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Question 5
Dean Taylor criticizes the way modern mission history can call William Carey or Hudson Taylor “father of missions” while ignoring the 1527 Augsburg “missionary conference”; what might that selective memory reveal about which kinds of Christians and which kinds of obedience the mainstream church prefers to celebrate?
Another way to ask: If mission history celebrates Carey or Hudson Taylor but ignores the 1527 Augsburg meeting, what does that say about the kind of Christians the main church likes to honor? What kind of obedience might it be overlooking?

Direct Answer The transcript suggests selective memory reveals a preference to celebrate mission models that feel safer, more institutionally acceptable, and more “in-camp,” while downplaying radical obedience tied to Anabaptist convictions. Taylor implies these earlier missionaries get ignored partly because “they’re not quite in your camp.”

Support from Transcript:

  • Taylor calls it “particularly sad” that Augsburg’s 1527 missionary conference is “hundreds of years before William Carey…[and] Hudson Taylor,” yet modern books crown those later men as “father of missions.”
  • He states bluntly: “And it’s wrong.”
  • He suggests why it is ignored: “some of these things…hidden…people don’t like talking about these people because they’re not quite in your camp.”
  • He praises their approach as “absolutely extraordinary,” implying the omission is not due to lack of fruit.
  • He labels it “ironically, the first Protestant missionary conference,” challenging standard narratives.
  • He repeatedly highlights their mission scale and cost (two dozen sent quickly; most dead), which may be uncomfortable for mainstream celebration.
Discussion Follow-ups What kinds of obedience do we instinctively “recognize” as legitimate—especially if it comes from outside our tradition? How might historical omissions shape our expectations of what mission should look like?

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