Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The purpose of the dissertation is to survey the major attitudes within the Occidental Protestant Churches towards Christian missionary work. This embraces, firstly, an historical account of the earliest evidences of missionary interest within Protestantism and the various reactions to it by Church leaders. Secondly, the study involves the growth of missionary enthusiasm among church members and the consequent development of missionary attitudes within the context of the three-way relationship of the Occidental Protestant Churches to each other, to the younger Churches of the Orient and to non-Christian Oriental religious faiths. Although much historical data is presented, this dissertation does not aim to be a history of Protestant missions to the Orient. Research into this wide subject has proceeded within definite limits, which are explained in the introductory chapter. Throughout the study attention has been focussed on the Orient, although the discussion in the early chapters has not been restricted to this area. The time-period, covered by the survey, stretches from the Protestant Reformation to the outbreak of the First World War [TRUNCATED].