Situated at the crossroads of missionary history, imperial history and colonial architecture, the contributions in this volume investigate the architectural staging and spatial implications of the worldwide expansion of Christianity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The ‘spatial turn’ of missionary placesSituated at the crossroads of missionary history, imperial history and colonial architecture, the contributions in this volume investigate the architectural staging and spatial implications of the worldwide expansion of Christianity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By looking at specific architectural fragments, analysing the insertion of Christian edifices in colonial urban settings, or unravelling the social understanding of missionary places, each of the chapters contemplates an aspect of the agency of mission spaces.Bringing together scholars from different disciplines, this book approaches missionary places not as the mere décor against which the missionary encounter was enacted, but as an integral part of it. In doing so, the contributors test the applicability of the spatial turn, an interpretative paradigm that has been dominant across the humanities since the late 1990s, to missionary historiography.Richly illustrated and with a global focus, the volume addresses case studies from, among other countries, China, Japan, Madagascar, Congo, Tanzania, Ghana and Lebanon.Contributions: Lawrence Braschi (School of Oriental and African Studies, London), Alexis Bremner (University of Edinburgh), Elisabeth L. Cameron (University of California), Bram Cleys (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Thomas Coomans (KU Leuven), Céline Frémaux, Allen M. Howard (University of Wisconsin), Aleksandra Majstorac-Kobiljski (École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris), Maarten Onneweer (Universiteit Leiden), Karen Hestad Skeie (NLA University College Bergen), and Alexis B. Tengan. Situated at the crossroads of missionary history, imperial history and colonial architecture, the contributions in this volume investigate the architectural staging and spatial implications of the worldwide expansion of Christianity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By looking at specific architectural fragments, analysing the insertion of Christian edifices in colonial urban settings, or unravelling the social understanding of missionary places, each of the chapters contemplates an aspect of the agency of mission spaces. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines, this book approaches missionary places not as the mere décor against which the missionary encounter was enacted, but as an integral part of it. In doing so, the contributors test the applicability of the spatial turn, an interpretative paradigm that has been dominant across the humanities since the late 1990s, to missionary historiography. Richly illustrated and with a global focus, the volume addresses case studies from, among other countries, China, Japan, Madagascar, Congo, Tanzania, Ghana and Lebanon. INTRODUCTION Imagining, Building, Contesting Missionary Spaces Thomas Coomans PART ONE – IMAGINED WORLD / ADAPTED STRATEGIES 1 Spatial Trajectories and Missionary and Colonial Movements into Northwest Ghana since 1929: Dagara Reception of Catholic Missionary Activities Alexis B. Tengan 2 Redeeming Ukamba: Word and World, 1893-1905 Maarten Onneweer 3 Islands on the Mainland: Catholic Missions and Spatial Strategies in China, 1840s-1940s Thomas Coomans 4 Co-authoring the City: Missionaries and the Colonial City of Luluaburg (Belgian Congo), 1930-1960 Bram Cleys 5 The Catholic Territorialization of Taiwan: Vatican Global Strategy and Franciscan Local Parishes, 1949-1960s Leon Bouwmeester and Thomas Coomans PART TWO – UNIVERSAL PROJECTS / LOCALIZED ARCHITECTURES 6 Gendered Spaces in Catholic Compounds of Late Qing China Thomas Coomans 7 Gender-Designed Catholic Churches in North China, 1830s-1920s Thomas Coomans 8 The Missionaries in the Cosmopolitan Towns of the Suez Isthmus, Egypt: Their Role in the Formation of Identity in Architecture and Urban Planning, 1860-1937 Céline Frémaux 9 Civilizing Space in West China: Re-examining the Place of the Christian University in Chengdu, 1909-1933 Lawrence Braschi 10 A Highly ‘Mediated Monument’ of Tropical Modernism in Central Africa: Unpacking the Complex Agendas behind the Design and Construction of the Collège du Saint-Esprit in Bujumbura, Burundi Johan Lagae Abbreviations Index of Persons Index of Places Authors Colophon