Protestant Missionary Education and the Diffusion of Women’s Education in Ottoman Turkey: A Historical GIS Analysis

A significant literature demonstrates that the presence of historic missionary societies—especially Protestant societies—during the colonial period is significantly and positively associated with increased educational attainment and economic outcomes. However, we know less about the mechanisms underlying the long-run consequences of institutions, as it is commonly very hard to disentangle direct effects from indirect effects. One clear way to do so, however, is to explore the long-term impact of missionary influence in places in which the direct beneficiaries of missionary education are no longer present. The present article considers one such region, the Anatolian region of the Ottoman Empire. Due to the ethnic violence and population movements at the start of the twentieth century, the newfound Turkish nation-state was largely religiously homogenous. This provides us with a unique situation to empirically assess the long-run indirect effects of Christian missionary societies on local human capital. For this purpose, I present an original dataset that provides the locations of Protestant mission stations and schools, Ottoman state-run schools, and Armenian community schools contained within Ottoman Anatolia between 1820 and 1914. Contrary to the common association found in the literature, this study does not find missionary presence to be correlated with modern-day schooling. Rather, I find that regions with a heightened missionary presence and an active Christian educational market perform better on the gender parity index for pretertiary schooling during both the Ottoman and Turkish periods.

Impact of Ogbomoso Journal of Theology on Developmental Works in Africa and Beyond

This paper was designed to discuss the contribution of Ogbomoso Journal of Theology (OJOT) to educational developmental work and civilisation of Africans. The paper is a desk research and a review of the OJOT activities in the African continent with concentration onhow missionary education contributed to human development on the continent. The study reveals that OJOT has made significant impact to developmental works through theological education and scholarly contribution in Africa and beyond, especially in the areas of poverty alleviation, holistic healing and health awareness, and prevention or reduction of societal ills through ministrations.

Wangari Muta Maathai

The life of Wangari Muta Maathai (1940–2011) was strongly shaped by her rural environment, missionary education, and exposure to university education in the United States and Germany. Her interactions with other women—her mother, teachers, and grassroots women—also had a great impact on her work and commitment. In the midst of enormous challenges and obstacles, she created a formidable Green Belt Movement (GBM) to empower grassroots women. By mobilizing women to plant and care for trees, Maathai changed the thinking and practices of conserving the environment at a time when dominant global thinking on the environment and women’s role in society was grappling for transformation. Hence the dynamics of local and international forces coalesced in the work of the GBM. Local experiences also infused global thinking and appreciation of struggles for democratic governance, peace, and sustainable development. Consequently, Professor Maathai’s ingenuity and persistence were widely recognized and honored, and earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

Yedinovertsy Priests of the Don and Novocherkassk Diocese in 1890-1910: Social Group Description

This article considers the process and results of the formation of the social group made up by the Yedinovertsy priests in the Don and Novocherkassk Diocese. Based on the analysis of the sources, it is shown that 27 Yedinovertsy churches had been established in the territory of the Don Army Land by the 1910s, which resulted from the development of the missionary movement that was expected to prevail over the Old Believers’ schism. It was initiated by hierarchy of the Don region, diocesan missionaries, and some Old Believers who had joined the Russian Church under the Old Believers’ “rules”. A group of priests was formed to provide service in those churches. The priests were familiar with the rites that were forbidden in 1666-1667 and wanted to perform their missionary activities among the Old Believers. At the beginning of the group formation process, in the Yedinovertsy churches, there were only 29 priests and psalm readers, who did not have the required education level. But by 1910, their number had grown up to 55 clergymen. Not only did they know the old rites well enough, which, in some instances, was caused by the fact that they had come to the Russian Church from various schism branches, they were also of the advantageous Cossack origin and had missionary education received from the Don diocesan missionary school specially established for those purposes. Considering how important the Yedinovertsy priests’ service was both for the management of the Diocese and the Don Army, those organizations were the financing sources for the priests, for the churches themselves did not even provide the Yedinovertsy priests and psalm readers with an average income. The integrity of the social group in question was sustained by the fact that priests serving at Yedinovertsy churches seldom moved to serve at Orthodox temples.

Catholic East and Pentecostal West (1800–Present)

The first part of this chapter examines Catholic missions among the Maasai, with particular attention given to the perennial issues raised by Vincent Donovan in his book Christianity Rediscovered. After a cursory examination of the role of missionary education as a vehicle of conversion, the discussion returns to the Maasai and, in particular, to the attraction of the Christian message to women. The second part of the chapter revisits West Africa with a brief glimpse of the Aladura movement in Yorubaland (Nigeria) before taking up Nigeria’s Pentecostal explosion in the mid-1970s. Expressed in multitudinous forms and organizations, the emergence of Spirit-centered movements took place within a local context of socioeconomic and political upheaval and a larger global context of exposure to modernizing influences, particularly those emanating from North American Pentecostalism. In addition to attracting young adults, women find that Pentecostalism is a boon to stable marriages and family life.