Seated Buddha, gilt bronze with silver inlay, c. 9th century A.D., Tamil Nadu, possibly Tanjore district, Southern India. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The first Mrs. Judson, Ann Hasseltine, met her husband, Adoniram Judson, in 1810 while he, a seminary student at Andover, was having dinner with her father, Deacon John Hasseltine, at their family home in Bradford, Massachusetts. Ann and Adoniram were married in 1812 and set sail for missionary work in India. On arrival, they both became Baptists, so they are downplayed in the early history of the A.B.C.F.M., a collaboration between Congregationalists and Presbyterians, and not incidentally the Judsons' sponsors. Nonetheless, he and she were undeniably in that first group of proselytizers planning to save the world. The second Mrs. Judson, Sarah Boardman, followed the death of the first in 1826; then came a third, Emily Chubbuck, after Sarah's death in 1845. Adoniram himself died in 1850.
I sought out the book The Lives of The Three Mrs. Judsons by Arabella M. Stuart, originally published in 1851, reprinted dozens of times, and republished in 1999 by the Particular Baptist Press of Springfield, Missouri, because I had hoped to learn more about each of these women. Unfortunately, a missionary biography that isn't a hagiography is as rare as the proverbial black tulip. In fact, I have yet to find one. Reading such a book is like reading The Lives of the Saints, which I loved to do as a child, attracted by the inevitable high drama. One also typically finds in the written lives of missionaries the kinds of attitudes towards non-white people ("dark browed and darkened-minded heathen") that were pervasive in the period. Except that, even though you expect it, it's always disconcerting. What is also alarming are their attitudes towards non-Christian belief systems. For example, Buddhism, Stuart wrote, is "one of the most ancient and wide-spread superstitions on the face of the earth." [1] Superstitions? She does give them that their "religious system. . . contains many except moral precepts and maxims," but concludes that they are "utterly powerless to mould the character of the people to wisdom or virtue." She goes on: "Buddhism in its moral precepts is perhaps the best religion ever invented by man." Invented. Her word. "The difficulty is, its entire basis is false." Buddhists might say the same about Christianity and their "absurd superstitions," "unmeaning rites" and "senseless formalities, to which they cling with a stubbornness that nothing but the power of God can subdue." But they didn't say that to the various Judsons. Instead, as reported by Stuart, their rebuff was merely this: "Your religion is good for you, ours for us." "You will be rewarded for your good deeds in your way, we in our way." And what was the Judsons' response to this magnanimity? In Stuart's word: "They found [in the "semi-barbarian" people of Burma, where their missionary work was taking place] they had to deal with one of the proudest and most conceited races on earth."
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* The book was originally titled The Lives of Mrs. Ann H. Judson, Mrs. Sarah B. Judson, and Mrs. Emily C. Judson: Missionaries to Burmah. All quotes are from the 1999 reprinting.
I sought out the book The Lives of The Three Mrs. Judsons by Arabella M. Stuart, originally published in 1851, reprinted dozens of times, and republished in 1999 by the Particular Baptist Press of Springfield, Missouri, because I had hoped to learn more about each of these women. Unfortunately, a missionary biography that isn't a hagiography is as rare as the proverbial black tulip. In fact, I have yet to find one. Reading such a book is like reading The Lives of the Saints, which I loved to do as a child, attracted by the inevitable high drama. One also typically finds in the written lives of missionaries the kinds of attitudes towards non-white people ("dark browed and darkened-minded heathen") that were pervasive in the period. Except that, even though you expect it, it's always disconcerting. What is also alarming are their attitudes towards non-Christian belief systems. For example, Buddhism, Stuart wrote, is "one of the most ancient and wide-spread superstitions on the face of the earth." [1] Superstitions? She does give them that their "religious system. . . contains many except moral precepts and maxims," but concludes that they are "utterly powerless to mould the character of the people to wisdom or virtue." She goes on: "Buddhism in its moral precepts is perhaps the best religion ever invented by man." Invented. Her word. "The difficulty is, its entire basis is false." Buddhists might say the same about Christianity and their "absurd superstitions," "unmeaning rites" and "senseless formalities, to which they cling with a stubbornness that nothing but the power of God can subdue." But they didn't say that to the various Judsons. Instead, as reported by Stuart, their rebuff was merely this: "Your religion is good for you, ours for us." "You will be rewarded for your good deeds in your way, we in our way." And what was the Judsons' response to this magnanimity? In Stuart's word: "They found [in the "semi-barbarian" people of Burma, where their missionary work was taking place] they had to deal with one of the proudest and most conceited races on earth."
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* The book was originally titled The Lives of Mrs. Ann H. Judson, Mrs. Sarah B. Judson, and Mrs. Emily C. Judson: Missionaries to Burmah. All quotes are from the 1999 reprinting.
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