History of Missions

Focuses on one of the most important and exciting aspects of church history, the missionary outreach of the church. It will cover evangelistic expansion from the days of the apostles to the outreach to unreached 'people groups' in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Looks at the different phases of missions history and discuss the factors which lie behind periods of rapid expansion and times of stagnation or decline. Consider some of the key people and movements and seeks to analyze some of the major issues, particularly those which have relevance for today. Special attention is given to the early progress of Christianity East and West; the impact of Islam; Reformation and Counter Reformation influences; evangelical awakenings, and early Protestant missionary activity; colonialism and post-colonialism; today's global Christianity - decline in the west, dynamic growth in the south and east. Same as HIST 663.