Global Calvinism: conversion and commerce in the Dutch Empire, 1600-1800

Abstract

"Calvinism went global in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as close to a thousand Dutch Reformed ministers, along with hundreds of lay chaplains, attached themselves to the Dutch East India and West India companies. Across Asia, Africa, and the Americas where the trading companies set up operation, Dutch ministers sought to convert 'pagans,' 'Moors,' Jews, and Catholics and to spread the cultural influence of Protestant Christianity. As Dutch ministers labored under the auspices of the trading companies, the missionary project coalesced, sometimes grudgingly but often readily, with empire building and mercantile capitalism. Simultaneously, Calvinism became entangled with societies around the world as encounters with indigenous societies shaped the development of European religious and intellectual history. Though historians have traditionally treated the Protestant and European expansion as unrelated developments, the global reach of Dutch Calvinism offers a unique opportunity to understand the intermingling of a Protestant faith, commerce, and empire."--

Contents

Introduction: Calvinism in the Dutch Empire -- Christ, the Fatherland, and the Company -- Church and colonial society -- Conversion in the Empire -- language and salvation in the Empire -- Identity and otherness in the Republic and the missions -- Global Calvinism and the pagan principle -- The early modern legacy of global Calvinism -- Appendix: Authors and works discussed in chapters 5 and 6.