Short description:

This book introduces the approach of ?transloyalties? to study ?connected histories? in World Christianity. The term ?transloyalties? is used to analyze the multifaceted processes in various contact zones through which cultural and religious identities were transformed in the tension between different loyalties. 

Long description:

This book introduces the approach of ?transloyalties? to study ?connected histories? in World Christianity. The term ?transloyalties? is used to analyze the multifaceted processes in various contact zones through which cultural and religious identities were transformed in the tension between different loyalties. The volume tests this approach in various case studies, most of them focusing on Lutheran churches and ?World Lutheranism? between 1919 and 1939, a time of rapidly changing political circumstances.

Traditionally, the USA, Germany and Scandinavia had been identified as the three centres of Lutheranism. However, while the structures in these centres were well established and ?World Lutheranism? was something ?out there?, with limited impact back home, negotiation processes on ?Lutheran identity? were crucial in contexts where new Lutheran churches emerged. Asian and African church leaders operated in a new context of loyalties: They pushed for cooperation, and they often interacted with mission organisations from all three centres, and also with other religions, traditional cultures and political movements. Therefore, it is significant what happened, for instance, in the Lutheran Church of China or at Umpumulo in South Africa.

Including theoretical reflections and case studies, this volume is valuable reading for scholars of the history of World Christianity

Table of Contents:

Part One: Introduction and Theoretical Perspectives 1. Introduction  2. Transloyalties  3.From Ancient Loyalty to Modern (Trans-)Loyalties: A Study from Cosmological, Sociological, Philosophical, and Theological Perspectives Part Two: Contesting Denominational and Political Boundaries during the Interwar Period 4. Formation and Concepts of ?World Lutheranism? in the Context of International Developments after 1918 5. The Lutheran Church of China and World Lutheranism: Through the Lens of Loyalties and Transloyalties, 1920-1949  6. Transloyalties and the Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft in German New Guinea during the First World War  7. The Complicated Loyalties of Lutherans in the United States during the 1920s 8. Reframing Boundaries: Loyalties and Transloyalties in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Protestantism  9. Navigating through Difficult Times: The Ecumenical Movement in the 1930s  Part Three: Interactions between International Educational and Health Care Strategies, Colonial Governments and Christian Agencies  10. Transloyalties in Protestant Education and Health Care 11.  Contested Concepts in Lutheran Education and Health Care: Umpumulo (Natal/South Africa) as a Centre of International Networks  12.  African Voices in the Natal Native Teachers? Journal and Different Views on ?Progressive Compromise?  13. On Mission in Northern Norway: Transnational Deaconesses. Vocations, Loyalties, Negotiations, ca. 1900?1930  14.In Service of Whom? Medical Missions in Hunan, China, 1920-1949 15. Family, Country, Patient: The Trans-loyalties of a German Medical Missionary in China. Index