The Social Control of Religious Zeal: A Study of Organizational Contradictions

How has the organization of the Christian missionary movement managed to persist for almost two centuries? Jon Miller covers the activities of the Evangelical Missionary Society of Basel, Switzerland, from 1828 to 1918 as it struggled to bring its Pietist religious beliefs to the people of the Gold Coast of West Africa. The mission gave different social classes an opportunity to interact in a way that would have been unlikely in Europe. Many of the missionaries became socially mobile, over the generations, through their evangelical work. In matters of governance, Pietist beliefs called for concentrated power at the center. That discipline channeled the zeal of the missionaries, but it alienated ordinary members and suppressed their initiative, while at the same time allowing creativity among eccentric nonconformists. Miller interprets these contradictions, explores their consequences at home and abroad, and explains how the mission persisted despite the personal pain its members experienced. The mission remains active and influential in Africa to this day. This study of the passage of an organization through time will interest organizational sociologists, sociologists of religion, and students of social theory and social change.