The 2013 FOIM (Fellowship of Indian Missiologists) Conference was hosted at Punalur, Kerala. 12 papers from this conference were compiled and published in Christian Mission in the Midst of Violence under the editorship of Dr. Joy Thomas SVD, director of Ishvani Kendra of Pune and Secretary of FOIM and Dr. Siga Arles, director of the Centre for Contemporary Christianity of Bangalore.

This article first deals with Pantaenus’s mission to India, which began in Alexandria through the private initiative of Pantaenus, the teacher of Clement who was also well known to Origen. In the age of Athanasius (fourth century), another mission to India was organised in Alexandria, and this time the bishop himself took the initiative to send missionaries. Meanwhile in Alexandria the episcopacy had gained strength, and the head of the Didaskaleion – Didymus, a follower of Origen – was then appointed (...) by the bishop, whereas neither Pantaenus nor Clement were so appointed. The article also discusses to which “India” the mission was directed. Generally, it is considered to have been Ethiopia, but in fact it might have been India. (shrink)

Gender inequality has been pervasive in many aspects of society, including religious institutions. Christian missions often reinforce patriarchal structures that limit the participation of women in leadership and ministry roles. However, this does not reflect the true nature of Christianity, which embraces equality and inclusivity for all individuals. This article analyses the challenges of gender inequality within Christian missions in Northern Nigeria to propose ways of addressing the issue and focussing on addressing the challenges in Nigeria, (...) Northern Nigeria especially. The article adopted the descriptive method employing an interview guide as an instrument to collect primary data from missionaries of the Nigerian Baptist Convention in Northern Nigeria. It employed content analysis to analyse data collected from the field.Contribution: The contribution of this article is that it gives an overview of gender inequality in Northern Nigeria, examines the challenges of gender inequalities in Christian missions, highlights and explains the prospects of tackling the challenges, and concludes on the issues raised within the article. (shrink)

The culture of mass education has become an enduring tradition in Western Nigeria. The root of this culture is traceable to the mid-nineteenth century when the Christian missionary bodies began a process of systematic evangelization, using Western education as a medium and an indispensable tool. Early converts were taught how to read the Bible in vernacular – a measure that helped produce the first widespread literate class in Western Nigeria. Thereafter, mass education was promoted through the opening of primary (...) and secondary schools as well as teacher training colleges and trade schools. The pioneering missionary efforts, complemented in later years by the colonial government, received an accelerated boost, reaching a peak in the mid-1950s during the era of internal self-rule when the Western Nigerian government introduced the Free Education Programme in the region. In spite of the termination of the government that introduced the Free Education Scheme following the military take-over in 1966, the rising trend of popular education continued unabated. Military and civilian governments alike have, ever since, remained committed to mass education such that popular Education remains to this day, the greatest industry in Western Nigeria. The contention in this Paper is that the culture of mass education in Western Nigeria, even to this day, and in spite of occasional modifications, is a logical conclusion to an established culture of mass education, the root of which is traceable to the Christian missionary era. The paper concludes with an analysis of the impact, which the various phases of the evolutionary process have made on the history of education in Western Nigeria in particular, and the country as a whole. (shrink)

The culture of mass education has become an enduring tradition in Western Nigeria. The root of this culture is traceable to the mid-nineteenth century when the Christian missionary bodies began a process of systematic evangelization, using Western education as a medium and an indispensable tool. Early converts were taught how to read the Bible in vernacular – a measure that helped produce the first widespread literate class in Western Nigeria. Thereafter, mass education was promoted through the opening of primary (...) and secondary schools as well as teacher training colleges and trade schools. The pioneering missionary efforts, complemented in later years by the colonial government, received an accelerated boost, reaching a peak in the mid-1950s during the era of internal self-rule when the Western Nigerian government introduced the Free Education Programme in the region. In spite of the termination of the government that introduced the Free Education Scheme following the military take-over in 1966, the rising trend of popular education continued unabated. Military and civilian governments alike have, ever since, remained committed to mass education such that popular Education remains to this day, the greatest industry in Western Nigeria. The contention in this Paper is that the culture of mass education in Western Nigeria, even to this day, and in spite of occasional modifications, is a logical conclusion to an established culture of mass education, the root of which is traceable to the Christian missionary era. The paper concludes with an analysis of the impact, which the various phases of the evolutionary process have made on the history of education in Western Nigeria in particular, and the country as a whole. (shrink)

John Locke was considerably interested and actively involved in the promotion of Protestant Christianity among American Indians and African slaves, yet this fact goes largely unremarked in historical scholarship. The evidence of this interest and involvement deserves analysis—for it illuminates fascinating and understudied features of Locke's theory of toleration and his thinking on American Indians, African slaves, and English colonialism. These features include (1) the compatibility between toleration and Christian mission, (2) the interconnection between Christian mission and English (...) geopolitics, (3) the coexistence of ameliorative and exploitative strands within Locke's stance on African slavery, and (4) the spiritual imperialism of Locke's colonial vision. Analyzing evidence of Locke's interest and involvement in Christian mission, this article brings fully to light a dimension of Locke's career that has barely been noticed. In so doing, it also illustrates how the roots of toleration in the modern West were partly evangelical. (shrink)

This book studies how the relationship between philosophy, morality, politics, and science was conceived in the Vienna Circle and how this group of philosophers tried to position science as an antidote to totalitarianism and irrationalism. This leads to investigation of the still understudied views of the Vienna Circle on moral philosophy, meta-ethics, and the relationship between philosophy of science and politics. Including papers from an international group of scholars, The Socio-ethical Dimension of Knowledge: The Mission of Logical Empiricism addresses these (...) topics and makes them available to scholars in the field of history of philosophy of science. (shrink)

Partnership in Christian missions is of great importance because of its necessity for the effectiveness of all missions engagements. Partnership in missions has a biblical basis, and it is theologically correct. The concept of Missio Dei demonstrates the Triune God as the owner of Christian missions. Likewise, as a body of Christ, the church must work together to achieve God’s purpose. The church can utilise each member’s gifts and virtues through partnership to glorify God. (...) Christian missions will not be tedious with practical knowledge of partnership in missions. This paper provided vital information related to partnerships in the Nigerian Baptist Convention missions. A partnership creates an avenue for effective and holistic missions. The researcher used the descriptive research method and discovered that some challenges, such as misunderstanding, selfishness, miss-appropriateness of resources and information gap, are sometimes part of the partnership.Contribution: Apart from the challenges, partnership in missions has many prospects amid technological advancement and globalisation if the appropriate partnership models, credible partnership principles and accurate theological perspectives are inculcated. This will result in more converts, planting churches, making disciples and raising more Christian leaders. (shrink)

For decades, the mobilisation of Christian missions has encountered a number of setbacks and barriers because of several factors and elements that pose severe impediments to the conduct of missionary activities. Amongst these factors and elements, the involvement of politics in the activities of the Christian missions is prominent. The goal of the Christian missions is to expand the kingdom of God, as well as the salvation and restoration of lost souls, while the goal (...) of politics is to secure power and authority through manipulation for selfish interests or gains. A Christian mission seeks spiritual and heavenly fulfilment, while politics seeks mundane and worldly gains. (shrink)

Urban Christian missions battle with many challenges in this 21st century, such that there is a need for a strategic plan to do missions in the cities. Over the years, missions' emphasis has focused on village missions and underdeveloped places. However, there is a clarion call to shift attention to urban Christian missions in recent times because the world is witnessing a massive migration of people from villages to cities for greener pastures. (...) class='Hi'>Christian missions' opportunities are evident in the cities because the cities attract all kinds of people. Urban Christian missions involve assembling converts and nurturing them to maturity, enabling them to teach others about Christ, and to do likewise to ensure that the Christian faith continues. The article employed a descriptive research method, and it investigated the task of developing leaders for active Christian missions in urban areas of Nigeria because of insufficient leaders who could adequately handle Christian mission work. CONTRIBUTION: This article is in line with the focus and scope of HTS Theological Studies in the sense that the journal is an acclaimed Open Access journal with broad coverage that promotes multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary religious aspects of studies in the international theological arena and the journal's publication criteria are based on rigorous research, accountable methodologies and novel findings based on sound ethical standards. Also, the research reveals that leadership training must be Bible-based and the Bible is the basis for Theological Studies. (shrink)

The social thought and outreach philosophy of the Emergent Church offers a revolutionary take on global Christian mission. In particular, according to this new paradigm, the mission of the church requires nothing short of a radical revision of today’s economic system. A review of writings by leading emergent thinkers such as McLaren and Chalke, however, raises questions about the extreme economics being proposed. There are also deep concerns from an evangelical theological perspective.

Money is an essential element of everyday life. It is required to keep life going. However, the importance of money is not only in having it to meet one’s needs but also in the proper management of it. Like any other human endeavour, Christian missionary activities involve cash; one cannot talk about it without mentioning money. Nevertheless, money also poses a potential danger to the missionary enterprise. It is therefore important to pay attention to money-related issues in Christian (...) missions because the approach taken in handling money in Christian missions can either promote the gospel or delay its advancement and distort its shape. This article will consider biblical perspective of money, importance of money in Christian missions, challenges related to money in Christian missions and how to handle money in Christian missions before conclusion is drawn. (shrink)

Neil offers a comprehensive but highly readable account of the world expansion and missionary efforts of Christianity—in its Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox varieties. What emerges rather clearly is the close connection between post-Renaissance European political expansion and Christian missionary activities: the former appears to have been the condition of the latter with a rather detrimental tendency to over-identify a paternalistic Western culture with Christian religious belief and practice. Neil writes with equanimity but points out that present ecumenical thinking (...) was foreign to 19th century Roman Catholic missionaries. This is the sixth volume of The Pelican History of the Church and a worthy member of a distinguished series.—D. J. B. (shrink)

“Cultural imperialism” has been an influential concept in the representation of the modern Christian missionary movement. This essay calls its usefulness into question and draws on recent work on the cultural dynamics of globalization to propose alternative ways of looking at the role of missions in modern history. The first section of the essay surveys the ways in which the term “cultural imperialism” has been employed in different disciplines, and some of the criticisms made of the term within (...) those disciplines. The second section discusses the application of the cultural imperialism framework to the missionary enterprise, and the related term “colonization of consciousness” used by Jean and John Comaroff in their influential work on British missionaries and the Tswana of southern Africa. The third section looks at the historiography of missions in modern China, showing how deeply the teleological narratives of nationalism and development have marked that historiography. The concluding section argues that the missionary movement must be seen as one element in a globalizing modernity that has altered Western societies as well as non-Western ones in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and that a comparative global approach to the missionary movement can help to illuminate the process of modern cultural globalization. (shrink)

This article engages with the religious dimension of the politics of anti-slavery/trafficking and presents an analysis of select Christian-identified organisations working in anti-slavery/trafficking in South Africa. Using website content of the select organisations as primary material, the article argues that in similar ways to the paternalistic early Christian missionary approach to indigenous religious practices, the politics of paternalism persist to this day in the realm of Christian organisations working in anti-slavery in South Africa. That is, the ‘White (...) Saviour Industrial Complex’ identified by Teju Cole is pervasive in the rhetoric of these Christian organisations. Consequently, and firstly, the article further bolsters the argument that the African continent has frequently been treated as a key site for formulating and testing a variety of models of humanitarian assistance, aid and economic development dating from the colonial era to the present neocolonial one. However, and secondly, the article also highlights that there is ambivalence in the ways in which the Christian anti-slavery/trafficking organisations in South Africa take up a key feminist concept of empowerment as informing how they understand their work. As such, the article proposes that caution be applied in critically engaging the discourse of these organisations.Contribution: This article engages with the religious dimension of the politics of anti-slavery/trafficking and presents an analysis of select Christian-identified organisations working in anti-slavery/trafficking in South Africa. The article illustrates how the intersection of political studies and religion is part of the journal’s focus on interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary contested discourse. (shrink)

Entre Islam et Occident, le conflit existe. Il est profond. Et il n'a pas débuté le 11 septembre 2001 car - sans remonter aux Croisades - il oppose deux civilisations dont les valeurs, depuis des siècles, ne sont guère compatibles. Les orientalistes qui le nient se bercent d'illusions. Les partisans de Huntington, qui croient à la mission salvatrice de l'Occident, font tout autant fausse route. Situation d'autant plus grave que, depuis la guerre des Six jours, le conflit en question a (...) pris une forme aiguë, caractérisée d'abord par l'essor du mouvement islamiste, puis par celle d'un terrorisme international dont Al-Qaïda n'est qu'un relais parmi d'autres. Face à ces dangers (dont l'Europe aujourd'hui s'obstine à ignorer l'ampleur), la seule stratégie réaliste me semble consister, pour l'Occident, à opposer un front uni à l'islamisme, tout en laissant celui-ci faire la dure expérience de la réalité dans les pays qui souhaitent le porter au pouvoir car s'il peut être vaincu, ce ne sera pas par la force des armes ni par celle de la rhétorique, mais seulement par l'usure du temps. Ne nous y trompons pas : cette stratégie sera malaisée à mettre en œuvre, car elle devra, d'abord, affronter la passion antiaméricaine, antisioniste et tiers-mondiste qui, chez nous, inspire une grande partie de l'opinion actuelle. Autrement dit, cette maladie que Nietzsche, il y a un siècle déjà, baptisait nihilisme - et dans laquelle il percevait, non sans raison, un écho assourdi de l'antisémitisme chrétien. Comme si la vieille Europe, fatiguée d'avoir trop vécu, était désormais proche d'abdiquer les valeurs des lumières sur lesquelles sa propre culture s'était non sans peine édifiée. (shrink)

This paper contends that in Africa, the belief in the reality of the spirit world is a persistent phenomenon, which occupies a significant place in their religiosity. By building their theologies around the existential needs of the African people, the prophetic and deliverance ministries represent a contextual approach to Christianity in Africa. Nevertheless, an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of these ministries reveal that their approach may fit well into the African cultural milieu, but their emphasis is a threat (...) to the progress of Christian discipleship in Africa and among Africans in the diaspora. Despite their rapid numerical growth, the deliverance ministries cannot bring the African out of the fear of witchcraft and other supernatural powers. The paper concludes that to be able to mitigate the challenges of these ministries, pragmatic solutions being discussed at the academic levels must be made accessible to grassroots prophets. (shrink)

Besides classical issues of parliamentary control and pressure groups' influence, coordination between ministers and administrations involved in foreign policy making and harmonization of national foreign policy with external cultural relations led by the french, flemish and german Communities are the major problems belgian foreign policy making has to cope with.Divergences on options or heterogeneity of functional missions require arbitration and cooperative procedures provided by foreign affairs ministerial comitee at the governmental level. Competition for leading role and confrontation of functional (...) paradigms foster «bureaucratic politics» between services. European affairs constitues a major issue for bureaucratic coordination.Attribution to the Communities of assessment power to cultural agreements and reservation to national government of the treaty making power let arise a kind of illogism and a conflict of competences that pragmatic concertation tends to get round.As to parliamentary control, it consists in a greater influence of majority's deputies than in an effective opposition's countervailing power to amend coalition foreign policy. So play pressure groups a role in influencing bilateral much more than multilateral affairs. (shrink)

In the modern history of India, the term ‘mass movement’ has been used to refer to two entirely different things. One is the Gandhian nationalist movement from the second to the middle, and the other the Dalit conversion to Christianity en masse. This article traces Gandhi’s interaction with Indian Christianity, especially the Indian Dalit Christian movement, with an intention to gain a better understanding of the relation between Indian nationalist movement and Indian Christianity. The chapter shows that Gandhi’s aversion (...) to interreligious conversion and his strong distrust of the Dalit people’s ability to make spiritual choice led to his strong and undue criticisms against Dalit conversion to Christianity. As peaceful a man as the Mahatma was, his clash with the Dalit Christian mass movement seems to have adversely affected the majority of Indian Christians from finding a welcoming home in India. (shrink)

In the future Belgian State, in which «communities» and «regions» are constitutionally authorized, the composition, the mission and the competences of the second Chamber, the Senate, are called in question.The «community-agreements» of Egmont and Stuyvenberg provided that the members of the regional councils should be also members of the councils of the communities and members of a Senate.His legislative roll should be limited to pass the revision of the Constitution, the bills with a special majority and to propose amendments at (...) the bills to the Chamber of deputies.The second Chamber, in the European states, envisaged by this study : the French Senate, the Italian Senate, the German Bundesrat and the Swiss Council of States, is always more powerfull that a simple Chamber of reflection, at least on the legislative ground, in the federal states, this assembly has not immediate political control on the national Government.The future Belgian Senate, as these second Chambers, must preserve an active roll in the elaboration of the most important laws and be an assembly of beneficial confrontation between the communities and their deputies; so, the Senate will assure their effective participation to the legislàtîve function. (shrink)