of following a certain order to achieve this goal. This is asserted in a number of Cargo cults which merged Christian symbols with their mythological system of law and order in order to achieve material prosperity.
After his return to Germany, Keysser was confronted with such cults himself, when members of his former congregations wrote to him: “You missionaries brought us God’s message for our soul. We know the way to God. But you have not shared with us the message as to how we can reach material happiness, wealth and the possession of high cultural values. And so we beg you again: tell us quite clearly why you have been so reticent. What is the barrier that blocks our access to those abundant possessions that you have at your disposal?”103
The quest for the secret access to wealth and well-being indicates that Keysser’s new order of life was understood as providing the same effect as the order of the ancestors.104 Therefore Cargo cults could prosper in Lutheran (and also Catholic) areas. It appears that the converts grasped the law with the promise attached that it would bring “salvation” in the Melanesian understanding of well-being. The elders applied instruments of discipline and excommunication like in the pre-Christian community: “It is commonplace for the elders and the pastors to refuse to hear confession unless first of all the people have carried out some act of labor or have given them money.”105
The indigenous theologian Numuc Kemung praises Keysser for being a true Melanesian theologian. His mission was appropriate to the context because it affirmed the basic principle of reciprocity in the Melanesian community.106 Keysser could not have done otherwise, because there was no other capability to receive the gospel. Keysser offered the converts the empowerment to do something for God by adopting a new order of life. Kemung’s assessment is certainly true from the Melanesian point of view. We have, however, to differentiate between what was the best practical way of mission at the time and a theological evaluation of it in hindsight. Some of the later missionaries questioned the role of legalism, discipline, and theocracy in the community order.107
Georg Pilhofer’s mission manual from 1946 indicates that Keysser’s principles continued to guide the mission until after World War II.108 Pilhofer confirms the approach of a “pragmatic” mission working with the community and the Melanesian agricultural worldview. The aim of the mission is Volkwerdung (becoming Christian people) within a Christian order of creation. This term was used by the German Lutheran theology of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and misused in the German Christian Church of the “Third Reich.” According to Pilhofer the theme of creation is more relevant than Christology, and salvation is to be linked to the orders of creation. The Old Testament is closer to converts than the New Testament. The gospel should be preached as commitment to the law.109 The Lutheran message of justification by grace and faith alone serves as a pretext for lukewarmness and weakness and has to be avoided. Against the continuing magical thinking, the missionary should emphasize sanctification and point out the eternal reward.
This interesting document provides evidence of how fundamental principles of the Lutheran theology of salvation were given up in the mission, based on a specific interpretation of the context. According to this assessment, the magical worldview, the lack of rational thinking, and the weakness of the converts did not allow the gospel to be presented except in the form of law. Therefore, Christianity was learned as a way to achieve salvation through following certain rules and orders in the community of believers. Salvation through the cross and death of Christ was certainly preached, but could this be understood as justification by grace alone when Christianity was experienced as new law?
The missionaries were certainly aware of the conflict between the proclamation of the gospel and the Melanesian religion. When in 1941 the German missionaries were detained at the internment camp at Tatura, Australia, they used the time to discuss the goals and methods of the mission.110 The missionaries agreed that the reason Papuans accepted Christianity was not because they were intellectually convinced of its truth. They accepted it rather in order to access the superior European material goods. In their magical worldview the creator God exists but is removed and distant from everyday life. This life is determined by the spirits, who distribute all kinds of material blessings. These spirits are to be feared, but they can also be manipulated because they live in a reciprocal relationship to humans. If you know the right way to access them, the right ritual which must be meticulously performed, the blessings will certainly come. Religion in this sense is similar to business.
When the Europeans arrived with superior material goods, the explanation could only be that their spirits were stronger than the Papuan spirits. There must have been guilt on the side of the Papuans which caused the life-giving spirits to side with the Europeans rather than with the Papuans, and the time had come to shift allegiance to the European gods in order to participate in the same material blessings. When the first missionaries used the name of the highest creator spirit—Anutu (in Jabem language) or Malengfung (in Kate language)—the Papuans tried to relate to him in the same manner as to the spirits. For instance, they tried to trick him, hiding their wrongdoings in their prayers and presenting mock offerings or deceptive piety to the missionaries.
How far should the mission pick up the thread of the search for material wealth? This became an urgent question, since under the Australian colonial government the Papuans began to realize that you could have those goods even if you did not follow the Christian religion. One party in Tatura—including W. Flierl, G. Pilhofer, W. Bergmann, and H. Strauss—proposed to carry on where the Papuan worldview is. For Papuans, material goods originate from the spirits or gods. Material goods have a fundamental function for the community. Success strengthens the community. Labor, social order, and religion are inseparable. Likewise in the Christian community, labor and the material goods are part of the miti, the Christian way of life.
This approach following Keysser was supported by experiences at plantations under the supervision of the mission. The mission had to ward off individualism and secularization. Economy must be part of religion, otherwise the Papuan will ask: “When the miti does not provide me with the material goods, why should I need it?” As a result he will return to his ancestor cults. The magical way of thinking is the fundamental basis of their worldview and must be accepted at this stage of the mission to be refocused on the Creator. Opposing the success-oriented thinking would result in putting God at a distance from their everyday life.
The means to emphasize God as origin of all goods are the rituals and feasts which celebrate God as the creator. The mission must proclaim the creator by linking to the pragmatic success-oriented worldview. Otherwise the community-oriented mission will never win the whole group. Christian customs should therefore relate to pre-Christian ones, for example, rituals at the time of harvesting and house and canoe building. Some missionaries went so far to claim that there was no alternative to an adaptation to the Papuan worldview, because it is unchangeable.
This position was opposed by another group of missionaries, who claimed that God did not promise a better material life, and that such an expectation puts a burden on the church. The mission changes souls and aims at conversion, but does not make material promises. The gospel is opposed to worldly success-oriented thinking. Otherwise the Papuans will leave the miti as soon as their material expectations are not met. The gospel must be proclaimed as something new and very different. The question of profit has no place in the church, since God gives freely and the sinner cannot demand reciprocity. Newly created rituals will be misused in terms of magic.
Evaluating this discussion, we recognize the two different concepts of mission that informed the parties. Both acknowledged the contextual confusion of Christianity with the Melanesian quest for material well-being and reciprocity, however they came to different conclusions. The first party claimed that material progress and well-being must be part of the Christian miti as much as the preaching of the gospel. If the magical and reciprocal way of thinking is rejected, the gospel will be rejected. This leads to the establishment of a theocratic society under the Christian law.
The other party followed the traditional
