Walter and Ingrid Trobisch and the Globalization of Modern, Christian Sexual Ethics
Walter and Ingrid Trobisch played a major role in shaping a transcultural conversation about love, sex, gender identity, and marriage during the mid-twentieth century. The Trobisches are most well known for Walter's book I Loved a Girl (1962), which he wrote while teaching at Cameroon Christian College. Within a decade, one million copies of the book were in circulation, it was translated into seventy languages, and Trobisch had received ten thousand letters from African and American readers of the book asking for relational advice. The Trobisches founded an international marriage-counseling ministry to answer these letters. While the Trobisches held paternalistic attitudes common among western missionaries of their generation, their vision of sexuality helped Christians in Africa and the United States to navigate changing sexual norms of the mid-twentieth century.
“During the mid-twentieth century, a period of intense social
change, millions of young people turned to Walter and Ingrid
Trobisch for guidance on modern gender relations. Anneke Stasson
traces how the Trobisches spread ideals of marital partnership
through their writings and counseling ministry. This fascinating
book fills a huge gap in the cultural and gender history of
Christianity as a global religion. I recommend it very
highly.”
—Dana L. Robert, director, Center for Global Christianity and
Mission, Boston University School of Theology
“Good biography does more than introduce a person, it makes larger
and more complicated stories accessible. Stasson has written a
great biography. She uses one family to rethink twentieth-century
missions. This is not the stale tale of cultural domination, but an
example of missionaries as global mediators. Through them,
questions about sexuality in Africa in the 1950s provided answers
for Americans navigating the sexual revolution of the 1960s. This
book is missions reimagined!”
—Daryl R. Ireland, author of John Song: Modern Chinese
Christianity and the Making of a New Man
“Working amid changing attitudes about love, sex, and marriage, as
well as decolonization movements in Africa, Christian missionaries
Walter and Ingrid Trobisch influenced Christian sexual ethics in
the twentieth century. Stasson deftly captures how the Trobisches,
through books and correspondence with young adults in Africa and
the United States, became multidirectional conduits of a global
‘conversation’ about sex and marriage.”
—Douglas D. Tzan, professor and assistant dean, Wesley Theological
Seminary
“During the mid-twentieth century, a period of intense social
change, millions of young people turned to Walter and Ingrid
Trobisch for guidance on modern gender relations. Anneke Stasson
traces how the Trobisches spread ideals of marital partnership
through their writings and counseling ministry. This fascinating
book fills a huge gap in the cultural and gender history of
Christianity as a global religion. I recommend it very
highly.”
—Dana L. Robert, director, Center for Global Christianity and
Mission, Boston University School of Theology
“Good biography does more than introduce a person, it makes larger
and more complicated stories accessible. Stasson has written a
great biography. She uses one family to rethink twentieth-century
missions. This is not the stale tale of cultural domination, but an
example of missionaries as global mediators. Through them,
questions about sexuality in Africa in the 1950s provided answers
for Americans navigating the sexual revolution of the 1960s. This
book is missions reimagined!”
—Daryl R. Ireland, author of John Song: Modern Chinese
Christianity and the Making of a New Man
“Working amid changing attitudes about love, sex, and marriage, as
well as decolonization movements in Africa, Christian missionaries
Walter and Ingrid Trobisch influenced Christian sexual ethics in
the twentieth century. Stasson deftly captures how the Trobisches,
through books and correspondence with young adults in Africa and
the United States, became multidirectional conduits of a global
‘conversation’ about sex and marriage.”
—Douglas D. Tzan, professor and assistant dean, Wesley Theological
Seminary
- Title: Walter and Ingrid Trobisch and the Globalization of Modern, Christian Sexual Ethics
- Author: Anneke H. Stasson
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725253995, 9781725253971, 9781725253988, 1725253992, 1725253976, 1725253984
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725253995
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T20:18:25Z