Description
Book SynopsisDuring the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American missionary encounters in the Middle East set foundations for later U.S.-Middle Eastern relations. Missionaries presented examples of American culture to Middle Eastern peoples, just as they interpreted the Middle East for Americans back home. These engagements prompt larger questions about the consequences of American Christian cultural projection into the wider world. This volume focuses on regions that were once part of the Ottoman Empire in western Asia, the Balkans, and North Africa. Contributors explain the distinctly American dimensions of these missionary encounters, the cultural influences they exerted on the region, and their consequences for local nationalism, print culture, education, and more. This is an excellent resource for specialists in history, Middle Eastern studies, American studies, religious studies, missiology, and anyone interested more broadly in American engagement in the Middle East.
Trade Review“An outstanding contribution to the field of mission history in the Middle East and the history of the Middle East in general. The first collection solely focused on American mission.”—Nancy L. Stockdale, University of North Texas
"A powerful essay tells a story. A powerful essay collection creatively collates shorter stories, mutually enriching, illuminating, and synthesizing each other. [This volume] assembles 10 essay-stories on one of the most controversial topics in modern Middle Eastern history and Muslim-Christian relations. By chronicling 'foundation encounters', the authors furnish a formidable provision for religious studies, missiology, history, and Middle Eastern Studies."—
Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations "An outstanding volume.... I highly recommend this fine collection to mission historians and students of Christian history."—
International Bulletin of Missionary ResearchTable of ContentsList of Figures
Introduction/American Missionaries and the Middle East: A History Enmeshed, Heather J. Sharkey
Part 1: Shifting Foundations of American Mission
1. From New England into New Lands: Beginning of a Long Story, Mehmet Ali Dogan
2. The Flexibility of Home: Exploring the Spaces and Definitions of the Home and Family Employed by the ABCFM Missionaries in Ottoman Syria from 1823 to 1860, Christine Lindner
3. At the Center of the Debate: Bebek Seminary and the Educational Policy of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1840–1860), Cemal Yetkiner
4. From Religious to American Proselytism: Mary Mills Patrick and the “Sanctification of the Intellect”, Carolyn Goffman
5. “They Are Not Known to Us”: The Ottomans, the Mormons, and the Protestants in the Late Ottoman Empire, Karen M. Kern
Part 2: Ripples of Change: The Consequences of Missionary Encounters
6. The Gospel of Science and American Evangelism in Late Ottoman Beirut, Marwa Elshakry
7. Petko Slaveykov, the Protestant Press, and the Gendered Language of Moral Reform in Bulgarian Nationalism, Barbara Reeves-Ellington
8. American Missionaries, the Arabic Bible, and Coptic Reform in Late Nineteenth-century Egypt, Heather J. Sharkey
9. Comparing Missions: Pentecostal and Presbyterian Orphanages on the Nile, Beth Baron
Bibliography
Contributors
