Religion and Empire: Christian Missions To Africa, Asia and Middle East

Overview

Christian missions are often seen as old fashioned, but for long they were at the forefront of modernity. They carried modernity overseas and brought back fresh ideas which helped shape new societies. This course investigates when and how Christian overseas expansion happened; how missionaries related to empire and indigenous peoples; why and how Africans or Asians chose to convert; what they did with the Christianitywith which they were confronted; and how missionary activities contributed to the elaboration of new ideas of race, class and scientific knowledge at home.

Learning Objectives

Students who successfully complete the module should
• Be able to demonstrate an understanding of the history of Christian expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries;
• Be able to develop critical arguments about religion and modernity in the West and in the rest of the world;
• Be able to engage successfully with archival material;
• Be able to demonstrate an understanding of the requirements of essay writing, bibliographic work, and oral presentation.

Skills

Critical writing; archival research; oral presentation.
Archival research will be kept to a minimum, in an archive in Belfast or online. The oral presentation will be a presentation of archival material to be used for the second (major) essay.

Assessment

None