K. J. Brouwer — published as Dr. K. J. Brouwer — was a Dutch scholar of Protestant missions who, in 1946, contributed the chapter De invloed der protestantsche zending (“The Influence of Protestant Missionary Work”) to the volume Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk edited by Dr. Wormser. The chapter appears in the volume as part (a) of the broader section on De christelijke godsdienst (the Christian religion), with part (b) being Pater Van Rijckevorsel’s chapter on the Catholic mission.
Treatment of Atjeh and adjacent regions
Brouwer’s chapter gives a central place to the Batakkerk (Batak Church) — the indigenous Protestant church of the Batak lands, founded in 1930 with some 430,000 members by the time of the volume’s publication in 1946. He notes that the Batakkerk’s missionary outreach extended “through its swarming members across the border of Atjeh” (de Batakkerk werft door zijn uitzwermende leden tot over de grens van Atjeh) — that is, that Batak Christians migrated into the Atjeh borderlands as lay evangelists. This places Atjeh within the catchment area of the most vigorous indigenous Protestant church of the late-colonial Indies.
The chapter also discusses the relationship between mission and colonial government in the Batak lands, recalling (in the section on Islam in the same volume, by Prof. Dr. Kernkamp) the refusal of the colonial government to send Christian missionaries when the southern Bataks themselves requested them — a refusal that, in Kernkamp’s account, “delayed the Islamisation there, which only succeeded far into the 19th century because the government created orderly conditions and only after a request of the Bataks to send Christian missionaries was refused.”
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, Brouwer’s chief significance is the placement of Atjeh on the northern frontier of the Batak Christian mission field. The mention of Batak Christians crossing “across the border of Atjeh” is one of the few references in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk to a Christian presence (however small) in or adjacent to Atjeh — a region that, in the volume’s other chapters, is treated as almost uniformly Muslim.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- Batakkerk — Batak Church
- invloed der protestantsche zending — influence of Protestant missionary work
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Karo — Karo
- Batak — Batak
- Toba — Toba
- zen — Zen
- Pater — Father (Catholic)
- Prof. Dr. — Professor Doctor
- Dr. — Doctor
See Also
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- C. W. Wormser
- W. J. A. Kernkamp
- L. van Rijckevorsel
- Batakkerk
- Toba Bataklanden
- Batak-Karo
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), pp. 109–123 (chapter De invloed der protestantsche zending door Dr. K. J. Brouwer), with the Atjeh-border reference on p. 112.