Religion and Globalization

In the 21st century religion continues to impact international relations and globalization. I am currently interested in the history and the current activities of Protestant missionary societies and the modern missionary and humanitarian RNGOs that continued their work. I focus on the way in which these societies visualised their global strategy through cartography. This is explored in several research articles, an online exhibition and several databases available to researchers.

Missionary societies from the early 19th century published maps that reflected their global ambitions. With Hannah de Korte and Marco van Egmond, we created an online exhibition on missionary maps at the Utrecht University Library website, as well as several databases of missionary maps. We also published articles on the famous 10/40 Window missionary map, on eschatology and maps and on missionary maps and imperialism.

Protestant missionary societies emerged around the turn of the 19th century, but in actual fact the early modern period also saw a plethora of global missionary activities and publishing. We explore this in an upcoming online conference: Exploring Early Modern Protestant Mission, organized by Utrecht University on 21 and 22 January 2021.

KNIR (Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome) colloquium on Turning points in global mission 1600-2000.