On the Missiological Creation of the World: Some Personal Observations on Missiological Tools and Toolmakers Made in the Course of Preparing a Selective Bibliography of 200 Years of Missiological Reference
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online January, 1999
On the Missiological Creation of the World: Some Personal Observations on Missiological Tools and Toolmakers Made in the Course of Preparing a Selective Bibliography of 200 Years of Missiological Reference
Maps not only represent but also create their own reality. Maps are “drawn” from a variety of vantage points, locating and identifying all important features of a particular cartographer's world, whilst ignoring, downplaying, or distorting the rest. This article was prepared as the presidential address for the 19–21 June 1998 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Missiology (ASM). It looks at ways in which missiological reference tools of the past two centuries likewise bear the unmistakable imprimatur of their times. Each reveals as much about the cognitive terra firma of the mapmaker himself or herself as about the geographical, political, demographic, and religious topography and boundaries of the day.
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