| Formål: |
2010-ordning fagelementnr. HREB00311E, 2005-ordning Fagelementnr. HREB00181E, 2007-tilvalgsordning fagelementnr. HREB10091E/HREB10101E, KA-niveau: 2008-ordning, Relgionshistorie, fagelementnr. HRHK03661E/HRHK03671E, Religionssociologi, HRSK0343 1E/HRSK0349 1E, KA Religionsvidenskab 2008 Tilvalgsordning, fagelementnr HREK03031E |
| Indhold: |
Few Europeans lived and worked so immediately at the boundaries of European culture and control as Christian missionaries. To win converts, missionaries became experts in local languages, cultures and environments, which in turn made them a valuable resource to colonial administrators as well as to European naturalists, explorers and anthropologists.
In the literature, Christian missions have been represented as everything from selfless martyrs to cynical colonialists; from harbingers of modern science, education and medicine to breeders of superstition and ignorance. By looking at a range of Christian missions and missionaries from a variety of denominational backgrounds this course examines some central themes in the history of European Christian missions between 1800 and the First World War. The course readings will predominately address the German, British and Danish missionaries who worked in Asia and the Pacific. However, students will also be able to – and are encouraged – to pursue their interest in the activities of other European missionaries in other regions within the space of the course.
The course asks students: (1) to consider the role which missionaries played in the development of European natural, racial and anthropological sciences; (2) to question the extent to which missionaries, as inhabitants of two worlds, were entangled within the politics of nation and colonialism as well as transnational economic networks; and (3) to engage with the theoretical challenges of writing cross-cultural, religious, scientific and transnational history.
A wide range of primary and secondary sources will be used to examine select case studies and the main themes. There are, as yet, few scholarly texts providing an overview of the history of missionaries; however, sections from the following book (even if overly focused on the British case) will help shape the course: Norman Etherington, ed., Missions and Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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