Zinzendorf and the Moravians Issue 1 | 1982

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This translation into English from the German is the first known time that this account has been published in America. It was originally written during the years 1766 and 1767. Reverend Christian George Andrew Oldendorp had spent these years in the Danish West Indies studying the geography, fauna and flora of the Islands. Of special interest was the study of the history and language of the black slaves and particularly he chronicled the influence and effect of missionary outreach in the area within the generation following its establishment. His inquiry was preserved in more than three thousand pages of manuscripts. In 1777, Rev. John Jacob Bossart, professor at the Moravian Theological Seminary in Saxony, condensed Oldendorp’s accounts into a volume of over a thousand pages. This substantial work, published in 1777, remains one of the most interesting and valuable contributions to Moravian missionary literature. The two chapters presented here offer rare insight into the early days of modern missions.

Below is a reproduction of a page from the 1777 German Volume by Oldendorp.

Zinzendorf and the Moravians: Christian History, Issue 1, (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, Inc.) 1997.