Emotions and Christian Missions ― Historical Perspectives

This collection explores the ways in which emotions were conceptualised and practised in Christian mission contexts from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, in locations as diverse as North America, the Philippines, India, China, the Congo, Germany, Papua New Guinea, Greenland and Australia. Nine chapters by leading scholars in the field draw on innovative theoretical perspectives to show how emotional practices such as prayer, tears, and Methodist 'shouting', and feelings such as pity, joy and frustration, shaped relationships between missionaries, prospective converts, new Christians, and mission supporters at 'home', often in distinctly hierarchical ways.

The collection considers missionaries from a variety of religious movements working in a range of different contexts: their own nation's colonies, other countries' colonies, and non-colonial settings. It documents the ways in which emotional discourses and practices could be affected by economic, political, social and cultural factors, as well as personal and theological concerns. With its focus not just on metropolitan or missionary discourses and practices, but also on the emotional practices of prospective converts and new Christians, this collection is a timely intervention into two burgeoning fields: mission history and the history of emotions.

Claire McLisky is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Research Fellow at Griffith University in Australia. She has published articles on humanitarianism, settler colonialism and the role of emotions in Christian mission. Her current project compares the emotional economies of early colonial missions to Greenland and Australia.

Daniel Midena is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia, working on the intersection between science, religion and colonialism in the South Pacific. His past research was on the ethnographic activities and natural world view of German missionaries in New Guinea from 1886 until 1930.

Karen Vallgarda is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is the author of Imperial Childhood and Christian Mission: Education and Emotions in South India and Denmark, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) as well as articles on Christian mission, colonialism, religious conversion, the history of emotions, gender, race, and childhood. Her current project explores the emotional practices of divorce in Denmark.