Religion and Enlightenment – Protestant Mission in India and the Transformation of Reason

Thomas Ruhland

The dissertation focuses on the complex relationships between religion and enlightenment during the beginning of the Protestant Mission to South India in the 18th Century. On the one hand, it investigates the interdependency between missionary activities and the exploitation of new scientific, cultural and religious insights and the ensuing effects on the religious beliefs of the European missionaries in face of the challenge an enlightened perception of the world posed to these missionaries. On the other hand, this project compares the protagonists of the early Protestant Mission – the Danish-English-Halle Mission and the Moravian Brethren – in relation to this development. Particular attention is paid to the conflict within pietism in Europe and in India which led not only to different theological approaches but also to distinct attitudes towards the ideas of enlightenment.

Both missions adopted forms of enlightened thinking and included different modes of enlightened practices as institutionalised praxis into their missionary activities. A change in missionary philosophy and school systems, as well as the organised collection of natural objects, highlight the influential but often obscured relationship between religion, mission and enlightenment. On this basis, the project aims to revaluate the significance of the enlightenment in the emerging protestant missionary movement by clarifying the differences between Moravian and Halle Pietism within their shared field of activities in South India.