Evacuation of Shekomeko and the Early Moravian Missions to Native North Americans

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Year:
Pages:468
ISBN:0-7734-9141-4
978-0-7734-9141-0
Price:$279.95 + shipping
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Based on extensive handwritten Moravian sources, but also using ethno-historical methods, this study evaluates the approach of the missionaries and the Native Americans' response in light of the reactions of the colonial whites who desired the destruction of the mission. It is an important contribution to the contemporary missiological debate on contextualization. It also explores the conflict between Church/mission and State/society in view of Americanization processes, examining early American racism and its effects beyond the closing of Shekomeko to the Native American communities at large, especially with regard to their growing resistance to the Christian message. It contributes not only to missiology but also to the ethnohistory of America and anthropology and sociology, especially in the narrower fields of peace and racial studies.

Reviews

". . . his meticulous narrative history of these early Moravian missions is a valuable source for historians. A useful addition to research libraries." - Choice

". . . while telling the history, he also utilizes extensive material of an anthropological and sociological nature to provide helpful contextualization for the events he is describing. . . . Westmeier's book is a valuable contribution to the field of Moravian mission studies and to the wider area of missiological research." - International Bulletin of Missionary Research

". . . vividly illustrates what went wrong with the enterprise of evangelizing the aboriginal populations of the Americas. This work, therefore, will be of special interest to missionaries and churches actively involved in missionary and pastoral work among indigenous peoples. It also contains relevant lessons for missiology in general." - Missiology

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