Page 28 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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knowledge" through their clinics and schools, and the Western

or "Christian” world had appeared to be unified in its support

of "Christian" values and goals. The World War, by pitting

one modern Christian countay against another had brought an

end to this myth of Western or "Christian" solidarity and

simultaneously forced many missionaries to question for the

: 'n
first time the seriousness of modern Western society’s com­

mitment to Christianity. Thus, in the post-war period, the

Arabian Mission inherited yet another "crise de conscience"

and began to feel its rear guard threatened by changes in
Western society at home.

In the field, however, the missionaries were too busy

with the daily work of preaching, healing, and teaching to

leave much time for musing on the decay of "Christian civili­

zation" at home. The post-war years were extraordinarily pro­

ductive ones for the Mission, which expanded its operations

in all fields and consolidated its hard-won gains. Where be­

fore the Mission had been forced to operate out of private

houses or makeshift clinics, they were now able to custom-

build modern hospitals and purchase up-to-date equipment.

Where before the Mission had primarily limited its activities

to a few coastal towns, now it was able to send expeditions

up the Tigris and Euphrates and into the heartland of the

Arabian peninsula. The period from 1915 to 1933 was one of

the greatest periods for itinerant preaching and medical

work. Where before the Mission’s schoo-ls had been limited to
a small number of students, sometimes meeting infrequently,