This book presents a history of the missionary work, cultures, and rhetoric of the Church of England in 1760–1870, when it was the predominant organizer of Protestant overseas missions. Through close attention to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK, founded 1699), the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG, 1701), and the Church Missionary Society (CMS, 1799) it offers a systematic exploration of the complex relationship between the Societies’ policies, decision-making systems, and administration, as recorded in their unpublished minute books, and the rhetorical and theological activity of their sermon literature. Thus their ‘corporate holiness’ is shown to be a synthesis of theology, ministry, rhetoric, administration, and methods of building public support. Besides offering a critical history of its subject, the book suggests a methodology for approaching a general thesis of Christian missionary societies on their own terms, theoretically separable from and avoiding the distortions and imbalances which have been imposed by the secularist imperial historiography to which they have so often been subordinated. In the appendices and bibliography are presented three databases which constitute important resources for future research.

Corporate Holiness: Pulpit Preaching and the Church of England Missionary Societies, 1760-1870 PDF

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