Legacies of David Cranz's 'Historie von Grönland' (1765)

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction: More than the Sum of Its Parts: David Cranz’s Historie von Grönland

   • Felicity Jensz, Christina Petterson

   Pages 1-26

3. Religious Context and Reception

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27

      PDF

   2. Moravians in Greenland: Barren Shores and Fruitful Missions

      • Christina Petterson

      Pages 29-46

   3. David Cranz’s History of Greenland and Physico-theology

      • Kathrine Kjærgaard

      Pages 47-67

4. English-Language Reception and Print Culture

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 69-69

      PDF

   2. “A Collection of Absurdities”: Reception of Two English Versions of Cranz’s Book in Britain, 1767 and 1820

      • Felicity Jensz

      Pages 71-92

   3. Unbecoming Heretics: Knowledge, Missionary Stories, and the Legacy of David Cranz in North America

      • Jared S. Burkholder

      Pages 93-113

5. Scientific Importance and Influence

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 115-115

      PDF

   2. Circulation of Arctic Knowledge Among German Protestants in the Eighteenth Century: The Example of David Cranz’s Historie von Grönland

      • Joanna Kodzik

      Pages 117-139

   3. Early Meteorological Observations in Greenland: The Contributions of David Cranz, Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein and Christopher Brasen

      • Gaston R. Demarée, Astrid E. J. Ogilvie

      Pages 141-164

   4. Greenland in Hungary: Inuit Culture and the Emergence of the Science of Anthropology in Late Eighteenth- to Early Nineteenth-Century Hungary

      • Ildikó Sz. Kristóf

      Pages 165-183

   5. The Soul of the Arctic: David Cranz’s Account of the Religion or Superstitions of the Greenlanders and Its Impact on Nineteenth-Century Descriptions of Religion in Greenland

      • Åmund Norum Resløkken

      Pages 185-205

6. Cranz and the Medium of Missions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 207-207

      PDF

   2. The “United Brethren” and Johann Gerhard König: Cranz’s History of Greenland as an Avenue to the Natural History of India

      • Thomas Ruhland

      Pages 209-237

   3. Cranz’s Greenland as a Stepping Stone to Labrador: Tracing the Profile of the Inuit

      • Thea Olsthoorn

      Pages 239-259

7. The Post-colonial Cranz

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 261-261

      PDF

   2. Cranz Revisited: Greenland in Greenland

      • Claire McLisky

      Pages 263-288

   3. Appendix: The Memoir of David Cranz (1723–1777)

      • Paul Peucker

      Pages 289-301

8. Back Matter

   Pages 303-317

   PDF

This book brings together interdisciplinary scholars from history, theology, folklore, ethnology and meteorology to examine how David Cranz’s Historie von Grönland (1765) resonated in various disciplines, periods and countries. Collectively the contributors demonstrate the reach of the book beyond its initial purpose as a record of missionary work, and into secular and political fields beyond Greenland and Germany. The chapters also reveal how the book contributed to broader discussions and conceptualizations of Greenland as part of the Atlantic world. The interdisciplinary scope of the volume allows for a layered reading of Cranz’s book that demonstrates how different meanings could be drawn from the book in different contexts and how the book resonated throughout time and space. It also makes the broader argument that the construction of the Artic in the eighteenth century broadened our understanding of the Atlantic.

• Greenland
• Arctic
• evangelicalism
• colonialisation
• indigenous studies

• University of Münster, Münster, Germany

  Felicity Jensz

• Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

  Christina Petterson

Felicity Jensz is a Researcher in the Cluster of Excellence (2060) 'Religion and Politics' at the University of Münster, Germany.

Christina Petterson is a Researcher at the School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University.

Policies and ethics