| This study of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions (SVM) follows the movement from the Mount Hermon Conference in July, 1886, to the retirement of John R. Mott as Executive Secretary in 1920.; The first chapter describes the background of the movement, the Mt. Hermon Conference, and the ensuing college missionary revivals. The College Y.M.C.A., religion in American colleges, and relationships with the denominational mission boards are also discussed. Chapter two analyzes the organization of SVM and its development through the first quadrennial convention in 1892, focusing on relations with other religious entities, fundraising, competing movements, and acceptance by the mission boards.; The next two chapters are based on a study of the first 150 Volunteers who became missionaries in China. Chapter three deals with Volunteer motivation, the influence of the SVM, the Volunteer Declaration, and Missionary Education. Chapter four describes careers of the study group in China. Analysis of their correspondence explores issues such as education, health, medicine, theology, and social reform.; Chapter five returns to the theme of organization. The SVM is seen as the prototype and engine of the powerful laymen's organizations that flourished before World War I. Conflicts growing out of the war and stemming from the influence of these organizations are discussed in the final chapter, which uses the Interchurch World Movement as its most significant example. The tension between these business-style organizations and the traditional evangelical churches are analyzed in relation to the fundamentalist-liberal schisms of the 1920's. |
