The Field Is The World

Donald Philip Corr

Description

The immediate origins of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions are well known.

In the midst of the Second Great Awakening and a growing Trinitarian-Unitarian controversy, a small group of college students met in 1806 to discuss the spiritual condition of the Asian nations. A storm arose and they took shelter in a haystack. From this “Haystack Prayer Meeting” came the resolve to take the Gospel to those who had not heard. The Field Is the World tells the story of the students’ petition to the General Association of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts to seek ways to respond to Christ’s call to preach the gospel to every creature. The resulting Board of Commissioners became the first evangelical mission organization to transcend denominational affiliations in the U.S. and to represent the epitome of the missionary enterprise at large.

Donald Philip Corr has presented one of a limited number of scholarly works on the Board’s ministry beyond the U.S., particularly its pioneering efforts on the role of preaching and social work and the theme of indigenization among unreached peoples.

Preface iii

Chapter

1. Introduction 1
2. Sermons Preached to the ABCFM Annual Meeting 13
3. Proclamation on the Field of ABCFM Missionaries 56
4. Proclamation of Indigenous Preachers 131
5. Bible Translation by Board Missionaries 202
6. Education, Medicine & Social Concern 258

Conclusion 305

Bibliographic Essay on American Board Primary Sources 309

Secondary Sources 315

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Missions
• Christian Ministry
• Philosophie et théologie
• Thesis
• Evangelism
• Dissertation

Informations

• Publié par: William Carey Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 mai 1991
• Nombre de lectures: 7
• EAN13: 9780878080595
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

The Field Is the World : Proclaiming, Translating, and Serving by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1810-40
Copyright 2009 Donald Philip Corr. All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise-without prior written permission from the publisher, except brief quotations used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers. For permission, email [e-mail] . For corrections, email [e-mail] .
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com . The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
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Cover and Interior Designer: Hugh Pinder
ISBN: 978-0-87808-050-2 (paperback), 978-0-87808-059-5 (epub)
Digital eBook Release 2022
FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
THE FIELD IS THE WORLD :
PROCLAIMING, TRANSLATING, AND SERVING
BY THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS
1810-40
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
BY
DONALD PHILIP CORR
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
MAY 1993
DEDICATED TO
Donald John Corr, In Memoriam
Dorothy Lamar Corr, Cum Gratia
Donald Robert Corr, In Posterum
PREFACE
As a Congregationalist by upbringing and persuasion, I have had an interest in the mission work of the church since my college days. This dissertation combines my interest in evangelical and Trinitarian Congregationalists with the labors of the first major voluntary association of the young American republic: the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Such interests naturally led me to New England, where I lived for three years while earning a degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary--near the lovely North Shore. Eight years after graduating from Gordon-Conwell, I returned to the Boston area to begin preliminary research in the work of the ABCFM. Harvard s Houghton Library must receive pride of place as the repository of official Board documents. My thanks go to Melanie Wisener of the Houghton Library for her unstinting and gracious assistance over the phone and in person.
A few miles west of Harvard I discovered the value of the Andover Newton library. The institutional heir to the training ground of the first Board missionaries, Andover s Special Collection section now houses archives made more accessible to the researcher by the efforts of Diana Yount, who also has been of immense assistance. I wish to thank others at a library down the coast from the Boston area: Steven Peterson (formerly the head librarian, now at Trinity College in Hartford) and those who work in the Special Collections Room of the Yale Divinity School Library.
Crossing the continent, I would like to thank individuals at three southern California libraries. The docents at Readers Services of the Huntington Library have been kind to and long-suffering with yet another graduate student from Fuller Theological Seminary. Special thanks at the Huntington go to Mary Wright of the Huntington s Rare Book Reading Room. Her humor ( Where s my chocolate!? ) and competence made already pleasant hours of research that much more enjoyable. Michael Boddy, the head librarian at the Southern California School of Theology at Claremont, extended every courtesy to me as I delved into copies of The Panoplist and Missionary Herald . Similarly, John Dickason of Fuller s McCallister Library, has been an encouragement and a help to me. Olive Brown and Shieu-yu Hwang--both reference librarians at Fuller--deserve particular praise for their efforts above and beyond the call of duty. In some respects, the strongest parts of this dissertation reflect their cheerful responses to my numerous requests for assistance. The three of us have shared in the joy of seeing this work completed.
Travelling across part of the Pacific to Hawaii, I would like to thank one library and one couple for their contributions to my life and work. Various workers at the Hawaiian Mission Children s Society Library have assisted me over the phone and through the mail. Additionally, the friendship of the Reverend Gerald and Mrs. Kaye Sanders has been an inspiration to me over the past decade and especially during the past year and a half.
Returning to the mainland to stay, various organizations and individuals merit my gratitude. The Biblical Witness Fellowship--of which Gerald Sanders was Executive Director--has provided both moral and financial support. As the first doctoral Reformation Scholar of the BWF, I have benefited from the support of such friends as Barbara and Armand Weller, Steve and Constance Carmany, and the Runnion-Bareford tribe. Churches that have taken a special interest in me have included: First E R of Vermilion, Ohio; the United Church of Huntington, Ohio; and the Neighborhood Congregational Church (UCC) of Laguna, California, from which I received the Matthew O. Reynolds Memorial Scholarship in 1991. Thanks too to the yoked UCC parish of St. John s and Henrietta, Ohio, where I earned my pastoral spurs and taught my first church history class.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude when I consider the family members who made possible my concentrating full time on earning a Ph.D. Each family member knows his or her contribution, and to each I give my thanks.
During the past four years I have also had a school family. My first contact was with a coordinator for Fuller s Center for Advanced Theological Studies: Shellie Theisen. The subsequent three coordinators--who have encouraged and guided me through various obstacles--were: Deborah Dail, Gretchen Immen, and Beth Bolsinger. Fellow Ph.D. students have provided friendship and challenge, most especially Tom Pfizenmaier. Master s level students have provided countless hours of stimulation and inspiration. Professors and administrators who have provided significant help include: Richard Muller, Paul Pearson, Colin Brown, Mel Robeck and James E. Bradley.
I have saved for the last my thanks to Jim Bradley, who has been far more than my mentor. He believed in me and my scholarly abilities before I did. He worked with me during my first year to enable me to begin treading the road of academic excellence. As his teaching assistant, I have been privileged to observe and participate with a master teacher, who is admired by students and faculty alike for his lecturing ability, interest in the well-being of others, and excellence in research. When a personal crisis occurred, Jim proved to be a friend closer than any brother. When it comes to thanking Jim and his family, the cliche becomes significant: words cannot begin to express my gratitude.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
Chapter
1. Introduction
2. Sermons Preached to the ABCFM Annual Meeting
3. Proclamation on the Field by ABCFM Missionaries
4. Proclamation by Indigenous Preachers
5. Bible Translation by Board Missionaries
6. Education, Medicine and Social Concern
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY on American Board Primary Sources
SECONDARY SOURCES
Chapter 1. Introduction
Recent church historians concur on the neglect of attention given to early American evangelical missionaries and organizations. Leonard Sweet observed that the history of evangelical missions has been one of the least favorite inquiries in American religious history during the last twenty years. 1 William Hutchison avers that distortions of mission endeavors--both positive and negative--have led to neglect and avoidance concerning histories on nineteenth century outreach. 2 Qualifying Sweet s statement, Hutchison claims that secular scholars, such as John Fairbank, began in the 1970s to focus some attention on foreign mission history. Even with his efforts to highlight mission work, Fairbank complained that the missionary had been the invisible man of American history. 3
Within the canopy of mission organizations and individuals, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions deserves the special attention that has always been accorded to it. As the first and, for a significant period of time, the largest mission organization, the American Board (or ABCFM) transcended denominational affiliation and represented the epitome of the missionary enterprise at large. 4 Although the Board has received more attention than most other nineteenth-century mission organizations, it has--by comparison with its influence and accomplishments--been abysmally neglected by scholars. 5
Recognizing that much remains to be done with regard to the study of Congregational missions 6 and affirming with Hutchison that beginnings must be attempted, 7 this dissertation will demonstrate the Board s consistency in carrying out its primary goal of proclaiming the Gospel. My dissertation focuses on the overseas aspect of the Board s operations. Though the ABCFM did significant work among Native Americans, the efforts on the American continent were eventually subsumed under the Home Missionary Society. Despite the neglect of specifics, good research has been done in foreign missions, and there is sufficient information now available reflecting back on the Board s work to attempt a new synthesis. Viewing the entire world as the mission field, ABCFM administrators, supporters and missionaries between 1810 and 1840 considered propagating the Gospel to be the highest priority, with Bible translation an important complement to preaching--and social concern cl