Moravians, Puritans, and the Modern Missionary Movement -- By: Kenneth B. Mulholland
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 156:622 (Apr 1999)
Article: Moravians, Puritans, and the Modern Missionary Movement
Author: Kenneth B. Mulholland
BSac 156:622 (Apr 99) p. 221
Moravians, Puritans, and the Modern Missionary Movement *
William Carey is regarded as the father of modern Protestant missions, primarily because he founded the Baptist Missionary Society. That society, begun in 1792-275 years after Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the Wittenberg church door in 1517-at last gave Protestants a vehicle for sending missionaries to the non-Christian world. Carey, however, did not invent the Protestant missionary movement out of nothing. He constructed the platform from which the modern Protestant missionary movement was launched out of a series of planks hewed during the centuries between Luther and himself.
As noted in a previous article,1 one such plank was Pietism, an interdenominational, international, evangelical movement that sought to revitalize the existing church through small groups devoted to Bible study, prayer, mutual accountability, and outreach. August Hermann Francke shaped the agenda for Pietism in just twelve words: “A life changed, a church revived, a nation reformed, a world evangelized.”2 Pietism first awakened a missionary vision among Protestants by sending missionaries through the Danish-Halle mission to India and Greenland.
* This is article two in a two-part series adapted from “Planks in the Platform of Modern Missions,” delivered by the author as the Missions and Evangelism Lectureship at Dallas Theological Seminary, November 2-5, 1997.
Kenneth B. Mulholland is Dean and Professor of Missions and Ministry Studies, Columbia Biblical Seminary and Graduate School of Missions, Columbia, South Carolina.
BSac 156:622 (Apr 99) p. 222
The Moravians and Missions
Two other significant planks in Carey’s platform were the Moravian Church and the Puritans. The Moravians were the first Protestants to put into practice the idea that evangelizing the lost is the duty of the whole church, not just of a missionary society or a few individuals. Previously, responsibility for evangelization had been laid at the doorstep of governments through their colonial activities. But the Moravians believed missions is the responsibility of the whole congregation.
Paul Pierson wrote, “The Moravians became committed to world missions as a church; that is, the whole church became a missionary society.”3 Because of their deep commitment, this small group furnished over half the Protestant missionaries who sailed from Europe during the entire eighteenth century. Actually Moravian history predates the Reformation. Originally known as the U...
Click here to subscribe