Chapter 7: Expansion in the Era

of Discovery and Colonialism, A.D. 1500–1900

Chapter 7: Expansion in the Era

of Discovery and Colonialism, A.D. 1500–1900

Chapter OutlineChapter Outline

• Introduction

• The Glory of All Christendom

• Reformers and Mission

• The Great Century

• Revivals and Their Impact

IntroductionIntroduction

• Given the vigorous new mission thrust of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century, it might have been remembered as a new era in Catholic mission.

• Instead, Martin Luther guaranteed that historians would call it the period of the Reformation.

Introduction (cont.)Introduction (cont.)

• The ensuing division of Western Christianity between Catholics and Protestants, their respective mission endeavors, and the widening influence of European culture transformed the world scene in the centuries that followed.

• This chapter explores Christian missions in the age of discovery and colonial expansion during the early modern era (1500–1800) and most of the “Great Century” in mission (1800–1914).

The Glory of All Christendom

The Glory of All Christendom

• Royal Patronage

• Beyond the Royal Patronage in Asia

• New Developments in Catholic Mission

Royal PatronageRoyal Patronage

• Portugal and Spain were the primary Catholic powers.

• The “Right of Royal Patronage” was conferred, giving monarchs and their successors control of the church in their colonies by allowing them to• create new dioceses and

• nominate persons for all church offices.

• Greed for gold and new diseases decimated indigenous populations.

Royal Patronage (cont.)Royal Patronage (cont.)

• Active religious orders in the western hemisphere: • Augustinians• Dominicans• Franciscans• The Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

• Rare voices for the oppressed:• Bartolomé de Las Casas• Peter Claver for slaves

Royal Patronage (cont.): Toward the East

Royal Patronage (cont.): Toward the East

• Vasco de Gama to India via the Cape• Portugal’s control of Goa (“Rome of the East”)

“The two swords of the civil and the ecclesiastical power were always . . . close together in the conquest of the East. . . . For the weapons only conquered through the right that the preaching of the Gospel gave them, and the preaching was only of some use when it was accompanied and protected by the weapons” (Boxer 1978, 75).

Beyond the Royal Patronage in Asia

Beyond the Royal Patronage in Asia

• Jesuits• Francis Xavier (Goa and Japan)• Allesandro Valignano (Japan)• Matteo Ricci (China)• Alexandre de Rhodes (Vietnam)

• Franciscans and Dominicans

• The Chinese “Rites Controversy”

New Developments in Catholic MissionNew Developments in Catholic Mission

• Spain and Portugal fell into military and economic decline.

• French missionaries in North America• Marie Guyart • Isaac Jogues• Jacques Marquette

• The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (“Propaganda Fide”) was established in 1622.

• The Jesuit order was dissolved in 1773.

Reformers and MissionReformers and Mission

• Pioneer Protestant Missionaries

• Hope for the World

Reformers and MissionReformers and Mission

• The Reformers, faced with a host of other problems, gave relatively little attention to mission in non-Christian lands.

• Anabaptists focused on evangelism:• First missionary conference in 1527• “Apostles” sent throughout Europe• Persecution hampered their efforts

Pioneer Protestant Missionaries

Pioneer Protestant Missionaries

• Lutheran:• Justinian von Welz (Suriname)

• Anglican:• Thomas Bray (North America)

• Among Native Americans:• John Eliot• David Brainerd

Hope for the WorldHope for the World

• Renewal sparked revivals:• Revivalism in the Lutheran and

Reformed churches in continental Europe

• Evangelical and Methodist revivals in the United Kingdom

• The Great Awakening in the North American English colonies

Hope for the World (cont.)Hope for the World (cont.)

• Renewed mission focus:• Pietists: Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and

Heinrich Plütschau to the coast of southern India (1706)

• Moravians: • “Moravian Pentecost”• One hundred years of constant prayer• All Moravians sent abroad considered

missionaries

Hope for the World (cont.)Hope for the World (cont.)

• William Carey:• An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians

to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792)

• Baptist Missionary Society founded (1792)

• Other new agencies:• London Missionary Society (1795)• Church Missionary Society (1799)• Netherlands Missionary Society (1797)

The Great CenturyThe Great Century

• The Command of Christ

• Woman’s Work for Woman

• Mission Societies

• Mission Strategies

Missions

to Africa

Missions

to Africa

The Great CenturyThe Great Century

• Colonialism meant legal standing and protection for missionaries.

• Many missionaries believed that God had sovereignly given the subcontinent to England for its Christianization.

• Colonialism gave businessmen unrestricted access to natural resources, cheap labor, and sizable profits.

The Great CenturyThe Great Century

• The close connection of colonialism and mission appeared to serve the common good, as evident in the explorations of missionaries.

• Greed sidetracked missionary efforts, and exploitation by colonial powers contradicted Christian preaching and “civilization.”

The Command of Christ

The Command of Christ

• A flood of missionaries went in obedience to Christ’s Great Commission.

• Missionary casualties abounded, but faith to send more remained strong:• Within twenty years fifty Church Missionary

Society missionaries died in Sierra Leone. • During the first two decades of its work in

India, more missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) died than people converted.

The Command of Christ (cont.)The Command of Christ (cont.)

• Cannibals took the lives of John Williams in the New Hebrides and James Chalmers in New Guinea.

• Jean Théophane Vénard and other Catholic missionaries were executed in Vietnam.

• Approximately two hundred twenty-five missionaries and thirty thousand Chinese Christians were killed in the Boxer uprising in China in 1900.

Woman’s Work for Woman

Woman’s Work for Woman

• Women as missionaries:• Cynthia Farrar (India) in 1827

• Charlotte (“Lottie”) Moon (China) in 1872

• Fidelia Fiske (Iran)

• Amanda Berry Smith (India and Africa)

• Women as mobilizers and trainers:• Mary Lyon (Mount Holyoke Female Seminary)

• Sarah Doremus (Woman’s Union Missionary Society of America)

Mission SocietiesMission Societies

• Mission societies and agencies mushroomed:• North American• European• Catholic (Jesuits restored in 1814)• Russian Orthodox

• Society activities:• Missionary gatherings (e.g., Ecumenical Missionary

Conference in New York City [1900])• Comity agreements

• Growth, development, and impact of “faith missions”

Mission StrategiesMission Strategies

• Translation

• Education

• Medicine

• Indigenous church establishment

Revivals and Their Impact Revivals and Their Impact

• Second Great Awakening in America (1776–1810)

• Dwight Moody’s annual student conferences

• Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions organized

• Holiness revivals and supernatural power

• Indigenous revivals (Jamaica)