Short-term youth mission practice and the visualization of global christianity

This article examines the visual mediation of evangelical short-term mission and the theologically inflected global imaginary that these forms engender. Recent decades have seen the resurgence of long-term mission and the emergence of short-term mission among US Christians. The latter, combining eva...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Material religion
Main Author: Hancock, Mary Elizabeth (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2014]
In: Material religion
Further subjects:B short-term mission
B visual media
B Global Christianity
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:This article examines the visual mediation of evangelical short-term mission and the theologically inflected global imaginary that these forms engender. Recent decades have seen the resurgence of long-term mission and the emergence of short-term mission among US Christians. The latter, combining evangelization, service, and tourism, is a staple within evangelical youth culture. I argue that it is used by Christians to constitute themselves as global formations, while also offering theological frames for global Christianity. Central to this global theological imaginary are visual representations of mission encounters with ethnic, sectarian, and racial Others, which illustrate the global scope of mission and missionaries' understandings of their own efforts to engage and overcome those differences. Through an analysis of the visual content of four short-term mission agencies' websites, I examine the mediation of global Christianity in contemporary mission and its recruitment of global Christian subjects.
ISSN:1751-8342
Contains:Enthalten in: Material religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.2752/175183414X13990269049365