Despite the remarkable growth of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the twentieth century, there is a dearth of primary material produced by these Christians. This volume explores the problem of writing the history of indigenous Christian communities in the Global South. Many such indigenous Christian groups pass along knowledge orally, and colonial forces have often not deemed their ideas and activities worth preserving. In some instances, documentation from these communities has been destroyed by people or nature. Highlighting the creative solutions that historians have found to this problem, the essays in this volume detail the strategies employed in discerning the perspectives, ideas, activities, motives, and agency of indigenous Christians. The contributors approach the problem on a case-by-case basis, acknowledging the impact of diverse geographical, cultural, political, and ecclesiastical factors. This volume will inspire historians of World Christianity to critically interrogate—and imaginatively use—existing Western and indigenous documentary material in writing the history of Christianity in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include J. J. Carney, Adrian Hermann, Paul Kollman, Kenneth Mills, Esther Mombo, Mrinalini Sebastian, Christopher Vecsey, Haruko Nawata Ward, and Yanna Yannakakis.

Despite the remarkable growth of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the twentieth century, there is a dearth of primary material produced by these Christians. This volume explores the problem of writing the history of indigenous Christian communities in the Global South. Many such indigenous Christian groups pass along knowledge orally, and colonial forces have often not deemed their ideas and activities worth preserving. In some instances, documentation from these communities has been destroyed by people or nature. Highlighting the creative solutions that historians have found to this problem, the essays in this volume detail the strategies employed in discerning the perspectives, ideas, activities, motives, and agency of indigenous Christians. The contributors approach the problem on a case-by-case basis, acknowledging the impact of diverse geographical, cultural, political, and ecclesiastical factors. This volume will inspire historians of World Christianity to critically interrogate—and imaginatively use—existing Western and indigenous documentary material in writing the history of Christianity in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include J. J. Carney, Adrian Hermann, Paul Kollman, Kenneth Mills, Esther Mombo, Mrinalini Sebastian, Christopher Vecsey, Haruko Nawata Ward, and Yanna Yannakakis.

At right height of its imperialist phase, the United States of America gained control of the Philippines at the beginning of the 20th century. Following American troops and government employees into the new American territory were Protestant missionaries, who had until then been systematically excluded from Spain's Asian colony. This book examines the mission and church work of Filipino and American Episcopalians in northern Luzon during the years of American rule. It shows how in the early decades of the mission two contradictory emphases, one on civilizing the Filipino and the other on translating the Christian message into the vernacular, worked themselves out in the lives of missionaries and local people. The work then goes on to look at how both local Christians and missionaries, in their own ways, utilized Christianity to deal with new political, economic and social realities as these emerged in the second two decades of American rule.

At right height of its imperialist phase, the United States of America gained control of the Philippines at the beginning of the 20th century. Following American troops and government employees into the new American territory were Protestant missionaries, who had until then been systematically excluded from Spain's Asian colony. This book examines the mission and church work of Filipino and American Episcopalians in northern Luzon during the years of American rule. It shows how in the early decades of the mission two contradictory emphases, one on civilizing the Filipino and the other on translating the Christian message into the vernacular, worked themselves out in the lives of missionaries and local people. The work then goes on to look at how both local Christians and missionaries, in their own ways, utilized Christianity to deal with new political, economic and social realities as these emerged in the second two decades of American rule.