ABSTRACT
This book is the first account of British Protestant conversion initiatives directed towards continental Europe between 1600 and 1900.
Continental Europe was considered a missionary land—another periphery of the world, whose centre was imperial Britain. British missions to Europe were informed by religious experiments in America, Africa, and Asia, rendering these offensives against Europe a true form of "imaginary colonialism". British Protestant missionaries often understood themselves to be at the forefront of a civilising project directed at Catholics (and sometimes even at other Protestants). Their mission was further reinforced by Britain becoming a land of compassionate refuge for European dissenters and exiles. This book engages with the myth of International Protestantism, questioning its early origins and its narrative of transnational belonging, while also interrogating Britain as an imagined Protestant land of hope and glory.
In the history of western Christianities, "converting Europe" had a role that has not been adequately investigated. This is the story of the attempted, and ultimately failed, effort to convert a continent.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
section Section I|42 pages
Missionary Models
chapter 2|20 pages
“The Jesuits Have Shed Much Blood for Christ”
section Section II|64 pages
The Origins of Global Protestantism
chapter 4|23 pages
Charting the “Progress of Truth”
section Section III|62 pages
Missions and Church Unifications in the Age of the Enlightenment
chapter 6|19 pages
“True Catholic Unity”
chapter 7|24 pages
“Promoting the Common Interest of Christ”
chapter 8|17 pages
Between Anti-popery and European Missions
section Section IV|98 pages
A British Missionary Land