Tag Archives: missions

New online journal : Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies

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TransformationI’m pleased to be able to say that Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies is now available online to University of Edinburgh users, from 1989 to the most current issue in 2013.

Published quarterly on behalf of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Transformation is a peer-reviewed journal which provides an international forum for Mission Studies discussion on a range of issues affecting the world today, including economics, development, violence, family life and other ethical issues.

University of Edinburgh users can access the journal via the library catalogue or the e-journals list.

Christianity in the Far East?

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The Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the School of Divinity hosts its Research Seminar today, and the speaker is Andrew Kaiser, on:

” Lessons for Today from China’s Past: Timothy Richard’s Innovations in Mission.”

New College Library’s stacks bear witness to the activity of nineteenth and twentieth century missons in China and East Asia.  I picked up these three volumes which all have attractive publishers bindings.

The Cross and the Dragon, or, Light in the Broad East by  Rev B.C. Henry (London, Partridge & Co, 1885) announces the author as “Ten years a missionary in Canton”. It is beautifully illustrated and has endpapers printed in a pattern of Chinese fans.  The introduction proclaims “There is no new and sacred sight open to the eyes of present generations better worth study than the rising of the unobscured orb of Christianity in the Far East …”

East of the Barrier, or, Side lights on the Manchuria Mission (Oliphant, Andrewson and Ferrier, Edinburgh & London , 1902), was written by J. Miller Graham, a missionary of the United Free Church of Scotland, Moukden, Manchuria.

Two Lady Missionaries in Tibet by Isabel S. Robson ( London: S.W. Partridge & Co 1910) is the story of  two intrepid women missionaries – Miss Annie R Taylor and Dr Susie Carson Moyes.

To Africa with Love

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Reports of the Glasgow African Missionary Society
New College Library Special Collections Z Collection Z.858/9-16

Today’s Centre for the Study of World Christianity Research Seminar is presented by Dr Jack Thompson, ‘African mission photography: Light on Darkness’.

This item, Reports of the Glasgow Missionary Society, from New College Library’s Z Collections, is a printed record of missionary activity, evidence of the hundreds of Missionary Scots at work across Africa.  I was charmed to find that among them was a Dr John Love (perhaps an ancestor of mine?) one time secretary of the Glasgow Missionary Society. The Church of Scotland’s first important missionary station in Africa, at Kaffaria (established in 1830), was named Lovedale after him.  New College Library also holds in its archives a volume of illustrations of Church of Scotland missions in South Africa (Gen. 827F), which features Lovedale. Further details can be searched online at www.mundus.ac.uk.

How an Olympic champion became a missionary

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The BBC Scotland programme Eric Liddell: A Champion’s Life http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lb63b  on BBC2 tonight (Monday 23rd July) at 10pm features items from University of Edinburgh Collections.

RUNNING THE RACE: Eric Liddell Olympic Champion and Missionary. John W. Keddie.

New College Library recently received a donation of a biography of  former Olympic Champion Eric Liddell, by John W. Keddie.  Immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire, Liddell won gold in the 400 metres at the Olympic games in Paris 1924, but famously refused to compete in his best event, the 100 metres, because it was held on a Sunday. He went on to study at the Scottish Congregational College and in 1925 went to China as a missionary with the London Missionary Society.

New College Library holds a  letter (30 June 1940) from Liddell to Mary and George Cameron, Heriot, Midlothian describing his movements during his last trip with his family. After two years in a wartime  internment camp with other members of the China Inland mission, he died on 21 February 1945, five months before liberation.

Liddell’s Olympic medals were donated to Edinburgh University by his daughter Mrs. Patricia Russell. A new Sports Scholarship at Edinburgh University, the Eric Liddell High Performance Sports Scholarship, was launched recently in his memory.

Global Missions and Theology Collection online at University of Edinburgh

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In the week of the Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity Conference, a reminder that the Global Missions and Theology Online Collection is now available to University of Edinburgh users.  Part of the Archives Unbound collection from Gale, this collection documents a broad range of nineteenth century missionary activities, practices and thought by reproducing personal narratives, organizational records, and biographies.

Find the link on the Databases for Divinity page on the library website.

New College Library welcomes the Yale-Edinburgh Conference

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The Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh is hosting the Yale-Edinburgh Group Conference on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity this week, with the theme of  “Religious Movements of Renewal, Revival, and Revitalization in the History of Missions and World Christianity. “

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
The distinguishing marks of a work of the spirit of God : applied to that uncommon operation that has lately appear’d on the minds of many of the people in New-England ; with a particular consideration of the extraordinary circumstances with which this work is attended. Edinburgh : 1742
New College Library B.b.c.17/1

We have set out a small display of pamphlets from New College Library’s Special Collections on the theme of revival in the display case in the Funk Reading Room. The display includes this pamphlet on the  revival & awakening of the Holy Spirit in New England, United States.  The author, Jonathan Edwards, was a prominent American preacher and theologian, who was closely involved in the spiritual revival of the 1730s, the Great Awakening. His pamphlet deals with the revival’s controversial  phenomena : the swoonings, outcries and convulsions of believers overwhelmed by their powerful spiritual experiences.

This pamphlet was catalogued recently as part of the Pamphlets Cataloguing Project, funded by the Funk Donation. A similar item is also held by Yale University. University of Edinburgh users can read it online via Eighteenth-Century Collections Online.