10/22/2023 0 Comments Daniel webber william carey![]() ![]() ![]() 3 "Let every preacher read carefully over the life of David Brainerd", urged Wesley. John Wesley was among the first to recommend Life of Brainerd as a source of inspiration for evangelicals, observing in 1767, "Find preachers of David Brainerd's spirit and nothing can stand before them." 2 Between 17 Wesley went on to produce several abridged versions of Life of Brainerd, urging that the diary be used as a means to revive their evangelical commitment. As William Warrant Sweet once remarked, "David Brainerd dead was a more potent influence for Indian missions and the missionary cause in general than was David Brainerd alive" 1. Influence on Missions Ultimately published in at least 54 editions, Life of Brainerd became a source of inspiration for countless missionary careers. This paper offers a Lutheran perspective on the impact Brainerd's jourmal has had on the Church's understanding of and approach to missions, since its publication. We can only imagine how the history of missions for the past several centuries might have been different had a journal as influential as Life of Brainerd been published at the same time, portraying a missionary faithfully proclaiming the Gospel message in all its truth and purity and rightfully administrating Minister of the Gospel at Northampton in 1749 1 significantly influenced others in their missionary endeavors. The popularity of David Brainerd's personal journal, published by Jonathan Edwards in the mid-18 th century, greatly influenced the revivalistic understanding of and approach to Christian missions. Others write more from a neutral point of view as historical researchers. Nevertheless some of the authors wrote their articles as a defence of Calvinism or at least as very convinced Calvinists. This has even from Calvinism’s own firm position to be done on exegetical grounds. This book has not been edited to defend ‘Calvinism’ and its dogmatic system. Thus sometimes the wider topic of ‘Calvinism and Mission’ is included. Some articles go further, and follow the students and followers of Calvin and their relation to mission through history. Some add the question, what kind of mission has been organized from Geneva during Calvins time, because Calvin did not only speak about evangelism and mission, but also helped establish it in reality, even though on a quite small scale compared to later centuries. Some of the articles discuss Calvin and his writings and thinking on mission alone. The book presents major articles on the topic through 125 years of history and from different viewpoints from 1882 to 2002. At the end of the ‘Calvin-Year’, in which Christians all over the world celebrate Calvin’s 500th birthday, this books emphasizes Calvin’s role for establishing a Protestant mission theology which later led to a worldwide expansion of Protestant Christianity.
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