I suggested Mormon mission history in the 19th century as an untapped field. As we chatted, I explained my own personal interest and what I intend to pursue in the coming years, but other potential avenues in this field crossed my mind, if only in passing. They certainly deserve repeating, especially since the Mormon mission effort is so expansive, systematic, and vital to our sense of identity and culture. Mormons would sooner divorce themselves from the New Testament than from mission work. Here are just a few of the many possibilities awaiting an extensive and academic study of Mormon missions.

Beginnings of Mission

The best study of early Mormon missions, in my opinion, is S. George Ellsworth’s A History of Mormon Missions in the United States and Canada, 1830-1860, diss. (Berkeley: University of California-Berkeley, 1951). Unfortunately, this dissertation is extremely difficult to come by; I’ve only been able to manage inter-library loans that limit the book from leaving the library. David Whittaker told me of a project to reproduce the dissertation in book form, but I’ve not yet seen anything come from it. Certainly more research could be managed from Ellsworth’s 1951 study, even for the same time period and geography.

Imperialism, Colonialism, and Mormon Expansionism

Mormon missionaries were not altogether different from their Western counterparts in spreading not just Mormon gospel values, but American imperialist ideals. What’s more, they initially brought converts into America as part of the gathering, thus fully assimilating foreigners into American culture. This facet of early Mormon missions implicates them in criticisms of mission as imperialist and colonizing. I, for one, see a lot of potential in taking on these criticisms and exploring how they actually played out in Mormon missionary discourse, behavior, and missiology. This study needs not be overly damning for Mormon historians or theorists, in fact, I believe it would have incredible relevance and utility for today’s missionaries who still engage in foreign mission work, and possible help them curb their American (as opposed to authentic Christian/Mormon) zeal when in someone else’s country.

Missionary Curriculum

A documentary history of Mormon missionary curricula would profit many missionaries and historians. As of yet, little, if anything, has been made available. The most ambitious documentary projects compile diaries (like BYU’s Mormon Missionary Diaries project). Mormons from day one provided training materials to help missionaries along in the form of printed curricula. Unlike diaries, these source materials help to focus shifts in missiology that occurred at the institutional level (diaries are much more individualized, though they do reflect some of these general shifts). Furthermore, as foreign missions increased, missionary trainers negotiated many more cultures and languages, which generally impacts mission work profoundly (as in the case of Protestant and Catholic foreign missions since the Middle Ages).

Many Other Directions

Many other possibilities exist for the Mormon missiologist/mission historian. For one, a complete one-volume study of the whole Mormon mission experience hasn’t yet been attempted. This fact alone prompts a major mission history project for Mormon scholars. Sociological projects, like what Armand Mauss has done for general Mormon culture, or Terryl Givens’ People of Paradox find ample lines of inquiry in Mormon mission, to say nothing of the lack of contemporary histories of these missionaries. Spencer W. Kimball’s call for increased missionary manpower triggered a resurgence in Mormon expansion, yet little has been done to produce a history since this time. I imagine a history of Mormon missions from the 1970s to the present would meet with success.