Friday, October 10, 2008

A brief summary on theory and practice of Serampore Mission

A brief summary on theory and practice of Serampore Mission
Serampore mission came into existence by the efforts of William Carey. Marshman and Ward are the outstanding leaders who stood with Carey to fulfill his mission theory and practice. Carey introduced a mission theory that involved holistic concept of mission which became a watch word for the twenty first century missions. During the time of Carey mission was confined to the existed church with the four walls but Carey developed a revolutionary theory of reaching heathen nations with the gospel of Christ. Serampore mission’s theory and practice made a significant impact in the several areas; some of the areas are “philology, translation, education, distribution of Christian literature, preaching, publishing, journalism, poor relief, and social reform.” In this context this small paper is an attempt to give a brief summary on Serampore mission’s theory and practice.
Education
Smith records that “Carey and his cohort argued continually that education was one of the best ways to prepare India’s people to accept the gospel.” Their mission theory is that education helps the people to read the Bible so that people would accept Christian faith. “They saw education at every level as an important preparatio evangelica, which is understandable, given their insistence on focusing their mission operation de facto on metropolitan Calcutta and colonial Serampore.” Serampore trio studied the culture and background of the people and they developed this theory of education to speed up their mission work. Like Alexander Duff, they were not carried away by the superiority of the western education but rather they balanced in their curriculum and gave priority to “Eastern Literature and European Science.” They saw the future in their present investment and invested their lives in education which prepared people to read the Bible and they raised indigenous leaders to the church. In this connection George observes that “the missionaries’ efforts to promote literacy and education among the people of India had a lasting influence on the culture of the country and also served the primary purpose of their mission by training a generation of native leaders for the indigenous churches.” They materialized their theory by starting schools for the native people. They involved in female education in order to win them. “At the coming of Cary the plight of Indian girls and women was pitiful. Not a single school which girls could attend existed in the whole land, for female education was forbidden by the taboos of the country.” By knowing this fact they introduced female education and “by 1830, they had established 23 schools for girls with 582 female students.” Thus education was one of their theories and they practiced it in their mission.

Concentrating on strategic centres
Carey was strategic in his approach. In fact “the Serampore trio saw Serampore as the strategic centre for the evangelism of India as a whole and for eastern religions beyond.” To day we talk about urban mission as a theory but Carey had this theory in his mind and he practiced his mission from urban context.

Preaching
Preaching of God’s word is one of the outstanding theories that were developed by Serampore missionaries. Serampore trio “never neglected the direct approach to the people around them by the preaching of the word, in street and market, wherever men would gather and listen.” In fact this is New Testament mission practice. Apostle Paul and the early disciples snatched every opportunity to preach the word of God in the streets, market places, homes, during the travel, etc. Serampore mission adopted the same mission practice in their evangelistic efforts.

Vernacular language
Serampore mission gave significant priority to the local languages. They understood Indian cultural and linguistic diversity and tried their best to communicate the gospel in local languages. One of the observations on Carey is that “preaching to the indigenous people in his broken Bengali continued to constitute the main thrust of Carey's missionary activity.” The first think Carey did in his mission is learning the language. Carey “reached Calcutta on the 11th November, 1793” and “by March 1795 he had acquired enough fluency in Bengali to preach for a stretch of about 30 minutes.” With in 16 months he learnt the local language which he never knew and started communicating the gospel. This is an evident for his commitment and priority to the native languages in his mission theory. He not only developed the theory that supports using vernacular languages in mission but he practiced it in his own life. Language is one of the most important things in communicating the gospel. Carey’s mission practice is an example in the context of cross cultural mission.

Top to bottom approach
Carey strategically developed his theory of reaching the elite of the society. He developed a long range strategy to reach the Brahmin community of India which is why he gave priority to Sanskrit, which is the language of the elite. Philip notices that “Carey came to understand that the study of Sanskrit was the best means of getting into the life of India and will help him to feel at home among the Indians.” Carey closely associated with the Brahmins in his day to day relationships. He took help from them in his Bible translation work and moved closely to understand the Brahmin mind.

The significant mission practice in Serampore mission is that they worked among all sections of the society. Even though they targeted the elite sections of Indian society, they never neglected the lower caste people. They had converts from all sections of the society, yet they worshipped together and had fellowship together. For instance Krishna Paul’s daughter, who was a Sudra, married to their first Brahmin convert. In their mission practice a Brahmin and a Sudra worshipped together and lived together with out any caste consciousness. Indian church should adopt this mission practices to transform the cultural differences because Church in India is divided on the basis of caste and community.

Contextualizing the terminology
Carey studies the religious context of India and he tried to develop the theory of contextualization of terminology. Since the word “Shastras” is well know to Brahmins, he introduced Bible as “Christian Shastras” so that he would get attention and a listening ear from the natives.

Indigenous leadership
Serampore mission gave priority in developing indigenous leadership in their mission practice. “This conviction lay behind the foundation in 1818 of Serampore College with the primary purpose of training Christian Indians to be evangelists to their own people.” Serampore mission’s theory is that India can be reached by Indians which is why they gave priority in raising local leaders in their mission practice. Their mission efforts in India brought some results in India in the area of developing “native leaders for the indigenous churches.” They trained native people to carry on the mission work.

Unity and equality among the workers
Serampore mission practiced unity among the workers. Carey was a man of understanding and a good leader who learnt to work with the team. They had a common life in which all the missionaries shared their income and they lived like one family. George notices that “like their Moravian colleagues and the early Christians of the book of acts, they agreed to have all things in common. All the proceeds from their labors would be funneled back into the common treasury save for the bare essentials required by each family.” This kind of mission practice should be brought back to the present day mission agencies in India. Most of the Indian mission leaders enjoy the luxury, while their missionaries struggle in the filed with lot of unmet needs. Equality and justice should be practiced within the Christian mission itself.

Bible translation
Carey’s theory is that “the entrance of the word of God would give light” to the people of India so that they may turn to God. Serampore mission gave supreme priority to the translation of the scriptures. They practiced mission as Bible translation. Carey was an unusual man who practiced mission as Bible translation and “when he died in 1834, the entire Bible had been issued in six complete translations and the entire New Testament in twenty-three more, and besides this, separate books and portion of Scripture were available in about ten other languages.” His magnificent work on Bible translation became an exemplary practice in Indian missions.

Holistic Mission
The present day “Holistic mission” theory is very much present in Serampore mission. Carey understood that the preaching of the gospel alone would not transform India. Serampore missionaries gave priority to the transformation of the society. Social work was considered as a tool to expand the gospel work. Their theory is that transforming the evil structures of the society would prepare a way for the expansion of the gospel. “Along with fighting against sati the Serampore trio also worked hared to prevent the practice of burning lepers.” They raised voice against infanticide, female education, widow marriages, caste, etc. They used literature such as news paper, journal, and books as tools to awaken the society. Their concern for ecological issues, advanced technology was part of their holistic mission practice that the church in twenty first century should adopt.

Serampore mission was quite successful in their mission theory and practice because “By 1821 the missionaries had baptized over 1, 400 new Christians, more than one-half of them Indians.” Serampore mission was an instrumental in bringing transformation in several social evils in our country. They were well balanced in social work and evangelism.


Bibliography

Balasundaran, Franklyn J. “Carey, William.” In Dictionary of Asian Christianity. Edited by Scott W. Sunquist. Michigan: Wm.B.Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001.

Christadoss, D.A. “The Story of Serampore College, 1818-1929.” In The Story of Serampore and its College. Serampore: The Council of Serampore College, 1918.

Dasan, Ebenezer D. “Evaluation of the Serampore Mission from the perspective of a Holistic concept of Mission.” In UBS Journal 501 (March, 207): 37-55.

George, Timothy. Faithful Witness the life and witness of William Carey. England: IVP, 1991.

Joe L. Coker. “Developing a theology of missions in Serampore: The Increased Emphasis upon Education as a "Means for the Conversion of the Heathens.” Mission Studies 18/1 (2001): 42-60. American Theological Library Association Serial Project, http://search.atlaonline.com/pls/eli/pdfsearch.superframe? (9th June, 2008).

Middlebrook, J. B. William Carey. London: The Cary Kingsgate Press Limited, 1961.

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Philip, P. P. William Carey the man and His Mission. Madras: CLS, 1993.

Smith, A. Christopher. “A Tale of Many Models: The Missiological Significance of the Serampore Trio.” Missiology 20/4 (October, 1992): 479. American Theological Library Association Serial Project, http://search.atlaonline.com/pls/eli/pdfsearch.superframe? (8th July 2008).

__________________. The Serampore Mission Enterprise. Bangalore: Centre for Contemporary Christianity, 2006.

Stanley, B. “Carey, William.” In Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals. Edited by Timothy Larsen. Illinois: IVP, 2003.

Walker, F. Deaville. William Care. Chicago: Moody Press, 1960.

Wenger, E. L. “The Serampore Mission and its founders.” In The story of Serampore and its College. Serampore: The Council of Serampore College, 1918.

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