Colportage is the distribution of publications, books, and religious tracts by carriers called "colporteurs" or "colporters". The term does not necessarily refer to religious book peddling.
Colportage is the distribution of publications, books, and religious tracts by carriers called "colporteurs" or "colporters". The term does not necessarily refer to religious book peddling.
From French colportage, where the term is an alteration of comporter, 'to peddle', as a portmanteau or pun with the word col (Latin collum, 'neck'), with the resulting meaning 'to carry on one's neck'. Porter is from Latin portare, 'to carry'. The term was first used by Bible salesmen working for the British and Foreign Bible Society in southern France in the Pyrenees.[ citation needed ]
Colportage became common in Europe with the distribution of contending religious tracts and books during the religious controversies of the Reformation. In addition to controversial works, the itinerant book-peddling colporteurs also spread widely cheap editions of the popular works of the day to an increasingly literate rural population which had little access to the book shops of the cities.
The American Tract Society (ATS) is often credited as one of the first organizations in the United States to be involved in colportage. ATS is an evangelical organization established in 1825 to distribute Christian literature.
In Christ in the Camp: or, Religion in Lee's Army (1887) [1] , Dr. John William Jones refers to the chaplains carrying bibles and tracts during the American Civil War as colporteurs. In addition to public preaching, distributing literature was a large part of the work of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The American Bible Society and the American Tract Society were among the largest organizations involved in colportage in the United States.
D. L. Moody founded the "Bible Institute Colportage Association" in 1894 to distribute tracts and books. Now known as Moody Publishers, they continue to publish religious materials with proceeds supporting the Moody Bible Institute. [2]
The Seventh-day Adventist Church calls their book distributors "literature evangelists", but until about 1980, the term colporteur was used to describe SDA literature evangelists. [3]
Jehovah's Witnesses who were active in the full-time ministry were called colporteurs until 1931. Today, those participating in the full-time ministry are called "pioneers". [4]
Colportage novels were serial novels, sold door-to-door by colporters, popular in the late 19th century. Buyers would purchase a subscription to future novels in the series. One popular subject was fictionalization of current events; for example, the early volumes of a serial colportage novel about Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) were already being sold in 1870. [5] One author of colportage novels was Karl May.
D. L. Moody founded the Bible Institute Colportage Association (BICA) in 1894 to provide a source for inexpensive Christian literature. Moody's son-in-law, A. P. Fitt, managed BICA operations. Publishing was contracted to Moody's brother-in-law, Fleming Revell, and his upstart publishing company. [6] In 1895 the Colportage Library began the publication at regular intervals of books which met five specific criteria: 1. a popular readable style; 2. well-known authors or books of existing reputation; 3. strictly evangelical and nondenominational works; 4. good workmanship, and; 5. low price. [7]
Volume 1, Number 1, "All of Grace," by C. H. Spurgeon, issued March 15, 1895 and sold for ten cents directly from a colporter. Library subscription price, "$2.25 per annum, postpaid; single numbers 15 cents each, postpaid." [8]
In 1906 the Institute reported, “[t]he volume of business transacted was $76,855.33 as compared with $49,484.23 in 1905. The sale of Colportage Library books was 192,308 copies as compared with 192,490 copies in 1905. The vitality of this series is shown by the constant demand for even the earliest numbers, there being 196,509 reprints in all during 1906. 236,877 copies of the Emphasized Gospel of John were published during 1906. Retail mail order business amounted to $10,839.50 as compared with $8,221.11 in 1905. 100 colporters (about) at work at any one time. Fifteen regular employees at Association's headquarters in Chicago. Twenty-two depots of supply for the Association's colporters in the United States and elsewhere.” [9]
By January 1, 1917, 126 titles had issued, totaling 6,718,313 copies printed. Foreign-language editions included German, Danish-Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Italian and Bohemian publications, with requests for translations in Polish, Dutch, French, and other languages. [7]
In 1941, after more than 12 million books in this series had been sold, BICA became Moody Press. [10]
Dwight Lyman Moody, also known as D. L. Moody, was an American evangelist and publisher connected with Keswickianism, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, Moody Bible Institute, and Moody Publishers. One of his most famous quotes was "Faith makes all things possible... Love makes all things easy." Moody gave up his lucrative boot and shoe business to devote his life to revivalism, working first in the Civil War with Union troops through YMCA in the United States Christian Commission. In Chicago, he built one of the major evangelical centers in the nation, which is still active. Working with singer Ira Sankey, he toured the country and the British Isles, drawing large crowds with a dynamic speaking style.
Charles Taze Russell, or Pastor Russell, was an American Adventist minister from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and founder of the Bible Student movement. He was an early Christian Zionist.
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Moody Bible Institute (MBI) is a private evangelical Christian Bible college in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded by evangelist and businessman Dwight Lyman Moody in 1886. Historically, MBI has maintained positions that have identified it as non-charismatic, dispensational, and generally Calvinistic. Today, MBI operates undergraduate programs and Moody Theological Seminary at the Chicago campus. The Seminary also operates a satellite campus in Plymouth, Michigan. Moody Aviation operates a flight school in Spokane, Washington.
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The American Tract Society (ATS) is a nonprofit, nonsectarian but evangelical organization founded on May 11, 1825, in New York City for the purpose of publishing and disseminating tracts of Christian literature. ATS traces its lineage back through the New York Tract Society (1812) and the New England Tract Society (1814) to the Religious Tract Society of London, begun in 1799. Over the years, ATS has produced and distributed many millions of pieces of literature. There is a printed pamphlet titled "Constitution of the American Tract Society, instituted in Boston 1814" referencing the distribution of 'Religious Tracts' by Christians in Europe and America during the previous twenty years. The purpose of which was to combine the energy & activities of various groups & individuals across New England.
The Religious Tract Society was a British evangelical Christian organization founded in 1799 and known for publishing a variety of popular religious and quasi-religious texts in the 19th century. The society engaged in charity as well as commercial enterprise, publishing books and periodicals for profit.
The Bible Student movement is a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement. It emerged in the United States from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell (1852–1916), also known as Pastor Russell, and his founding of the Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881. Members of the movement have variously referred to themselves as Bible Students, International Bible Students, Associated Bible Students, or Independent Bible Students.
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization headquartered in Warwick, New York. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses to direct, administer and disseminate doctrines for the group and is often referred to by members of the denomination simply as "the Society". It is the parent organization of a number of Watch Tower subsidiaries, including the Watchtower Society of New York and International Bible Students Association. The number of voting shareholders of the corporation is limited to between 300 and 500 "mature, active and faithful" male Jehovah's Witnesses. About 5,800 Jehovah's Witnesses provide voluntary unpaid labour, as members of a religious order, in three large Watch Tower Society facilities in New York. Nearly 15,000 other members of the order work at the Watch Tower Society's other facilities worldwide.
Reuben Archer Torrey was an American evangelist, Congregational pastor, educator, and writer. He aligned with Keswick theology.
James Martin Gray was a pastor in the Reformed Episcopal Church, a Bible scholar, editor, hymn writer, and the president of Moody Bible Institute, 1904-34.
Jehovah's Witnesses originated as a branch of the Bible Student movement, which developed in the United States in the 1870s among followers of Christian restorationist minister Charles Taze Russell. Bible Student missionaries were sent to England in 1881 and the first overseas branch was opened in London in 1900. The group took on the name International Bible Students Association and by 1914 it was also active in Canada, Germany, Australia and other countries.
Book peddlers were travelling vendors ("peddlers") of books. This occupation had its peculiarities in various countries.
Protestants in Russia constitute 1–2% of the overall population of the country. Additionally there are around 15.000–20.000 Doukhobors and 40.000 Molokans in Russia, who have similarities to Protestantism. By 2004, there were 4,435 registered Protestant societies representing 21% of all registered religious organizations, which is second place after Eastern Orthodoxy. By contrast in 1992 the Protestants reportedly had 510 organizations in Russia.
William Henry "Will" Houghton was an evangelist and the fourth president of Moody Bible Institute, in Chicago. Biographer Wilbur Smith said of him: "Two primary passions possessed the soul of Will H. Houghton: From the beginning of his ministry to the end… evangelism, and the study of the word of God." Houghton was known for his fundamentalist Christianity.
Frank Bartleman was an American Pentecostal writer, evangelist and missionary. He converted to Pentecostalism and became a preacher. He began his writing career in 1905.
John Murdoch was a Scottish Christian missionary who served in Ceylon and India in the 19th century. Murdoch first journeyed to Ceylon in order to serve as a head-master of the schools located in Kandy, yet shortly after his arrival he resigned due to concerns with the state-mandated curriculum. Murdoch instead began to work with various Christian societies within the country producing Christian tracts. After a successful career with the Ceylon Tract Society, he became the Agent and Travelling Secretary in India for the Christian Vernacular Education Society, located in India, working with this mission for the rest of his career. He retired from full-time missionary work in 1903, yet continued to publish his written works on a variety of sources which included politics, religion, and sociology. He died in India after becoming weakened by pneumonia in 1904 having never married yet leaving behind a legacy in his written work.
Bibliothèque bleue is a type of ephemera and popular literature published in Early Modern France, comparable to the English chapbook and the German Volksbuch. As was the case in England and Germany, the literary format appealed to all levels of French society, transcending social, sex, and age barriers.
Russel(l) Sturgis Cook (1811–1864) was an American Congregationalist minister, and a secretary of the American Tract Society from 1839 to 1856. He was known also as Russell Salmon Cook, and built up colportage as basic to the Society's business model.
