Evangelical Activism in Bulgaria in the 1920s and 1930s: The Minkov Family and Their Missionary Project among the Roma
Evangelical Activism in Bulgaria in the 1920s and 1930s: The Minkov Family and Their Missionary Project among the Roma

Summary/Abstract: This article analyses the involvement of non-Roma missionaries in evangelical proselytisation in the 1920s–1930s in Bulgaria, focusing on what they wanted to achieve among the Roma and the problems they faced in their activities. The author shows how the successes or failures in Christian outreach affected the process of identity formation of the converted Roma, and to what extent the identities of the missionaries changed as a result of their work with Roma. The goal of these missionaries was foremost to modify the morality of the Roma in conformity with the preachers’ notion of righteous Christian life and behaviour. The second goal of the Bible workers was to support the Roma in winning religious and cultural spaces of their own in society. Petar and Anka Minkov are an example of a Baptist non-Romani family that strove for the spiritual and cultural growth of the Roma. The couple endeavoured to understand the Roma and to change them. With regard to methodology, the arguments in this article are based on three key sources of information: open-ended interviews, archival sources, and periodicals from Bulgaria and foreign countries.

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