 | Protestant Missionaries in the Levant: Ungodly Puritans, 1820-1860 Subjects: Area Studies; Humanities; Middle East Studies; History; Religion; Middle East History; Religion; Modern History 1750-1945; Religious History; Christianity; Through focusing on the unintended by-products of New England Puritanism as a cultural transplant in the Levant, this book explores the socio-historical forces which account for the failure of early envoys' attempts to convert the 'native,' population. Early failure in conversion led to later success in reinventing themselves as agents of secular and liberal education, welfare, and popular culture. Through making special efforts not to debase local culture, the missionaries' work resulted in large sections of society becoming protestantized without being evangelized. An invaluable resource for postgraduates and those undertaking postdoctoral research, this book explores a seminal but overlooked interlude in the encounters between American Protestantism and the Levant. Using data from previously unexplored personal narrative accounts, Khalaf dates the emergence of the puritanical imagination, sparked by sentiments of American exceptionalism, voluntarism and "soft power" to at least a century before commonly assumed. Samir Khalaf is Professor of Sociology at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He has held academic appointments at Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New York University. Among his books are Lebanon Adrift, Sexuality in the Arab World (with John Gagnon), The Heart of Beirut, Civil and Uncivil Violence in Lebanon, Cultural Resistance, and Lebanon's Predicament. He has been a recipient of several international fellowships and research awards, a trustee of numerous foundations and serves on the editorial boards of a score of international journals and publications. |
