Dangerous Ideas
I picked up a book that I started several months ago, but dropped reading for no good reason, and I'm glad I did. Christianity's Dangerous Idea, by Alister McGrath deals with the implications of the protestant reformation, in particular the idea for people to interpret the Bible for themselves, starting in the sixteenth century up to the present day. I just finished part one, which closes with the missionary movement within the protestant world.
During this part of the book, McGrath argues that recent scholarship contradicts the popular view of missionaries as mere accomplices in imperial and colonial designs. In fact, McGrath argues, most missionaries were extremely sensitive toward the cultures and values of indigenous peoples, and much of our historical record of various first nations peoples comes from missionaries. One example McGrath gives is the Canadian Baptist Silas T. Rand (1810-89) who worked with the Micmac tribe, Rand worked to protect the various cultural aspects of the Micmacs, involving himself the publishing and translation of their oral traditions and their land disputes, despite criticism from his fellow Baptists. What McGrath doesn't go into here, which surprises me given the topic of the book, is how this compares to Roman Catholic missionaries. The Micmacs for instance already had Catholic missionaries; Rand was financed by anti-Catholics from Prince Edward Island. Would the protestant tradition of translating the scriptures into the common vernacular mean that they are generally more open to accommodating indigenous cultures?
One criticism McGrath does note comes from German Gustav Warneck. Warneck argued that because protestant missions were overwhelmingly anglo-american, the approach to indigenous cultures was often "simplistic" and focused on individual conversions rather than creation of truly native churches. That is, church building was still based on western models that may not work as well in other cultures.
During this part of the book, McGrath argues that recent scholarship contradicts the popular view of missionaries as mere accomplices in imperial and colonial designs. In fact, McGrath argues, most missionaries were extremely sensitive toward the cultures and values of indigenous peoples, and much of our historical record of various first nations peoples comes from missionaries. One example McGrath gives is the Canadian Baptist Silas T. Rand (1810-89) who worked with the Micmac tribe, Rand worked to protect the various cultural aspects of the Micmacs, involving himself the publishing and translation of their oral traditions and their land disputes, despite criticism from his fellow Baptists. What McGrath doesn't go into here, which surprises me given the topic of the book, is how this compares to Roman Catholic missionaries. The Micmacs for instance already had Catholic missionaries; Rand was financed by anti-Catholics from Prince Edward Island. Would the protestant tradition of translating the scriptures into the common vernacular mean that they are generally more open to accommodating indigenous cultures?
One criticism McGrath does note comes from German Gustav Warneck. Warneck argued that because protestant missions were overwhelmingly anglo-american, the approach to indigenous cultures was often "simplistic" and focused on individual conversions rather than creation of truly native churches. That is, church building was still based on western models that may not work as well in other cultures.