Anglican Mission amongst Muslims, 1900–1940

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catriona Laing
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Conversion Rates ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
Popular Devotion ◽  
Printed Word ◽  
Mission Field ◽  
The Church

On paper, Anglican mission to the Middle East in the first half of the twentieth century was a failure. Compared with other missionary efforts, conversion rates in the Muslim world were low. Despite rising hostility towards Western presence in the region, and especially in Egypt, this mission field attracted some of the brightest and most ambitious missionary minds of the early twentieth century. Among then was Constance Padwick, who travelled to Egypt with the Church Missionary Society to develop the evangelistic potential of Christian literature in the Muslim world. Through her work with the printed word and her encounter with the prayers and popular devotion of ‘ordinary’ people, Padwick used the ‘kinships’ she identified between Islam and Christianity to propose a new approach to Christian mission: one that called for prayer, print, and presence among Muslims.

scholarly journals Exploring the Theological and Practical Implications of Contextualization Among Muslims

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-216
Author(s):  
Dikko Bature Darma
Keyword(s):  
Church History ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
New Method ◽  
Contextual Approach ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
New Methods ◽  
The Church ◽  
Practical Implications

The greatest missionary challenge throughout the church history is ministering to the Muslims. Previously, different approaches have been employed by the church with different settings; however, they yield little or no results at all. The need to address the challenge of Islam is ardent among Christian missionaries: therefore, in their struggle to propagate Christianity among Muslims as well as to maintain its diminishing number of followers, missionaries have been in search of new methods for Muslim outreach. Their newest discovery is the contextual approach that has been much debated in so many theological books and journals that explain its theological and practical implications. However, the methods of contextualization are said to have been successfully employed for missionary activities in some parts of the Muslim world and it has imparted to the Christian mission further significance and validity. To this end, at some level contextualization was rather accepted in regards to outreach to Muslims. This paper attempts to discuss the theological and practical implications of this new method of ‘contextualization’ in its various approaches and to see the element, if any, that distinguishes it from the former missiological methodologies of ‘Inculturation,’ ‘Identification,’ ‘Indigenization’ or ‘Vernacularization’ etc.

Aliens in a Strange Land?

2019 ◽  
pp. 172-192
Author(s):  
Brian Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Coptic Orthodox ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
The Church

This chapter details the course of Christian–Muslim relations in the Islamic world in the twentieth century. It presents two case studies. The first focuses on Egypt, which in the first part of the twentieth century was the intellectual and publishing hub of the Muslim world, and hence was regarded by Western Christians as the key to its regeneration by the Christian gospel and “modern” ideas of reform. Egypt was also the home of Africa's oldest church, the Coptic Orthodox Church. The second case study examines a younger Christian community within a younger nation, that of the church in Indonesia. The Egyptian case study highlights the dissonance between the post-Enlightenment political philosophy of individual rights and freedom of religion that undergirds Western academic discourse on the subject of interreligious relations and the markedly different concept of religious toleration that prevails in Muslim majority states.

History, Pius X, and the Practice of Confession, 1900–20

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick W. Carey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Active Participation ◽  
New Approach ◽  
History Of ◽  
Divine Origin ◽  
American Catholic ◽  
The Church

This chapter demonstrates how a few Catholic seminary professors in the first two decades of the twentieth century began to reconsider and critique the nineteenth-century Catholic understanding of the history of confession in light of Henry Charles Lea’s history of auricular confession and John Henry Newman’s theory of the development of doctrine. That re-examination of the early church’s history of penance met strong resistance from Pope Pius X’s anti-modernist campaign because the new approach clashed with Trent’s understanding of the divine origin of the early church’s practice of auricular confession. The pope, however, also promoted a liturgical revival in the Church that focused on active participation in the Eucharist that had consequences for American Catholic emphases on frequent confession for children as well as adults in preparation for communion. By 1920 that Pian revival in the United States reinforced the nineteenth-century promotion of frequent and devotional confessions.

scholarly journals Jesus Shall Reign? An Examination of Christian Mission to the Akan Palace

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong
Keyword(s):  
African Culture ◽  
Christian Missions ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Traditional Leaders ◽  
The People ◽  
Trained Personnel ◽  
Traditional Leadership ◽  
Mission Field ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ongoing Dialogue

The Gospel and African Culture interface has remained an ongoing dialogue due to the fact of inherent tensions. The genuineness of the conversion of the traditional leadership institution that welcomed the Western missionaries has remained in doubt in some missionary established churches. The conversion challenges of the traditional leaders have resulted from ancestors and ancestorial related functions that traditional leaders performed. The churches over the years created mission fields and chaplaincies with trained personnel and resources to address conversion challenges of specific and unique communities. While the creation of mission fields and appointments of chaplains have made significant responses to the conversion challenges of the people involved, the conversion challenges that traditional leaders have constantly requested for support from the churches have not been fully addressed. The study is an examination of the requests of some traditional leaders for Christian missions to be extended to the Palace and responses made so far by some of the missionary established churches. The study adopts a qualitative approach with an examination of relevant available materials and interviews. The study points to the fact that the conversion of the Palace and its functionaries must be considered as a major ministry and mission field of the church with trained ministers and resources for the specialized mission field. The study moreover calls for deeper research into matters of ancestors and ancestorial related rites that have remained as areas of tension between the church and the conversion of the Palace functionaries. Keywords: Palace, Christian Mission, Traditional Leadership, Chaplaincy, Conversion

The Legacy of Reuben Archer Torrey III

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-271
Author(s):  
Joon-Sik Park
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Economic Justice ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Korean Christianity ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Transformative Impact ◽  
The Church

Reuben Archer Torrey III, a notable missionary to South Korea in the second half of the twentieth century, was deeply committed to demonstrating true Christianity and making it a reality in Korea through the ministry of Jesus Abbey, an ecumenical community that he and his wife, Jane, founded in 1965. Torrey’s theology and practice of Christian mission have had a transformative impact on Korean Christianity and still have much to contribute to the understanding of the nature and calling of the church. This article examines Torrey’s theology of the Holy Spirit, his view of biblical economic justice, and his understanding of Christian community.

Scottish Missionaries, ‘Protestant Hinduism’ and the Scottish Sense of Empire in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century India

2007 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Constable
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Western India ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Intellectual Engagement ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Church

This article examines the Scottish missionary contribution to a Scottish sense of empire in India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Initially, the article reviews general historiographical interpretations which have in recent years been developed to explain the Scottish relationship with British imperial development in India. Subsequently the article analyses in detail the religious contributions of Scottish Presbyterian missionaries of the Church of Scotland and the Free Church Missions to a Scottish sense of empire with a focus on their interaction with Hindu socioreligious thought in nineteenth-century western India. Previous missionary historiography has tended to focus substantially on the emergence of Scottish evangelical missionary activity in India in the early nineteenth century and most notably on Alexander Duff (1806–78). Relatively little has been written on Scottish Presbyterian missions in India in the later nineteenth century, and even less on the significance of their missionary thought to a Scottish sense of Indian empire. Through an analysis of Scottish Presbyterian missionary critiques in both vernacular Marathi and English, this article outlines the orientalist engagement of Scottish Presbyterian missionary thought with late nineteenth-century popular Hinduism. In conclusion this article demonstrates how this intellectual engagement contributed to and helped define a Scottish missionary sense of empire in India.

The Samarin Family and the Parish Question in the Russian Empire. 1860s–1910s

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 235-246
Author(s):  
Alexey L. Beglov
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Church ◽  
Do So

The article examines the contribution of the representatives of the Samarin family to the development of the Parish issue in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The issue of expanding the rights of the laity in the sphere of parish self-government was one of the most debated problems of Church life in that period. The public discussion was initiated by D.F. Samarin (1827-1901). He formulated the “social concept” of the parish and parish reform, based on Slavophile views on society and the Church. In the beginning of the twentieth century his eldest son F.D. Samarin who was a member of the Special Council on the development the Orthodox parish project in 1907, and as such developed the Slavophile concept of the parish. In 1915, A.D. Samarin, who took up the position of the Chief Procurator of the Most Holy Synod, tried to make his contribution to the cause of the parish reforms, but he failed to do so due to his resignation.

The Academic Study of Sufism at American Universities

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Hermansen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
American Universities ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Academic Study

This article provides an overview of the history and current situation of the academic study of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) at American universities. It examines Sufism’s place within the broader curriculum of Islamic studies as well as some of the main themes and approaches employed by American scholars. In addition, it explains both the academic context in which Sufi studies are located and the role of contemporary positions in Islamic and western thought in shaping its academic study.1 Topics and issues of particular interest to a Muslim audience, as well as strictly academic observations, will be raised. In comparison to its role at academic institutions in the traditional Muslim world,2 Sufi studies has played a larger role within the western academic study of Islam during the twentieth century, especially the later decades. I will discuss the numerous reasons for this in the sections on the institutional, intellectual, and pedagogical contexts.

Veiling Esther, Unveiling Her Story

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J. Silverstein
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Religious Background ◽  
Literary Context ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

This book examines the ways in which the biblical book of Esther was read, understood, and used in Muslim lands, from ancient to modern times. It zeroes-in on a selection of case studies, covering works from various periods and regions of the Muslim world, including the Qur’an, premodern historical chronicles and literary works, the writings of a nineteenth-century Shia feminist, a twentieth-century Iranian dictionary, and others. These case studies demonstrate that Muslim sources contain valuable materials on Esther, which shed light both on the Esther story itself and on the Muslim peoples and cultures that received it. The book argues that Muslim sources preserve important, pre-Islamic materials on Esther that have not survived elsewhere, some of which offer answers to ancient questions about Esther, such as the meaning of Haman’s epithet in the Greek versions of the story, the reason why Mordecai refused to prostrate himself before Haman, and the literary context of the “plot of the eunuchs” to kill the Persian king. Furthermore, throughout the book we will see how each author’s cultural and religious background influenced his or her understanding and retelling of the Esther story: In particular, it will be shown that Persian Muslims (and Jews) were often forced to reconcile or choose between the conflicting historical narratives provided by their religious and cultural heritages respectively.

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