“I Shall Give Thee the Heathen for Thine Inheritance”: Psalms, Parishioners, and Propagating the Gospel in the Protestant Atlantic World, c. 1649–1660
Taking the scriptural concept of the ‘heathen’ as its starting point, this article investigates the attitudes of Protestant ministers and parishioners in England towards the conversion of indigenous non-Christian people in colonial New England during the years of the English republic from 1649 to 16...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
Exchange
Year: 2022, Volume: 51, Issue: 3, Pages: 215-244 |
| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament KBF British Isles KBQ North America KDD Protestant Church RB Church office; congregation RJ Mission; missiology |
| Further subjects: | B
Psalms
B Interregnum B Heathen B New England B Protestantism B Atlantic |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Taking the scriptural concept of the ‘heathen’ as its starting point, this article investigates the attitudes of Protestant ministers and parishioners in England towards the conversion of indigenous non-Christian people in colonial New England during the years of the English republic from 1649 to 1660. The article examines Psalm 2 as a framework within which churchgoers interpreted non-Christianity, before turning to the fragmentary prosopography of parishioners who donated money towards the cause of religious expansion. Illuminating the practical strategies that the new government developed as its pursuit of legitimacy intersected with attitudes towards evangelism overseas, the article demonstrates the ways in which liturgical, pastoral, political and socio-economic circumstances shaped local engagement with the wider Atlantic world. It suggests that English support for the propagation of the gospel emerged from profound theological ambivalence as animosity towards non-believers co-existed with the conviction that some among them could convert and might be saved. |
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| ISSN: | 1572-543X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Exchange
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/1572543x-bja10003 |