Wholesale condemnation of tribal customs undermined missionary effectiveness

Evidence

In Tempels’s (1959, p.13) view, Christian missionaries, and Catholic priests in particular, missed the mark when they started rejecting tribal customs completely: “In condemning the whole gamut of their supposed ‘childish and savage customs’ by the judgement ‘this is stupid and bad’, we have taken our fair share of responsibility for having killed ‘the man’ in the Bantu”. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 156

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Dominican missionary strategy followed a two-phase destroy-then-expound sequence; Failed missionary efforts produced blame of Muslim irrationality rather than self-criticism — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1181; Dominican missionary strategy separated demolishing error from expounding truth — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1193 (+3 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Dominican missionary strategy followed a two-phase destroy-then-expound sequence; Failed missionary efforts produced blame of Muslim irrationality rather than self-criticism — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1181; Dominican missionary strategy separated demolishing error from expounding truth — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1193 (+3 more)