Ebook: American apostles: evangelicals and the invention of Islam
Author: Heyrman Christine Leigh
- Tags: Missionaries--United States, Missions American--Middle East--History--19th century, Missions--Middle East--History--19th century, Protestant churches--Missions--History--19th century, Missions -- Middle East -- History -- 19th century, Protestant churches -- Missions -- History -- 19th century, Missions American -- Middle East -- History -- 19th century, Missionaries -- United States -- Biography
- Year: 2015
- Publisher: Farrar Straus and Giroux
- City: New York
- Edition: 1. ed
- Language: English
- epub
The surprising tale of the first American Protestant missionaries to proselytize in the Muslim world
On November 3, 1819, Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons embarked from Boston on the first American mission to the Middle East. A year later they were joined by their friend Jonas King. Poor boys reared on hardscrabble New England farms and steeped in evangelical piety, they imagined themselves martyrs to the cause of converting the world. So too did their large and devoted following in the United States.
Christine Leigh Heyrman's American Apostles brilliantly chronicles the first collision between American evangelicalism and the diverse religious cultures of the Levant. The founding members of the "Palestine mission" thrilled readers with tales of crossing the Sinai and exploring Cairo and Jerusalem. But their missions did not go according to plan. The Muslims of the Middle East showed no interest in converting. Instead of saving souls, the New Englanders...