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The Christian Church in Colonial Context: Case Studies and Theories...
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The Christian Church in Colonial Context: Case Studies and Theories on Othering and Inclusion

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2023) | Viewed by 8439

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Retief Müller

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA
Interests: African theology; Christianity and nationalism; the history of modern Christianity, especially in southern and central Africa; the history of the Protestant missionary movement
Prof. Dr. Frieder Ludwig

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Fakultet for teologi, diakoni og ledelsesfag (FTDL), VID Specialized University Stavanger, Engelsminnegate 16A, 4008 Stavanger, Norway
Interests: the intercultural history of Christianity (especially in regard to African–European Relations during the 19th and 20th century and the history of the Ecumenical Movement between nationalism and internationalism); interreligious interactions (with a focus on Africa); religion and migration

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Christianity’s connection to colonialism remains a controversial topic. Arguably, the global nature of contemporary Christianity—and its current status as the largest world religion—would not have been possible without the colonial expansions of European powers during the modern era. The flipside of this point is that the church and missionary institutions have retrospectively been identified as facilitating actors in the colonial incursions of European/Western powers into other parts of the world.

Much has been written in favor of and against the colonial captivity paradigm of Christianity during that era. In more recent times, the very term ‘colonial’ has acquired new semantic content, with decolonial discourses emerging and new initiatives being launched on university campuses across the world. The polemical nature of much of this discourse suggests that colonialism, at least in part, remains with us. Therefore, the potentially ongoing connection between Christianity and the colonial also remains a subject for further inquiry.

This collection invites proposals on broadly conceived topics related to the Christian church and colonialism. A diverse range of theoretical approaches is welcomed and encouraged; however, studies rooted in case studies that address this broad topic with nuance and the ability to engender new perspectives are of particular interest. We recognize that this is not a new theme of investigation by any means. However, this Special Issue hopes to add new layers of insight and complexity to what remains a sensitive and important area of research in theological and historical scholarship.  

Dr. Retief Müller
Prof. Dr. Frieder Ludwig
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Christianity
  • Christian mission
  • colonialism
  • history
  • imperialism
  • theology

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1330 KiB  
Article
„I Die, but I Thank You…!“ Leipzig Mission at Akeri 1896, Squeezed between Its African Addressees and German Colonial Military
by Moritz Fischer
Religions 2023, 14(3), 371; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030371 - 10 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1477
Abstract
The following case study clarifies how these three different functions of mission are discursively entangled with one another. Mission as a bridge-builder (between people, cultures, and religions of different origin), as a traitor (cooperating with corrupt colonial and imperial powers), and as a [...] Read more.
The following case study clarifies how these three different functions of mission are discursively entangled with one another. Mission as a bridge-builder (between people, cultures, and religions of different origin), as a traitor (cooperating with corrupt colonial and imperial powers), and as a victim (finding misery and death on the mission field). Each of these three terms (bridge-builder, traitor, victim) is, to an extent, applicable to the events that took place during the night of 19–20 October 1896 in Akeri on the slopes of Mount Meru (former German East Africa, today Tanzania). Using the concept of entanglement history, I will analyze the death of two young German missionaries of the Lutheran Leipzig Mission, “caught in the crossfire” between the African community to be outreached and the German colonial military. We will see how various symbolic systems collide in the year 1896 at Akeri. The systems are represented by: (1) German Lutheran missions activities; (2) A German colonial and military expedition; and (3) The resistance of African Maasai societies’ leadership. “Akeri 1896” (I will continue to refer to this event specifically as “Akeri 1896” throughout the article) had become in the following 100 years a complex entanglement of metaphoric meanings. The same event can be a placeholder for victory, for defeat, for disaster, for martyrdom, for Christ-centredness (of the missionaries in their own perception), as well as for evil-centredness (the Africans in their perception of the Western foreigners). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Christian Church in Colonial Context: Case Studies and Theories on Othering and Inclusion)
16 pages, 300 KiB  
Article
“We Take Hold of the White Man’s Worship with One Hand, but with the Other Hand We Hold Fast Our Fathers’ Worship”: The Beginning of Indigenous Methodist Christianity and Its Expression in the Christian Guardian, Upper Canada circa 1829
by David Andrew Kim-Cragg
Religions 2023, 14(2), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020139 - 20 Jan 2023
Viewed by 2284
Abstract
With more and more evidence coming to light of the cultural genocide inflicted by settler Christians upon Indigenous peoples through the residential school system, it is hard to see how Christian and Indigenous identities can hold together in the current Canadian context. Nevertheless, [...] Read more.
With more and more evidence coming to light of the cultural genocide inflicted by settler Christians upon Indigenous peoples through the residential school system, it is hard to see how Christian and Indigenous identities can hold together in the current Canadian context. Nevertheless, many in the Indigenous community within Canada continue to call themselves Christian, and Indigenous Christians continue to provide important leadership for the Canadian church. This phenomenon cannot be properly understood or appreciated without knowledge of the longstanding tradition of Indigenous Christianity and its origins. Beginning in 1829, Indigenous leadership within the Methodist Episcopal church in Upper Canada used the Christian Guardian to tell the story of their work among Indigenous communities. These Indigenous accounts of mission work provide a window into how early Indigenous converts to Methodism understood their faith and its meaning within the context of Canadian colonial Christianity, an understanding that differed in significant ways from that of their settler co-religionists. The early Indigenous narrative found in the settler Methodist publication emphasized Indigenous leadership, Indigenous language and the compatibility of Indigenous and Christian spiritual teachings. This study provides an important perspective which confirms and challenges contemporary views on Indigenous Christianity in Canada and helps to reimagine the past, present and future of Christianity in postcolonial contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Christian Church in Colonial Context: Case Studies and Theories on Othering and Inclusion)
19 pages, 293 KiB  
Article
‘A Policy of Sacrifice’: G.B.A. Gerdener’s Missionally Founded Racial Theory and the Religionization of Apartheid
by Jacques Pienaar
Religions 2023, 14(1), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010039 - 26 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1922
Abstract
In 1935 the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) accepted its federal mission policy which had racial segregation enshrined in it as a core and divinely sanctioned principle. As the foremost missiologist within South African church circles during the middle half of the 20th Century, [...] Read more.
In 1935 the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) accepted its federal mission policy which had racial segregation enshrined in it as a core and divinely sanctioned principle. As the foremost missiologist within South African church circles during the middle half of the 20th Century, Gustav Bernhard Augustus Gerdener was the chief formulator and disseminator of this policy. Convinced that the future fate of South Africa’s multi-racial society rested squarely on evangelisation, white guardianship, and mission work, Gerdener lobbied for secular racial theory to be based on the formula of the DRC mission church. By 1946 this racial theory espoused by Gerdener, as well as the majority DRC, was internationally questioned by the post-World War Two onset of general human rights and rapid decolonialisation spearheaded by the newly constituted United Nations Organisation. This paper sets out to track the influence Gerdener had on the formulation of the DRC mission policy. It will make the case that as advocate of this policy and through his position as chairman of the DRC Federal Mission Council Gerdener played a critical role during the incubation years of the apartheid ideology leading up to the nationalist’s political victory in 1948. Finally, it will aim to elucidate the justification for apartheid which Gerdener’s racial theory afforded to a religious nation. A justification which formed the moral bedrock of South Africa’s opposition to the broader international context of decolonialisation and advocation of a domestic social system guised as one geared toward equal, albeit separate, development but which ultimately proved to be a new strain of colonialism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Christian Church in Colonial Context: Case Studies and Theories on Othering and Inclusion)
19 pages, 857 KiB  
Article
Negotiating Otherness? Mission Discourse of Difference among the Swiss and German Schooling Projects in 19th Century Japan
by Esben Petersen
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1090; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111090 - 11 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1457
Abstract
This article explores the personal encounters between the Swiss–German missionaries and their Japanese students through their school projects in the late nineteenth century, as a fresh approach to disclose an entirely new analytical angle to mission education and the production of otherness. By [...] Read more.
This article explores the personal encounters between the Swiss–German missionaries and their Japanese students through their school projects in the late nineteenth century, as a fresh approach to disclose an entirely new analytical angle to mission education and the production of otherness. By examining the personal encounter of missionaries with their students, it problematizes scholars’ reliance on the concept of otherness as a unidirectional transfer of knowledge from West to non-West. Instead, this study argues, that the process of “othering” should be looked at as a negotiation beyond an East–West hierarchical divide, in which new forms of beliefs and practices for Japanese converts emerged. An analysis of relevant missionary sources reveals that in the period 1885 to 1893 the missionaries’ work with the Japanese students evolved into a seemingly contradictory state. On the one side, the missionaries devoted a great number of resources and time in educating their Japanese subjects into what they perceived to be true Christians. On the other side, they repeatedly expressed deep doubts about their students’ potential to become the type of Christians they envisioned. Focusing on three cases of missionaries’ encounters with Japanese students, this article argues that the attempts and results of negotiating otherness in the Swiss–German mission school projects opened new possibilities for identity formation among Japanese Christians. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Christian Church in Colonial Context: Case Studies and Theories on Othering and Inclusion)
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