Cross-Cultural Heritage
Critical Approaches to Missionary Legacies
Jonas Van Mulder (Editor), Thomas Coomans (Editor), Dries Vanysacker (Editor),
Series: Leuven Studies in Mission and Modernity
Category: Americas, Museum and Heritage Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Religion
Language: English
ISBN: 9789462704435
Publication date: April 9, 2025
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Size: 234 x 156 x 17 mm
Funded by: KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access
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Series: Leuven Studies in Mission and Modernity
Category: Americas, Museum and Heritage Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Religion
Language: English
ISBN: 9789461666031
Publication date: April 9, 2025
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Funded by: KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access
Series: Leuven Studies in Mission and Modernity
Category: Americas, Museum and Heritage Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Religion
Language: English
ISBN: 9789461666024
Publication date: April 9, 2025
Download Free PDFNumber of pages: 330
Funded by: KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access
The diverging forms of material and immaterial missionary heritages and legacies.
For centuries, Christian missions have intervened in local religious communities, practices and ideas across the globe, generating encounters between Indigenous and Western cultures that have ranged from hostile confrontation to intercultural osmosis. While primarily intended as a strategy for evangelisation, forms of inculturation also led to the emergence of new hybrid cultural and religious expressions. These creative processes were rarely unidirectional; instead, they involved reciprocal cultural transactions in which local communities exerted significant agency.
Cross-Cultural Heritage deepens our understanding of the intricate relationships between missions and missionised communities. These are reflected in the material and immaterial legacies of missionary histories in various contexts in South America, Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Europe. Often, they remain deeply rooted in landscapes, memories and practices today.
Contributing authors: Paola Granado (Université Lumière Lyon 2), Leah Abayao (University of the Philippines Baguio), Kwami Edem Afoutou (Université Laval), Karen Jacobs (University of East Anglia), Naziru Yahaya Shu’Aibu (College of Advance and Remedial Studies, Kano), Leon Bouwmeester (KU Leuven), Jennifer Bond (University College London), Rinald D’Souza (KU Leuven), Markus A. Scholz (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen Frankfurt am Main), Idesbald Goddeeris (KU Leuven).
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).
Missionary Heritage: Legacies of Religious Imperialism, Inculturation, and Appropriation
Jonas Van Mulder, Thomas Coomans, and Dries Vanysacker
ENCOUNTERS AND INTERPLAYS
Bolivian Missionary Musical Repertoire, Heritagization, and Contemporary Roles
Paola Granado
Belgian CICM Missionaries, Territorial Heritage, and the Chico River Dam Resistance in the Philippines
Leah Abayao
Challenges to Catholic Identity in Southern Togo. Ewe Christianity and the Marshall Order
Kwami Edem Afoutou
Co-Mission. The Material Dimension of Missionary Work in the Pacific
Karen Jacobs
PLACE AND MEMORY
Identity and Memory of Christian Missions among the Maguzawa in Nigeria, 1940–2017
Naziru Yahaya Shuaibu
From Mainland to Island. The Architectural Legacy of Belgian Franciscan Missionaries in Early Postwar Taipei
Leon Bouwmeester
Dreams, Nostalgia, and Commercialization. Telling Stories about Missionary Schools for Girls in Modern China
Jennifer Bond
REPRESENTATION AND MEMORIALIZATION
Text and Mission in Transition. The Indigenization of the Ranchi Jesuit Province, 1956–2000
Rinald D’Souza
Ethnographic Objects and Provenance from Missionary Contexts. The Chile Missions of the Bavarian Capuchins and their Museum in Altötting, 1896–1932
Markus A. Scholz
‘Benefactors of Humanity’? Monuments for Missionaries in the Belgian Public Space
Idesbald Goddeeris
Jonas Van Mulder
Jonas Van Mulder is a research associate and curator at KADOC Documentation and Research Centre on Religion, Culture and Society of KU Leuven.
Thomas Coomans
Thomas Coomans is a full professor of architectural history and built heritage conservation at KU Leuven and director of the Advanced Master in Conservation of Monuments and Sites (RLICC), at the Faculty of Engineering Science.
Dries Vanysacker
Dries Vanysacker is professor of history of Church and Theology at KU Leuven and head of the Study and Documentation Centre Capuchins in the Low Countries.
Paola Granado
Leah Abayao
Kwami Edem Afoutou
Karen Jacobs
Naziru Yahaya Shu’Aibu
Leon Bouwmeester
Jennifer Bond
Rinald D’Souza
Markus A. Scholz
Idesbald Goddeeris
Idesbald Goddeeris is professor of colonial history at the research unit MoSa (Modernity and Society, 1800-2000), KU Leuven.
Idesbald Goddeeris is hoogleraar koloniale geschiedenis aan de KU Leuven.
In summary, Cross-Cultural Heritage offers an engaging and richly illustrated exploration of the way missionary legacies continue to shape identities, landscapes, and cultural memory across diverse contexts. Its breadth of cases and methodological creativity make it an important resource for both scholars and students. At the same time, its commitment to foregrounding local agency and intercultural exchange enriches mission historiography by revealing the layered and often contradictory ways missions were remembered, contested, and reinterpreted. The creativity in methods and inquiry—particularly in combining archival studies of mission societies with contemporary perspectives—points towards fruitful directions for future research. For instance, studies that integrate mission archives with examinations of how contemporary churches remember and interpret their identity through the lens of mission history represent a promising avenue. Even where it leaves questions open, the volume invites further inquiry and dialogue, making it a welcome contribution to both mission studies and heritage scholarship, and draws attention to overlooked dimensions of mission legacy. - Simon Larsson, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 40:3, 536-539, DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2025.2549626
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Cross-Cultural Heritage" about?
The diverging forms of material and immaterial missionary heritages and legacies.
For centuries, Christian missions have intervened in local religious communities, practices and ideas across the globe, generating encounters between Indigenous and Western cultures that have ranged from hostile confrontation to intercultural osmosis. While primarily intended as a strategy for evangelisation, forms of inculturation also led to the emergence of new hybrid cultural and religious expressions. These creative processes were rarely unidirectional; instead, they involved reciprocal cultural transactions in which local communities exerted significant agency.
Cross-Cultural Heritage deepens our understanding of the intricate relationships between missions and missionised communities. These are reflected in the material and immaterial legacies of missionary histories in various contexts in South America, Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Europe. Often, they remain deeply rooted in landscapes, memories and practices today.
Contributing authors: Paola Granado (Université Lumière Lyon 2), Leah Abayao (University of the Philippines Baguio), Kwami Edem Afoutou (Université Laval), Karen Jacobs (University of East Anglia), Naziru Yahaya Shu’Aibu (College of Advance and Remedial Studies, Kano), Leon Bouwmeester (KU Leuven), Jennifer Bond (University College London), Rinald D’Souza (KU Leuven), Markus A. Scholz (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen Frankfurt am Main), Idesbald Goddeeris (KU Leuven).
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).
Who wrote "Cross-Cultural Heritage"?
"Cross-Cultural Heritage" was written by Paola Granado, Leah Abayao, Kwami Edem Afoutou, Karen Jacobs, Naziru Yahaya Shu’Aibu, Leon Bouwmeester, Jennifer Bond, Rinald D’Souza, Markus A. Scholz and Idesbald Goddeeris.
Idesbald Goddeeris is professor of colonial history at the research unit MoSa (Modernity and Society, 1800-2000), KU Leuven.
Idesbald Goddeeris is hoogleraar koloniale geschiedenis aan de KU Leuven.
Who edited "Cross-Cultural Heritage"?
"Cross-Cultural Heritage" was edited by Jonas Van Mulder, Thomas Coomans and Dries Vanysacker.
Jonas Van Mulder is a research associate and curator at KADOC Documentation and Research Centre on Religion, Culture and Society of KU Leuven.
Thomas Coomans is a full professor of architectural history and built heritage conservation at KU Leuven and director of the Advanced Master in Conservation of Monuments and Sites (RLICC), at the Faculty of Engineering Science.
Dries Vanysacker is professor of history of Church and Theology at KU Leuven and head of the Study and Documentation Centre Capuchins in the Low Countries.
Is "Cross-Cultural Heritage" part of a series?
Yes, "Cross-Cultural Heritage" is part of the "Leuven Studies in Mission and Modernity" series.
Leuven Studies in Mission and Modernity is a peer-reviewed book series which aims to showcase groundbreaking works on the history of missionaries and missionary organisations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The series will steer mission history towards new thematic frontiers by exploring the multiple ways in which missionary operations have affected local societies and cultures around the globe, and how their significance is negotiated in the present. Leuven Studies in Mission and Modernity provides a forum for original contributions to the study of religious missions and how they have been embedded in broader processes of colonisation/decolonisation, globalisation, secularisation, and humanitarianism from the nineteenth century onwards.
MiMoRA
Leuven Studies in Mission and Modernity is an initiative by the Mission and Modernity Research Academy (MiMoRA). Created in 2018 by several partners within KU Leuven, MiMoRA aims to reinvigorate international research on missionaries by providing a forum for academic debate and by creating new research networks and publication possibilities for young and promising scholars across the globe. MiMoRA is coordinated by KADOC-KU Leuven, the interfaculty Documentation and Research Centre on Religion, Culture and Society associated with KU Leuven and supported by the Flemish Community.
Technical details
All books are published in English for an international audience of scholars. All manuscripts are subject to peer review.
The series welcomes contributions by established scholars as well as by promising young researchers, and embraces diversity in terms of gender, nationality, and ethnicity.
Series Board
Kim Christiaens (KADOC-KU Leuven), Carine Dujardin (KADOC-KU Leuven), Idesbald Goddeeris (KU Leuven, Faculty of Arts), Jonas Van Mulder (KADOC-KU Leuven), Dries Vanysacker (KU Leuven, Theology and Religious Studies) and Pieter Verstraete (KU Leuven, Psychology and Educational Sciences)
For more information, please visit kadoc.kuleuven.be/mimora and kadoc.kuleuven.be.
Is "Cross-Cultural Heritage" available Open Access?
Yes, "Cross-Cultural Heritage" is published Open Access. It is available under a BY-NC-ND license.
Who funded the publication of "Cross-Cultural Heritage"?
Publication of "Cross-Cultural Heritage" was funded by KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access
.
What is the Table of Contents for "Cross-Cultural Heritage"?
Missionary Heritage: Legacies of Religious Imperialism, Inculturation, and Appropriation
Jonas Van Mulder, Thomas Coomans, and Dries Vanysacker
ENCOUNTERS AND INTERPLAYS
Bolivian Missionary Musical Repertoire, Heritagization, and Contemporary Roles
Paola Granado
Belgian CICM Missionaries, Territorial Heritage, and the Chico River Dam Resistance in the Philippines
Leah Abayao
Challenges to Catholic Identity in Southern Togo. Ewe Christianity and the Marshall Order
Kwami Edem Afoutou
Co-Mission. The Material Dimension of Missionary Work in the Pacific
Karen Jacobs
PLACE AND MEMORY
Identity and Memory of Christian Missions among the Maguzawa in Nigeria, 1940–2017
Naziru Yahaya Shuaibu
From Mainland to Island. The Architectural Legacy of Belgian Franciscan Missionaries in Early Postwar Taipei
Leon Bouwmeester
Dreams, Nostalgia, and Commercialization. Telling Stories about Missionary Schools for Girls in Modern China
Jennifer Bond
REPRESENTATION AND MEMORIALIZATION
Text and Mission in Transition. The Indigenization of the Ranchi Jesuit Province, 1956–2000
Rinald D’Souza
Ethnographic Objects and Provenance from Missionary Contexts. The Chile Missions of the Bavarian Capuchins and their Museum in Altötting, 1896–1932
Markus A. Scholz
‘Benefactors of Humanity’? Monuments for Missionaries in the Belgian Public Space
Idesbald Goddeeris
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