The use of language in Protestant missionary publications

This study focuses on the use of language in Protestant missionary publications. Combining historical and linguistic methods, the author examines the communicative strategies for legitimizing Swedish missions in Africa and Asia around 1900. Focussing on the Swedish missionary organisation “Svenska Missionsförbundet” (The Swedish Missionary Covenant) and their work in the Congo and China, the study explores linguistic patterns and structures which the authors used to produce their knowledge as valid. To convince their readers of the necessity to christianise in regions far away from their land of origin, a community of knowledge was created within the publications. The missionaries were bestowed indisputable authority and the complex circumstances of the colonial situation were presented as simple and straightforward. Thus, the study also reveals the ways in which intersections between Christian religious ideas and colonialist, racist notions of superiority were used to justify missionary activities.

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Literature: Acke, Hanna, Sprachliche Legitimierung protestantischer Mission: Die Publikationen von Svenska Missionsförbundet um 1900, Berlin et al.: De Gruyter 2015.