Publication date:
03 June 2015Length of book:
382 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739194096
Protestant Missionaries in Spain, 1869–1936: “Shall the Papists Prevail?” examines the history of the Protestant denominations, especially the Plymouth Brethren, throughout Europe that attempted to bring their churches to Spain just prior to Spain’s First Republic (1873–1874) when religious liberty briefly existed. Protestant groups labored feverishly, establishing churches and schools designed to gain converts and thereby prove the supremacy of their theology in Spain as the foremost Roman Catholic country. Religious liberty was reintroduced in the 1930s during the Second Republic, but failed when General Francisco Franco won the Spanish Civil War and unified the culturally and linguistically diverse nation through the doctrine of religious uniformity.
Equally important is the question of why the Roman Catholic Church felt compelled to expel them from Spain. After the First Vatican Council (1869–1870), Spain became the battlefield between Protestants and Catholics, each vying to demonstrate their preeminence. Using primary sources from Spain and the UK, this book recreates the story of these missionaries’ struggles and examines their motivations for making significant sacrifices.
Equally important is the question of why the Roman Catholic Church felt compelled to expel them from Spain. After the First Vatican Council (1869–1870), Spain became the battlefield between Protestants and Catholics, each vying to demonstrate their preeminence. Using primary sources from Spain and the UK, this book recreates the story of these missionaries’ struggles and examines their motivations for making significant sacrifices.
There is, as yet, little scholarly work on Spain’s small protestant minority, and this first full-length study of British missionaries is therefore to be welcomed. . . .The book provides many insights. There is a welcome acknowledgement of Protestantism’s association with the working class and the poor in Spain, which the author associates with limiting the missions’ impact, given the failure to penetrate the elites. There are also illuminating discussions of the women who were involved in mission work. . . .One of the most attractive, if unconventional, features of the book is a sense of dialogue between the author and his sources, which reflects his insider position. He takes his protagonists seriously, treats their thoughts and feelings with respect, and fully recognizes the extent of their pastoral task. . . .This is, in short, an interesting and thoughtful…contribution to the understudied field of Spanish Protestantism.