Christian Missions and the Enlightenment

This volume offers a detailed historical examination of the influence of the European Enlightenment on the beliefs and practices of Protestant missionaries who went to Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Discussing such topics as education, the relationship between "conversion" and "civilization, " and the problem of defining the Enlightenment, the contributors break new ground by setting the British missionary awakening in the context of its continental European predecessor. Individual regional studies on India, the Cape Colony, and the South Pacific help clarify the role of the Western missionary enterprise since the mid-eighteenth century.