Pitfalls of Trained Incapacity

The Unintended Effects of Integral Missionary Training in the Basel Mission on its Early Work in Ghana (1828-1840)
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-227-17621-4
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 514 g

Reihe: James Clarke

A historical case-study of the pioneering German missionary group the Basel Mission, and how its training methods affected early missionary work in Africa.

The need to train Christian missionaries was an afterthought of the Protestant missionary movement in the early nineteenth century. The Basel Missionary Training Institute (BMTI) was the first school designed solely for the purpose of preparing European missionaries for ministry in non-European lands. Pitfalls of Trained Incapacity explores the various sociological and historical factors that influenced the BMTI 'community of practice' and how the outcomes affected the work of the Basel Mission in Ghana in its initial phase. It shows that the integral training of the BMTI resulted in missionary practices that lacked flexibility to adjust attitudes and behaviour to the vastly different circumstances in Africa, impeded the realisation of mission objectives, and hindered the emergence of an African appropriation of Christianity. By exploring educational and sociological perspectives in a pre-colonial context, this study reaches beyond its historical significance to raise questions of unintended effects of integral ministry training in other times and places. The natural cultural bias of groups with shared theological assumptions and social ideals - like the Basel Mission - suggests a strong propensity for trained incapacity, that is, for training processes that establish inflexible mental frameworks that are potentially detrimental to intercultural engagement.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Herppich, Birgit

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Tables and Figures
Foreword by Wilbert R. Shenk
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Integral Missionary Training and the Basel Mission

Part I: The Community of Practice of the Basel Mission Training Institute
1 A Learning Community Shaped by German Pietism
2 A Shared Vision of Christian Foreign Mission
3 Diverse Participants with a Shared Practice

Part II: Indications for Trained Incapacity in the Beginnings of the Basel Mission in Ghana
4 The African Context and the Early Basel Mission (1828-1831)
5 Andreas Riis's Pioneering (1832-1840)
6 Early Failures at Mission Work (1836-1840)

Conclusion: Pitfalls of Trained Incapacity in Integral Missionary

Training
Bibliography