Misfit missionaries: Global Protestant Americans in the twentieth century

This dissertation contends that histories of Protestant American missions of the twentieth century do not accurately reflect the diversity and complexity of missionaries. On the one hand, Protestant American missionaries enjoyed a long period of esteem, especially during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were often seen as heroes of the faith – men and women who selflessly sacrificed their comfort (and at times their lives) to reach foreign people with the Christian gospel message. In the mid-twentieth century, especially with the “cultural turn” in American historiography, missionaries faced a backlash for their perspectives and actions. Gone were the days that missionaries were praised; instead, they found themselves labeled as “cultural imperialists.” This study suggests that neither narrative offers the most accurate picture of who or what is a Protestant American missionary of the twentieth century. Missionaries, their theology, their worldview, their politics, and their engagement with the world was as varied as their numbers. Indeed, tens of thousands – and perhaps hundreds of thousands – of Protestant American missionaries went overseas in the twentieth century. These individuals were part of a large network of denominational mission boards, independent mission agencies, Christian colleges, and para-church organizations. At times, they were connected to avenues of influence and power, including the United States’ State Department, United States military branches, as well as global political and religious leaders. They kept in touch with the happenings at home through letters, periodicals, newspapers, furloughs, fundraising campaigns and, later, telephones and the internet. The contributions they made to American religious practices is not represented well enough in the historiography. This dissertation attempts to begin to correct that void by placing Evangelical, Mainline, and Anabaptist Protestants of the twentieth century in conversation with each other, their denominations, and their background so that we can better understand the extent of American Protestantism of the twentieth century.