Religion versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914

Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2008 by Douglas, Ian T

Religion versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914. By Andrew Porter. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2004. 400 pp. $31.95 (paper), $74.95 (cloth).

Too often missionaries are characterized as being stooges at best, or coimperialists at worst, in the processes of empire building and the spread of a Western hegemonic church around the world. Katharine Hepburn's Rose Sawyer in The African Queen or the Price family in Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible present popular images of missionaries as disconnected from the lives and political realities of the people they have been sent to serve. In academic circles, the study of missionary engagement in the cultural and political contexts in which they lived and worked is hampered by disciplinary boundaries. Scholars of imperial history and postcolonial theories too often slap over, or decry unsophisticatedly, the role of the missionary in their studies. On the other hand, missiologists and mission historians, while presenting much more complex portraits of missionaries and their motives, often neglect to take into consideration the wider political power dynamics of colonialism.

Andrew Porters comprehensive study of the place of Protestant missionaries in the British imperial project of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries addresses all of the above limitations. As an accomplished scholar (Porter is the Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King's College in London), the author quickly rises above simplistic presentations of missionaries in popular film and novels. More importantly, Porter adroitly brings together both imperial history and mission history in this substantial study. His ability to cross disciplines between secular historical study and theologically sensitive mission studies is the real genius of this book. Religion versus Empire? is one of those rare books that skillfully employ an interdisciplinary methodology to shed new light on the missionary enterprise.

The presentation of Porter's study is a rather traditional linear historical progression, with each chapter clearly identifying the historical period under consideration. While the first chapter ambitiously takes on the period from 1701 to 1789, each of the succeeding ten chapters considers no more than two or three decades of missionary activity from 1790 to 1914. The bulk of the study thus concerns itself with the nineteenth century, or what Kenneth Scott Latourette has described as The Great Century" of Protestant missions. Those who prefer their history presented in chronological order will be at home with Porter's exposition.

Porters discussion in each historical period takes into consideration the breadth of British Protestant missionary activity. The major voluntary foreign missionary societies of the Church of England come into the discussion with significant attention paid to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Church Missionary Society, and the Universities' Mission to Central Africa-not surprisingly, given their preeminence in Anglican foreign mission activity. Mission initiatives of other denominations such as the Baptists and Wesleyan/Methodists and multidenominational missionary initiatives such as the work of the London Missionary Society are also considered. Each chapter is incredibly well researched with copious notes at the bottom of each page that demonstrate Porter's wide grasp of both imperial history and mission history. An extensive select bibliography of thirty pages and a comprehensive index make the book a useful research tool.

In the end, Porters view of the missionary in the British imperial project is that of a faithful Christian who more often than not functioned with a level of detachment from the empire, and/or whose actions were anti-imperial, intentionally or not. The title of the book, Religion versus Empire?-not withstanding the question mark-gives away Porter's thesis. The breadth and comprehensiveness of Porter's research and discussion, along with his nuanced and multidimensional presentation of missionary activities within the political, social, economic, intellectual, and theological dynamics of British imperialism, make argument with Porters thesis difficult.

Religion versus Empire? is a must read for any serious student of imperial history or mission studies. American Episcopalian readers who are not such scholars, or who are not Anglophiles, might find the book to be too long and too specifically focused on the intersection between the British Empire and British Protestant missions. But by fleshing out the complex and often under-appreciated role of missionaries in challenging British imperialism, Porter has given us much to appreciate in the work of the missionary "on the ground."

IAN T. DOUGLAS

Episcopal Divinity School

Cambridge, Massachusetts