The Spiritual in the Secular: Missionaries and Knowledge about Africa

Front Cover
Patrick Harries, David Maxwell
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Jul 20, 2012 - Religion - 341 pages
David Livingstone's visit to Cambridge in 1857 was seen as much as a scientific event as a religious one. But he was by no means alone among missionaries in integrating mission with science and other fields of research. Rather, many missionaries were remarkable, pioneering polymaths.

This collection of essays explores the ways in which late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century missionaries to Africa contributed to various academic disciplines, such as linguistics, ethnography, social anthropology, zoology, medicine, and many more. This volume includes an introductory chapter by the editors and eleven chapters that analyze missionary research and its impact on knowledge about African contexts. Several themes emerge, including many missionaries' positive views of indigenous discourses and the complicated relationship between missionaries and professional anthropologists.

Contributors:
John Cinnamon
Erika Eichholzer
Natasha Erlank
Deborah Gaitskell
Patrick Harries
Walima T. Kalusa
John Manton
David Maxwell
John Stuart
Dmitri van den Bersselaar
Honor Vinck
 

Contents

contributors
11
The Spiritual in the Secular 1
17
Missionary Ethnology
116
W F P Burton
171
Dora Earthys Mozambique Research and the Early Years
203
Christian Medical Discourse and Praxis on the Imperial
261
The International Missionary Council
283
index 335
351
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About the author (2012)

Patrick Harries (1950-2016) was professor of African history at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and a member of the steering group of the Centre for African Studies Basel. His scholarship focused on the history of labor in Africa, the history of Christian missions, and the history of knowledge production. David Maxwell is Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University and Fellow of Emmanuel College.

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