It has been suggested that Christianity is inextricably linked with secularization due to its emphasis on purification and rationalization. But if we believe secularization in Europe is at least partly caused by internal developments within Christianity, may we then assume that secularization emerges wherever Christian missionaries are successful? Has the Christian mission unwittingly instigated secularization in its mission fields? This literature review analyses the argument that American anthropologist Elmer Miller made in the article “The Christian Missionary, Agent of Secularization” (1970) and explores whether his thesis has been confirmed in academic literature during the past fifty years. Miller presents rationalization as the primary driver of secularization and explains how missionaries have played a decisive role in this process. This paper demonstrates that while rationalization has often been mentioned as an effect of the Christian mission in other sources, the process has rarely been linked to secularization in the mission field.

Abstract  My Ph.D.- dissertation analyzes the work of six Dutch missionaries on Java in the period of 1850 until 1920. Besides analyzing their proselytizing strategies, I reserched on the missionaries’ reflections on their work and the reformed strategies that followed those reflections and their views on the religious context they worked in as well as how they perceived the process of admission of new religions. My focus is not only on the arrival and acceptance of Christianity, but also the Islamization process of Java, since the missionaries tried to elucidate that procesin order to benefit from it. As part of my dissertation, this paper will focus on the formation of various Muslim and Christian currents in the second half of the nineteenth century in order to elucidate the process of religious adaptation on Java.

Dutch missionaries active in nineteenth century Java (in the former Dutch Indies) found themselves in an exceptional position, namely on the borders between their own, the colonial, and local cultures. This gave them a unique perspective on a range of processes in the colony, but it also made their proselytizing task that much harder. They felt restricted by cultural barriers and constantly had to negotiate with all sides involved. This paper shows how both the missionaries and Javanese Christians negotiated in the transnational space in their attempt to intersect the Christian with the Javanese identity.

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