The astonishing growth of Christianity in the global South over the course of the twentieth century has sparked an equally rapid growth in studies of ''World Christianity,'' which have dismantled the notion that Christianity is a Western religion. What, then, are we to make of the waves of Western missionaries who have, for centuries, been evangelizing in the global South? Were they merely, as many have argued, agents of imperialism out to impose Western values? In An Unpredictable Gospel, Jay Case examines the efforts of American evangelical missionaries in light of this new scholarship. He argues that if they were agents of imperialism, they were poor ones. Western missionaries had a dismal record of converting non-Westerners to Christianity. The ministries that were most successful were those that empowered the local population and adapted to local cultures. In fact, influence often flowed the other way, with missionaries serving as conduits for ideas that shaped American evangelicalism. Case traces these currents and sheds new light on the relationship between Western and non-Western Christianities.

Auteur

Jay Riley Case is Associate Professor of History at Malone University.

Contenu

Introduction Part One Chapter 1: American Baptists and the ''Wild'' Karen People of Burma Chapter 2: The Challenge of Karen Christianity Chapter 3: The Native Ministry in the United States Part Two Chapter 4: An Appalachian Revivalist in Queen Victoria's Colonies Chapter 5: The Circuit-Riding Missionary and Gilded Age Methodism Part Three Chapter 6: The African American Great Awakening Chapter 7: The AME Church and South Africa Part Four Chapter 8: Holiness Conversions Chapter 9: And Ever the Twain Shall Meet Epilogue Notes Index