Protestant Missions and Local Encounters in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries : Unto the Ends of the World

This book makes visible an important but largely neglected aspect of Christian missions: its transnational character. An interdisciplinary group of scholars present case-studies on missions and individual missionaries, unified by a common vision of expanding a Christian Empire “to the ends of the world”. Examples range from Madagascar, South-Africa, Palestine, Turkey, Tibet, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and Britain. Engaging in activities from education, health care and development aid to religion, ethnography and collection of material culture, Christian missionaries considered themselves as global actors working for the benefit of common humanity. Yet, the missionaries came from, and operated within a variety of nation-states. Thus this volume demonstrates how processes on a national level are closely linked to larger transnational processes.

Hilde Nielssen, Dr. Polit. (2004) in Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, researcher at the Department of Linguistics, Literary and Aesthetic Studies at University of Bergen. Her research ranges from museums and colonial culture to spirit possession rituals in Madagascar, and her publications include Ritual Imagination. Tromba possession among the Betsimisaraka of Eastern Madagascar (Brill, forthcoming 2011).
Inger Marie Okkenhaug, Ph.D., associate professor in history at Volda University College. She has co-edited several volumes and is the author of one book and numerous articles on women, missions and welfare in the Middle East. Her current research deals with missions, gender and relief in Armenia, Turkey and Syria, 1900-1950.
Karina Hestad Skeie, Dr. Art. (2005) in History of Religions, University of Oslo, Associate Professor in Intercultural Studies at NLA University College, Bergen. She works on religion and mission in Madagascar and Norway. Her publications include Building God's Kingdom in Highland Madagascar (Brill, forthcoming 2011).