Ecumenical Studies” 17.2 (1980), p. 73-83.
• Hough R., Captain James Cook: A Biography, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1994.
• Kopf D., British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.
• Kumar Chatterjee S., Hannah Marshman, The first woman missionary in India, Hooghly 2006.
• Neil S., A History of Christian Missions, New York: Viking Press, 1994.
• Payne E.A., Introduction, in: W. Carey, An Enquiry, into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, London: The Carey Kingsgate Press Limited (new facsimile edition), 1961, p. I-XX.
• Pennington B.K., Was Hinduism Invented? Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
• Pennington E., The SPG Anniversary Sermons 1702-1783, n.p., n.d.
• Porter A., Religion Versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004.
• Potts E.D., British Baptist Missionaries in India 1793-1837, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967.
• Robert D., American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice, Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1996.
• Robson J., The Captain Cook Encyclopedia, Random House Australia, 2004.
• Rouse R., William Carey’s ‘Pleasing Dream’, “The International Review of Missions” 38(1949), p. 181-192.
• Singh B., The First Protestant Missionary to India: Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg (1683-1710), New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Smith A.C., The Serampore Mission Enterprise, Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary Christianity, 2006.
• Stanley B., The History of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792-1992, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1992.
• Stewart K.J., Restoring the Reformation. British Evangelicals and the Francophone ‘Réveil’ 1816-1849, [Studies in Evangelical History and Thought], Carlisle: Paternoster, 2007.
• The Church Mission Society and World Christianity 1799-1999, ed. K. Ward and B. Stanley, Grand Rapids MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000.
• Thomas N., The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook, New York: Walker & Co., 2003.
• To Advance the Gospel: Selections from the writings of Rufus Anderson, ed. R. Pierce Beaver, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967.
• Walls A.F., The Cross-cultural Process in Christian History, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2002.
• Walls A.F., The Missionary Movement in Christian History. Studies in the Transmission of Faith, Maryknoll: Orbis Book, 1996.

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/amp.2014.19.5