Kenneth Scott Latourette was an American historian. His formative experiences as Christian missionary and educator in early 20th century China shaped his life's work.
Background
Kenneth Scott Latourette was born in Oregon City, Oregon, the son of Dewitt Clinton Latourette, a lawyer and banker, and Rhoda Ellen Scott, a graduate of Pacific University, where she and her husband both received their B. A. and M. A. degrees. Books, music, and Christian conviction filled their home.
Education
Latourette attended public schools in Oregon City, graduating from high school when he was not quite sixteen. In 1901 he entered McMinnville (later Linfield) College, Oregon, where he was a member of the debating team and the glee club. He received his B. S. in chemistry in 1904 and was valedictorian of his class. Latourette had intended to become a lawyer and banker, but his college involvement in the Young Men's Christian Association and the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions made him decide to become a Christian missionary. In 1905 he entered Yale College as a senior. Shortly before receiving his B. A. in history and membership in Phi Beta Kappa in 1906, Latourette accepted an offer to join the staff of Yale-in-China. Prior to leaving for the Orient he studied history at Yale Graduate School, obtaining his M. A. in 1907 and his Ph. D. in 1909. His dissertation was entitled, "The History of Early Relations Between the United States and China, 1784-1844. "
Career
From 1909 through 1910, Latourette served as a traveling secretary for the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. In the autumn of 1910 Latourette joined the faculty of Yale-in-China at Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. The next summer he became seriously ill from amebic dysentery and appendicitis. When he arrived in the United States in March 1912 to recover his health he planned to return to China, but his convalescence was slow and it was two years before he could do even part-time work.
Reed College hired Latourette as a lecturer in history in 1914, and he was promoted to associate professor the following year. At Reed he wrote The Development of China (1917), which became a standard text and appeared in several revised editions. Meanwhile Latourette had gone to Ohio in 1916 to teach at Denison University. He advanced to professor of history the next year. While at Denison he first taught a class on the history of Christian missionary efforts. That course eventually led to A History of the Expansion of Christianity (1937 - 1945), a seven-volume work that explored not only Christianity's geographical expansion but also its encounters with diverse cultures. Although Latourette formally resigned his Changsha post in 1917 and did not resume his missionary efforts in China, he was ordained a Baptist minister in 1918.
In addition to his professorial duties, he was chaplain at Denison until 1921, when he joined the faculty of the Yale University Divinity School as the D. Willis James Professor of Missions. In 1925 he also began to teach Oriental history. Appointed chairman of Yale's Department of Religion in 1938, Latourette became its director of graduate studies in 1946 and then was named Sterling Professor of Missions and Oriental History in 1949. Before officially retiring from the university in 1953, Latourette was elected president of the American Historical Association in 1947 and of the American Baptist Convention and the Japan International Christian University Foundation in 1951.
He remained a working scholar until December 26, 1968, when he was accidentally struck and killed by a car in front of the house where he had been raised in Oregon City. Latourette, a bachelor, was affectionately known to his Yale Divinity School students as "Uncle Ken. " He annually organized student groups for Bible study, conversation, and prayer. Dedicated to writing as well as teaching, in his prolific work he focused primarily on the history of Christianity, particularly the history of missions, and secondarily on Far Eastern and especially Chinese history. His publications included: The Development of Japan (1918, revised six times and retitled The History of Japan in 1947); Anno Domini: Jesus, History, and God (1940); A Short History of the Far East (1946); A History of Christianity (1953); A History of Modern China (1954); and the five-volume Christianity in a Revolutionary Age: A History of Christianity in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1958 - 1962).
As a specialist on Asia, Latourette did much to introduce Asian studies into college and university curricula in the United States. At a time when most church historians were preoccupied with the early Christian era and the West, he pioneered the study of recent decades and Asian Christianity. Detailed verification of facts, careful interpretation of evidence, and illumination provided by his own faith were the hallmarks of Latourette's scholarship. As he combined his concern for historical accuracy and the vitality of Christianity, Latourette found the worldwide spread of Christian influence to be especially beneficial in raising standards of human decency. Christianity's strength might ebb and flow, he acknowledged, but the faith's reforming spirit and propensity to spawn new movements contained hopeful energy.
Latourette contended that the nineteenth century, which gave rise to extensive missionary efforts that made Christianity a truly global faith, was the greatest Christian era. And unlike many who regarded the revolutionary twentieth century as one of recession for Christianity, Latourette remained optimistic. A Christian resurgence, he believed, would follow.