In the following essay, Hall describes the manner in which British missionary rhetoric, sympathetic to black converts, revealed anxiety about English national identity.

In the following excerpt, Peterson compares Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre to the nonfiction missionary writings of nineteenth-century women. Peterson suggests that Brontë's allusion to the missionary memoir raises broader questions about the life, education, and career path deemed proper for women.

In the following excerpt, Christophers argues that the work of missionaries often came into conflict with the work of secular imperialism. Tracing the scriptural origins of evangelism, Christophers distinguishes the universalist rhetoric of Christianity from the nationalist tendencies of a specifically national religion such as Anglicanism.

In the following essay, Porter examines the connection between commerce and Christianity popularized in the mid-nineteenth century by missionaries such as David Livingstone, who wrote that the two were “inseparable.” Porter argues that this sentiment was relatively short-lived and not reflective of the whole of nineteenth-century missionary thought.

In the following essay, Ross attempts to revise Livingstone's image as a paternalist, arguing that Livingstone saw the Africans as equals, though he considered their culture in need of Christian influence.

In the following essay, McAllister describes Riggs's ethnology in the context of contemporary thought about human civilization and racial difference. McAllister suggests that while Riggs's writing demonstrates a lack of modern respect for Native American tradition, it also reflects his belief that Native Americans were not biologically inferior to Whites and therefore incapable of “civilization.”