Making Sense of Missions: History and Ethics in the Hawaii Mission Bicentennial

The Simpson-Hewett Lecture series hosted by Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School. Andover Newton and Yale graduates played significant roles in the 19th Century missions generally, but nowhere did the two institutions have more overlapping interests than Hawaii. One can rightly call the Congregationalist’s Hawaii missions the first joint effort between Yale and Andover Newton. Yet how do we commemorate missions’ anniversaries ethically when we consider the colonial expansion and imperial ambitions that set the stage for those missions? How can we celebrate the accomplishments of missionaries when we consider he harm that came to many indigenous persons resulting from missionary activity? In a lecture entitles “Making Sense of Missions: History and Ethics in the Hawaii Mission Bicentennial,” YDS Professor Tisa Wenger discusses how to make meaning of missions in US religious history.