Protestant Missionaries in the Levant: Ungodly Puritans, 1820-1860

Description

Through focusing on the unintended by-products of New England Puritanism as a cultural transplant in the Levant, this book explores the socio-historical forces which account for the failure of early envoys’ attempts to convert the ‘native,’ population. Early failure in conversion led to later success in reinventing themselves as agents of secular and liberal education, welfare, and popular culture. Through making special efforts not to debase local culture, the missionaries’ work resulted in large sections of society becoming protestantized without being evangelized. An invaluable resource for postgraduates and those undertaking postdoctoral research, this book explores a seminal but overlooked interlude in the encounters between American Protestantism and the Levant. Using data from previously unexplored personal narrative accounts, Khalaf dates the emergence of the puritanical imagination, sparked by sentiments of American exceptionalism, voluntarism and "soft power" to at least a century before commonly assumed. Protestant Missionaries in the Levant Ungodly Puritans, 1820-60 Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Prologue PART I On Calvinism, Evangelism and Puritanism 1 The Evangelical Imagination: New England Puritans and Foreign Missions The Great Awakenings and Religious Revivals Millenarianism and the “New World” as a Righteous Paradise 2 Universities as Nurseries of Piety Evangelism and College Education Christian Benevolence and Philanthropy Colleges and Overseas Missions 3 The World as an Enlarged New England The Many Faces of Puritanism Puritanism and the Moral Regeneration of the World New England as the New Jerusalem Paganization of the Other 4 Images of Islam and the Orient Medievalist Distortions Disparaging Stereotypes Reconfirmed “Muslim Marauders” of the Barbary States Travel Literature and the Popular Imagination PART II Leavening the Levant 5 Protestant Orientalism: Evangelical Christianity and Cultural Imperialism Protestant Self-Righteousness Islam as a “Broken Cistern” The Ratification of Medieval Distortions The Impulse to Colonize 6 The Levant as a Missionary Field “Syria” as the Romance Land of Missions Objectives, Instructions and Instrumentalities To the Levant: The Departure of Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons Puritanism as a Cultural Transfer: Premises and Issues 7 Puritans in Lebanon: Early Encounters, 1820–40 The Feudal Society of Mount Lebanon Smyrna, Malta, Jerusalem … and Beirut Common Schools, Women’s Education and Outreach Obstacles and Setbacks 8 On Doing Much with Little Noise Retreat to Malta and Reconsideration of Strategies Silent Penetration as Precursors to Soft Power “Ungodly Puritans” 9 Christianize or Civilize: Obstacles and Changing Strategies, 1840-60 Christ or Culture Selective Benevolence Obstacles and Setbacks Accomplishments Precursors of Higher Education Epilogue: Precursors of “Soft Power” Notes Bibliography Index