Date of Award
5-1-1973
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Divinity (M.Div)
Department
Practical Theology
First Advisor
Thomas Coates
Abstract
The task undertaken in this research paper is the exploration of Spanish mission work conducted in the Texas area between the years 1519 and 1794. First, such a study is prompted in view of current Lutheran mission activity which appears to be pointing toward renewed or initial work in that portion of the country. Thus it is well that the efforts of the first Catholic missioners undergo examination, realizing of course the key difference, that the Franciscans of Spain in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries were seeking to convert indigenous Indian people, whereas current work is directed toward the "Mexican”, a product of the mixture of Spanish and Indian blood. Nevertheless, both then and now, men of the church are seeking to engender the faith of the Christian church in the hearts of people who live in the same area, often under the same oppressive economic conditions with many of the same problems attendant to the struggle for existence. Secondly, as motivation for this study, the author spent his entire childhood and early adult life in the Texas area and has always been fascinated by the old missions as structures; add to that the sharing of the common task with men of the past who sought to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and understandably, given the typical provincial Texas pride, one can comprehend why the topic has been chosen for research.
Recommended Citation
Preece, Robert, "The Spanish Mission Effort in Texas: 1519-1794" (1973). Master of Divinity Thesis. 171.
https://scholar.csl.edu/mdiv/171
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
