On the study problem of Christian missions to the indigenous peoples in modern foreign historiography

At the beginning of the 1990s the researchers received new resources that were aside because of the ideology reasons. We can find missionary narratives that were written at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries among them. They are rich in hard-to-get ethnography data. So a study boom might have been expected but there was none. There are two explanations. On the one hand, missionary narratives are situated in different archives across Russia. On the other hand, the Soviet ideology continues to influence and to frame study questions. But Marxist methodology analyses macro-socio-economic processes. Thus an individual perception of the conversion to Christianity, deep psychological mission methods of the second half of the 19th century, the everyday life cycle are aside. Whereas in the 1970s the subject of aboriginal peoples conversion to world religions was actualized in world scientific discourse (both Soviet and foreign, but the Soviet was not developed). Research people paid attention to cultural form diversity of perception of conversion. Cultural diversity of Christian church life became a particular challenge to foreign historiography. As opposed to the Russian study tradition the foreign scientific discourse includes theological schools and researching of modern processes of conversion to Christianity in developing countries. National diversity of newborn communities became a real challenge to the monolithic Catholic tradition which needed to be comprehended and gave rise to the world research "Conversion to World Religions: Historical and Ethnographic Interpretations" (1988). Collected articles were published after discussion. The researchers offered a number of measures to understand processes. Its editor R. Hefner generalized them. Among them were: to refuse linear models of religious evolution and conversion theory that was given by the model, the binary simplified model of the world and traditional religions categories and also quite a few stereotypes such as the identification and European civilization, ethnic identity ethnicity and a traditional religion. Researchers offered to return to the understanding of Christianity as one of world religions. They define their key feature as a capability to propagate throughout different cultures and different epochs. Researchers also offered to examine religious conversion interactively with individual and social processes. Application of an interdisciplinary approach is farthest in keeping with psychological, social, culture, historical complexity of phenomena (it concerns examination of the sociocultural dimension). Turning to the study of missionary activity problems in the Russian Empire researchers note that to study them better there is a need to differentiate state and church policies and the mission and to examine processes interactively with state and church policies and religious communities. They remark that ''despite the questionable efficacy of conversion efforts, Russian attempts to engineer the religious uniformity of the empire often had profound influences on subject populations. However, many of the most important consequences of church and state intervention were unintended and indirect. Even when such resistance was successful and cultures survived,. important social and cultural transformation often took place''. So, to study better different aspects of mission including missionary narratives it is necessary to refuse from linear religious evolution models and conversion theory and stereotypes that were created by the models, to use an interdisciplinary approach that takes into account all phenomena levels.

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