missionaries
Diplomatic evangelism
Emily Conroy-Krutz chronicles the complex relationship between Protestant missionaries and the US Foreign Service in the 19th century.
European Christian missionaries and their false sense of progress
What does maturity look like? Whiteness is a horrific answer to this question.
How American Protestant missionaries helped usher in post-Protestant America
David Hollinger shows how the social gospel principles that drove mission abroad boomeranged back home.
The Frontier Interns reenvisioned missions for a postcolonial era
In 1961, Margaret Flory started a new kind of mission program.
An American childhood in Haiti
Apricot Irving writes with love—and hurt—about her father's misplaced desire to be a savior to others.
The Silence Jesuits and their contemporaries
In many instances, Jesuit influence is essential to understanding the history of Asian societies.
A do-gooder’s tale
D. L. Mayfield wanted to help Somali refugees. She ended up mostly baking them cupcakes.
Missionaries among Muslims
To lionize the missionary’s courage, Muslims were cast as implacable adversaries and served as the quintessential foil.
Immigration as threat and opportunity
The subject of immigration engenders contentious debate, complex discussion, and conniving diatribe among Americans. Four years ago, the mother of a recently elected Republican senator implored her son to be compassionate in his legislative work on the issue. She reminded him of their own family’s journey from central Cuba to south Florida and noted that undocumented immigrants—she called them los pobrecitos, “poor things”—are human beings seeking dignity, work, and a better future just like they were.
One wonders if Marco Rubio remembers his mother’s message.
Harvest in due time
Sustainability is certainly a goal for most church plants. But have denominations set up a model that is sustainable for pastors?
Imperial missionaries?
Like it or not, the world’s religious landscape owes much to the long history of European imperialism. But the story of empire and missions is more complex than we might assume.
Way Below the Angels, by Craig Harline
One cold afternoon in 1975 in a small rented bedroom in Antwerp, the young Mormon missionary Craig Harline (Elder Harline in Mormon parlance) had a faith crisis—though it is not quite right to call it that.
Challenges for missions
I'd like to see this award-winning journalist's book read by
all Christians--from evangelicals who believe that their life's calling is to save
souls to those Christians who, while denouncing proselytizing, feel called to offer
compassionate, practical aid to those who need help. For either of the above
missionary types, Griswold dispels illusions. She is fearless in following a story
into the most remote village, and wise in her understanding of how religions
collide and inflame and exacerbate volatile situations.