The Role of the American Board in the World: Bicentennial Reflections on the Organization's Missionary Work 1810-2010

Description: The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was the countrys first creator of overseas Christian missions. Founded in 1810 and supported by a coalition of Calvinist denominations the ABCFM established the first American missions in India China Africa Oceania the Middle East and many other places. It was Americas largest missionary organization in the nineteenth century and its influence was immense. Its missionaries established the first Western schools and hospitals in many parts of the world and they successfully promoted womens rights and other ideals from the Enlightenment. They also transformed oral languages such as Zulu Hawaiian and Cherokee into written form and they preserved many elements of premodern cultures (albeit not always intentionally). The contributors to this book provide valuable insights on the work of the ABCFM (which exists today under a different name). Some of the contributors profile the lives of notable ABCFM missionaries others focus on ideological shifts within the Board and still others chronicle the Boards role in historic events including the Opium Wars the colonization of Hawaii and the Armenian Genocide. From reading this book people will come to understand why the ABCFM is widely viewed as Americas most historically significant missionary organization. Endorsements: Both contributors and publisher are to be thanked for this long-needed contemporary examination of the first foreign mission board founded in the United States. It provides often-neglected depth-of-field perspectives enabling us to understand and appreciate a Western missionary movement that has been for better or for worse dominated by the United States for the last century. I heartily recommend this book. --Jonathan J. Bonk Author of Missions and Money: Affluence as a Missionary Problem--Revisited This lively collection offers numerous models for reinterpreting Christian missions in the history of the United States and many Asian African and Middle Eastern societies. The chapters depict colorful and often combative American missionaries not only as evangelists and educators but also as publicists of atrocities reformers lawgivers traders cultural observers and advocates of destabilizing marital and gender norms. Nuanced and richly contextualized they exemplify the best in the new historiography of missions. --Richard Elphick Author of The Equality of Believers: Protestant Missionaries and the Racial Politics of South Africa About the Contributor(s): Clifford Putney is Assistant Professor of History at Bentley University. His publications include Muscular Christianity (2001) and Missionaries in Hawaii (2010). Paul T. Burlin is Professor of History at the University of New England. His publications include Imperial Maine and Hawaii (2008).