The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to determine if there is a difference between the returned missionaries' academic achievement before and after their missionary experience; and (2) to determine if there is a difference between returned missionaries and non-missionaries in scholastic aptitude, academic achievement, and vocational interest.

The majority of male Ricks College students, while serving as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spend two years living in geographically unfamiliar environments. This thesis compares the geographic literacy of those Ricks College males who have served LDS Church missions with those who have not. A test of geographic literacy was administered to 306 male Ricks College students. Returned missionaries demonstrated significantly higher knowledge of general cultural and physical geography than pre-missionanes. In contrast, returned missionaries demonstrated no greater ability to identify global places such as countries and cities. As expected, the returned missionaries possessed a superior knowledge of the regions in which they served.

This dissertation examines the memory of Ras Beirut and the various claims to its exceptionalism. I frame its history as a landscape of memory born of the convergence of narratives of exceptionalism. On the one hand, Ras Beirut's landscape inspired Anglo-American missionary future providence such that they chose it as the site of their college on a hill, the Syrian Protestant College (SPC, later renamed the American University of Beirut [AUB]). On the other hand, the memory of Ras Beirut's "golden age" before the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 inspired longings for a vanished past to Ras Beirut's oldest inhabitants. Shaped by the push of prospect and the pull of recollection, Ras Beirut emerges as a place formed out of the contest of these overlapping articulations of exceptionalism. Moreover, Ras Beirut's narratives have a wider significance and application in their transnational and interconfessional relevance. The missionary New England microcosm of the SPC represented the transnational transposition of memory onto Ras Beirut in an architectural narrative of exceptionalism. The monumental size and scale of their buildings oriented Ras Beirut and realized a "city upon a hill." Drawing from letters written to and from the US, I examine their ambiguous relationship to Ras Beirut that made them both part of the place and apart from the people. At the same time, the local Muslim-Christian community of Ras Beirut argued that Ras Beirut's distinct character rested on their own history of harmonious coexistence. In the early twentieth century, Arab Protestant converts settled in Ras Beirut and became known as the Protestants of Ras Beirut in their affixed identity and collective rootedness to place. This dissertation draws upon archival research and tangible sources in the changing architectural and urban environment. It also relies on oral history and memory to capture the multi-disciplinary making of place that best relates the textured history of Ras Beirut while giving meaning to everyday lived lives. In the process, the connections between the Middle East and the US unfold in transnational terms while the idea of Ras Beirut as a paradigm of coexistence unfolds interconfessional terms.

No description available.

Thesis (D. Miss.)--Trinity International University, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 285-293).

This paper explores Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart (1958) within the context of postcolonial theory, focusing on the clash between traditional Igbo culture and the forces of European imperialism. Achebe's work serves as a response to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) and challenges the stereotypical portrayal of Africans. This thesis delves into the impact of missionaries and Christianity on Igbo society, analyzing the mechanisms through which they established influence and sparked conflicts with traditional beliefs. Employing a postcolonial framework, the study scrutinizes power dynamics, colonial strategies, and the consequences of cultural clashes. The study’s findings critically assess European colonialism by highlighting how missionaries utilized Christianity for colonization, revealing conflicts between African and European cultures and prompting reflection on the repercussions of cultural interactions in pre- and postcolonial Africa. The research reveals the multifaceted impact of missionaries and Christianity on Igbo society, employing tactics such as education-driven conversion, economic dependence, cultural stigmatization, exploitation of social divisions, and legal/political influence. These strategies were designed to subvert traditional beliefs, reshape cultural values, and establish Christianity as a dominant force, resulting in significant cultural conflicts within the Igbo community.

Frank C. Laubach made substantial contributions both to literacy education and the Christian life. There were between sixty and one hundred million people who learned to read through his literacy campaigns. He traveled to 130 countries developing literacy primers in 312 languages. At the same time, Laubach was a missionary mystic, spiritual experimenter and leader among Protestant Christians. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between two important parts of Laubach's life: his Christian development and literacy education. The study presents an overview of the family and social background of Frank C. Laubach from a chronological framework. Additional chapters examine: the importance of i-he Christian disciplines in Laubach's life, the impact of the missionary call and Laubach's concern for Christian social responsibility. The final chapter summarizes and evaluates the research. Both the Laubach collection, found in the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, and the library at Laubach Literacy International in Syracuse, provided the resources for comprehensive research in the life of Frank C. Laubach.

This paper argues that a contextual version of Bernard Huss' model of "Better homes, Better fields, Better hearts" can make a positive contribution to poverty alleviation in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The model addresses both the material and non-material aspects of poverty. It seeks to achieve integral human development by empowering the poor, especially women, to be self-reliant. Poverty eradication remains one of the greatest challenges facing South Africa, and analysts concur that it is largely a rural problem. Women who head the majority of rural households are the most affected by poverty which also exposes them to the risk of HIV infection and sexual violence due to their economic dependence on men. Gender equality is a critical aspect which the model seeks to address in order to counter particular cultural injustices which subject the majority of women to male subordination. The model is therefore interpreted in the context of poverty and underdevelopment in rural KwaZulu-Natal and it endeavours to confront the challenges of poverty and unemployment at the grassroots level. It is argued in this paper that women should become the main beneficiaries of the contextual version of the model and begin to participate fully in decision-making in respect of the strategies to alleviate poverty in rural areas. The model recognizes the agency of the poor as an imperative factor in the development praxis and discourse, for this reason it is a pro-poor approach. It is also argued in this paper that the Missionaries of Mariannhill should revive the model and use it in their mission work in rural communities of KwaZulu-Natal. The model has the capacity to broaden the scope of mission work and address both the material and non-material aspects of poverty. It provides a practical response to the Christian commitment to assist the poor in the endeavour to alleviate poverty and mitigate the impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in rural communities. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

This thesis is about Thomas Jefferson Bowen (1814 - 1875), a Baptist missionary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, United States. Bowen worked in Africa and tried to work with slaves in Brazil. These facts made Bowen a missionary ahead of his time. He had a different perspective and attitude to Africa and Africans. His book Central Africa, his personal letters, his articles, his life, show that he was deeply involved with the idea that Africa could be much more than only a good place to purchase slaves. His whole missionary life was expended in a project to train blacks to work in Africa as missionaries and teachers. What made Bowen a different missionary from his fellows in his time was the fact that he was able to understand and respect the culture of the people with whom he was involved. He could see and appreciate the structures of the African society and he planned a development project from the African perspective. He was a missionary who believed that the Western society was not appropriate for Africa. Africa had to find its own way. He was different because he believed that missionaries have to speak the language of the people and should not force the native people to learn English as a "holy" language. We present this work as a tribute to this missionary whose life and relationship with blacks can be seen as an example of respect and understanding of the culture of a people. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College, 2005. Action Research Paper (M.A.)--Wheaton College, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (l. 125-129).