The global mission mandate, present in the New Testament and pre-modern Christianity, took on new force in the early modern period. Missionaries promoted the globalization of Christianity, and in so doing contributed to the broadening of intellectual horizons across the world. Often traveling by sea, they were among the first to cover the vast distances that the maritime empires of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would subsequently span. This special issue explores the connections between three dynamic fields of research: missions, the history of knowledge, and maritime history. Taking a global and trans-denominational perspective, we seek to shed new light on some of the encounters, networks, exchanges, and transfers facilitated by maritime missions and the interactions of culturally and religiously diverse protagonists during the long eighteenth century.

出现在新约和前现代基督教中的全球宣教使命在近代早期呈现出新的力量。传教士促进了基督教的全球化，并以此为拓宽全世界的知识视野做出了贡献。他们经常乘船旅行，是最早覆盖 18 世纪和 19 世纪海上帝国随后跨越的广阔距离的人之一。本期特刊探讨了三个动态研究领域之间的联系：使命、知识史和航海史。从全球和跨教派的角度来看，我们寻求对一些遭遇、网络、交流、