IN SUPPORT OF EARLY PROTESTANT MISSIONS … also r eluct antly engaged in mission, a l i t tle l ater there arose in England a missionary company whi ch mar ginally engaged in trading

O•.•.n•.~ B~romthe .U..lJ'O MISSIONARY RESEARCH LIBRARY

3041 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N. Y. 10027

September 1971 Vol. XXII, No. 9

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ECONOMIC ACTIVITIESIN SUPPORT OF EARLY PROTESTANT MISSIONS

William J. Danker

Martin Luther's ideal in missions called for their execution by the ordinary Christianwitnessing individually in his calling and offering his life to Christ in serving theworld under the rubric of the universal priesthood of all believers.

However, inhabitants of inland Germany were not in the best geographical position toparticipate in early voyages of discovery, commerce and conquest. And on some rareoccasions when they had the opportunity to playa major role Luther's hope that theindividual Christian would be a witness for the love and mercy of Christ was apparentlydoomed to disappointment.

A. THE WELSERS IN VENEZUELA

The Welsers, a Lutheran merchant family in Augsburg, purchased discovery rights to Vene-zuela from the Spanish King Charles V in 1528 and sent an expedition of 300 men to ex-ploit their prize. Though Bartolome de Las Casas, 1/ champion of the Indians, was morepassionate than precise in his reporting on the Welser regime there is no comfort forthose who rely on the universal priesthood as an automatic answer to missions, even whenone allows for Las Casas' lack of objectivity.

He accuses the Welser expedition of having been even more cruel than the Spaniards. ~On top of this the tyrannical governor was, of course, a heretic who never heard massnor allowed others to do so and wore plain insignia of Lutheranism. This man had asmany Indians as possible captured together with wives and children. They would be heldfor ransom - and to speed up payment the captives were left without food or water untilthe gold which the Welsers demanded would be produced. Of course, many died. 3/

B. THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY

An early instance in which a trading company after considerable urging sought to carryout mission work is the example of the Dutch East India Company. Under considerablepressure on the part of church circles mobilized by J. Heurnius, a Groningen theological

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candidate , t he company founded a mis sion seminary in Leiden, where 12 clerics were trained for the East I nd i e s between 1622 and 1633 . Chaplains were charged with evange ­lism. The ensuing mission activity often resulted in ma ss baptisms . I t is alleged that a certain sum of money was paid to both baptized and baptizer by way of reward , ~/ but there wer e t rue evangelists among the chaplai ns . Many ex isting congregations in I ndo­nesia a r e fruits of this "commercial mis sion ."

C. COLONIALISM AND EVANGELISM

In English voyages of discovery and colonial expansion a complicated melange of motives was at work, including public and private gain , seeking an out l e t f or England's over ­population, the desire t o erect bast i ons ove r seas against further Spanish Roman Catholic expansion, as well as an of t en sincere desire t o spr ead the Gospel among the aborigines, e specially in Nor t h America. 2/

Colonization and evangelism often were in close conne ction with one another . But gen ­erally, mission efforts among the Indians of North America, met with little succes s for a va r i e t y of reasons. In shar p distinction from Latin Ameri can reductions, §j neither the French Roman Catholi c nor the Protestant English as a rule gathered the Indians into settled communi tie s.

Instead of taking the trouble to introduce the Indians t o a new and settled way of life , the French encouraged them t o remain in their traditional patte rn, not out of a de s i r e t o preserve their cultural i ntegr i t y , but so a s not to di sturb the profitable fur trade .I/

The general failure to settle the Indians in fixed habitations 8/ was to undermine ef­fort s a t truly effective and widespread evangelization of them .- The Chri s t i an Church, unlike I s l am, has se ldom suc ceeded i n effect i ve evangelization of nomadic pe oples. 9/ Moreover, it was not in the economic i nt er e s t of Engli sh settlers, either, t o settle the Indians in a fixed habitat. ~

D. CHRISTIAN I ND IAN VILLAGES I N NORTH AMERICA

Exception s to the general failure t o settle the Indians in fixed abode s are found in J ohn Eliot 's village s of "praying I ndians " l:lI and in th ose established through the s omewhat ol de r Puritan theocratic I nd i an mission conducted by five generations of the Mayhew family on Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth I s l ands. l£I Simi lar smal l Christ i an villages were establi shed by Moravian missionar ies in the seven­teenth century . I have de scribed these in a newly publi shed s t udy. 13 /

But t ime and ag ain efforts at Christ ian settlements, much more modest in number s and i n scope than t he reduc t ions of Latin Amer ica, me t the same fate as many of the latter. They fell victim t o the greed, cruelty and political ob j e ct i ve s of the supposedly Chri s ­tian white population, or of I nd i a ns recruited by colonists and over sea s powers f or t he i r war s against ot her Christian powers and colonies . ~

E. TES NEW ENGLAND COMPANY

While there was much pr ea ch ing and pamphleteer i ng about the desirability of Indian mis ­s ions , including the Eliot and Mayhew villages of Christian I ndians , few people did much ab out it. An interesting exception is found in a group that deserves to be be t t e r kn own than it is . While the Dutch East India Company was primarily a trading company, which

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also r eluct antly engaged in miss ion , a l i t tle l ater there aro se in England a mis sionary company whi ch mar ginally engaged in trading t o help finance its ac t ivi ties . The Sc­ciet y f or Propagat ion of the Gospe l in New England, usu ally known s i mply as t he New England Company, ~ wa s chartered in 1649 by the Long Parliament.

It is the oldest English Prote stant missionary society, ~ and it i s s t i l l in ex ist ­ence t oday. ~ For 120 years this smal l and little known English organi zat i on sup ­ported missionaries i n New England. The company col lected and inve sted funds, the intere s t from which was sent annual ly t o commissioner s in New England, who paid the mi s sionar i es' salar ie s . .!W In England it purchased l anded prope r t y . But t he cost of litigation t o r ecover it s prope r t i es after the Re storation in 1660, the Great London Fire of 1666 and the general hazards of r eal estate comb ined t o keep i ts annual income at a level of about 440 pounds until the 1690s. 12/ In the early years the nor mal met hod of t r ansferring funds t o New England was by t he sh i pment of goods for sale , or fo r distri but i on t o the I ndians . ~ There was much f riction and d i ssat i s f a ct ion be ­tween t he company in England a nd the commiss ioners in New England over t his means of t ransf erring f unds . ~ But more fundamental was t he basic dis agreement as to where t he capit al it self ought t o be invested. The commi s s i oners contended that it ought t o be sent t o New England a nd i nve st ed there by them, so t hat they would have f r eedom of ope r a t ion . ~ Thus t he basic issue of fi nanci al independence for ove rseas miss ion f ie l ds was raised ve ry early i n Prote stant mi s s ion his t ory. But the commi s s ioners suc ­ceeded in ge t ting only one si zeable contribut ion out of t he company for investment i n New Engla nd. 23/ In the l ong run, i t apparent ly worked out wel l , for Ke l l away observe s , "thi s t ransact ion did provide the basis of t he Ind i an stock out of which the mis sionary work was part l y financed throughout t he rest of t he colonial period ." ?1!J Wh ile com­mercial affa i rs met with no glowing succes s neither , on the whole, did t he miss ionary effor t s among t he Indians. Ke l l away decline s to hazard a gue s s as t o the total number of conve r ts gained by t he company ' s slender cor ps of missionar i e s but concl ude s t hat i t "can not have been great " . Thus t he fi r st steps of t hi s oldes t extant Engl i sh Protes­tant soc iety were f altering in bot h mi s s i ons and commerce. The day would come when other groups would take firme r s t ep s i n both areas .

F. THE PROPOSALS OF LEIBNIZ

One of the earl iest Protestant sugges tions combining missions and economic activitie s i n areas outside the Americas was made by the distinguished and omnicompetent German schol ar and r epre sentat ive of t he Enlightenment , Gottfr ied Wilhelm Leibni z (1646-1716 ). Among the argument s for establ i sh i ng t he l ater Royal Pr us s ian Academy of t he Sciences at Berlin he stat e s that thi s would be good for "the spread of t he pure Gospe l ", ~ and would "kindle the true light for those who still s it in darkne s s ", s i nce t he s c i ­e nces and the ear t hly heaven have been f ound use f ul to l ead the l ost peopl e t o the r eal a nd divine heaven , as t he Star l ed the Wi se Men f rom the Eas t . ~

After complaining that "the Roman miss ionaries have been l eft a lone t o ex ploi t the in ­compar able i nclination and thirst f or l earning of the Chi nese monarchs a nd t he i r sub ­ject s " , ill Leibniz advance s his idea of a mission t o Ch i na , £§J gu ided by s cholar s of the proposed Soc i e t y of Science s and the Arts, and f inanced by trade.

It seems as though God has chosen and prepared His Electoral Excel ­l ency (Durchlau cht ) as a great instrument also i n th i s r egard . For nowher e else among Protestants has such a good foundation been l aid as a t Berlin for Ch i ne se l i t er at ure and the propaga t ion of t he fa i th . For this by t he spe ci al guidance of Provi de nce the unusually good personal r elationship with the Czar ope ns a wide door to broad regions of Tartary and glorious China . Thereby a commer ce not only of ware s

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and manufactures, but also of light and wisdom with this, as it were, second civilized world and counterpart of Europe (Anti-Europa) could find entry, which would draw many to seek the protection of His Most Esteemed Electoral Excellency for this purpose, especially since it is known that among the natural resources of Europe none is more sought and valued in China than amber. It is as though God has willed that His Electoral Excellency should also have this natural advantage for this purpose. ~

All this was no afterthought. Leibniz had his eye on China from the time he first pro­posed a German academy of arts and sciences three decades earlier. 30/

From that time on he gathered all the information he could about China, encouraged the learning of Chinese, expeditions to China, and finally founded his Academy in 1700 for the purpose of cultural exchange with China and to win it for Christianity. To these same ends he stimulated the creation of a society in Moscow. l!/

G. THE DANISH-HALLE MISSIONARIES

Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg (1682-1719) and Heinrich Pluetschau (1677-1746) initiated Protestant mission efforts in Asia when they landed at Tranquebar in 1706. ~

The Danish-Halle missionaries, like their contemporaries, made attempts to engage in economic activities but met with comparatively little success. Apparently their Portu­guese press was their best venture. Ziegenbalg reports that they had produced a calen­dar for 1713 which was sold allover India, making their press known far and wide. ]l/ Ziegenbalg, who suffered much under the hostility of the Danish colonial officials at Tranquebar, complains that they tried to spoil their sales of the books they printed by slandering the society that sent them out and accusing the missionaries of printing all kinds of heresy. J6J The officials had by similar tactics also spoiled their sales of the "fine Halle medicines," which they had hoped to sell for the benefit of their mis­sion work. 35/

For a time there was promise of better relations with the colony officials, when the missionaries joined forces with them to start a paper mill 36/ because paper was scarce and expensive in India. 111 However, the paper mill was turned into a school when it proved impossible to better the price on imported paper because of the difficulty of securing the right material for the manufacture of the product. 38/

The Tranquebar missionaries had less need than other missionaries such as Egede and the Moravians to engage in commercial ventures. They not only had the Danish king behind them, but circles of "awakened" Christians in a number of European countries, such as England and Germany, who contributed to their support. Moreover, their numbers were few and their needs modest. Besides, Ziegenbalg had his hands full with other, more urgent enterprises such as acquiring an expert knowledge of Tamil language and litera­ture.

H. HANS EGEDE

Hans Egede (1686-1758), a Lutheran clergyman from Norway, talked King Frederick IV into approving a trading expedition to Greenland by a company of Bergen merchants for the prime purpose of renewing contact with the ancient Norse Church on that island. J2/ No Scandinavian ship had touched Greenland for centuries. The Dutch were trading there, but no missionaries accompanied them. It is difficult to imagine how Egede might have

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got t en t o Greenland , if he had not bee n ab le to persuade Luthe r an me r chants i n Bergen to send a trading expedi t ion and t o t alk t he k i ng into approving i t. ~

But when Egede arrived with the t r adi ng sh ip , to h i s kee n dis appoi nt ment the Norwegian Chr is tians had di s appeared. The cl i mate had changed f or the co lder , due apparent ly to a sh i ft in the Gulf Stream . Nothing r ema ined but the rui ns of Norwegian churche s and hou se s. Egede saw one blond Eskimo, who may, howe ver, have been an albino. His dream of revi ving an old pre - Re format ion Nor<regi a n Church t urned into a n infinitely more di f f icul t mission t o t he Esk i mo. Trade was a di s appoi nt ment, too . When the Bergen company was forc ed t o give up the Greenland trade because of l os se s, the k ing hims e l f co nt i nued it . And the k i ng , i n tur n , was oft en at the poi nt of gi vi ng up the Greenl and expe r i me nt wi t h i t s s low convers ions and i t s fi s ca l defic i ts .

Ifhe n sealski ns and blubber did not succeed in fi nan cing a l l the costs of the mi s sion Egede even tried alchemy in the long Arctic wi nter night in a desperate effort t o se ­cure a fi nancial base for t he mis s i on by transmuting l ead into gol d . ~ Afte r fume s killed an Eskimo staying with him and endan ger ed his own family Egede threw the whole apparatus i nto t he sea . ~

The k i ng wa s apparently als o har d pre s sed and rea ched f or unusual means of suppor t i ng the Greenland experiment. At one point he author i zed a lotte r y to cont i nue the Green ­l a nd t rade , which was t he life line of t he mis s i on . ~

Egede d id not he s i tate t o t r y his hand a t whal i ng. He explai ns t hat this may seem un ­becomi ng to a man of the cloth , ye t he was t he respons ible direct or of the colony, a nd beside s "t he wor k of converting the Greenl anders could not be pursued without fi r s t be ­i ng success f ul in tempor al t h ings . " ill Thi s appr oa ch was not without problems . The people of a ce rtain vi l lage concluded that praying to Egede 's God was the sens i bl e th i ng be cau s e they had a l l prayed and caught many seals . Egede had t o preach a mighty se r mon agains t mater ialism. ~

And yet t here were those who t h irsted f or the Gospel. A Greenl ander came f rom Di s co Bay to i nv i t e Egede the Or at or t o come and preach to t hem. The Eskimo complained about the ot he r f or eigners because they could only talk about blubbe r . ~

Egede 's s on Paul served as his catechist, but when t he colony 's t r ader was r e called t o Denmark Paul had t o do double duty . 47/ The people did not mind . They were pleased that Paul, who spoke the language like one of themselve s, told t hem storie s about God, wh ich t he previous t r ade r had not done . 48/

Egede came to be not onl y the spir i tual but also t he t emporal leader of t he r oyal Green ­l and colony. ~ Hi s Luthe r an Chur ch be l i eved i n Luther 's doctrine of the t wo r egimina ~ and here was Egede de mons t rat ing t hat t t e same individual can , i f he mus t , be a ct ive in both regimina . On the l onely sh ore s of Greenl and he was often the only pe rson with h i ghe r educat ion and l eade r ship capacity . And t hus he became at one and t he s ame time governor of the co lony , pas tor t o the co l onists , missionary t o the Eski mos, and merchant a s well . If one casts about f or an apt paralle l to the broad scope of r espons ib i lity borne by this Lutheran divine one tends t o t hi nk at once of the Jesuit padre s on the ir r educt i on s in Paraguay . 51/

Like t he Jesui ts, Egede was supported by a Chr istian ki ng who t ook his duty to bring t he Gospel to the hea t hen ser i ous l y . But though Egede had t he king be hind him, his e f ­fort l a cked the i nvaluable he lp of a sending , pr ay i ng and supporting Chris t ian church . On th is scor e , the t radi t ional Lutheran Church l ar gely fail ed this pioneer.

lih i le Egede was s t i l l in Greenland , he wa s j oined by Moravian miss ionaries . ~

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J . TRANSITION TO COUNT ZINZENDORF AND THE MORAVIANS

At the court of t he Danish king in Copenhagen t he trails of Ziege nbal g and Pluetschau, Egede, and t he Moravians al l crossed . Both t he Danish-Halle missionaries and Ege de had be en sent out wi t h the help of the king. And it was at the Danish cour t where Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf, protector and later bishop of the Uni t a s Fratrum, saw several men from the We s t ern Hemisphere who gave him the i mmediate i mpetus to r ealize hi s old dreams of miss ions to the heathen, "t he handle by which t o t ake hold of i t," as Zinze n­dorf l ater expressed it. 2]/ On May 12 , 1731, accompanied by Martin Dobe r and David Nitschmann, Zi nze ndor f a r r ived in Copenhagen to take part i n the coronat i on of Chris­t ian VI, h i s cousin by mar riage . ~ His acquaintance with Count Laurwi g , a member of the r oyal court , l ed him i nto conversat i on with t he count's valet , a Negro fr om the West Indie s named Anton who descr i bed for him the miser y of t he heat hen slavery i n his home island, St . Thomas. Zinzendorf and his companions at about t he same time also met t wo Greenland Eskimos, whom Egede had sent over, and t hey heard with sor row t hat the gove rnment intended t o g ive up t he miss ion i n Greenland . ~ Egede' s son Paul was on hand as i nt erpreter and gu ide of t he Greenlanders , and the Herrnhut ers coul d get fir st ­hand information on Greenland t hrough him. 56/ Zinzendorf 's re l at ives had enrolled h im at t he age of 10 in the Paedagogi um at Hall~ where he was exposed to account s of the Eas t I ndia miss ion begun only four year s earli er. Here he also met Pluetschau, who v is i t ed Halle i n November 1713. I n autumn 1715 Ziegenbalg came fr om I ndi a t o Halle and married the siste r of Zinzendorf' s f r i end Salzmann. These personal encounters with the heroic India pioneers at Halle must have made a profound i mpr e s s i on on yo ung Zinze n­dorf . 211 At Halle Zinzendorf also lived and s t udi ed ami d Fr ancke ' s great complex of char itable inst itutions and bus i ness enterprises :

... the example of Francke shows how t his Christian entrepreneur knew how to support his great ins t i t ut ional compl ex not only thr ough a widespread networ k of col l e ct i ons but also by means of excel l ent ly admi nis t er ed busine s s ent e r pr i ses (publ i shing bus i ne s s and apothe ­cary ) f i l l ed with t i reless piet i s tic zeal to work . He knew how to combine fa i th and calculation , Christ ian shrewdness and true piety in masterful fashion . ~

This example was not l ost on the impress ionable and imaginative young scion of the highest circles of European nobility . It helped shape the intimate connection be t ween miss i on and econom i cs that was to char act erize the witnessing of Zi nzendor f and t he Moravians. The f ar flung Moravian mission coul d be sustained only by the econom ic ent er pr i ses of t he Brethren and t he g i f ts of f r iends in other churches . Because of the scope and importance of t he Moravian miss ion program and because of the broad and con·· tinuing use it made of economic activities in many parts of the world , it, along with the Basel Miss ion , provides t he best example of the support of Pr ot e stant missions t hrough i ndustry , craf ts, and trade . 221

K. ~~y AND CONCLUSIONS

Prote st ants no l e s s t han Roman Catholics fa i led i n t he duty of i ndivi dual wi t ness and l oving service to the I ndi an i n the new world. With certai n except ions , t hi s was true of t he r ank and f ile i n Nort h Ameri ca as well a s r ich and powerful i ndividual Protes ­tants in South Amer i ca. Ther e was much talk of comb i ni ng colonial ism and evangelism but li t t l e act ion due t o t he l a ck of support by Protes t ant r oyalty, e spe ci al ly the king of Engl and . A notabl e exception in t h i s respect i s the Danish crown in the early e ight ee nt h century . The general f ailure to sett le t he Indian in fixed hab i tations i n Nort h America under mined truly ef fec t i ve Prote s t ant evangel ization of t he r ed man. Thi s was due to greed f or Indian l ands, fear of I ndian attacks and fa i lure t o trust Chr istian

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Indian s. Under some dure ss, the Dut ch I ndia Company made some fe eble and sometimes crude efforts a t mi s s i ons . The New England Company sought to support I ndi an mis sions by income from r eal estate i nvest me nts a nd , for a time , by trade , but met with many di sappointments in both mi s s ions and commerce. Gottfr i ed Wi lhelm L eib ~ iz advocated an expedition t o China via Russ ia t o advance missions, scholarshi p and commerce . The Dani sh -Hal le miss ionar ies engaged in economic ac t ivit ies , but both t heir oppo r tuni t ies and needs were l i mited. Hans Egede, who f ailed t o develop a suppor t i ng miss ion congre ­ga tion , depended entir ely f irst on a trading company and then on a r oyal Dani sh colony as t he vehicle f or hi s mission t o Greenland . The efforts of Egede, t he Dan i sh-Halle mis sionarie s and e specially the patron of t he l atte r , August Hermann Francke, influ­enced t he later missionar y and economic activities of the Moravians .

Striki ng i s t he compar at i ve ab sence of ob ject ion i n principle t o combi ning mis s ionary and economic activi ties , eve n though object ions t o ce rtai n kinds of economic activities must have been harbored in some quart e rs and would be ar t iculat ed later. This i s in sharp contrast t o t he mid-nineteenth cent ur y view. Signif icant i s also the fact t hat t he most effec t ive Protes tant mis s ionar ies t o t he Indians wer e of ten a s conce r ned wi th t he material welf are of t he conver ts and wi th ga the r ing them in pe rmanent Chr istian sett lements as their Roman Cathol ic counterpar ts . For support i n an age when system­atic mi s s iona ry off erings were not wel l deve loped , ear ly Pr otestant pioneers r eli ed on whateve r devi ce came most r eadily t o mind and t o hand , i ncluding commerc ial act ivi t i e s .

FOOTNOTES

~ Las Casas came t o see i t as an ironic t ragedy that the sp i r i t ual welfare of I ndians should be gi ven i nt o t he care of men who were , as he saw i t , f or the most par t i gnorant , cruel , greedy and vicious . Cf . Bar tolome de La s Casas , Die Verheerung West i ndiens. Aus dem Spanis chen ueb ersetzt von D. W. Andreae (Berlin: Chr ist ian Fri edrich Himburg, 1790) , pp . 27-28 . One chief was be ing t ortured and burned at t he stake . Mi nist ered t o by a Franc iscan he says t hat he does not want t o go to heaven , if the Chr ist ians go there. He wants t o go t o he l l . Ib id . , p. 37. 1{hile t he ac counts of Las Casas ar e t oo sUbje ct ive and i naccurat e to~re garded as ob ­jective history, t hey do i ndi cat e t he widespread fa i lure of people f rom Christ i an l ands t o give a Chr istian wi t nes s or t o practice el ementar y human dece ncy in t he f i rst encounter of t he Old Wor ld with the New . The ItNew Laws lt which r e sulted from Las Casas ' f ight f or just ice, made poss ible t he est ab l ishment of missionary settle­ments of I ndi ans unde r the supervision of religious orders . The J e suits and Fran ­ciscans, espec ial ly, seized t he mission oppor tunit ies pre sented by the new laws, fo r which Las Ca sas paved t he way .

?J Even German s ources de scribe t he Welser r egime in Venezue la as It a r uthles s system of exploi tat ion . It Hi s t oris che Commission der koeniglichen Akademie der Wis se n­scha f t en , Allgemeine Deuts che Bi ogr aphie (Lei pzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1896), Vol . 41, pp . 685-86. The f amily f orm was for med of two brothers, Bartholomaeus and Anton Welser , dur ing t hese years . After the son of Bartholomaeus was murder ed i n Venezuela in 1546 t he Welsers gave up the ir franchise .

]/ There ar e many edi tions and t r anslat i ons of Las Casas ' polemical attack on the de ­s t r uc t ion of t he Indians. An English ed it ion was publishe d i n 1583. In t his in­s t ance we have used Die Verheerung We stindiens. Aus dem Span ischen uebersetzt von D. W. Andreae. (Berli n : Chr i s t ian Friedrich Himburg, 1790), pp . 146-47. Cf . al so Kar l Klunz i nger , Anteil der Deuts chen an der Entde ckung von Sudamer ika , ode r Aben­t euer des Ambros ius Dalfinger und des Ni kolaus Federmann, be ider von Ulm, de s Georg Hohemut von Speier und de s f raenkis che n Ritter s Philip von Hutten unt er der Herrschaft de r We lser von Augsburg i n Venezue la . Stuttgart : C. A. Sonnewald ,

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4/

§j

11

~

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10/

1857.) Though Klunz inger po ints out certain inaccurac ies in t he account by La s Casas , he ag ree s t hat e specially Ambrosius Dalfinger a s leader of the expedition cr ue l l y ex tor t ed gold fr om the Indians.

Hans-Werner Gens i chen , Missionsgeschichte der neueren Zeit (Gottingen: Vandenhoe ck & Ruprecht, 1961), p . 11.

Jame s A. Williamson, A Shor t History of British Ex an sion: The Ol d Cclonial Em ire, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1931 , pp. 157-15 , says t hat the i de a of convert i ng the heat hen appeal ed t o "but a limi t ed number of mind s" and hence "no great stre s s need be l aid upon it." But an oppo s i t e view i s expres se d by Sir Charl es Lucas, Religion, Colonizing, and Trade: Dri ving Force s of the Old Empire. (London: S. P .C . K. , 1930), pp. 1-35. Louis B. Wright agr ee s with Lucas in hi s description of the "congenial allian ce between r eligion and trade i n ... the begi nnings of what woul d one day be come t he Br it ish Empire." Cf. p . v of Religion and Empire: The Alliance between Piety and Commerce in English Ex ans ion 1558-1625. (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of Nor t h Carolina Press, 19 3 . He conte nt s himself with docu­ment i ng t he r ole which the English cler gy , primarily through their preached and pr i nt ed sermons, played in arousing the public, in a day wi t hout r adio a nd t ele­vi s ion , t o British economic, spiritual and pol i tical dest iny overseas . R. Pierce Beave r in Chur ch, Stat e and the American I ndians; Two a nd a Half Centurie s of Partnershi in Missions Between Protestant Churches and Gover nment . (St. Louis: Concordia Publish i ng House, 19 comes down on the side of James A. Williamson. For al l Wri ght' s well-documented se r moni c afuaonitions, the pr eachi ng fa i l ed t o re­s ul t in widespr ead ac tion in mis sions be cause t he Crown , i n sharp cont ras t t o Spanish dominions, r emained indifferent. Beaver, p . 7.

The se t t lements of I ndians gathered by t he religious or de r s were cal l ed "reduc­tions" be cau se the missionarie s wer e expected to "reduce" (from the Latin r educere, l ead back) or lead them back t o the faith, in ke epi ng wi th t he i dea of the t i mes that the ancestor s of t he heathen had al l at one time f allen away from the worship of the t rue God.

By givi ng t he J e sui ts a s t r ong pos it i on in New France and by excluding the Hugue­nots, the one element that might have provided l arge numbers of coloni s t s , Fran ce f ailed in what efforts wer e made t o coloni ze New France. The French Je sui t s made sacrif i ces t hat s tand in the finest tradition of Christian martyrdom, but even the se heroic f ootloose ce l i bates f a i l ed t o ach ieve l asting and so l id succe ss among the pr edominan t l y nomadi c Indian tribes in Nor t h Ameri ca.

In spite of certain except i ons .

One poss i bl e exception i s f ound in Nestorian miss ions among t he nomadi c pe ople of Central Asi a. C. Detlef G. Mueller has als o uncovered r eferences t o a Christian b ishop among nomadic Arabs in pre-Islamic time s. (Antrittsvorle sung, University of Heidelberg, 1966). However, the little known of t he se scat tered i nstan ce s i s not e nough t o i nva l i dat e the princ iple expres se d above.

Aft er the outbreak of hostilitie s betwe en Indians and Engli sh Colonists, the latter were primarily intere sted in fre edom from the threat of Indian attacks and in more Indian land. Thus, they de s i r ed only that t he I ndians would keep moving ever west -­war d before the advanc ing tide of l and-hungry set t lers . Onl y after the se t t lers had t he lion ' s share of the lands wer e the Indian s set t l ed down i n fixed ab odes on the little and mostly unde sirable l and that was l eft, on so - cal l ed Indian reserva­tions.

9

~

1:Y 17/

ill 19/

~

21/

m W

Beaver, pp. 33-34.

Ibid., pp. 31 - 33 . The Eliot and Mayhew village s t ogether numbered 14 t owns of "prayi ng Indian s" by 1674 with a t ota l population of 4, 000. P. 34 . Al so t he Mohawks, who t oday furnish some of the be st construction workers in st r uctural s teel for high buildings , were nearly all bapt ized by 1743 through mi s s i onar i e s se nt by the Society f or t he Pr opagation of t he Go spe l . They are descr i be d by a miss ionary a t the time of t he American Revol ution as a "Christian nation, living a lif e of se t tled agr icul tur e and trade," Beaver , p . 17.

Cf. Chapte r VI, "Economic Activities in t he Mission t o t he I ndians ," in William J. Danker , Profit for t he Lor d: Economi c Act ivities in Mor avian Missions and t he Basel Mi s s ion Tr ading Company . (Gr and Rapi ds: Eerdma ns , 1971), p . 38f .

The Mor avian Chris t ian village s f ound t hemselve s betwe en the upper and t he nether millstone again and again i n t he French and I ndian Wars, and t he American Revol u­t ion. Many of t he J e suit reduct i ons in Paraguay were in t he same unhappy bor der situat ion between Spanish and Por tuguese inter est s.

I n i ts char ter it was styled : "the Company f or Propagat ion of the Gospel in New Engl and a nd the Par ts adjacent in Amer i ca." Willi am Kel laway, The New England Compan 1649-1776 ; Mis sionar Soci ety to t he Ameri can Indi ans. (London: Longmans , Green and Co. , ex clus ively on

Ltd . , origin

19 1 al doc

, p . umen

2 O. This is an excel lent history , based almost ts .

I bid. , p . 1.

I bid, p . 283 . It i s s t i l l i n operat ion i n Canada, to which it di ve r t ed it s atten­t i on as a r esul t of t he War of I ndepe ndence.

Ibid . , p . 1.

I b i d. , p. 56 .

I b i d. , p . 64f .

I b i d. , p . 70f .

I b i d . , p . 72f .

Ibid . , pp . 77-78 . Thi s wa s t he l ar ge st gi f t of money rece i ved by t he company dur i ng the seventeenth century. I t came f r om a Mr . Mouche in Par is in 1689. I t i llus t r a t e s ano t he r basic problem in miss ionary f inance . He did not want his gi f t t o go into a common treasury , but wanted to make sure t hat it made an i dentifiable and dist inct contribut ion t o the work . P. 57f . Perhaps this condi tion as well as the inve stment diffi culties in England due t o l it igat i on, the r ecalcitrance of t enants and t he London f ire of 1666 (P. 77 ) made t he company more r eady than in ot he r caSes t o tran sf er capi tal t o New England for i nve stment t here.

I b id. , p . 64f.

"Denk schrift in Bezug auf d i e Ei nrichtung e i ner Societas Scientiarium et P~t ium in Berlin vom 26 . Mar z 1700, best immt fur den Kurfurs ten . " This document i s f ound i n the compr ehens i ve history by Adolf Har nack , Geschi chte der Koniglich Preus si s chen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin . (Berli n: Reichsdrucke r e i, 1900), I I , pp . 80-81.

10

26/

~

30/

33/

Ibid . , p. 81 . This is a reference to the effective work of Jesuit missionary as t r onomers at t he Chi ne se court.

Loc. cit. Leibniz had studied the Je sui t mis s i on in some de tail , including f irst ­hand informat i on from J esuit missionar i es t o China, but because he bel ieved, i n common with many of his contemporar ie s i n the age of r a tional i sm, that the Jesuits were s t r iving for the expans ion of papal and J e suit power , he t ried t o cal l a Protestant mi ssion i nto be i ng . He even invit ed August Hermann Francke t o Berl in t o dis cu s s t he proj ect .

The Enl i ghtenment was agog ab out China, where it believed t o f i nd substantiation fo r some of it s bas ic propos i t i ons , i ncluding the idea of a r eligio natural i s. A vi vi d testimony t o the interest in a l l things Chinese among cultured pe ople in Eur ope around t he year 1700 is f ound i n the s t rong and pervas i ve Chi nese influence i n the decor of Char lot tenburg Palace at Berlin , built by Leibni z' pr i ncely pat ron, the Elector Freder ick III , grandfather of Frederick t he Great .

Ibid . , p . 81 . Tr. ours.

"Grundr isz e ines Bedenckens von der Aufr ichtung einer Societae t in Teutschland zu Aufnehmen der Kuenste und Wi s senschaften (1 669/70)." Har na ck , II , p. 26.

Harnack, I, Pt. 1, p . 30 . The mission t o Chi na was to be a mai n purpose of the new academy . Ibid., p . 83 .

Cf. W. Germann, Ziegenbalg und Pluet s chau ; Di e Gr undungsjahre der Trankebars chen Mission . (Erlangen : De i chert, 1868). Al so t he more r ecent study by Ar no Lehmann, Es begann in Tranquebar , 2nd ed. (Berl in: Evangelis che Ver lagsanst alt , 1957 ) . For valuable pr i mary source mate r i al see the col lection of previous l y unpublished l etters by Ziegenbalg , Al t e Briefe aus Indien ; Unver of fe ntlichte Briefe von Bar ­tholomaeus Ziegenbalg , (Berl i n: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1957) edited by Arno Lehmann. Of course, a great many l etter s of Ziegenbalg and his co-workers had ear l i er be en pub l ished in the wel-known Hallesche Ber i chte.

Bar t hol omaeus Ziegenbalg, "Letter to t he cou r t preacher Boehme in London," dat ed J a n. 1, 1713 at Tr anquebar. Lehmann , Alte Br iefe aus I ndi en, p . 283 . The sal e of calendars was a l ucr at i ve bus iness at t hat t i me . Col leagues of Leibniz hoped to finance his proposal for a scientific academy by securing from the ki ng a monopoly for the pr i nting of calendars . Harna ck, I , Pt . i, pp . 74ff .

Lehmann, Alte Briefe aus I ndien , p . 284 .

Ib i d . , pp. 284 - 85 . Augus t Hermann Francke (1663-1727) carried on a flouri sh i ng bus i ne s s from t he phar ma cy in his orphanage at Halle. Pil ls f rom Hal l e , as Ziegen ­bal g wrote fr om I ndia , had often saved his l ife. The Indians were also he lped . Soon Francke' s apothecary had customers allover the wor ld, not only in Indi a , but also in Ameri ca, Africa, Asia Minor , and var ious count ries of Europe . At t he courts of European r oyalt y, i ncludi ng the court of the Czar , high r e spe ct was paid to t he "car efully pr epared house, t ravel, and f ield apothecaries , whi ch were newly developed ll at Halle. Ar no Lehmann, "August Her mann Francke and the Beginnings of the Tr anquebar Miss ion," Lutheran World, J uly 1963, p. 310 . Of cour se , Francke operat ed under t he limi t ations of the medical knowledge of hi s t ime. It was prob ­ab ly one of t he Ilfine Halle medicine s" - iron filings t aken int ernally; - t ha t k i l led Ziegenbalg.

36/ Fr a ncke had a paper mi l l among his many i ns t allations at Hal le . No doubt , th i s example stimulat ed the Hal le mis s i onar i e s.

11

J1/ De r kon i lichen Dani s chen Mis s i onaren a us Ost i ndien Ausfuhr liche Ber i chte Ers te r Theil Halle: Verlegun g de s Waisen- Hauses , 171 , Acht er Coninuat i on Siebe ndcs Schreiben, p . 638 . (Hereafter r efe r red to as "Halle sche Berichte").

Halle s che Bericht e, II, pp. 117-123. Cf. also Arno Lehmann, Es Begann in Tr anque­bar, p. 188.

22/ Cf. Hans Egede, Ausf uhr l i che und wahrhafte Nachricht vom Anfang und Fortgange de r Groenlandi s che n Mi ssion, wobey die Beschaffenhe i t des Lan de s sowohl , als auch die Gebr auche und Lebens-Arten de r Einwoh ner beschr iebe n werde n et reul ich a nge merckt und au fgeze ichnet . Hamburg: Christian Wilhelm Brandt, 17 0 Thi s journal af ­f ords i ntimat e ins i ghts into the anxiet ies of a pioneer . Perhaps the title it self i s s igni ficant . Whe t he r by de s i gn or accident , Egede calls his account "wahrhafte Nachr ichten , " in contras t with t he "erbauliche Nachri chten" of the Jesuit mis sion­ar i e s . Hi s diary makes no effort to te l l a pr e t t y or opt imis t ic tale. It pre sent s an unvar ni she d account of his di sappointments, failure s and occas ional spiritual depression. (For a description of the l atter cf. p. 282 ) . Hi s ac count brea t he s a theologia cruc is and not a theologia gloriae . Its r emarkable hones ty i s an ex ­ample for mis sionary r eporting t o this day . Perhaps t he fac t that i t was not written f or prospective contribut or s has someth i ng t o do wi t h its onject i vi ty .

40/ The Moravian histor ian Kar l Mueller de clare s of Egede, "From the beginni ng h i s mission was poss i ble only in close connect ion with t rade and , when this failed, on the basis of a r oyal co lony . " 200 Jahr e Brudermiss ion . Vol. 1. Das erste Mis­s ions jahrhunde rt . (Her r nhut: Miss ionsbuchhandlung , 1931), p . 123. Tr. ours.

~ Egede, pp. 156, 158ff.

~ Ibid., p . 155.

~ Ibid., p . 107.

~ Ib i d., pp . 89-90 . Tr . ours . Egede explains that he i s chie f ly i nt er e sted i n the co nve rs ion of t he people , but the ear t hly mat t er s are a means to this end.

Ibid. , p . 12l.~

46/ Ibid. , p . 124.

!£JJ Ibid. , p. 228 .

Ibid. , p . 229 . ~

I bid. , pp . 146- 47.~

50/ Luther includes oeconomia wi t h po l itica under the r ule of God's l eft hand . It i s of ten overlooked by p ious Lut her ans that Luthe r pl aced t hi s whole manner of ruling und er t he l or dship of the same J e sus Chr ist who rules by means of the Gospel with h i s right hand . He i nrich Bornkamm has "Tell said in Luthers Lehre von den Zwei Reichen i m Zusamme nhang seiner Theologie, 2nd ed., (Gutersloh: Ge rd Mohn, 1960), p. 29: "Only if one misunderstands the doct r i ne of the two kingdoms in Mani chaean dualistic f a shion can one as a Chr i stian l eave the world to itself - t he exact opposite of that which Luther want ed." (Tr. ours . ) I t is also not.eworthy that Luther more f re quently talked of two r egimina - manner s of r uling - than of t wo kingdoms .

12

51/ Supra, note 8.

~ The s t rai ned r elations t hat developed between t he univers i ty t ra i ned s tat e church pastor and the the ologically untut ored Moravi an art isans is port rayed with great sym~a t hy f or Egede by t he Moravian hi s t orian Karl Muel ler , 200 Jahre Brudermis sion, Vol. I, Da s Er ste J ahrhundert, (Herrnhut: Verlag del' Miss ionsbuchhandlung , 1931), pp . 120-26. The Moravians judged Egede t o be an "unconvert ed preacher " f rom t heir piet i st standpo i nt . I bid. , p. 123. Yet Egede's d i ary demonstrate s that he was sympathet ic to the piet ist current . He himself had been i nfluenced by s uch wr i t i ngs a s Johann Arndt ' s (1555-1621) Wahre s Chris t ent urn , whi ch he r egul arly re ad at ser v ­ice s fo r the white co lonists .

53/ !'1!l1e l l p.r , p. 11.

54/ Eri ch Beyreuther, Ni kol aus Ludwi g von Zi nzendorf. (Reinbe ck be i Hamburg : Rowohlt, 1965) , p. 82.

'2L/ Mlle l l.e r, p , 12.

Mue l ler, p . 116.

Muell er, p. 7.

Otto Uttendoe r f er , Al t - He rrnhut ; Wirt s chaft s ge s chicht e und Religionssoziologi e Herrnhut s waehre nd seine r ers ten zwanz ig J ahre (1722-42). (Herrnhut : Mis sions ­buchhandlung , 1925), p . 14. Tr. ours .

59/ See Will i am J . Danke r , Profit for t he Lord . (Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 1971).

THE AUTHOR

Wi l l iam J . D aru~er i s a mi nis t e r in the Luthera n Church -- Missour i Synod , and i s pro ­fessor of Mi ssions in Concordia Semi nary at Saint Louis . He is a graduate of Concor dia Seminary and has r eceived hi s M.A. fr om Wheaton Col lege and h is Th. D. from He ide lberg Univers i ty in Germany . Professor Danke r was t he firs t mis sionar y of the Lutheran Church -- Mis sour i Synod se nt to Japan , and he served there fr om 1948 t o 1956.

Dr . Daru,er i s the au t hor of ~T O Worlds or None and Profit fo r the Lor d, and is ed itor of the vi tness ing Church Series (Concordia) and t he Church- i n-Miss ion Series (For t r e s s ). He is t he pr i me advocate i n America of the employment of bus iness enterpr ise s i n t he support of t he mission programs of the older and younger churches . His books and ar ti ­cles strongly support this concept i n the ory and i n h istor i cal documentation. Profit fo r the Lord (Gr and Rap i ds : Eer dma ns, 1971) treats t he t wo major Pr ote stant example s of engaging in bus iness to support missions , t he Mor avi ans and the Basel Mission. Thi s ar ticl e br iefly surveys t he earlier Pr ote stant exper i ment s . - - Editor