Book chapter
From the Empire of Christ to the Third World: Religion and the Experience of Empire in the Twentieth Century
Britain's Experience of Empire in the Twentieth Century, pp.76-121
Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series, Oxford University Press
2011
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236589.003.0003
Abstract
In the early twentieth century the people of Britain were engaged with the non‐western world primarily through missionary societies, which reached their peak influence in the 1920s. Far from being an intrepid hero like David Livingstone, the typical missionary was a woman employed in a Christian school, hospital, or clinic, hoping to promote a diffuse Christian influence in a non‐Christian land. In the twentieth century Christian activists founded non‐ecclesiastical NGO's such as Save the Children, Oxfam, and Voluntary Service Overseas. Despite the liberal Protestant religious convictions of their founders, these NGO's fostered a class of Third World development experts for whom professionalism dictated a complete separation from religious ideals.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- From the Empire of Christ to the Third World: Religion and the Experience of Empire in the Twentieth Century
- Creators
- Jeffrey Cox - University of Iowa, History
- Contributors
- Andrew Thompson (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- Britain's Experience of Empire in the Twentieth Century, pp.76-121
- Series
- Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series
- DOI
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236589.003.0003
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press; Oxford
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2011
- Academic Unit
- History
- Record Identifier
- 9983763597002771
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