Protestant Agricultural Missions and Their Relationship with Environments as Reflected in the World Missionary Conferences of Edinburgh (1910) and Tambaram (1938)

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate about whether Christian theology has had positive or negative effects on the natural environment. Included in this debate is the role of Christian missions acting in colonial environments. This article investigates the relationship between Protestant agricultural missions and their environments, using the documents of the first World Missionary Conference (Edinburgh 1910) and the third World Missionary Conference (Tambaram 1938), as well as several related documents. Although the history of agricultural missions can be backtracked into the 19th century, they were not regarded as an independent branch of missions until the early twentieth century. In 1910, neither the home boards of Protestant missions nor the older generation of missionaries had any vision for agricultural missions, and traditional culture—including agriculture—was seen as superstitious and full of heathen beliefs. However, agricultural missions developed rapidly in the decades between Edinburgh and Tambaram and broadened into rural missions due to a change in vision. The deplorable rural areas of the younger Christian churches called for ‘rural reconstruction’, and rural missions were welcomed as the most important agents to undertake this challenge. The environment of the church and countryside was enlarged and, by 1938, included economic and social environments, known as the fourth dimension of the church and missions after preaching, education, and medical care.

1. Introduction

Christian missions are broad and diverse, like a tree with many branches. Agricultural missions are one such branch. Missionary attention to agriculture was waxing in the 19th century, gradually gained traction at the turn of the century, and matured in the 20th century. Surprisingly, the history of agricultural missions is one of the great unwritten chapters of mission studies (Robert 2011). This article tracks the ascendancy of agricultural missions in the discussions, findings, and recommendations of the two Protestant World Missionary Conferences held in Edinburgh (1910) and Tambaram (1938) and some related documents. At these meetings, representatives of home boards of missions and missionaries from many protestant denominations across the globe gathered and/or sent their reports. These conferences were chosen as they mark the beginning and a temporal end point of the recognition of agricultural missions by home boards and the worldwide missionary platform as a new dimension of missions.

It is, however, necessary to provide a brief historical background of agricultural work in missions in the 19th century. This will enable us to discover relationships, similarities, and differences between agricultural work in missions in the 19th and 20th centuries. A question arises: why did it take more than a century before agricultural missions were recognised and accepted as an independent branch of missions? It was a long and sometimes fiery debate. After Tambaram (1938), the development of agricultural and rural missions continued, but in a different way. This matter is beyond the scope of this article.

The environments are also broad and diverse. At the moment, we are mostly concerned with the natural environment in relation to agriculture, but in the first half of the 20th century, the social and economic environments were considered as important and were accepted as the fourth dimension of missions. What was the relationship between agricultural missions and the environments? Were Christian missions partly responsible for the present ecological crisis, as Lynn White (1967) implies, or did agricultural missions succeed in the development and reconstruction of rural areas in the colonies to provide the people in poverty with ‘life and abundance’, and did they make an early contribution to the greening of missions (Robert 2011)?

2. Agricultural Work in Missions in the 19th and the First Part of the 20th Century

The proto-history of agricultural missions can be tracked in the 19th century, providing a broader understanding of the development of these missions. It should be emphasised that the term agricultural missions does not literally appear in either American or British surveys of missionary endeavours in the 19th century (Hunnicutt and Reid 1931; Thompson and Johnson 1899), but agricultural work was often part of missions. Rhoades (1975) states that during the nineteenth century, some fifty agriculturally trained missionaries went out from North America and Europe to Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. This paragraph will serve as a background for the history of agricultural missions as we find it at the two conferences.

2.1. Agricultural Work in Missions in the 19th Century: Agricultural Crusaders

Two missionaries are mentioned as ‘agricultural crusaders’: William Carey and James Stewart (Hunnicutt and Reid 1931). Carey travelled from England to India in 1793 and maintained himself by cultivating indigo in the early years of his service practically without cost to the society that sent him overseas. Throughout his long life, he provided a threefold ministry; he was a preacher of the gospel, a teacher, author and translator, and an agriculturist. It was he who, in 1820, founded the Agri-horticultural Society for India, which was the forerunner of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, formed eighteen years later. James Stewart dedicated his life to Christian service in Africa, following in the footsteps of David Livingstone and sharing his great interest in the vegetable and animal life. ‘In developing the mission school and property at Lovedale (South Africa), he literally made the desert to bloom like the rose. Upon what had been an unattractive and unproductive tract, he made fine crops to grow, and trees soon gave the whole region another atmosphere.’ By that time, missionaries were described as ‘country-bred boys, loving the soil, knowing the wealth lying wherever the spade is turned …. They linked with their evangelistic and educational work the rudimentary things of agriculture that helped the hard life of the people. The presence of suffering and hunger impelled them to give such relief as they could’ (Hunnicutt and Reid 1931, pp. 12–15).

2.2. Agricultural Missions at the Beginning of the 20th Century: Agricultural Pioneers and First Agricultural Colleges

In 1876, W.S. Clark established the Imperial Agricultural College in Sapporo, Japan. He lectured on agriculture but was regarded as an educational rather than agricultural missionary. That is why the Thessalonica Agricultural and Industrial Mission, founded in 1903, is sometimes called the first missionary agricultural school (Blough 1922). This was a successful school, organised by scientifically trained staff to teach ‘modern agriculture’. A major change, which stimulated the growth of agricultural missions, was the gradual ‘conversion’ of the Home Boards of Missions in the USA. They started to accept, prepare, and send agriculturalists as missionaries. Around 1900, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (Congregational) sent Mr. and Mrs. Bell to Bie Province in Angola, where they were engaged in agricultural work. In 1902, the same board sent an agriculturist, J. B. Knight, to India due to a new policy. ‘It is essential that the future Christian community in India have well-equipped farmers, mechanics, artisans and merchants just as they have learned government officials, preachers and teachers.’ (Hunnicutt and Reid 1931, pp. 16–17).

George Weismann Groff was, in 1907, commissioned as an agricultural missionary to Canton Christian College in China. The same year, the Foreign Missions Committee of the Presbyterian Church sent Benjamin H. Hunnicutt as the first agricultural missionary to South America, where he founded an agricultural school in Lavras, Brazil. Last, but not least, the Methodist Episcopal Church sent its first trained agriculturist, H. Erne Taylor, to Rhodesia. This is the same church whose theory, strategy, and agricultural mission practices Richard Darr describes in his dissertation. He also explains the central role of Earth care in its mission from 1897 to 1939 (Darr 2005). He introduces Robert Moffat as a leading missionary agriculturist, naturalist, and conservationist among the Tswana of Southern Africa from 1817 to 1870 and describes John Croumbie Brown’s major roles as missionary, colonial botanist, and activist in nineteenth-century South Africa.

After 1910, more publications followed. To mention a few: A.L. Carson finished a thesis at Cornell University with the title Agricultural Missions, a study based upon the experience of 236 missionaries and other rural workers. The scope of his thesis encompasses Protestant churches and organisations in Canada and the USA. More than half of the missionaries, active in agricultural activities, came from a farm, and another 20 percent lived in a village. Less than 20 percent received agricultural training. Others stated that they saw the importance of agricultural knowledge during their first term in the field (Carson 1931). I.W. Moomaw delivered a well-written book, Our Christian mission to Rural People, 1910–1960, which is summarised in an article with the same title in IRM 49 (Moomaw 1960, pp. 273–80). He starts by mentioning Sam Higginbottom in India and George Roberts in Rhodesia and continues with the names of Kenyon Butterfield and John H. Reisner. We will meet them in the documents of the World Missionary Conferences. Finally, in the Netherlands, H.M. Reinders wrote a thesis on ownership of the land (Lev. 25: 33), ‘ …. Want het land is van Mij’—‘Notities over Rural Mission’ (Reinders 1969).

3. Agricultural Missions and World Missionary Conferences

After a brief outline of agricultural work in missions before these conferences, we now observe the findings and proceedings of the first World Missionary Conference of Edinburgh (1910) and the third World Missionary Conference of Tambaram (1938), with a very brief intermezzo on the second conference in Jerusalem (1918).

3.1. The First Protestant World Missionary Conference (Edinburgh 1910)

The idea for a worldwide conference on missions was raised by William Carey in the 19th century, but it only materialised in the 20th century. In 1910, in Edinburgh, some 1200 representatives from Protestant churches and missions from all over the world met for a conference on missions. To be more precise, ‘from all over the world’ means ‘from all over the Western world’. Only a few representatives (in numbers ranging from 17 to 20) came from the mission field (Stanley 2010; Wind 1984). ‘Young(er) churches’—indigenous churches originating from Protestant missionary work—barely existed then. In 1910, the world was anticipating World War I due to the military and economic struggle for power in Europe and the rest of the world. The USA was as powerful as European countries. Liberalism was the driving social force, and optimism about Christian civilisation with all its blessings for mankind prevailed. Industrialisation was expanding and business relationships were said to infect the morals of non-Christian countries. The emerging ‘younger churches’ were expected to continue spreading the gospel.

Agriculture was developing quickly, and in general, the world could be fed without great problems. Scientific research produced better varieties, and the use of fertiliser increased. At the same time, rapid changes had occurred in the relationships among European countries on the one hand and Asia and Africa on the other. Secularisation was observed by churches and missions as well. To prepare for the conference, questionnaires had been sent to missionaries worldwide, and the responses had been processed by eight commissions into eight reports, each 250 pages on average. The questionnaires only mentioned the word ‘agricultural’ once, in the report of Commission 3 on ‘Education as a Vehicle for Christianization’. It was noted that the word ‘industrial’ appeared more often, also in questions on other topics. Agricultural training might be included in industrial education.

3.1.1. Traditional Culture and Agriculture in Central Celebes—A Case Study

In both Report III on ‘Education in Relation to the Christianisation of National Life’ (E III1, pp. 391–96) and Report IV on ‘The Missionary Message in Relation to Non-Christian Religions’, the missionary work in Central Celebes (former Dutch East Indies) is mentioned. Missionary Albert C. Kruyt wrote about it, and Adriani and Limburg (probably ‘van Limburg Stirum’ author) reported on the conference. In his book Het zendingsveld Poso (The missionfield of Poso), Rev. Jan Kruyt describes the traditional culture more extensively. Agriculture is at its centre, because a Toradja is a farmer in heart and soul. Cultivating rice is the basis of his economic existence and guides his life in everything. All events are calculated in ‘farm years’. This links with the common calendar, because there is one harvest per year. Months are mentioned in work on the farm: ‘the child was born when we just started weeding.’ There is an Atonement Day before the start of the farmwork to ensure the blessing of the gods during the season. The sins are symbolically carried away in a small vessel by the stream. All take a ritual bath in the river, and afterwards, all take part in a meal, eating the animal that has been sacrificed to the gods. The moon phase determines the good days for farm work, and the goddess Lise descends from her domicile on the moon to ensure that the growing seeds in the ears are filled properly. After harvest, she returns to the moon, but not before an extensive ceremony in honour of her (Kruyt 1970, pp. 41–46).

3.1.2. Discussions at the Conference on Traditional (Agri)culture and the Evaluation of It

The delegates acknowledged the interweaving of agriculture and culture in the religions of China, Japan, and the Dutch East Indies and the problems that may arise, e.g., in the social realm. Traditional sacrifices and planting and harvest festivals and their value in the people’s religion are often mentioned. The presence of the spiritual world and its influence on daily life are also acknowledged. In this respect, a division into two groups is seen: the older generation of missionaries wanting to change the traditional culture and a younger generation of missionaries having more respect for the culture and the positive aspects of the religions of other people. This is underlined by the closing remarks of Adriani and Limburg on the report of their mission field: ‘The improvement of agriculture and industry must be the responsibility of the government. The missionaries in Central Celebes have introduced the growing of coffee, and make many efforts to purify native agriculture from the practices connected by heathen belief’ (E III, p. 396).

Discussions about the mission as a context for agricultural practices were concluded by stating that the church in the mission field is a replica of the church at home; everything which is native and therefore different introduces problems. The church is not involved in agricultural or rural missions. The individual missionaries engaged in agriculture as the work of ordinary Christians using the same methods they use at home. Agricultural enterprises in the mission field can best be run by independent Christians, because the church is meant for spreading the gospel.

3.1.3. Agricultural Enterprises and Industrial Education

The delegates observed that industrial and commercial enterprises exist in several areas, including in the field of agriculture. Christians aim to share the profits of their own natural resources with the local population and want to protect them against exploitation by ordinary secular enterprises. Managers are sometimes volunteers, and the profit target is restricted to around 5%. The remaining profits are used for missionary work. The general feeling in the discussion of Commission 3 is that such enterprises may be best operated by independent Christian organisations. They should collaborate closely with missions but relieve them of all financial responsibilities, thereby protecting them from the problems that arise when money is involved. Sciences like biology are promising for improving general life and particularly agriculture. However, the secularisation of the West rooted in modern philosophy and modern science is also observed. Furthermore, chapter VIII of the report on ‘Industrial Training’ affirms the importance of manual training in general education and draws the attention of the mission pioneers to the questions that arise when industrial education is offered. Industrial training in Southern Africa (‘Basutoland’), led by R.H. Dyke from the Paris Mission, has four streams, of which agricultural training is one (E III, pp. 267–302).

Although all the Edinburgh 1910 reports indicated that missions in the 19th century aimed to spread the gospel, diaconal feelings existed owing to every missionary’s social compassion. This was a clear feature of Protestant missions in the 19th century (Wind 1984, p. 12). Industrial missionaries served in a small minority of the missionary organisations, only 23 out of 159. They were expected to be dedicated missionaries and also very good in their profession. Several industrial missionaries are mentioned: Fairley Dale from Livingstonia, the mission established by the Free Church of Scotland and named after David Livingstone. Dale emphasises that the African needs to have his hands as well trained as his head. Industrial training invariably produces very useful and successful men. There was also Rev. J.K. MacGregor from Calabar (Nigeria) who recalls the Jewish idea that everybody should learn a vocation, regardless of what their work may be later on.

3.1.4. Sam Higginbottom, an Agricultural Pioneer

Although agricultural missions did not exist as an independent branch of missions in 1910 in the eyes of those who prepared the conference, individual agricultural missionaries ‘avant la lettre’ appear in the reports. These include Sam Higginbottom, who worked in the American Presbyterian Mission in Southern India (also Hunnicutt and Reid 1931, pp. 27–32). The ‘Notes on the Contributors’ of the 1913 IRM state that he was born and raised in Manchester, England. He studied at Mr. Moody’s school in Mt. Hermon, Massachusetts, and later at Princeton University. In 1903, he travelled to India and taught Economics at the Christian College, Allahabad, for five years. Returning to America, he studied Agriculture at Ohio State University and in 1913 was in charge of the newly opened Agricultural Department of the Allahabad Christian College (Higginbottom 1913, p. 355). Sam wrote that many good Christian people fear that work of this kind not only fails to forward directly the extension of the kingdom of God but rather obscures the main issue of missionary purpose. He felt that the right kind of man to teach agriculture and manage agricultural institutions was difficult to find. He was convinced that scientific agriculture required a man with a broad general education in addition to highly specialised knowledge and skill. And above everything else, he emphasised that he should be a missionary in spirit and deed.

The situation in India was dramatic, as Sam had seen. He mentioned that the farmers of India are wedded to custom and are illiterate and superstitious and that the average amount of land of the tenant farmer of the United Provinces in northern India is less than three and a half acres, while landowners hold about four and a half acres. The available capital is too small to adapt American and English agricultural practice and theory to the conditions. In view of these great obstacles, why should Indian missions provide education in agriculture? Possible reasons are that eighty percent of the 315 million inhabitants of India depend upon agriculture as a livelihood. Agricultural education would benefit more people than any other kind of education and aid those whose need is greatest. Secondly, agricultural education requires less change in occupation than any other kind of education. Moreover, the mass movements of low-caste people to Christianity have convinced most missionaries engaged in this work that some effort must be made to improve the economic condition of these groups after such a long period of degradation and oppression. In agriculture, there is room for all. These boys live on the land, so training them in agriculture is not taking them away from their hereditary occupation.

For an evangelistic agency (which is the primary identity of the missionary, no matter what form his activity takes), it is probable that agricultural education may be as good as the usual literary training given in mission institutions. Agricultural education can extend to the villages where the people of India live. Old Testament standards appeal to the simple folk of India, and success in farming is associated with the religion of the one achieving these good results. Agricultural education would be a sure safeguard against famines frequently occurring in India. In consideration of these facts, then, the Allahabad Christian College started agricultural education. However, agricultural education involves the investment of a lot of money in land, buildings, equipment, laboratories, cattle barns, a tool-house, implements, stocks, hostels for students, and quarters for teachers and helpers. The plans called for at least ten thousand pounds. Friends in America and England had already donated four thousand pounds, which was spent. ‘The Missionary Board of the Presbyterian Church, as such, makes no appropriations for the College. It does, however, give its influence and sympathy’ (Higginbottom 1913, IRM, pp. 349–52). To conclude, the general opinion of the conference about providing specialised technical and agricultural education was that, in most parts of Africa, the need for this type of education was urgent; in India, it was desirable, although the caste system stood in the way of positive economic effects; and in China, it was not regarded as a high priority.

3.1.5. Conclusions on Edinburgh 1910

We may conclude that agricultural missions did not exist in 1910 as an independent branch of missions, as acknowledged by the platform of representatives at the conference. Agriculture as such was hardly considered to be a goal of missions by the home boards and the older generation of missionaries: ‘The church is meant for spreading the gospel’. The older generation of missionaries did not respect the delicate balance between agriculture and nature in the traditional cultures and valued the religious interwovenness in the form of superstition and heathen beliefs, while the younger generation of missionaries had a greater understanding of the traditional culture and the central and crucial role of agriculture in providing food for the population.

Industrial missionaries served in about 15% of the missionary organisations. They expressed diaconal feelings and social compassion for people in poverty. ‘Industrial’ was a broad description of all the work people undertook to make a living. Sometimes ‘industrial’ included ‘agricultural’ (e.g., in industrial education). The natural environment was not mentioned expressis verbis in the conference of 1910; it seemed not to be known in the sense that we know it today, but the greatness and the beauty of nature were sometimes mentioned. Apart from the natural environment, the social environment was sometimes mentioned, mostly when describing the bad social circumstances of the Indian countryside. Individual missionaries—in both Asia and Africa—expressed their concern for poverty and rural problems by developing agricultural missions ‘avant la lettre’.

3.2. Intermezzo: Three Remarks of the Conference of Jerusalem 1928

Although this article aims to research the first and third Protestant World Missionary Conferences, we will briefly examine major issues presented at the second conference of the IMC in Jerusalem. The problems of the countryside were new to most delegates, but they enthusiastically took part in the discussions. Many shared their concern about the poverty and unrest in the countryside mainly of Asia and were pleased with the insights and solutions, but home churches hardly valued agricultural work in the mission field. Agricultural missions were developing slowly; in 1928, about 100 missionaries served in them. Kenyon Butterfield, the champion of rural missions, wanted to broaden the vision to include ‘rural missionaries’: well-trained researchers, agricultural specialists able to apply scientific knowledge to rural practice, social ‘engineers’, and trainers of teachers and preachers for the mission to the countryside (J VI2, p. 18). Apart from that, ‘erosion’ was mentioned only once and nature more often, but mainly in the sense of aesthetics related to the poetry and beauty of nature (J VI, p. 298).

3.3. The Third World Missionary Conference (Tambaram, 1938)

The circumstances of this conference were very different from the first conference in Edinburgh (1910). ‘The Christian church today is called to live, and to give life, in a world shaken to its foundations. Everywhere there is war or rumour of war. The beast in man has broken forth in unbelievable brutality and tyranny’(Findings3, p. 15). Despite these circumstances, the president of the IMC, John R. Mott, and the two secretaries, William Paton and A.L. Warnshuis, worked continuously for three years to prepare for it. Finding a proper venue was difficult, and growing differences in opinion about the scope of the mission itself and the theology of religions necessitated many meetings and much writing. Moreover, there was a worldwide economic crisis that also affected agriculture and agricultural missions. The theme of the conference was chosen unanimously: the building up of the younger churches as part of the historical universal Christian community. This was demonstrated by the delegates: the majority of the 471 delegates (from 69 different countries or regions) were sent by the ‘younger churches’ for the first time in the history of world missions (Wind 1984, p. 132).

3.3.1. Changes in Missionary Vision

In 1930–1932, W.E. Hocking led the Commission of Appraisal, which studied the foreign mission work of six Protestant denominations in India, Burma, China, and Japan. Protestant missionaries had been carrying out evangelistic work in Asia since the 19th century, but several groups noted falling donations and nationalistic resistance, suggesting that changes might be needed. The commission’s report, entitled Re-Thinking Missions: A Laymen’s Inquiry after One Hundred Years (1932) and known as the ‘Hocking Report’, reflected the changing ideas about the role of Western missionaries in other cultures and generated fierce debate. Commission members travelled to Asian cities to meet the missionaries and local people. The Commission recommended a greater emphasis on education and welfare, the transfer of power to local groups, and less reliance on evangelising, with respectful appreciation for local religions. A recommended related goal was the transition to local leadership and the handing over of institutions to the local churches.

There were two consequences: Hendrik Kraemer was asked to write a book about the missionary approach of non-Christian religions, which resulted in The Christian Message in the Non-Christian World (Kraemer 1938). J. Merle Davis, the director of the Department of Social and Industrial Research and Counsel (hereafter DSER) of the IMC, succeeded in drafting a series of studies on the ‘economic basis of the church’. This subject resulted in Volume V of the Tambaram series with the same title; it became the most voluminous part of the series. Although Kraemer was critical of the background vision behind ‘Re-thinking Missions’ (W.E. Hocking), he was enthusiastic about the practical social recommendations for rural areas from the same writings. Discussion of the ‘social gospel’ would continue after the conference, but economic, industrial, and agricultural missions would continue to develop with common agreement.

3.3.2. Looking for the Balance Between Kraemer and Hocking

The first paragraph of the official report of Section 1 with the title ‘The Faith by Which the Church Lives’ defines the heart of the gospel: the central notions of the Christian faith, as expressed by Kraemer in his book (Findings, pp. 15–26; T I4, pp. 186–202). The second paragraph is a wake-up call for the church to reach out in words and deeds. ‘Recognising that Christ came to open to all the way to life abundant but that the way for millions is blocked by poverty, war, racial hatred, exploitation and cruel injustice, the Church is called to attack social evils at their roots’ (T I, p. 191). There was great openness in 1938 to the people of other religions and cultures, but it was also acknowledged that culture and religion should be distinguished. Other religions may be as comprehensive as Christianity, and other cultures have valuable practices that should be maintained. A church should be rooted in its own soil, which is true for agriculture.

The important role of education—one of the first three dimensions of missions—was acknowledged in earlier conferences, and it was underlined by both Kraemer and Hocking. Education is the most powerful way to construct ideas, to determine the vision of people, and to form the character of individuals and nations. It was defined as ‘the process, whereby a community seeks to open its life for all individuals and to enable them to take part.’ Christian education is even broader as it opens its treasure to all mankind. There is no sharp distinction between sacred and secular studies; education claims the whole human being and the whole life for God (Findings, p. 87). Industrial and agricultural education fit within this definition. It was recommended that education in rural areas be rooted in the life of the community, that there be a deep relation with the local church, and that there be a strong connection with the social and economic aspects of the community life.

Kraemer stated that, because of their frontal religious attack on traditional communities, missions share in the responsibility for the devastating influence of Western civilisation on the lives of rural people. Thus, church and missions now have to (re)act as well: ‘Rural reconstruction, education, and other activities that try to meet essential needs or glaring evils are in the present time as natural expressions of the Christian spirit of love and solidarity as almsgiving or the care of slaves was in the Ancient Church’ (p. 435). Kraemer concluded with recommendations for the rural areas to re-establish a living relationship between the eternal beliefs of the Christian faith and the reality of country life. Two of them are mentioned here. Firstly, there had to be a radically religious approach because this was a religious problem and the dominion of God over all aspects of life should be again acknowledged. The second recommendation is that Christian festivals should play an important role in the annual life of rural Christians.

3.3.3. The Situation of the Rural Areas and the ‘Environment’

The younger church was mainly a rural church with agriculture as the most important source of income. This fact produced the 633 pages with discussion, conclusions, and recommendations of Volume V of the Tambaram series, titled ‘The Economic Basis of the Church’. It also indicated the growing concern of prominent laymen in the church and missions about the economic problems worldwide. Some background information is that in the 19th and 20th centuries, missions had accompanied Western expansion in Africa and Asia and ‘with few exceptions the mission station became a foreign island in the midst of an Asiatic sea’ (T V5, p. 5) (It is a pity that the report does not mention exceptions concretely). Fortunately, missions had separated themselves gradually from the colonial powers, making them more trustworthy. The development of an indigenous church was seen as more of a miracle than a result of missions.

The report observed that except for Japan, 80–90% of Christian churches in China, Korea, the Philippines, India, and Africa are situated in rural areas. A farmer does not have a salary, and agriculture is mainly subsistence agriculture with local markets, where products can be exchanged or sold to obtain the money necessary for education and health care. The economic power of rural people is inextricably connected with the production capacity of the soil and depends on the unpredictable changes in nature. So, church organisation and leadership must be in balance with the economic environment. The basic problem of rural Christians is land ownership. A total of 50% of the population no longer owns land and is a journeyman or land renter. The continuous pressure on farmers leads to increasing landlessness and poverty.

3.3.4. Rural Churches and Rural Missions

The chapter on the rural church begins with a reference to Jerusalem 1928, which drafted a broad definition of rural missions (Section 3.2). This was taken by Tambaram in 1938 as a starting point to measure the progress of rural missions. Kenyon Butterfield is mentioned, who through his travels in Africa and Asia applied the theory of rural missions to local circumstances. He stimulated ‘the rural experimental parish’, ‘the comprehensive rural programme’, institutions affiliated with the local church for training lay leaders and Christian service, and ‘Peasant Gospel Schools’ (T V, p. 486). Departments for rural churches were established in theological institutions, and demonstration and training facilities for rural pastors were opened. A milestone in the progress of agricultural missions was the founding of the Agricultural Missions Foundation in New York (hereafter AMF) in 1930. It gathered and spread information and organised rural work courses for missionaries in the regular curriculum of agricultural higher institutions, Bible schools, and theological seminaries through summer schools or in special locations for missionaries on furlough.

Rural missions are defined as missions adapted to the people, needs, and situations of the countryside. This means that the church must actually be a rural church and not a conventional church in a rural area. Education must be suited to everyone and not just a few, as preparation for higher studies. Medical missions should be (re)organised to serve the countryside, and programmes for disease prevention and hygiene must be developed and broadly applied. Women have a central place in the countryside community and assisting them with their responsibilities is crucial (T V, pp. 488–91). Rural missions require special preparation and training for missionaries and indigenous church leaders comparable to those of medical missionaries. ‘Above all should the rural missionaries be able to interpret God in terms of the great creative processes by which the village people live, with which they come in daily contact, … for which they need an interpretation that would lead them to an understanding of God in their daily life and work’ (T V, p. 490).

Agricultural missions are, according to John Reisner, ‘nothing more or less than the social teaching of Jesus applied to the needs of rural people all over the world’. D. Spencer Hatch stated, ‘A clearer understanding of the unity of the villager’s life and of the inclusive character of rural missions would involve missionary policy and programme in a process of coordination and unification and comprehensiveness’ (T V, p. 491). Reisner also dreamed about a Christian rural philosophy. God gave agriculture to the villagers and the power of re-creating themselves by answering to the environment and the seasons, to rain and sunshine. He finds it strange that the Christian nations secularised agriculture by delivering it and the interpretation of its importance for human well-being to scientific institutions and commercial and industrial interests.

So, what could and should the church do in this endeavour of rural reconstruction and improving rural life? Frank Rice, director of the Department of the Rural Church of the Nanking Theological Seminary, offers some guidelines essential for a Christian Rural Philosophy. They are as follows: we should witness as Christians without shame and build up the church; provide for the needs of the countryside; participate in rural reconstruction; and endorse the unity of village life. He recommends missionaries to enter the village, live amid the people, and emphasise the importance of norms and values as the basis for rural reconstruction. The implications for leadership training are obvious. ‘There must be more emphasis both upon the training of lay leaders in the churches and the education of ministers and women evangelists who can serve the new type of rural parish’ (T V, p. 505). As a practical help for upbuilding the village church, the conference recommends the book of E.K. Ziegler: A book of worship for village churches.

3.3.5. The Young Church Itself and the Problems of the Countryside

The Tambaram Conference had a ‘special group’ on the rural church. In the report of the findings, they speak about a threefold contribution towards rural reconstruction and the renewal of village life. This can be performed by individual Christians like Kagawa in Japan and James Yen in China. They carry in their vision and spirit great social movements. A second contribution is by Christian institutions in the educational, medical, and social areas, which carry out research and are exemplary. It can also be done by the church as a community in the countryside. This ‘special group’ summarised and concluded that some convictions and insights are deepening and that new insights in principles and methods of the rural church are gaining ground. It resulted in recommendations on pioneering, which should continue, both in unreached rural areas and in the ‘old fields’ with a new approach. Missionaries are stimulated to share more studies and the explanation of ‘the idea of the comprehensive community or parish programme … until it becomes a part of the thinking and life of the rural church everywhere’. Home boards should recruit and train new types of rural leaders and strengthen joint organisations like the AMF and DSER toward a better collaboration and broader coordination of Christian powers in education, medical care, and social areas (these are the pillars of rural reconstruction).

3.3.6. ‘Toward a Christian Rural Civilisation’

The final paragraph of the report states: ‘the past decade has given us the ideal of a Christian rural civilisation. We need now as a church to see more clearly the implication of this ideal and to press on more vigorously toward its realisation’ (T V, p. 513). The recommendations are in the form of questions, of which the following items are seen as the most urgent and the most relevant. A first question is about the spiritual and religious values inherent to the processes of agriculture and the social and economic relations of rural life. A second question addresses the moral responsibility of the tillers of the earth to ensure that it will be transferred intact to the next generation. Other questions are about the relevance of Christian principles for the rural economy and its social organisation, and it is also asked: ‘if the earth is the ‘table of the Lord’, what do we feel about the large differences between some of the guests?’ There is discussion about the place of the machine, village industries, cooperatives, medical care, including hygiene, in a Christian rural civilisation and about the relationship between the rural community and global peace. The final and maybe most crucial question is how the Christian message of God’s redeeming love in Christ can best be translated in the language of rural people and address them in their physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs.

3.3.7. Plans for the Future: Findings and Recommendations of Tambaram for Rural Missions

According to Merle Davis, ‘Evangelism, education and medical work are the three dimensions in which the missionary movement was conceived. The economic and social environment of the church forms a fourth dimension whose importance has only slowly been recognised’ (T V, p. 556). After this initial statement, Merle Davis summarises once more the problems that have to be solved: poverty, inefficiency, debts, large expenditures for important events like funerals and weddings, lack of income, rent systems, inadequate housing, strong ties of clan and caste, and the attraction of communism and nationalism for the emancipated youth. Answers and a start for solutions are put in two categories, looking at the young churches as a building: how is the foundation and how is the strength of the materials? The foundation should be broadened by merging weak churches and by forming ‘colonies’ like in India and the Dutch Indies to escape caste and to look for new fields in the case of overpopulation by starting to use formerly pristine forest areas.

Recommended is the building of ‘rural units’ to care for the whole community (‘rural parishes’ from Bo Hie Dong in China and from Tomiai in Japan) and to use elements of the cultural heritage of a people, which are not in contradiction with the teaching of Christ. ‘We suggest, that a study of such aspects of the cultural heritage as the family and clan systems of the Far East, the brotherhood and panchayats of Indian caste and great racial and family festivals and celebrations, may provide foundation stones that can be used for the Christian structure’ (T V, p. 561). On the other hand, can the ‘materials’ be strengthened by Bible studies—mainly about stewardship—and sharing responsible tasks with everybody and above all with the youth. Programmes for rural reconstruction should be drafted with improved agricultural methods and products, looking for new markets for local products, and cooperatives (a wide range from soup kitchens, purchasing and marketing organisations, and banks to hospitals) have to be established. Local cottage industries will lead to more jobs and better prices.

3.3.8. General Conclusion on the Conference of Tambaram 1938

In summarising the discussions and findings of the third Protestant World Missionary Conference at Tambaram (1938), it can be said that the line of thought of Jerusalem 1928 continued into the Tambaram meeting. The goal was to develop a Christian rural civilisation, nearly identical to the Kingdom of God on Earth. Agricultural missions were gradually transformed into rural missions, often called ‘inclusive’ or ‘comprehensive’. At the heart of the discussion was ‘rural reconstruction’. This aimed at recovering the countryside, which was disrupted by too little attention, by industrialisation, and by secularisation, to become once more the ideal living place for mankind and for Christians. One must acknowledge again that soil and nature are the bases of human society.

All branches of missions must contribute to rural reconstruction: medical missions providing medical care and hygiene; education expelling wrong ideas, transferring knowledge, and developing leadership; agricultural specialists stewarding proper food production; and social workers reforming the community. All are rural missionaries and need appropriate training, while the missionary theologian and pastor must develop a vision for the rural work. Davis described the social and economic environment of the church as the fourth dimension alongside preaching, medical care, and education. The growing world economy and the power of Western capital worldwide and in agriculture (‘commercial farming’) were accepted by Merle Davis. People like John Reisner recognised them but offered no practical ways to stop these powers. The possibilities of modern science were acknowledged and adopted.

3.3.9. Detailed Conclusions on Tambaram 1938

After the general conclusion, some detailed conclusions will be mentioned to highlight certain aspects of agricultural and rural missions. First and foremost, it can be concluded that agricultural missions had become an independent branch of missions in 1938. In addition to that, ‘rural missions’ was a new term that became more appropriate than agricultural missions sensu stricto. These rural missions were seen as the most important ways to address the countryside problems and to bring about a process of rural reconstruction. Medical missions and education were also called upon to support rural reconstruction, while theologians and pastors must draft and stimulate the vision. Kraemer underlines that the older generation of missions shares in the responsibility for the devastating influence of Western civilisation on the lives of the rural people.

The importance of religion is stressed in the final paragraph of the main conference, ‘Towards a Christian Rural Civilisation’, but is absent from the ‘Plans for the Future: Findings and Recommendations for Rural Missions’ drafted by Merle Davis. As a consequence, the spiritual dimension of rural missions is mostly absent from the work of the DSER under the direction of Merle Davis. Although all aspects of life in the countryside are included, and this is often called an all-inclusive or comprehensive missionary approach, religion as the heart of the countryside community does not receive much attention in this discourse. Industrialisation and secularisation were diagnosed as root causes of the rural decline, but at the same time, modern (agricultural) science was welcomed to improve the food and health situation of the countryside. The countryside environment was described more in terms of a social and economic environment than as a natural environment, and when the natural environment was mentioned, agriculture was not seen as a negative agent in the natural environment.

4. Discussion

The subject of this article is the relationship between agricultural missions and the environment(s), as addressed in papers, discussions, and the findings and proceedings of the International Missionary Conferences of Edinburgh (1910) and Tambaram (1938). This touches on an ongoing debate on the role of (agricultural) missions in natural and environmental issues (Robert 2011; White 1967).

From the 1910 conference, we learn that the natural environment—especially agriculture—was considered pagan by the older generation of missionaries as part of the traditional culture, which contributed to the disintegration of rural society. However, secularisation and modern science were also seen as negative for rural areas due to the increasing absence of the notion of religion. In contrast, newer varieties of crops and better methods of fertilisation, as components of modern scientific agriculture, made very positive contributions to the food supply of the population, most of whom lived in rural areas during the period under study. As such, the considered situation was complex. Industrialisation was mentioned as being negative for the countryside but was also welcomed by agricultural missionaries as a means of processing agricultural products and providing better machinery for farm work.

The growing world economy and the power of Western capital worldwide and in agriculture (‘commercial farming’) were accepted by Merle Davis, while John Reisner saw them, but did not mention or offer practical ways to stop their influence. Should he have done so and would that have favoured the countryside in the long run? The importance of religion for rural areas is stressed in the main conference of Tambaram but is absent from the ‘Plans for the Future: Findings and Recommendations for Rural Missions’ by Merle Davis, the director of the DSER. More research is needed to determine whether the churches actually became rural churches according to the ideal of the Tambaram Conference and whether the work of the DSER lost sight of the spiritual centre of rural culture. The next question is whether the AMF and other organisations then compensated for this loss.

5. Conclusions

Concern for agriculture and farmers by missionaries was present right from the beginning of the 19th century, and they actually worked toward assisting farmers and improving agriculture as part of their ‘ordinary’ missionary work. The main instruments were their own knowledge and experience on the farm at home and in the farmwork to be completed. Agricultural missions in the first part of the 20th century became more organised and structured. Missionaries were aware of the importance of soil and nature as the bases for life in the countryside. They aimed at improving the basic living conditions of the rural people—mainly farmers—through education and extension work for the local people and by training local workers. Between 1910 and 1938, we observe the rapid growth of the concern of churches and mission boards for the rural situation worldwide, and see more attention paid to agricultural missions and missionaries. This was strengthened by the growing contribution of laymen to missions.

Thus, agricultural and rural missions existed in 1938 as an independent branch of missions. Together with the natural environment, the social and economic environments of the countryside were acknowledged as the fourth dimension of missions. Agricultural missions gradually expanded into rural missions in which all aspects of rural life were to be improved and ‘reconstructed’ by the church and its missions. They were, according to John Reisner, the prophet of agricultural missions, ‘nothing more or less than the social teaching of Jesus applied to the needs of people all over the world’. The dream of a ‘Christian rural civilisation’ was expected to become reality through a comprehensive programme of rural reconstruction.

This programme should involve first of all the spiritual and religious values inherent to the processes of agriculture and the social and economic relations of rural life. The moral responsibility of the tillers of the earth is also important in ensuring that it will be transferred intact to the next generation. The programme should include the relevance of Christian principles for the rural economy and its social organisation and ensure an equal share for all guests at the ‘table of the Lord’, which is the earth. Another pillar of the programme is the responsible use of machines, village industries, cooperatives, and medical care, including hygiene. The relationship between a healthy rural community and global peace should be acknowledged and, last but not least, it must involve a proper translation of the Christian message of God’s redeeming love into the language of rural people to address their physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs.

Therefore, from this research, it is clear that agricultural and rural missions should not be considered as laying the foundations for the present ecological crisis, although they are sometimes ambiguous in certain aspects, such as traditional culture, modern science, and commercial farming. They should rather be valued as agents of a vital rural life through reconstructing the natural, social, and economic environments. As proof for the completely changed appreciation and esteem for agricultural missions, it may be considered that the AMF from 1938 onwards organised rural work courses for ‘real missionaries’ in the regular curricula of agricultural higher institutions, Bible schools, and theological seminaries by way of summer schools, while agricultural missionaries before 1910 would enrol in seminaries or Bible training schools to become a ‘real missionary’.