EM302 - History of Christian Mission

  • 0 Standard Tuition Fee
  • 4
    Credit Points
  • 0.125 EFT 
  • 5
    AQF level
  • evangelism missiolUnit Discipline

Prerequisites

This unit can be counted as an Evangelism and Missiology (EM) unit or as a Christianity in History (CH) unit, towards the Ministry and Practice department requirements of a course, or towards the Christian Thought department, but not both.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will

A. Know and understand

  1. The history of Christian mission
  2. Motives, methods and policies in the mission outreach of the church

B. Be able to

  1. Explain the ebbs and flows in the history of Christian mission
  2. Analyse the motives and methodologies involved in the mission outreach of the church
  3. Discuss missionary outreach in one major region of the world or among one particular people group
  4. Assess developments in the history of Christian mission in the 20th century
  5. Present an Analytical evidence-based perspective on the history of Christian mission

C. Be in a position to

  1. Integrate perspectives from ‘History of Christian Mission’ with their other theological and ministry studies
  2. Examine current issues in mission in the light of the history of Christian mission
  3. Contribute historically informed, evidence-based perspectives to debates about Christian mission in the contemporary world

Content

Section A: The Apostolic Age to the 19th Century

  1. The spread of Christianity to AD 500 (especially in the Roman Empire); the conversion of Europe (to AD 1500); the effects of the rise of Islam.
  2. Reformation and Counter Reformation (1500–1750), including missions in the colonial empires of Portugal, Spain and France especially the Jesuits in Asia and the Americas; initial Protestant efforts.
  3. Reawakening and development of missionary concern in churches in Europe, Britain and the USA in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Section B:The Church Planted in Different Continents

Students are expected to study one topic in this Section in detail.

  1. Missions in the Indian sub-continent in the 19th century, including Serampore and the early Baptists; Duff and education; mass movements in South India.
  2. Missions in China from 1807, including the relationship of missions to the political situation in the 19th century; Hudson Taylor and the CIM; the church under communism after 1949.
  3. Missions in Africa, south of the Sahara, including Creole Christianity; Moffatt, Livingstone; the church in Uganda and the Niger Delta to 1914; African Independent churches.
  4. Missions in the Muslim world.
  5. Missions in Latin America since 1800, including Roman Catholic and Protestant work.
  6. Missions in the Pacific.
  7. Missionary endeavour in Australia and New Zealand.

Section C: Developments in the 20th Century

  1. Colonialism, nationalism and mission to 1945.
  2. The effects of World Wars I and II on missions.
  3. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference 1910; the International Missionary Council to 1961; the work of Mott and Oldham.
  4. Trends in missionary work since 1945, including the Roman Catholic Church since Vatican II, the Church Growth movement, ecumenical mission, the Lausanne Movement and international conferences.

Set Readings

Prescribed:

Anderson, G. H., et al, Mission Legacies: Biographical Studies of Leaders of the Modern Missionary Movement (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994).

Escobar, S., The New Global Mission: The Gospel from Everywhere to Everywhere (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2003).

Harris, J., One Blood: 200 years of Aboriginal Contact with Christianity (Rev. ed.; Sydney: Albatross, 1994).

Irvin, D. T. and S. W. Sunquist, History of the World Christian Movement: Earliest Christianity to 1453 (Vol. I; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001).

Lewis, D. M. (ed.), Christianity Reborn: The Global Expansion of Evangelicalism in the Twentieth Century (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004).

Shenk, W. (ed.), Enlarging the Story: Perspectives on Writing World Christian History (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2002).

Stanley, B., The Bible and the Flag (Leicester: IVP, 1990).

Tucker, R. A., From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004).

Walls, A., The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in Transmission of Faith (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996).

 

Recommended:

Hedlund, R. E., Roots of the Great Debate in Mission (3rd ed.; Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 1997).

Jenkins, P., The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford; New York: OUP, 2002).

Pettitt, C., Dr Livingston I Presume? Missionaries, Journalists, Explorers and Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2007).

 

Classics:

Neill, S. C. and O. Chadwick, A History of Christian Missions (Rev.; 2nd ed.; New York: Penguin, 1991).

Yates, T., Christian Mission in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: CUP, 1994).