The underlying question explored by this thesis is whether missiology, applied as a lens to examine Christian mission in the early middle ages, can reveal new insights from historical sources. This approach has raised new questions and has revealed new tensions such as that between the group and individual, that between top-down and bottom-up mission, and that between syncretism and contextualization. One of the key insights is the need to hold the group and individual in tension, that is· not to choose to interpret sources as either group or individual oriented but as moving between the two. Taking one's identity from a group did not negate the individual, it only meant that the individual submitted to group decisions. This tension, it is argued, needs to be highlighted and held in balance in order to understand how groups and individuals in the early middle ages reacted to, and interacted with, the Christian gospel message. To make this case mission, baptism and conversion, as foundational to Christian mission, are examined. An examination of a selection of the writings of the Church Fathers, Saints' Vitae, Church councils and synods, and other correspondence of the early middle ages in light of syncretism and contextualization has raised questions about definition and content. With Rome and Constantinople setting the standard of content and practice, often anything that looked different was labelled as heretical, barbaric or pagan and this has usually been defined as syncretism. However, if the central core content of the Christian gospel message was not compromised, what was happening could be contextualization (that is, the working out of the Christian gospel message in an appropriate cultural manner). Although these are contemporary labels, early medieval sources do reveal an underlying concern about the loss of correct belief and practices. The common interpretation of missional work as a top-down movement often fails to take into account the evidence for the bottom-up, or organic, spread of the Christian gospel message. This is not to say that the official accounts should be set aside, but rather these need to be balanced with the evidence for bottom-up growth. To put some of these insights into an appropriate context, the Vitae of Boniface, Anskar, and Cyril and Methodius are examined as case studies. Each of these men represents different cultural starting points, different geographical areas, and different emphases in mission work. However, in each of these Vitae the tensions between the group and the individual, a top-down or bottom-up approach to mission, and syncretism versus contextualization can be examined, especially in light of the issues of baptism and conversion. The conclusion is that missiology has much to offer early medieval studies. It is a field of study that is broadly interdisciplinary in its approach which gives it an elasticity which allows it to illuminate this period of history valuably. On the basis of this thesis, the discipline of missiology deserves to be applied much more frequently to the study of early medieval history.

The course of Christian mission in Malaysia spans a period of almost fivehundred years. It traversed a path that began as a military crusade but then fellshort of its goals in the centuries after and has now arrived once more at thecrossroads. This dissertation reflects upon the course taken thus far and fromits present juncture ponders the passage ahead. The starting-point is mission as it was perceived in the past: an enterprise of

Thesis (D. Min.)--Columbia International University, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-217).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Columbia International University, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-217).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Columbia International University, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-217).

Dissertation (Th. D.)--Boston University, 2011. / This dissertation argues that in the aftermath of religious communal violence in Indonesia, Christian mission practice should take the form of hospitality. A fundamental Christian tradition, hospitality has been theologically reclaimed in recent decades and has become central to the contemporary discourse on mission and religious pluralism. This dissertation particularizes the broader discourse by identifying the missiological dimension of local Indonesian hospitality as a vital Christian interreligious practice in the aftermath of religious communal violence. [TRUNCATED]

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

The argument of the thesis begins with the question of how Christianity became the main religion in South Sudan. It is crucial to search for the connecting point between Christian mission and the South Sudanese. Although South Sudan and Christianity had been directly opposed due to the image of Christianity as a part of the colonial power and Western imperialism, the two disparate groups came together through a particular historical moment that united them. The connecting point that linked South Sudan with Christianity was the dynamic movement of Christian missions in responding to the socio-political and historical needs of South Sudan. The junction between Christianity and South Sudan was strongly connected to missionary work in southern Sudan from the 1920s to the 1950s. This is the period in which the educational work of Christian mission reached its zenith. Moreover, southern Sudan, now South Sudan, had struggled with Arabic Northern Sudan, present-day Sudan in order for the federation policy to separate from Northern Sudan. Therefore, the thesis focuses on how the educational work of the missions influenced the formation of the nationalism of South Sudan. In particular, this research will be laid out in three sections: the historical background of the socio-political chasm between Southern Sudan and Northern Sudan; the educational work of the missions in Southern Sudan from the 1920s to 1950s; the nationalism of Southern Sudan in connection with the educational work of the missions.

Master of Science / Special Education, Counseling, and Student Affairs / Christy D. Moran / With increased attention related to internationalization and intercultural learning within higher education, increasing numbers of college students are participating in international cross-cultural activities. Participants in short-term international Christian mission experiences are increasing dramatically. These students frequently participate in such activities during the course of their college career and subsequently experience reentry issues during their readjustment back into college life. This report reviews literature and student comments related to the reentry experiences of the growing college population of short-term international Christian mission participants. What follows is a review of various explanations of the reentry phenomenon related to socio-psychological, expectation, systems, identity formation, and grief theories. College adjustment and support literature, as it relates to student retention, is explored along with reentry services and practices associated with student affairs, international program offices, and collegiate Christian campus ministries or colleges. Student affairs professionals have a strategic role to play by intervening with students returning from short-term international experiences. By providing personal and programmatic support for students readjusting to American culture, we have the opportunity to assist students integrate what they have learned from their global experience into the development of individual identities, values, and behaviors. There are substantive educational, spiritual, social, and psychological reasons given from the literature to justify a level of intervention, unique and appropriate for each individual institution, from student life professionals directed towards supporting college students as they return from short-term international Christian mission experiences. This review highlights the need for more extensive in depth studies seeking to understand the relationship between interpersonal and programmatic support and the learning process of college students as they go through the reentry experience.

In this thesis it is argued that a full and complete understanding of the eugenics movement may only be gained by examining those who were implicated in its criticisms. Using the example of three Christian missionary organisations that worked amongst largely poor and immigrant communities in London and New York, it is demonstrated that eugenics was a pervasive ideology outside its 'official' societies. Moving away from an understanding grounded in ideas of conflict and concession, it will be demonstrated that those whose work was challenged by eugenic claims were able to interpret the ideology according to their existing reformist agendas. Hereditarian ideas did not sound the death knell for reformers, and these organisations demonstrated both the willingness and capacity to shape eugenic ideas within and outside their organisations. From these examples it is argued there is a need to move beyond definitions of eugenics that limit the movement to a small subset of its methods. Far from being a peripheral aspect to the history of eugenics, it will be seen that these missionary agencies occupied a position at the centre of eugenicists' concerns. As prominent providers of charity, a work charged by eugenicists with unnaturally hindering the natural laws of selection, religious communities were, in part, one of the reasons that eugenics was deemed necessary in the first place. This picture is confirmed by an examination of two eugenics societies, one on each side of the Atlantic, where the impact of religious sentiment and ideas exerted a dramatic effect upon policies and propaganda work. There was no one-way flow of ideology from eugenicists towards reformers, but rather a two-way dialogue which created a marked impression on both groups.