German Moravian missionaries in the British colony of Victoria, Australia, 1848-1908 : influential strangers / / by Felicity Jensz.

• Superior document: Studies in Christian mission, v. 38
• Author: Jensz, Felicity.
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Christian mission ; v. 38.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (292 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Focusing on the six decades that German Moravian missionaries worked in the British colony of Victoria, Australia, this book enriches understanding of colonial politics and the role of the non-British other in manipulating practice and policy in foreign realms. Central to the transnational nature of the book are questions of identity and of how individuals, and the organisations they worked for, can be seen as both colluders and opposers within nation-state borders and politics. It analyses the ways in which the Moravian missionaries navigated competing agendas within the colonial setting, especially those that impacted on their sense of personal vocation, their practices of conversion, and their understandings of the indigenous non-Christian peoples in the settler society of Victoria.

Table of Contents

God's lot : Moravians and missions -- "The most wretched and bleakest" : Moravian desire to work amongst the Australian Aborigines -- "Ein fauler Fleck" : Lake Boga, a putrid stain -- "I is done--no more" : the first converts -- "Alles geht seinen schleppenden Gang"-- expansion, movement and sluggish progress -- "Every triumphant death"-- closure in a British colony.