MISSIONARY
PHYSICIANS
Missionary Movements are groups and
organizations arising within a particular religious tradition whose concern is
to spread the beliefs of their religion. The principal missionary religions of
the world are Christianity and Buddhism.
Christianity
Christianity, a missionary religion
by nature, was first spread by the biblical apostles, particularly St Paul, and by lay believers in the course
of their daily life and travels.
Early Church
The early church spread quickly into
northern Africa (Ethiopia and Alexandria, Egypt), through Asia Minor, and, by the 3rd century,
into India. By the 7th century it had reached China. It spread equally quickly into Europe through Greece, Armenia, and the Italian peninsula. Between
the 5th and 9th centuries, Christianity expanded
throughout Europe, north to Greenland and Iceland, and among the Slavs—carried from Rome by such missionaries as St Patrick,
St Augustine of Canterbury, and St Boniface, and from Constantinople by two brothers, St Cyril and St Methodius, missionaries to the Slavs.
As the church grew, religious orders
systematized the work of missions and carried the teachings of the church into
the Americas and the Far East.
After the Reformation
Following the Reformation, both
Roman Catholics and Protestants carried on active Christian mission programmes. Among Jesuits, St Francis Xavier was
particularly active in the Far East. In 1622 the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith was
established by Rome, and Roman Catholic mission work in all parts of the world was, and
still is, conducted under the direction of the papacy.
Among Protestants, in 1698, the
missionary Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was founded in England, and the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts worked among British settlers in the
colonies from 1701. Probably the most famous missionary in America in its early days was the
English-born Presbyterian John Eliot, the “Apostle of the Indians”. During the
18th century missionary societies were founded in many European
countries; notable among these was the London Missionary Society (1795).
Well-known missionaries of the era were the British Baptist William Carey and
the Anglican Henry Martyn, who worked in India.
Franciscans and Jesuits worked in
western North
America. Junípero Serra, a Spanish
Franciscan, was active in California, and the Italian Jesuit Eusebio Francisco Kino worked in northern Mexico and what is now the south-western United States.
New Fields
European missionaries directed their
attention to new areas in the 19th century, greatly expanding their 
endeavours. Colonialism brought increased
knowledge of Africa and Asia, and the European and British
churches extended their work into these areas. One of the best known of the 19th-century
missionaries was the British doctor David
Livingstone 1813 – 1873 Scottish doctor and missionary, considered one of the
most important explorers of Africa.
Livingstone was born on March
19, 1813,
in Blantyre, Scotland. In 1823 he began work in a
cotton-textile factory. Later, during his medical studies in Glasgow, he also attended classes in
theology, and in 1838 he offered his services to the London Missionary Society.
At the completion of his medical course in 1840, Livingstone was ordained and
was sent as a medical missionary to South Africa. In 1841 he reached Kuruman, a settlement founded in Bechuanaland (now Botswana) by the Scottish missionary Robert
Moffat.
Livingstone began his work among the
black Africans of Bechuanaland, trying to make his way northward, despite
active hostility by the Boers, who were white settlers of mostly Dutch
background. He married Mary Moffat, daughter of Robert, in 1845, and, working
together, the Livingstones traveled into regions
where no European had ever been. In 1849 he crossed the Kalahari Desert and saw Lake Ngami. In 1851, accompanied by his wife
and children, he first saw the Zambezi River. On another expedition while
looking for a route to the interior from the east or west coast, he traveled
north from Cape Town to the Zambezi, and then west to Luanda on the Atlantic coast. Then,
retracing his journey to the Zambezi, Livingstone followed the river to its mouth
in the Indian
Ocean,
thereby becoming in 1855 the first European to see the great Victoria Falls of the Zambezi.
Livingstone's explorations resulted
in a revision of all contemporary maps. He was welcomed as a great explorer in Great Britain upon his return in 1856, and his
book Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa made him famous. He resigned from
the London Missionary Society, and in 1858 the British government appointed him
British consul at Quelimane (now in Mozambique) for the east coast of Africa and commander of an expedition to
explore east and central Africa. After his return to Africa in 1858, he led an expedition up the Shire River, a tributary of the Zambezi, and became the first European to
see Lake Nyasa. In 1861 he also explored the Ruvuma River, finding Lake Chilwa. During his exploration of the
country around Lake Nyasa, Livingstone became greatly
concerned over the depredations on the indigenous Africans by Arab and
Portuguese slave traders. In 1865, on a visit to England, he wrote Narrative of an
Expedition to the Zambezi and Its Tributaries, which included a condemnation of slave traders and
an exposition of the commercial possibilities of the region (now mostly part of
Malawi and Mozambique). In 1866, financed mostly by the
liberal contributions of his friends and admirers, Livingstone led an
expedition to discover the sources of the Nile and explore the watershed of central Africa separating the Nile and Congo drainage basins. Traveling along
the Ruvuma River, the explorer made his way towards Lake Tanganyika, reaching its shore in 1869, after
having seen lakes Mweru and Bangweulu
(the first European to do so).
During this period, little was heard
from Livingstone, and his welfare became a matter of international concern. In
1869 the explorer began a journey from Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, into the region lying west of the
lake, becoming the first European to visit the Lualaba River, in present-day Zaďre.
After great privations he returned to Ujiji and was
met, in October 1871, by a rescue party led by Henry Morton Stanley, an
Anglo-American journalist, who is said to have greeted the explorer with the
now-famous remark, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Stanley and Livingstone
explored the country north of Lake Tanganyika together. Later, Livingstone set
out alone to continue his search for the source of the Nile. He died in Chitambo
(in modern Zambia) probably on April
30, 1873;
he was found dead on May 1. His followers buried his heart at the foot of the
tree beneath which he died and carried his body to Zanzibar on the east coast. In April 1874
his remains were buried in Westminster Abbey. Livingstone is considered one of
the greatest modern African explorers and a pioneer in the abolition of the
slave trade.
Denominational boards, the Salvation
Army, other agencies, some of them related to the World Council of Churches,
and individuals belonging to such mission-oriented groups as Jehovah's
Witnesses and the Mormons continue the work started in this period.
Father Damien, Joseph
Damien de Veuster 1840 – 1889
Is Belgian Roman Catholic missionary
to the lepers of Hawaii, who was born in Tremelo in Belgium, Damien was the son of a farmer.
Following his elder brother Pamphile, he joined the
Congregation of the 
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Damien had nearly finished his studies for the priesthood when his brother,
about to embark for the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, fell ill. At his own request, Damien was sent 1865 in his place. He
was ordained 1866 in Honolulu, where he worked among the natives
until 1873; then he was appointed to work among the lepers on the island of Molokai. Conditions there were deplorable,
with lack of proper housing, medical aid, and sanitary conditions. Damien
devoted himself entirely to the spiritual and physical care of the lepers,
obtaining government aid for them and encouraging agriculture and local
industry. Although he contracted leprosy in 1884, he continued his labors until
his death.
Modern Mission Work
The social, political, and economic
upheavals of the 20th century have affected all aspects of life.
With the Russian Revolution and Soviet expansion, the Eastern Orthodox churches
lost some of their influence. Despite official hostility to religion in the
Soviet sphere, however, notable work was accomplished there by the Society of Friends,
one of the few religious groups permitted to work. The development of communism
in China ended missionary work in that country, and in
many postcolonial states the growth of nationalism has been accompanied by a
tendency to identify Christianity with colonialism.
These events have brought a change
in direction to the missions field. A new emphasis is
being placed on Christian unity, rather than denominationalism, in mission
activity. Nationals in the traditional missionary target areas, the developing
countries, are being given responsible positions in their church organizations.
Conversion is seen to be increasingly the task of national autonomous churches.
A new evangelical movement, the Pentecostal movement, has become a force in
world Protestantism.
A trend away from evangelism in the
1960’s was the result of other problems. Missionary movements around the world
responded with service activities: in the inner cities, refugee camps,
settlements, and children's villages. In the 1970’s, however, emphasis on
evangelism again increased.
Albert Schweitzer 1875 – 1965
is German theologian, philosopher,
musicologist, medical missionary, and Nobel laureate. Born in Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace (now Haut-Rhin
Department,
France), on January 14,
1875,
Schweitzer was educated at the universities of Strasbourg, Paris, and Berlin. He was ordained as the curate of
the Church of St Nicholas in Strasbourg in 1900; a year later he became
principal of the theological seminary there. In 
music he gained fame as an organist
and authority on organ construction. His best-known musicological work, Johann
Sebastian Bach, was published in French in 1905 and rewritten in German in
1908; an English translation appeared in 1911. In this work Schweitzer
emphasized the religious nature of Bach's music and advocated the simple,
undistorted style of performing Bach's works that was accepted afterwards as
the standard type of presentation.
Religious Writings
Schweitzer established his
reputation as a theologian with Von Reimarus zu Wrede (The Quest of the 
Historical Jesus, 1906), in which he
interpreted the life of Jesus in the light of Jesus's
eschatological beliefs. In such other theological studies as Die Mystik des Apostels Paulus (The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1930),
Schweitzer examined the New Testament from the eschatological viewpoint of its
reputed authors.
The black proof of Monaco
Medicine and Philosophy
From 1905 to 1913 Schweitzer studied
medicine and surgery at the 
University of Strasbourg. He went to 
Lambaréné, French Equatorial Africa (now in Gabon), in 1913 as a medical missionary
and set up a hospital; there he cared for some 2,000 patients during his first
year. In 1917-1918 Schweitzer, a German national, was interned in France. He wrote during that
period two volumes of a projected philosophical study of civilization, Kulturphilosophie (1923). Concerned in these volumes with
ethical thought in history, Schweitzer contended that modern civilization is in
decay because it lacks the will to love. He suggested that people should
develop a philosophy based on what he termed “reverence for life”, embracing
with compassion all forms of life.
Schweitzer remained in Europe until 1924, when he returned to Africa. In spite of many obstacles, he
rebuilt his hospital and equipped it to provide care for thousands of Africans,
including 300 lepers. He returned frequently to Europe to lecture and give organ recitals.
He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize. He died on September 4,
1965. His
other works include the theological study Reich Gottes
und Christentum (The Kingdom of God and Primitive
Christianity 1967), and the autobiographical Aus meinemleben
und Oenken (Out of My Life and Thought, 1931).
Schweitzer was renowned world-wide
as a musician, ethical philosopher, and humanitarian. The variety of his
interests was unified largely by the profound religious meaning he found in the
natural world as well as in all of the accomplishments of humankind.
Eastern Religions
Two of the major Eastern religions
have active missionary programs. One, Buddhism, has long been a missionary
religion; the other, Hinduism, adopted a missionary approach only within the
last 100 years.
Buddhism
In terms of numbers of adherents,
Buddhism has been the most successful of the great missionary religions. In the
3rd century BC, it spread throughout the Indian subcontinent, largely through
the encouragement of King Asoka. He sent missions as
far west as the Mediterranean, but they had little impact. Later missionaries had great success in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and, in the 1st century AD, in
central Asia and China. Buddhism also spread through
translations of its sacred writings. In the 4th century AD, monks carried their
religion to many South-East Asian countries, where it is today a principal
religion, and to Korea. By the 6th century, it had spread
from Korea into Japan, where it became the state religion
and was a unifying influence in the country. Today Buddhism is a substantial,
and in many areas predominating, influence through much of eastern Asia. Like Christianity, however, it has
not survived as a significant religion in its country of origin, though
successful missionary work in recent years has increased the number of Indian
Buddhists by focusing on lower-class Hindus. Buddhism maintains small missions
in Europe and the United States and in other parts of the Western
world.
Hinduism
Hinduism has within the past 100
years adopted a missionary outlook, and small missions are supported in
numerous countries. These missions stress both mysticism and social action.
Such groups as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and the
Divine Light Mission became known in the West in the mid-1970’s.
The first of these, the so-called Hare Krishnas,
established a sizeable following of Western converts.
Anna Dengel 1892 – 1980
She worked
long years in India as
Austrian physician and founded in 1925 Missionary Female Physicians Sect in India.
