Read complete books and articles on: Missionaries in North America

Missions - term generally applied to organizations formed for the purpose of extending religious teaching, whether at home or abroad. It also indicates the stations or the fields where such teaching is given. In a more particular sense it designates the efforts to disseminate the Christian religion.

From the first steps taken by the disciples of Jesus to carry out his direction to preach his

From the first steps taken by the disciples of Jesus to carry out his direction to preach his gospel throughout "all the world," the history of the Christian church has been in great part a history of missions. Christianity rapidly gained converts, spreading through Asia Minor to Alexandria and into Europe by way of Greece and Rome. There were centers of Christian mission in Alexandria by the 2d cent., and at Constantinople by 404. Through his missionary efforts Ulfilas (311–83) converted the Goths to Arian Christianity (also see Arianism). The following centuries were marked by notable missionary labors in Scotland, Ireland, and Central Europe and among the Northmen, reaching even to Iceland and Greenland. St. Patrick, St. Augustine of Canterbury, and St. Boniface are great names of that era. After the Christianization of Europe there was little missionary effort until the 16th cent.

Roman Catholic Missions

Roman Catholic missions were in the past, as now, almost entirely in the hands of the religious orders. The great missionary orders are the Benedictines (which evangelized medieval Germany), Franciscans (especially the Capuchins), Dominicans (founded for missions among the Albigenses), Carmelites, and Jesuits (involved with the education of boys). The Jesuits (see Jesus, Society of) were the great missionaries of the Counter Reformation. They went to East Asia (see Francis Xavier, Saint), to America, and to Protestant N Europe. It was the Jesuits who kept up the English missions in the 16th and 17th cent.

The first Catholic missionaries in Canada were Recollects, who worked in the first part of the 17th cent.; they were soon followed by Jesuits. Notable of these Jesuits were Jerome Lalemant, Jean de Brébeuf, and Isaac Jogues; they may be regarded as a principal factor in the growth of the Canadian frontier and in the exploration of Canada and the upper Mississippi. The Jesuit Relations, the individual journals of these Jesuits, are exceedingly important sources of early American history. In the period of the conquest of Central and South America by Spain the church sent its missionaries with the conquerors. The Franciscans and Jesuits were the most important orders in Mexico. In the late 18th and early 19th cent. there was an extensive Catholic missionary interest in the Mississippi valley, and many Italians and French came to America to teach in the newly opened country. Bardstown, Ky., was the chief center.

Since the 17th cent. practically all Roman Catholic missions have been administered by one of the Roman congregations, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (formerly the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith or Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, often called the Propaganda). This is made up of cardinals, whose office is in Rome. The foreign missions are administered by the religious orders, the missionaries being responsible to the congregation in Rome. A policy adopted in the middle of the 19th cent. emphasized the training of native clergy and the ordination of native bishops. Roman Catholic missions are supported by the congregation, by the religious orders, and by lay missionary societies.

Protestant Missions

Early History

Two unsuccessful attempts were made to establish Protestant missions in the middle of the 16th cent., one by French Protestants for a colony in Brazil and the other a plan of King Gustavus I of Sweden for work among the Laplanders. The Dutch East India Company sent missionaries to the Malaysians early in the 17th cent., and a seminary for the training of missionaries for work among the Native Americans was carried on in New England in the 17th cent. by John Eliot and Roger Williams (see also Stockbridge). The Society of Friends also made converts among Native Americans.

In Great Britain associations were formed to encourage the extension of the faith among the American colonists—the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England (1649), the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (c.1698), and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (1701). The Scottish Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge appointed (1742) David Brainerd as a missionary to the Native Americans. Denmark sent into its colonial fields of the East and West Indies the first Lutheran missionaries—mainly German Pietists—in 1705. Members of the Moravian Church went as missionaries to all continents except Australia before 1760.

Nineteenth Century to the Present

A new missionary spirit was aroused in Great Britain at the end of the 18th cent. by the evangelistic fervor of John Wesley and George Whitefield. The Baptist Missionary Society was formed (1792), and William Carey went to India. Then followed the founding of the London Missionary Society (1795), which in 1797 laid the foundations of missionary work in the South Sea Islands, and, among the Anglicans, the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East (1799). In 1813 the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society was added.

In Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and France missionary societies were organized. In the United States they sprang up all through the early part of the 19th cent.—the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1810), the American Baptist Missionary Union (1814), which supported the mission in Myanmar of Adoniram Judson, the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1819), and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church (1820). Although its work had started much earlier, the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions was not actually constituted until 1837. American home mission societies began addressing their efforts to Native Americans, Eskimo, blacks, and settlers on the expanding Western frontier, and, later, to immigrants from Europe and Asia and to persons in isolated mountain regions of the South.

Many missionaries have specialized in providing medical and educational services as an effective means of opening the way for spiritual ministry. Two of the most famous missionaries to Africa, David Livingstone and Albert Schweitzer, were medical missionaries. Organized medical work in India started in the middle of the 19th cent. under doctors sent by the London Missionary Society and the American Board. With the work of Alexander Duff in India in 1830, a new enterprise in missionary effort on educational lines was launched.

In China a number of Christian colleges and universities were established. Work there was started (1807) by Robert Morrison, representing the London Missionary Society. The China Inland Mission, with funds and personnel drawn from several denominations and countries, was founded (1865) by J. H. Taylor. The opening of Japan by treaties in 1858 offered an opportunity to introduce foreign missionaries. Educational work has been an important part of missionary activity there. A marked trend in missionary work in recent years has been the training of indigenous leadership for church offices and administrative positions in mission enterprises.

In 1921 the International Missionary Council, composed of some 26 national and regional missionary organizations and Christian councils in various parts of the world, was formed. During and after World War II missionary accomplishments in many lands were severely curtailed or destroyed, but as quickly as possible new mission schools, hospitals, orphanages, and churches were built to replace those destroyed (except in China, which was closed to missionaries after 1949). In 1961 the International Missionary Council became part of the World Council of Churches, and there has been a high level of cooperation among Protestant churches in mission work. There continues to be a strong emphasis on medical care and education in mission work throughout the world. By the end of the 20th cent. the number of missionaries was around 400,000 worldwide, an all-time high. Of those, about a quarter were non-Westerners serving in countries other than their native lands. In the 1990s evangelical Christian missionaries were a source of tension and controversy in the Orthodox countries of E Europe and in the Roman Catholic countries of Latin America.

Bibliography

See K. S. Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity (7 vol., 1937–45; repr. 1971); S. C. Niell, Christian Missions (1964) and Colonialism and Christian Missions (1966); D. A. Roozen, Varieties of Religious Presence: Mission in Public Life (1984); T. Hiney, On the Missionary Trail: A Journey through Polynesia, Asia, and Africa with the London Missionary Society (2000). For Roman Catholic missions, see works on the religious orders and the publications (in America) of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

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15 of the Best Books and Articles on: Missionaries in North America

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Noble, Wretched, & Redeemable: Protestant Missionaries to the Indians in Canada and the United States, 1820-1900 » Read Now
by C. L. Higham. 283 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

This important and original book examines the relationship between stereotypes of Native peoples and institutional change on the missionary frontiers of nineteenth century Canada and the United States. Using case studies of Protestant missionaries, Carol Higham demonstrates how corporate missionary...
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This important and original book examines the relationship between stereotypes of Native peoples and institutional change on the missionary frontiers of nineteenth century Canada and the United States. Using case studies of Protestant missionaries, Carol Higham demonstrates how corporate missionary societies, governments and secular scholarly institutions encouraged and rewarded the creation and dispersion of specific Native stereotypes. This innovative discussion alternates between differences and similarities on both sides of the Canada-US border. Higham has dug deeply into the publications of the Protestant missionary societies, and also the private papers and many fictional and non-fictional works the missionaries left behind to produce this volume which will be invaluable to the reader/researcher in crossborder studies.
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2.

Keepers of the Covenant: Frontier Missions and the Decline of Congregationalism, 1774-1818 » Read Now
by James R. Rohrer. 212 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

The first book-length treatment of its topic, this study is aimed at abolishing the old cliche that Congregationalism failed to adapt to the democratizing culture of the westward migration. Drawing on hundreds of previously unused letters, journals, and sermons, the author argues that Congregational...
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The first book-length treatment of its topic, this study is aimed at abolishing the old cliche that Congregationalism failed to adapt to the democratizing culture of the westward migration. Drawing on hundreds of previously unused letters, journals, and sermons, the author argues that Congregational missionaries were aggressive evangelists who successfully adjusted to the egalitarian demands of the early republican frontier. Keepers of the Covenant critically examines the various explanations for the decline of Congregationalism after the American Revolution, and in the process, overturns generalizations that have prevailed for years. The conclusion offers a reinterpretation of Congregationalist decline that challenges much conventional wisdom about church growth. It will interest not only church historians and students of early republican America, but also sociologists and all those concerned with the decline of the Protestant "mainline" today.
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3.

Presbyterian Missionary Attitudes toward American Indians, 1837-1893 » Read Now
by Michael C. Coleman. 222 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

Based upon correspondence of missionaries in the field, this book offers valuable insight into understanding Protestant attitudes in the 19th century as evangelicals took the Indian "from
4.

Will to Power: The Missionary Career of Father Morice » Read Now
by David Mulhall. 228 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

...Biography. 3. Missionaries -- British...Indians of North America -- British...Printed in Canada To...Company, and in 1847 a contingent...invading American...
5.

David Zeisberger: A Life among the Indians » Read Now
by Earl P. Olmstead, David Zeisberger. 444 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

David Zeisberger: A life among the Indians offers the unique perspective of a Moravian missionary who lived and worked for sixty-three years among the Iroquois and Delaware nations in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Upper Canada. Earl P. Olmstead's narrative draws on thousands of pages...
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David Zeisberger: A life among the Indians offers the unique perspective of a Moravian missionary who lived and worked for sixty-three years among the Iroquois and Delaware nations in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Upper Canada. Earl P. Olmstead's narrative draws on thousands of pages of Zeisberger's own diaries, some of which are translated here for the first time. The diaries offer insights into the role of wampum in tribal government, problems resulting from the mass Euro-American western migration, and incidents of duplicity on the parts of both the American government and Native American nations. Of particular interest are Zeisberger's descriptions of Native American life in the years surrounding the French and Indian War and the American Revolution and the effects of these conflicts on the nations that lived in Ohio Country.
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6.

The Mountains We Have Crossed: Diaries and Letters of the Oregon Mission, 1838 » Read Now
by Clifford Merrill Drury, Sarah Gilbert White Smith. 336 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

Four newly wed couples, along with one single man, were sent to Oregon in 1838 to reinforce the two-year-old mission established by Marcus Whitman and Henry Spalding. These reinforcements were to become legendary in the history of the Pacific Northwest for the incessant bickering and petty...
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Four newly wed couples, along with one single man, were sent to Oregon in 1838 to reinforce the two-year-old mission established by Marcus Whitman and Henry Spalding. These reinforcements were to become legendary in the history of the Pacific Northwest for the incessant bickering and petty jealousies that eventually caused the deaths of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and forced the abandonment of the mission effort.
Uncertainty and conflict as well as willpower and endurance mark the story of the Oregon Mission and its charismatic, though contentious, missionaries. Simply getting to Oregon in the 1830s was a feat. Once they arrived, their efforts were doomed by their inability to agree on strategies for converting the Nez Perce and Spokane Indians.
This Bison Books edition contains the very personal diary of Sarah Smith, "the weeping one" as the Indians remembered her. When read in chronological sequence with the nearly one hundred letters written by her husband, Asa, a compelling picture of their journey to Oregon and subsequent life at the mission emerges. Other letters, documents, and biographical sketches enhance the volume.
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7.

The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century » Read Now
by Francis Parkman. 590 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Distinguised by Francis Parkman's pictorial style, THE JESUITS IN NORTH AMERICA opens with the arrival of French missionaries in Canada in 1632. This study clearly portrays intertribal rivalries and tensions between French and English traders. However, the dramatic pulse of Parkman's narrative...
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Distinguised by Francis Parkman's pictorial style, THE JESUITS IN NORTH AMERICA opens with the arrival of French missionaries in Canada in 1632. This study clearly portrays intertribal rivalries and tensions between French and English traders. However, the dramatic pulse of Parkman's narrative centers on attempts of the Jesuits to befriend, convert, and mediate between the Indian tribes--resulting in great hardship and sometimes martyrdom for the Jesuits.
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8.

Evangelizing the Chosen People: Missions to the Jews in America, 1880-2000 » Read Now
by Yaakov Ariel. 367 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Yaakov Ariel is assistant professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
9.

Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697-1768 » Read Now
by Harry W. Crosby. 560 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This Spanish Borderlands classic recounts Jesuit colonization of the Old California, the peninsula now known as Baja California.
10.

The San Saba Mission: Spanish Pivot in Texas » Read Now
by Robert S. Weddle, Mary Nabers Prewit. 238 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

The Spanish approach to the occupation of eighteenth-century Texas embraced the triad of mission, presidio, and settlement. In founding communities, Franciscan missionaries sought to convert the natives to Christianity and make them productive Spanish citizens. By midcentury, however, change was in...
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The Spanish approach to the occupation of eighteenth-century Texas embraced the triad of mission, presidio, and settlement. In founding communities, Franciscan missionaries sought to convert the natives to Christianity and make them productive Spanish citizens. By midcentury, however, change was in the offing.
The turning point was the San Saba Mission disaster and the ensuing military campaign to punish the Indians responsible. In 1758, the mission, near present-day Menard, was destroyed with the loss of several lives, including two of the missionaries, less than a year after its founding. In The San Saba Mission Robert S. Weddle examines the factors that led to this tragedy and its influence on the reshaping of frontier policy, as well as the residual effects not only on the immediate Spanish settlements but on the area's development as a whole.
Weddle's book offers a gripping account of the presidio's role in the episode, drawing on archival sources, including correspondence of missionaries and military officers with their superiors in Mexico.
Weddle analyzes the consequences of the mission-to-settlement system and concentrates on the military aspects of the mission, noting that after the religious mission was abandoned, the presidio served later as the base for the strongest Spanish military expedition against Indians in Texas and probed territory as far west as the Pecos River.
The San Saba Mission recounts some of the most sensational events in Spanish-Texas history in an intriguing and entertaining voice. A new introduction to this 1964 classic describes the findings of archaeologists after the mission site, not previously known, was discovered and excavated in the early1990s. This volume stands as a valuable resource in the canon of Texas history.
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11.

Kiowa: A Woman Missionary in Indian Territory » Read Now
by Isabel Crawford. 230 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

Near the close of the nineteenth century, Isabel Crawford went to the Kiowa-Comanche Reservation in Oklahoma and founded the Saddle Mountain Baptist Mission. This book, written in journal form, begins with her arrival at the reservation in 1896 and describes her decade-long crusade to convert the...
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Near the close of the nineteenth century, Isabel Crawford went to the Kiowa-Comanche Reservation in Oklahoma and founded the Saddle Mountain Baptist Mission. This book, written in journal form, begins with her arrival at the reservation in 1896 and describes her decade-long crusade to convert the Indians to Christianity. She and her assistant were the only white women at the isolated station in the Wichita Mountains. Crawford's experience there tested her resourcefulness, her endurance, and sometimes her faith. Humor marks her journal as she recounts her struggles to establish a formal mission. She lived with the Indians, at first putting up in a tipi and adjusting, not without difficulty, to their ways. She was "the Jesus woman" who taught the Ten Commandments. In her wake came camp meetings, baptisms, and "big eats". Through the years Isabel Crawford and her Indian brothers and sisters were bound more closely as they raised money to build a church. Though written with Christian purpose, Kiowa: A Woman Missionary in Indian Territory shows Crawford's sensitivity to Kiowa history and culture during a period of transition. The mission still exists and Isabel Crawford is still remembered kindly.
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12.

Indian Population Decline: The Missions of Northwestern New Spain, 1687-1840 » Read Now
by Robert H. Jackson. 229 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
13.

A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions » Read Now
by John H. Hann. 399 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, History, Entire Library

When Spanish and French explorers first landed in Florida early in the 16th century, Timucua speakers occupied more land area and were more numerous than any other aboriginal group. This is their first detailed history, a major study that places its author in the forefront of Spanish colonial...
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When Spanish and French explorers first landed in Florida early in the 16th century, Timucua speakers occupied more land area and were more numerous than any other aboriginal group. This is their first detailed history, a major study that places its author in the forefront of Spanish colonial historians working in the United States. The Timucua are the only native people of Florida whose language survives in literature in sufficient quality and quantity to permit significant study. Relying on previously unused documents, this account of the Timucua traces their experience from first contact with Europeans to their exile to Cuba in 1763 and their final eradication. Beginning with the question of their number and their locations in northern Florida and southern Georgia, John Hann examines the Timucua's contacts with various European groups, starting with Ponce de Leon's expedition. He includes a detailed presentation of their experience under the mission regimes and covers such topics as the Europeans' descriptions of the people, their language, culture, and political structures, the derivation of their language, and the meanings of their place-names and titles. He also resolves confusion over the extent of the territory of a Timucua subgroup known as the Mocama and discusses other Florida native peoples who moved into Timucua territory as refugees during the first half of the 18th century.
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14.

From the Great River to the Ends of the Earth: Oblate Missions to the Dene, 1847-1921 » Read Now
by Martha McCarthy. 272 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...of Native North America, so reliant...founding, in 1822, of...French foreign missionaries. This initiative...missions in North America. Foreign...the Church in the...
15.

Some of Them Would Always Have a Minister with Them: Mohawk Protestantism, 1683-1719, in American Indian Quarterly » Read Now
by Daniel K. Richter. 14 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...and French missionaries and their...Earlier in the century...of Early American History...Colonial North America...Neighbors in Indian North America, 1600-1800...Indian:...