Evangelism

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses some of the negative stereotypes associated with religious evangelism and how these stereotypes have tended to be true in the past, but are now less so because of the new approach to evangelism taken by the church. The paper points out that the church is now more likely to practice evangelism by promoting a church whose religious content, as well as its formal structures, are rooted in the local, cultural heritage. The process of evolution that evangelism has undergone, as well as specific examples, are described in the paper.

From the Paper:

"Christian missionaries have long been considered a controversial force in their effects on local cultures in which they focus their work. To some observers, the missionary is the very personification of that spirit of cultural imperialism, seeking to assimilate the people that they were sent to convert. They succeed in wreaking its mindless changes on unsuspecting naive peoples and turn their indigenous and unique social structures into cultural wastelands. The very word "missionary" often conjures up the image of a religious frontiersman who was ill-prepared to appreciate the beauty and existing communicational structure of the culture within which he works. The missionary has been stereotypes as a person who pursues single-mindedly his goal of "converting the heathen." With a cross upraised over the pagan land, he busies himself in baptizing babies, eliminating the "degrading superstitions" and preaching a new and better way of life to a people who are in his eyes at best helpless children and at worst "heathen savages". Despite his noble intentions, the Christian missionary evolves into an unwitting perpetrator of cultural genocide among the very people he professes to help."

More papers on Evangelism:

• Essay # 36609 : "The Master Plan of Evangelism"
• Analytical Essay # 126340 : "Eschatology and Evangelism"
• Term Paper # 111859 : "Evangelism In Christian Education"

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