Missionary Self-Transformations in the Cross-Cultural Mission

Abstract

This article analyses the implications of religious mission as a specific type of ‘human enhancement’ linked to the optimisation of human nature in light of missionaries’ beliefs. The study draws on the autobiographical narratives of German Protestants, which show that missionary intent is inseparably linked to the Christian imaginations of the ‘renewed person’. This can best be characterised by (a) cultural adjustment, (b) persuasive communication, and (c) self-alterations of others. Hence, missions represent a specific prototype of goal-directed, intentional, and strategic human action aiming for the self-transformation of others and missionaries themselves.