In pursuit of the conversion of others, cross-cultural missionaries often experience their own “conversions.” This thesis explores the ways in which one particular missionary, the Welshman Timothy Richard (1845–1919), was transformed by his encounter with China. Focusing specifically on the evolution of his understanding and practice of Christian mission during the first half of his career with the Baptist Missionary Society, the study is structured chronologically in order to capture the important ways in which Richard’s experiences shaped his adaptations in mission. Each of Richard’s adaptations is examined within its appropriate historical and cultural context through analysis of his published and unpublished writings—all while paying careful attention to Richard’s identity as a Welsh Baptist missionary. This approach reveals that rather than softening his commitment to conversion in response to his encounters with China, Richard was driven by his persistent evangelical convictions to adapt his missionary methods in pursuit of greater results. When his experiences in Shandong and Shanxi provinces convinced him that Christianity fulfilled China’s own religious past and that God’s Kingdom promised blessings for souls in this life as well as in the next, Richard widened his theological horizons to incorporate these ideas without abandoning his essential understanding of the Christian gospel. As Richard adjusted to the realities of mission in the Chinese context, his growing empathy for Chinese people and their culture increasingly shaped his adaptations, ultimately leading him to advocate methods and emphases on the moral evidences for Christianity that were unacceptable to some of his missionary colleagues and to leaders in other missions, notably James Hudson Taylor. As the first critical work of length to focus on the early half of Richard’s missionary career, this thesis fills a gap in current scholarship on Victorian Protestant missions in China, offering a challenge to the simplistic conservative/liberal dichotomies often used to categorize missionaries. The revised picture of Richard that emerges reveals his original understanding of “the worthy” in Matthew 10, his indebtedness to Chinese sectarian religion, his early application of indigenous principles, his integration of evangelism and famine relief work, his relative unimportance in the China Inland Mission “Shanxi spirit” controversies of the 1880s, and—most significantly—his instrumental rather than evangelistic interest in the scholar-officials of China. By highlighting the priority of the Chinese (religious) context for Richard’s transformation, this thesis also contributes to the growing volume of historiography on Christianity in modern China that emphasizes the multidirectional influences present in the encounters between Christianity and Chinese culture and religion. Finally, connections between Richard’s evolution and changes taking place within the larger missionary community are also explored, situating Richard within wider discussions of accommodationism in mission, the rise of social Christianity, and evangelistic precursors to fulfillment theology.

The thesis explores the intersection between medicine and religion in the context of colonisation in Korea in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. I will focus on the work of medical missionaries from Europe and North America that pursued perfect cleanliness in body, mind and society, including total abstinence and spiritual cleanliness, by spreading biomedical concept of hygiene. One of the points that I will articulate is the ways in which medicine as a colonising force in its own right worked in the mission field to produce 'the docile bodies of people' in the Foucauldian sense. I will argue that what mission medicine in Korea utilised and relied on for its work was a new concept of cleanliness based on biomedical knowledge, the germ theory, rather than the power of colonisation. It was because mission medicine in Korea often worked without collaborating with direct colonial powers. In this sense, Protestant Christianity and biomedicine shared a common foundation in 'cleanliness.' Consequently, I will try to emphasise the multi-dimensional and multi-directional role of the use of cleanliness as an efficacious tool for control of the body. In relation to the historiography of medicine in Korea, I will argue that Confucianism served the social and cultural control of bodies as a medicalised form and that Christianity tried to replace it by providing new knowledge concerning body, disease, health, and cleanliness. In the same respect, I will explore the historical relationship between the germ theory and missionary medicine in Korea. The germ theories of disease were not simply a new etiology but also an effective cultural implement to change people's lives. Thus, the theories did not simply remain in the realm of medicine but were introduced, disseminated, and applied to all matters relating to the body, including its mental and spiritual aspects, through the concept of cleanliness.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:48:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio Carlos Anacleto.pdf: 924011 bytes, checksum: 3b8f98f3e986057bc399240a2c8ec34e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-08 / Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie / Erasmo Braga is a prominent name when we think about the religious reformed context in Brazil and Latin America. He is one of the most notable leaders in the early twentieth century and is also known for his pedagogical and educational ideas presented to the Brazilian society. For Braga, there was a possible and useful approximation between religion and education that could produce good results for Brazilian society. This research aims to observe the thought of Erasmo Braga as a theologian-educator and his relationship between education and the consolidation of Protestantism in Brazil during the republican era and its first consequences to the Brazilian society in that time focusing on his work The republic of Brazil . To this end, the current research is divided in three chapters. The first chapter explains how the Calvinist Reformed theology was present in his social and pedagogical commitment. Besides this, it emphasizes the educational principle developed by John Calvin and the major influences that this pedagogical model has brought for the sixteenth-century Europe. The second chapter identifies the emphasis that the Brazilian Protestantism gave to education in its practice by setting up schools, colleges, seminaries, and newspapers. The print media was used as well by the Protestantism in Brazil to spread its teachings and to encourage the literacy and educational development of its believers. The third chapter aims to understand the thinking of Erasmo Braga about the benefits of education to consolidate the Protestant mission in Brazilian lands on two levels: social transformation and evangelism. For this, the text presents a background of his life and talks about the reality of Brazilian society in that time. / Erasmo Braga se destaca no cenário religioso reformado brasileiro e latino-americano por ter sido um dos seus mais notáveis líderes no início do século XX e por suas ideias pedagógicas e educacionais apresentadas à sociedade brasileira. Para Braga, havia uma possível e proveitosa aproximação entre religião e educação que geraria bons frutos para a sociedade brasileira. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo observar no pensamento do teólogo-educador Erasmo Braga a relação existente entre a educação e a consolidação do protestantismo no Brasil no período republicano e suas consequências primárias à sociedade brasileira da época, tendo como foco sua obra The Republic of Brazil. Para tal, a pesquisa é dividida em três capítulos. O primeiro capítulo observa o modo como a teologia reformada calvinista se fez presente por meio do seu engajamento social-pedagógico. Este capítulo enfatiza o princípio educacional desenvolvido por João Calvino e as principais influências que este modelo pedagógico trouxe para a Europa do século XVI. O segundo capítulo identifica a ênfase que o protestantismo brasileiro deu à educação em sua práxis teológica ao fundar escolas, colégios, seminários e jornais, como também em utilizar os meios escritos para difundir seus ensinos e incentivar a alfabetização e o desenvolvimento escolar de seus fiéis. Já o terceiro capítulo, ao apresentar como pano de fundo a vida do teólogo-educador Erasmo Braga e a realidade da sociedade brasileira de seu tempo, visa compreender o seu pensamento com relação aos benefícios da educação na consolidação da missão protestante em terras brasileiras em dois níveis: a transformação social e o evangelismo.

King Ngungunyana was the lord of the mighty Gaza Empire, covering most of the interior Mozambique south of the Zambezi and parts of present Zimbabwe, when the Portuguese in 1885 were requested by the Berlin Congress to accelerate their colonization. The small enclaves around certain port towns were no longer sufficient, in order to claim the territory as one's colony. "Effective occupation" was the new precept, leading very soon to conflict with King Ngungunyana and, in 1895, the defeat of the Gaza Empire. Thus began Portugal's factual colonization of Mozambique. A few years earlier, Protestant missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission bad attempted to begin mission work within the Gaza Empire. Although invited by the King, the effort failed and the missionaries settled near the town of Inhambane, within the Portuguese realm. Catholic Missions, which had been successful during the previous centuries, had ceased to function in all Mozambique, as Religious Orders bad been prohibited since 1834. Seemingly, the arrival of Protestants to Inhambane and also to Lourenço Marques, however, stimulated the Catholic Church into action, and around 1890 new Missions were established "to combat the Protestant propaganda". Meanwhile, the American Board missionaries withdrew, and from 1893 we find American Methodists working in their stead. Part Two of the dissertation deals with the time of the Republic in Portugal, from 1910. Strongly anti-clerical, the Republicans enforced the separation of the Church from the State. This led to difficult times for the Catholic Missions in Mozambique, while it facilitated, somewhat, the task of the Protestants. However, the urge to "civilize the natives" gradually made the Republicans accept the Catholic Missions as "civilizing factors". The spirit of this period allowed for the development of the first Independent African Churches in Mozambique, as well as a first African attempt at political independence. Part Three, 1926-1960, pictures the firmer political grip of "0 Estado Novo", under dictator Antonio Salazar. Forced labour and oppression were the lot of the people, and the Portuguese Catholic Church became the "spiritual arm of the State". "Portugalization" was the new formula. This placed all education of the Africans into the bands of the Catholic Missions, simultaneously closing all Protestant village schools. The period is characterized by a "tug-of-war" between Catholics and the Protestants, who survived by experimentation with new methods and, paradoxically, grew in numbers. The final part of this dissertation, 1961-1974, deals with the Liberation Struggle of FRELIMO, and the Portuguese response. The Portuguese Catholic Church was still, unfailingly, supporting the political regime and its war efforts. Gradually, a growing force of opposition within the Church became courageously active. Meanwhile, Protestant Missions prepared for the future by "africanizing" their structures, and some were made to suffer for alleged subversion, before the "Carnation Revolution" in 1974 put a sudden end to war activities. I suggest that several elements within the Church history of Mozambique contributed to the negative attitude towards religion, which was displayed by FRELIMO during the first years of independence.