Colonialism and Missions

Background

Colonialism is a system in which one nation exercises political and economic domination over another territory. From the late fifteenth century, European nations expanded overseas, and Christian missions spread during the same period along the same routes. Pope Nicholas V's bull Romanus Pontifex (1455) granted the king of Portugal, and Alexander VI's bull Inter Caetera (1493) granted the monarchs of Spain, the right to sponsor missions in newly reached lands and to exercise jurisdiction over the church there. This right was known as the padroado in Portugal and the patronato in Spain. As a result, early Catholic missionaries often entered new territories under royal patronage, following the routes taken by merchants and armies.

Development

• Expansion of Protestant missions in the nineteenth century: This period, in which Protestant missions grew dramatically across the world, is commonly called the Great Century of Missions. Many of the mission fields were colonies of Western powers or lay within their sphere of influence.
• The Treaties of Tianjin (1858): The Treaties of Tianjin, concluded between China and the foreign powers during the Second Opium War, included provisions granting missionaries the right to propagate their faith freely and protecting Chinese Christians. The relevant clause in the treaty with the United States is reported to have been drafted by Samuel Wells Williams, a former missionary who took part in the negotiations as interpreter for the American legation. The Presbyterian missionary William A. P. Martin was also involved. Because the door to evangelism had been opened by treaties concluded at the end of a war, Christianity in China long provoked resentment as a "religion of foreign powers." This hostility eventually led to attacks on Christians and missionaries during the Boxer Uprising of 1900 (History of the Church in China).
• The Berlin Conference (1884–1885): This conference established the rules by which the powers divided Africa among themselves. Its General Act, alongside provisions for the protection of the native population, designated Christian missionaries, scientists, and explorers as objects of special protection. The stated justification for protecting missionary organizations was that they would educate the natives and bring them to appreciate the "blessings of civilization."

The Case of Korea

Protestant missions in Korea began in earnest after the 1882 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Korea and the United States, with the arrival of Horace Allen (1884) and of Horace Underwood and Henry Appenzeller (1885). However, the power that colonized Korea was Japan, a non-Christian nation, and most missionaries came from the United States, Canada, and Australia. For this reason, many assessments hold that in Korea Christianity was associated with the nationalist movement rather than regarded as an ally of colonial power (The March First Movement and Christianity). On the other hand, some critics argue that the missionaries responded passively to Japanese rule by invoking the principle of the separation of church and state, namely that "the church does not involve itself in politics."

Results and Influence

As many nations in Asia and Africa gained independence in the mid-twentieth century, missions faced demands to distance themselves from the spread of Western civilization. In missiology (the academic study of missions), the self-reliance of local churches and inculturation, the expression of the gospel in the idiom of local culture, became central concerns. In the Catholic Church, the Holy See in March 2023 formally repudiated the "Doctrine of Discovery," which had drawn on the fifteenth-century papal bulls. The Doctrine of Discovery is the claim that a Christian nation holds sovereignty over lands it was first to "discover." The Holy See acknowledged that those bulls did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples. Many indigenous communities, including those in Canada, had long demanded such a step.

Assessment

• Critical view: Critics hold that missions provided a moral justification for colonial rule. They also point out that missions regarded local cultures as inferior and imposed Western ways of life. These concerns have been raised chiefly by postcolonial scholars and by theologians from formerly colonized nations.
• Alternative view: Others hold that, through vernacular Bible translation, schools, and hospitals, missionaries became a channel through which local people received modern education and developed national consciousness. They also note that missionaries at times exposed exploitation by colonial authorities. The Gambian-born missiologist Lamin Sanneh is known for arguing that translating the Bible into vernacular languages actually revitalized indigenous languages and cultures.
• Rather than either equating missions with colonialism or separating the two entirely, many contemporary studies hold that the relationship varied by region, period, and mission organization.
• Since Korea became a major missionary-sending nation, voices within the Korean church have also called for reflection on whether overseas missions respect local cultures and whether they lead with economic power (Missionary Sending by the Korean Church).