Studies in Christian Mission61 Between Worlds

Between Worlds is the study of an American mission and its African churches between the 1880s and 1920s. Rejecting Western missionaries as adjuncts of colonialism, it suggests a relationship: the church becomes the dominant partner in the 1880s and by 1900 the mission has become an adjunct of the church. Between Worlds expands beyond the focus of the previous volume—the British colony of Natal—to the more challenging framework of the American Zulu Mission and its Congregational churches in southeastern Africa between the 1880s and 1920s. This study rejects arguments by many critical scholars, who see Western missionaries at best as adjuncts of the colonial project, imposing an understanding of Western Christianity that inevitably clashes with alien and resistant African cultures. The mission-church relationship in this era also changes dramatically especially in urban environments. The church in South Africa becomes the dominant partner from the 1880s and by 1900 the mission has become an adjunct of the church—an understanding with far-reaching consequences elsewhere in the subcontinent.