The Best Thinking of the Best Heathen”

It is now a common-place that the typical early 19th century missionary—visualized by David Livingstone as ‘a dumpy sort of man with a Bible under his arm’—was a fairly homespun character, from the forge or the shop (if he were English), or from the croft, the farm or the factory (if he were Scots). His formal education was not high, and, if an Anglican his social and educational attainments were not such as would have brought him ordination to the home ministry. It is almost equally accepted that by the end of the 19th century the situation had changed; not only were the numbers of missionaries immensely swollen; but the universities and the public schools could now supply a quota, for Africa as well as for the lands of the ancient Eastern civilizations. The evangelization of the world in one generation was to be accomplished essentially by the international student community. The typical missionary was now a conventionally educated man, and if that did not imply conspicuous intellectual attainment, nor did entrance to the home ministry

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• Voluntary Absolutism

  Open Access•Peter Hinchliff•Studies in Church History•1986

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