Talk:Christianity and colonialism

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 21 January 2019 and 6 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Xhunterxc, Msmith29 (article contribs).

Rationale for this article

In tagging this article for speedy deletion, Jsfouche indicated that this article " does not expand upon, detail or improve information within the existing article(s) on the subject", namely Colonialism, Age of Discovery, and Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery.

This may be true at the moment since those are the articles from which the initial text of the article was taken but it is intended that this situation will be only temporary.

However, my plan for this article is broader than the current text might imply. The motivation for this article came from work at Christianity and violence. The purpose of this article is to focus more closely on the charge that Christian missionaries were effectively agents of the European colonial powers and did great harm to the indigenous peoples. (NB: I am intending neither a POV attack on Christian missionaries nor an apologetic supporting them. I intend an NPOV treatment that presents both the charge and the defense. For an example of my commitment to NPOV, see my recent work on Christianity and violence.)

I have started by copying text from the articles on Colonialism, Age of Discovery, and Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery because those are articles that I was familiar with, having worked at one time or another on all three of them.

However, Christian missionaries during the colonial era were both Catholic and Protestant. Also, the colonial era encompassed a greater time span than just the Age of Discovery. Most notably, there is a vast history of missionaries in colonial Africa.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that Colonialism and Age of Discovery focus on a more general political history of the topics and not on the religious aspect. The role of Christian missionaries gets scant treatment in those two articles. This article will provide a way to focus more specifically on the impact of Christian missionaries (both positive and negative) on colonized peoples.

--Richard S (talk) 06:43, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Reference problems

References to publications by Heather Sharkey do not link to her publications — Preceding unsigned comment added by Peter.edelsten (talk • contribs) 21:46, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

Bevans, Steven. "Christian Complicity in Colonialism/ Globalism"

This link leads to a PDF excerpt of a book by a member of The missionary congregation of the Society of the Divine World and the book is directed at Christian missionaries. The link to the full book leads to a 404 look. This represents significant bias, which is apparent in the content of the article. The text in the article that cites the above source is:

>This was not all bad — oftentimes missionaries and church leaders were heroic defenders of the rights of indigenous peoples.

Further, there are unsourced claims that represent a bias as well:

>At first, many colonial assaults received church sanctions, but there were also leaders of the church who opposed the injustice against for example the native Americans and later also for the African slaves, and sent reports home about atrocities in the Congo Free State. Even though the missionaries distanced themselves from the violence of colonial governments, the work was characterized by an 'imperialist worldview'. New research shows that, contrary to popular postcolonial ideas that most contacts with the western world during colonialism were negative, Christian missionaries were catalysts for democratic reforms and education that currently is taken for granted. About half of the variety of democracy levels in Africa, Asia and Latin America today can be explained by protestant missionary work according to Robert Woodbury.

Only the last sentence is verified by the source.

I'd like to see this article deleted. Newheartrestart (talk) 23:53, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

Article rating

An article without a definition of the scope int he lead, and with extended quotes in the lead, is not B or C-class. Maybe WP:BLOWUP would be best... Joshua Jonathan -Let's talk! 14:40, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Agree with WP:BLOWUP. Important topic, but current form of article lacks focus, direction, editing, and citations. GottaShowMe (talk) 08:25, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Korean section raises questions

I struggle to understand how Korea fits into the subject of this article.

The early Christianization of Korea was a primarily grassroots and indigenous-led movement. It originated from the work of Korean scholars, not foreign missionaries. (See Korean_Martyrs and Christianity in Korea.) Korean scholars learned about Christian theology from Catholic texts imported from China. Some scholars found the Catholic teachings compelling and decided to convert. They also shared these teachings with other Koreans. There were thousands of practicing Christians in Korea before the first missionary (a Chinese priest, not a Westerner) set foot in Korea.

This is neither an example of Western colonial pressure to convert nor that of strong foreign missionary influence (Western or otherwise). It is not inherently colonialist if members of a society choose to integrate beliefs of foreign origin into their own lives.

Similarly to Christian colonialism in Japan, China and Korea, Christian missionaries were resisted and, if over-persistent, executed (Saint Adalbert, Saint Bruno). This served as an excuse for full-scale military invasion, looting, ethnic cleansing, enslavement, cultural and religious destruction, Christianization and suppression of information.

Christian missionaries in Korea were eventually met with force and became Korean martyrs, which became pretext for French campaign against Korea. Donghak and Donghak Peasant Revolution was a Korean reaction against Christianization attempts.

This narrative depicts Western missionaries as the impetus for religious persecution of Christians in Korea. The persecution of Christians in Korea predates Western missionary involvement by at least half a century. According to the French campaign against Korea article, the first Western missionaries did not arrive until the mid-19th century. The execution of nine French missionaries alongside thousands of Korean Christians in the latter half of the 19th century may have provided "justification" for an unsuccessful punitive exhibition by French colonial forces. However, this colonial excursion remains a relatively minor footnote of the history of Christianity in Korea and the history of colonialism in Korea. The article ignores the influence and self-determination of indigenous Korean Christians by over-emphasizing the role of the West. If anything, the actions of colonial Japan played a much larger role than colonial France by opening up isolationist Korea to the West. This allowed a large influx of American missionaries into Korea in the latter quarter of the 19th century. However, Japan was not a Christian nation nor was it directly tied to Western missionary efforts.

The article also mentions the Presbyterian roots of Kim Il-sung, without explaining how it connects to colonialism. It seems like a dangling piece of trivia.

--GottaShowMe (talk) 06:50, 1 April 2020 (UTC)