Jan A.B. Jongeneel – författare

The study describes and analyses the history of mission studies and mission activities at Utrecht University (UU), from the establishment of UU in 1636 onwards. It also describes and examines the overseas ministries of Dutch, German, Hungarian, South African, and other alumni in the past 375 years. In each of the four periods of UU’s history (the years 1797, 1876, and 1968/69 functioning as watersheds), attention is paid to professors and lecturers, honorary doctors, doctors, and students and student bodies connected with mission. In the period 1968/69 until today the Inter-university Institute for Missiological and Ecumenical Research (IIMO), as well as missiological journals, series, and publications are dealt with. Special attention is paid to the Anti-Apartheid Fund, to missiological projects such as the Religious Education project (in cooperation with the University of Zimbabwe), and to the non-Western students who since the 17th century have studied theology in Utrecht.

The volume deals with the witness and the service of Protestants and Protestant churches in all nations and contexts and sketches Protestantism as a global renewal movement. It is active in the setting of all 171 nations with a non-Protestant religious or secular majority, and in the 28 Protestant majority nations. Protestantism wants to make all people 'mature' and all societies 'responsible.' It made the Bible the most translated book on earth and provided more songs and hymns than any other religion or movement. About 10 % of the world population is Protestant. But the impact of Protestantism on world culture is larger than 10 %. The book highlights the significance of Protestant Noble Peace Prize winners and martyrs. Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela are the most influential Protestants in the post-war period. Protestants dream of a universal language, a universal statement of faith, and a universal hymn.

This volume is a collection of historical essays, describing and analyzing the link between Christian mission and education in modern China, Japan, and Korea. The authors come from China, Japan, Korea, Canada, the United States of America, and the Netherlands. The twelve essays are a selection from the papers given at the Sixth International Conference of the North East Asia Council of Studies of History of Christianity (NEACSHC), held in Seoul in 2007. The nine appendices of the volume offer basic information on both the previous conferences of this council and its constitution. After three Western essays, mainly dealing with the impact of Western educational mission on Asia and the secularization of Christian higher education, the volume offers four essays on China, two essays on Japan, and three essays on Korea. These Asian contributions do not only deal with pre-World War Two developments, but also with current affairs: they discuss the moral superiority feelings in mission schools before the war, the link between Christian and nationalistic education during the war, and the new crises, new challenges, new relations, and new perspectives after the war. In modern Japan and Korea women play a key role. In modern China there is a move from ‘cultural imperialism’ to ‘cultural exchange’, which opens up entirely new horizons and prospects for Christian higher education.