Missionary Encounters

Edited by Robert Bickers and Rosemary Seton, this collection explains how missionary archives can be used to study encounters between Western religious organisations and societies in Asia, Africa and other regions. The essays address correspondence, institutional records, education, medicine, women’s work and the practical problems involved in reconstructing mission communities from sources produced for religious and administrative purposes.

The volume treats missions as more than a history of evangelism. Their records document imperial power, indigenous agency, cultural translation, social reform and conflict within churches and local communities. It is therefore a methodological guide as well as a set of historical studies, particularly valuable for readers assessing the opportunities and biases of missionary evidence.