Mission and Space

This text offers some general reflections on the role that the category of space plays in mission research. Based on Edward Soja's notions of real and imagined space, mission is first discussed as an act of (spatial) appropriation of the world. It is also noted that the way in which missions are organized helps to reinforce certain concepts of space. The term cospatiality is then used to describe ecclesiastical structures, trade relations, and political constellations as basic parameters for the spatial organization of missions. As it is shown, these parameters did indeed have a bearing on the respective contents and strategies of missionary work. The indigenous spatial orders are discussed as another factor at play in this context. A look at the connection between missionary concepts and their respective scope in the social space leads to more general questions of scaling, but also to reflections on the significance of spatial categories as explicit or implicit instruments of research. The text ends with the proposal to test the spatial category of polycentricity as a research concept in mission history.