Sambo’s Worlds: Lutheran Baptismal Sermons and Global Knowledge in the German-Speaking Lands of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Abstract

This article addresses Lutheran baptismal sermons related to African slaves and Ottoman captives in the Holy Roman Empire of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It investigates how the “worlds” of the converts were presented, and how these sermons functioned as vehicles to bring “global” information to confessionalized Christians at home. I will discuss which information on non-Christian religions and lands appears in these sermons, where the pastors’ knowledge came from, what purpose and perhaps strategy they followed when they educated their listeners and readers about foreign worlds, and which information may have been – perhaps deliberately – excluded. The article attempts to add a new perspective to discussions on the global missionary outreach of Early Modern Protestantism, taking baptismal sermons as one possible entry point. It also hints at connections with a broader history of inter-religious dialogue and toleration.