God's Interpreters: The Making of an American Mission and an African Church

Les Switzer, Ph.D., M.Div, has had careers as a print journalist, a university academic, a hospice chaplain and a part-time minister mainly in South Africa and the U.S. He retired as executive director of the Foundation for Contemporary Theology—a venue for discussion and debate on contemporary issues and concerns in theology and religious studies in general—in Houston, Texas. He has published eight books and thirty-one book chapters, articles and essays in journalism and media studies, development studies, cultural studies, southern African studies and religious studies.

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsNote on SourcesMapsIntroduction: The Contexts of Study1 An Alternative to Missionaries as Part of the Colonial Project1 Christian Narratives in Pre- and Post-Revolution America1 The Puritan Legacy of Colonial New England1.1 A Special People2 The First Great Awakening and Its Impact before and after the War of Independence2.1 Religious Rhetoric during and after the Revolution2.2 Religious Toleration Free from Government Interference3 The Second Great Awakening and Its Impact on Post-Colonial America3.1 An All American Awakening3.2 A Religion for the Masses3.3 The American Bible Society4 The Impact of the Second Awakening on Calvinist New England5 The Impact of the Revivals on Social and Religious Practices in the Nineteenth Century5.1 A New Patriarchal Marriage and Family Model5.2 Benevolent Societies and Moral Crusades5.3 The American Board and the Anti-slavery Movement2 The American Board and the Evangelization of the World1 A Postmillennial View of Religion and Culture1.1 Being in and Not of the World2 The Beginnings of a Foreign Mission Enterprise2.1 Young Turks2.2 Formation of the American Board2.3 Overseers of the Foreign Mission Program3 A Golden Age: The Era of Rufus Anderson3.1 The Senior Secretary4 Between Mission Theory and Practice5 Foreign Missions Started before the Civil War5.1 Proponents of the Three Self Program5.2 Ramifications of the Three Self Program6 Board Missions to “Primitive Cultures”3 Laying the Foundations of an American Missionary Culture1 Colleges of Choice for Men of the Zulu Mission1.1 Yale College1.2 Amherst College2 Seminaries of Choice for Men of the Zulu Mission2.1 East Windsor Seminary in Connecticut2.2 Union Seminary in New York3 Missionary Women in a Patriarchal World3.1 Mount Holyoke and Mary Lyon3.2 Mary Lyon’s Legacy4 The Peoples of Pre-Colonial Natal and the First American Missions in South Africa1 Conflicting Pre-colonial Paradigms2 The American Mission to Mzilikazi and His People3 The American Mission to Dingane and His People5 The American Zulu Mission Enterprise under British Colonial Rule1 Prospects for a Zulu Ministry in the 1840s and 1850s1.1 American Missionary Views in Early Debates over Land and Labor2 Segregating Africans in Government-Controlled Reservations2.1 Mission Glebes and Reserves2.2 American Administration of Its Mission Reserves3 The Mission Reserves and the Shepstone System6 Daily Life on American Mission Stations and Outstations1 The Christian Home inside Mission Stations2 The Christian Home outside the Mission Stations3 American Mission Attitudes towards White Settlers4 Missionary Relationships with Zulu Congregants in Colonial Natal before the 1880s4.1 Negative Missionary Images: Race-based Linguistics4.2 Negative Missionary Images: More Failed Ministries4.3 Positive Missionary Images7 Charting a Ministry for Mission and Church1 African Commercial Farming in the Glebes and Mission Reserves1.1 Mission-Sponsored Cash Crops1.2 African Sugar Cultivators2 Changing Circumstances and Altered Mission Policies2.1 Protecting Missionary Women outside the Christian Home3 An Independent Women’s Ministry among the Amabhinca3.1 Teachers and Evangelizers4 An Independent Women’s Ministry among Amabhinca Girls in Boarding Schools4.1 Umzumbe Home for “Kraal” Girls4.2 Ireland Home for “Kraal” Girls5 Men and Ministry inside and outside the Mission Stations6 The Campaign against Traditional African Cultural Practices6.1 Gender Relations in Patriarchal Zulu Society6.2 Polygamy and Lobola6.3 Temperance7 The First Ordinations of Zulu Pastors7.1 Reaction and ResistanceEpilogueIndex