RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Missions to the Heathen
closest connection with this broader conception of the missionary task, stands the clearer recognition of the missionary aim, namely, the founding of self-supporting churches, independent of the organization in the home land. This aim calls up one of the most difficult missionary problems, the solution of which is not yet reached. But the fact that this problem is recognized, while the earlier missionaries did not know its existence, is an important advance. All the larger missionary enterprises are now working to educate the convert churches to become independent, only some do this more hastily and others more thoroughly.
A number of important consequences for the methodology of missions result from the greater
missionary task imposed by this edu-
2. Ends cation leading to ecclesiastical inde-
to be pendence: (1) A rational cultivation
Attained, of the native character. Only when
Christianity is implanted in the soil of the heathen nation in such a way that it becomes naturalized as a native growth can a really independent Christian church among the heathen be realized. This naturalization requires an adaptation of the process of Christianization to all the phases of native life, extending to the language, the morals, and the social relations of the people. This is a task which offers an abundance of the most complicated problems. Two principal dangers are especially to be avoided: the treatment of foreign customs with religious rigorism and a confusion of Christianizing with Europeanizing or Americanizing. The first of these dangers was a fruit of sectarian narrowness, the second lies in the superior civilization and the national pride of the missionaries; both are fostered by a lack of pedagogic tact toward the objects of the mission. (2) The development of a body of native teachers. While much was done in this direction in earlier missionary effort, especially by the free church missions, the effective manner in which this is accomplished to-day is a result of the later historical development of missions, though improvement in this respect is still a desideratum. Evangelical missions, as a whole, have in their service to-day 4,170 ordained pastors and 75,000 teachers and evangelists from among the natives, and it maintains for their education 375 schools attended by 12,000 scholars. In connection with this increase of native workers there is not only an extension of the field of labor and a general systematization, there is also an increase in the financial contributions of the communities, and a continuous development of church organization, so that by this means progress is made in various directions in preparation for ecclesiastical independence. (3) There is an enrichment of missionary resources. Naturally the preaching of the Gospel was from the beginning the principal instrument of the missions, but alongside of this an even greater and more independent place was taken first by educational and literary work and then by the labors of physicians and women. It is true that the educational and literary activities were not entirely lacking from the beginning; but a systematically ordered school organization suited to insure not only a religious but also a general culture
for all classes of the people, from the primary school up to the high schools and sometimes even up to the universities, and a literary activity in connection with this general intellectual elevation of the people, have been interwoven with the mission work only since the middle of the past century.
In this matter statistics are eloquent. In addition to 26,000 primary schools with over 1,150,000 scholars, — and, what is of importance, over 300,- 3. Auxil- 000 girls — there are 1,500 high schools, iaries Em- with 130,000 scholars. In literary enployed, terprise, the Bible translations occupy the foremost place. There are to-day 105 translations of the whole Bible prepared by missionaries, 100 of the New Testament and 224 of separate parts of the Bible, not reckoning those in the dead languages. The rest of missionary literature, which from small tracts up to scientific works covers nearly all the fields of knowledge besides that of religion, is so extensive that it can no longer be recapitulated. In the various missionary fields there are 159 book stores and publishing-houses in operation. In connection with the work of the female missionaries and the physicians, statistics regarding which have been given, there are a great number of benevolent institutions: 379 hospitals, 783 polyclinics, 247 orphan asylums, 100 leper asylums, 30 institutions for the blind and the deaf and dumb, and 156 other refuges, with tens of thousands of inmates. All this is putting word into action, and does an effective pioneer service for the missions. Lastly, when it is notedjtharfej-he^ides the indirect civilizing education which is pursued by the missionaries7>there are not only 180 industrial schools, but by a great number of missions, industrial and agricultural instruction is systematically combined with religious teaching, it is apparent to what an extent the work of Christianization influences the whole life of the people. The longer the mission has been at work, the more manifold and powerful a factor does it become in the general education of non-Christian peoples (cf. J. S. Dennis, Christian Mission and Social Progress, 3 vols., New York, 1897-1906).
Nevertheless a counter-movement against this conception of the missionary task has been started during the last few decades, emanating 4. The from the founder of the China Inland Movement Mission, John Hudson Taylor, and such for Imme- supporters as Arthur Tappan Pierson, diate Evan- Albert B. Simpson, founder of the gelization. Christian Missionary Alliance, and John Robert Mott of the Student Volunteer Movement (qq.v.). It characterizes the missionary task as being " the evangelization of the world " and the section of this opposition represented by the Student Volunteer Movement has accepted as its watchword the addition " in this generation." It is difficult in view of the varying definitions which have been and still are given of the watchword "evangelization," to say precisely what it really means. John R. Mott, in The Evangelization of the World in this Generation (London, 1900), declares it to signify " to give to all men an adequate opportunity to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and to become his real disci-
Missions to the Heathen