The Norwegian-American Lutheran experience in 1950s Japan : stepping up to the Cold War challenge / Kate Allen and John Ingulsrud.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allen, Kate, 1950-

Contributor:

Ingulsrud, John E.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lutheran Church--Missions--Japan.

Lutheran Church.

Missions--Japan.

Missions.

Lutheran Church--Missions.

Japan.

Japan--Church history.

Church history.

Physical Description:

xvii, 313 pages : illustrations, portraits, map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Lexington Books [2016]

Summary:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC), an American Christian denomination, did not initially respond to General MacArthur's postwar call for missionaries to Japan, but responded in 1949 only after their missionaries had been expelled from China following the victory of communist forces on the mainland. Because they feared Japan would also succumb to communism in less than ten years, the missionaries, hastening their Japanese-language training, evaded ecumenical cooperation and social welfare projects in order to focus on evangelism and establishing congregations. Among the ELC missionaries were many children and grandchildren of Norwegian immigrants who had settled as farmers on the North American Great Plains. Based on interview transcripts and other primary sources, this book intimately describes the personal struggles of individuals responding to the call to be a missionary, adjusting to life in Japan, learning Japanese, raising a family, and engaging in mission work. As the Cold War threat diminished and independence movements elsewhere were ending colonialism, missionaries were compelled to change methods and attitudes. The 1950s was a time when missionaries went out much in the same manner as they did in the nineteenth century. Through the voices of the missionaries and their Japanese coworkers, this study documents how many of the traditional missionary assumptions begin to be questioned. Book jacket.

Contents:

A new mission in Japan

Becoming a Norwegian-American Lutheran

Discerning a missionary call

Encountering Japan

Working as a full-time missionary

Working as a missionary wife

Interpreting the experience

Appendix: List of ELC missionaries in Japan 1950-1955.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-304) and index.

ISBN:

9781498524803

149852480X

OCLC:

922913792