Missionary Photography: Untapped Source for the Study of Christian Missions

T his issue presents the first in a series of occasional articles featuring missionary photographs. We are indebted to our colleague in Basel, Switzerland, Paul Jenkins, for suggesting the topic and providing the introductory article, "The Enigmatic Patriarch of the Kingdom of Bamum." In correspondence with the editors, Jenkins has shared his criteria for the photographs that mission historians and missiologists will value. He states, "We are looking for images that offer decisive support and especially extension of existing written sources. For instance, much of the history of women in mission is available only in pictorial form. Equally germane is the history of indigenous churches, both ex-mission churches 'and original local churches. These, too, are rarely or very incom pletely documented in written form. They can be rendered much more 'visible' through carefully collected and sensitively ana lyzed photographs." An intriguing, sometimes problematical aspect of mission ary photographs is their promotional and educational use in the sending countries. The photo featured in Jenkins's article pro vides a case in point. In correspondence with us, Jenkins encour ages us to "look for instances where a typical Western observer might misread the photograph. In such cases, it falls to the mission archivist to put the image in its proper cultural or archival context and thereby reveal its authentic meaning." Other articles for this series are in the works. If readers involved with archival collections are able to identify significant photos for the series, or if any of our readers possess in-depth information about important, high quality missionary photo graphs, the editors of the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN will be happy to receive suggestions for future articles. Stanley Skreslet's lead article in this issue-"The Empty Basket of Presbyterian Mission: Limits and Possibilities of Part nership"-with an accompanying response and author's reply, promises to stir debate. Other features include Matthews Ojo's first-hand account of the Nigerian charismatic movement, Day ton Robert's "My Pilgrimage in Mission," and Carol Pickering's memorial article about her missionary father, Murray T. Titus. We also offer a biographical sketch of the contemporary Greek Orthodox archbishop and missiologist Anastasios Yannoulatos. It is gratifying to be able to offer such variety in stimulating mission reading as we welcome almost a thousand new subscrib ers to these pages, readers who have joined us in the second quarter of 1995.