Emotions and Christian missions: historical perspectives

Abstract

This collection explores the ways in which emotions were conceptualised and practised in Christian mission contexts from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, in locations as diverse as North America, the Philippines, India, China, the Congo, Germany, Papua New Guinea, Greenland and Australia. Nine chapters by leading scholars in the field draw on innovative theoretical perspectives to show how emotional practices such as prayer, tears, and Methodist 'shouting', and feelings such as pity, joy and frustration, shaped relationships between missionaries, prospective converts, new Christians, and mission supporters at 'home', often in distinctly hierarchical ways. The collection considers missionaries from a variety of religious movements working in a range of different contexts: their own nation's colonies, other countries' colonies, and non-colonial settings. It documents the ways in which emotional discourses and practices could be affected by economic, political, social and cultural factors, as well as personal and theological concerns. With its focus not just on metropolitan or missionary discourses and practices, but also on the emotional practices of prospective converts and new Christians, this collection is a timely intervention into two burgeoning fields: mission history and the history of emotions.

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