Introduction

From the early eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries, Protestants spread global messages of human spiritual equality that transcended national and imperial borders. A belief in human spiritual equality that is entangled with colonial, imperial, and cultural subjugation runs through the many missions and reform efforts discussed in this volume. Yet, while deeply imbricated in Dutch, British, French, and Spanish imperial regimes, Protestants of all theological convictions and practices also challenged these in crucial ways through the print and political networks born of global missionizing and related political reform networks. The volume offers snapshots of the linkages between the missions, politics, and print networks of multiple denominational affiliations and theologies. The essays discuss Moravian, Quaker, Church of England, Episcopalian, British Reform Society, Lutheran, and Pentecostal endeavors across the globe, in locations that include colonial North America, the British and Dutch West Indies, Cuba, Haiti, India, South Africa, and East Africa. Collectively, these essays illustrate the myriad ways in which missions, print, and communication networks between the 1730s and 1930s paved the way for contemporary global Protestant and philanthropic outreach.