Papers
Files
DOI
DOI: 10.7252/Paper.000016
Series
Association of Professors of Mission 2013 - Workshop Paper #2
Publication Date
2013
Publisher
First Fruits Press
Place of publication
Wilmore, Ky.
Keywords
Association, of, Professors, Mission, APM, Conference, Papers, 2013
Disciplines
Missions and World Christianity
Biography
Included
Recommended Citation
Beckner, W. Benjamin, "Eugène Casalis and the French Mission to Basutoland (1833-1856): A Case Study of Lamin Sanneh's Mission-by-Translation Paradigm in Nineteenth Century Southern Africa" (2013). Papers. 19.
https://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruitspapers/19
Call Number
BV2090 .S624 / BV2020 .A876 2013
Language
English
Comments
ABSTRACT
In his remarkable work, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture, Lamin Sanneh claims that, from its beginnings at Pentecost, Christian mission, through its practice of vernacular language transcription and Bible translation, characteristically makes “the recipient culture the true and final locus of the proclamation, so that the religion arrives without the presumption of cultural rejection” (p. 29). In this paper we evaluate the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society’s mission to Basutoland (1833-1856), spearheaded by Eugène Casalis and Thomas Arbousset, in light of Lamin Sanneh’s theses with regard to the Christian gospel and its missionary propagation. We will pay particular attention to the missionaries’ attitudes towards the Basotho people, language and culture; their ambiguous relationship to European colonialism; and their contribution to the founding of modern Lesotho. What were the primary factors of the French mission’s success in establishing an indigenous church, a self-propagating movement, and ultimately in laying the groundwork for a nation?