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Vol. 24, No.2
April 2000
Global Christianity 2000: Expansion,
Shift, and Conundrum
T
he twentieth-century expansion of the global Christian
community is widely noted and celebrated-from half a
billion people in the year 1900 to two billion in 2000. It is not as
readily recognized that this remarkable expansion nonetheless
fails to translate into an increased percentage of the world's
population. In his latest annual statistical table (see the January
2000INTERNATIONALBULLETIN) contributing editor David B.Barrett
calculates the Christian community as 33 percent of world popu
lation, little changed from what it was a hundred years earlier
(actually slightly less).
More remarkable than numerical expansion is the demo
graphic shift in the global Christian community. In 1900 Chris
tians in Europe and North America accounted for more than 80
percent of the world Christian community, but at the end of the
century these erstwhile Christian heartlands contributed less
than 40 percent. Today it is the non-Western world that boasts the
majority-more than 60 percent of the globe's Christian popula
tion.
In "Shifting Southward," the lead article of this issue, con
tributing editor Dana Robert lays out the dimensions and the
dynamics of the new concentration of Christian communities in
regions formerly served by Western missions.
Professor Robert also attends to a peculiarity of this other
wise welcome phenomenon: even as the Christian faith has
surged around the world, establishing what one would like to
think of as a truly universal religion, close observers detect more
fragmentation than ever. If mission leaders once worried about
the divisiveness that Western denominations brought to their
ministries in non-Western lands, what are we to think today
when distinctives between Christian communities are further
multiplied. as indigenization plays itself out around the globe?
As Robert writes, "What at first glance appears to be the largest
world religion is in fact the ultimate local religion."
In terms of the statistics Barrett has compiled over the years,
there were fewer than 2,000Christian denominations in 1900,but
20,000in 1980and nearly 34,000today. It is only right and fitting
that we should rejoice at the global extent of Christ's followers,
of
but as Robert challenges us, it is going to take diligent study and
analysis if we are to appreciate just how all the parts fit into the
impressive whole. This is a task alike for historians, theologians,
and the practitioners of the world Christian mission.
On Page
50 Shifting Southward: Global Christianity Since
1945
Dana L. Robert
54 Millennium Meditation
Graham Kings
58 Lesslie Newbigin's Contribution to Mission
Theology
Wilbert R. Shenk
62
Noteworthy
66
150 Outstanding Books for Mission Studies
71
My Pilgrimage in Mission
Paul E. Pierson
75
The Legacy of Timothy Richard
P. Richard Bohr
81
The Legacy of Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen
Lothar Schreiner
86
Book Reviews
96
Book Notes
issionary Research
Shifting Southward: Global Christianity Since 1945
Dana L. Robert
F
rom December 12 to 29, 1938, the most representative
meeting of world Protestantism to date took place in
Tambaram, India. Under the gathering storm clouds of World
War II, with parts of China already under Japanese occupation,
Hitler triumphant in the Sudetenland, and Stalinism in full
swing, 471 persons from 69 different countries met at Madras
Christian College for the second decennial meeting of the Inter
national Missionary Council.
For the first time, African Christians from different parts of
the continent met each other. The African delegation traveled
together for weeks on a steamer that proceeded from West Africa
to Cape Town, and around the Cape of Good Hope to India.
China, besieged by Japan and torn asunder by competing war
lords, nationalists and Communists, sent forty-nine official del
egates, of whom nearly two-thirds were nationals and only one
third were missionaries. The women's missionary movement,
then at the height of its influence, pushed for full representation
by women at Madras. Their persistence was rewarded with sixty
women delegates sent by their national Christian councils, and
another ten women in attendance by invitation. Europeans whose
countries would soon be at war worked together in committee,
as common Christian commitment overrode the tensions among
Belgians, Danes, French, Germans, British, Dutch, Norwegians,
and others.
The central theme that drew so many to India at a time of
multiple global crises was lithe upbuilding of the younger
churches as a part of the historic universal Christian commu
nity."! With Protestant missions bearing fruit in many parts of
the world, the time was ripe for younger non-Western churches
to take their places alongside older Western denominations in
joint consideration of the universal church's faith, witness, social
realities, and responsibilities. The roster of attendees reads like a
who's who of mid-twentieth-century world Christianity.'
Yet the 1938 1MC conference was a gathering of visionaries,
for the global Christianity it embraced was a skeleton without
flesh or bulk, a mission-educated minority who were leading
nascent Christian institutions. At the beginning of the twentieth
century, Europeans dominated the world church, with approxi
mately 70.6 percent of the world's Christian population. By 1938,
on the eve of World War II, the apparent European domination
of Protestantism and Catholicism remained strong. Yet by the
end of the twentieth century, the European percentage of world
Christianity had shrunk to 28 percent of the total; Latin America
and Africa combined provided 43 percent of the world's Chris
tians. Although North Americans became the backbone of the
cross-cultural mission force after World War II, their numerical
dominance was being overtaken by missionaries from the very
countries that were considered mission fields only fifty years
before. The typical late twentieth-century Christian was no longer
a European man, but a Latin American or African woman.' The
skeleton of 1938 had grown organs and sinew.
This article paints in broad strokes the transformation of
world Christianity since the Second World War-a massive
cultural and geographic shift away from Europeans and their
descendants toward peoples of the Southern Hemisphere.' The
shift southward began early in the century, and the 1938 mission
ary conference was vivid proof of powerful indigenous Christian
leadership in both church and state, despite a missionary move
ment trapped within colonialist structures and attitudes. But
after World War II, rising movements of political and ecclesias
tical self-determination materially changed the context in which
non-Western churches operated, thereby allowing Christianity
to blossom in multiple cultures. After examining the changing
political context in which the growth of global Christianity took
place, this essay will give examples of the emerging Christian
movement and then comment on the challenge for historians
posed by the seismic shift in Christian identity.
Christianity and Nationalism
Besides laying waste to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia,
the Second World War revealed the rotten underbelly of Euro
pean imperialism. In the new postwar political climate, long
simmering nationalist movements finally succeeded in throwing
off direct European rule. With the newly formed United Nations
supporting the rights of peoples to self-determination, one coun
try after another reverted to local control. In 1947 India obtained
its freedom from Britain, beginning a process of decolonization
that continued with Burma in 1948, Ghana in 1957, Nigeria in
1960, Kenya in 1963, and on around the globe. British policies of
indirect rule promoted orderly transitions in some places, but left
open sores in others, for example in Sudan, where the Islamic
north was left to govern the traditionalist and Christian south in
1956. Having introduced Western democratic institutions, the
United States released the Philippines in 1946. Colonial powers
such as Holland, France, and Portugal resisted the nationalist
tide, ultimately to no avail. The Belgians were so angry at losing
their colonies that they literally tore the phones off the walls in
the Congo, leaving the colonial infrastructure in ruins. The
French departed Algeria after six years of fighting the indepen
dence movement. Only a coup d'etat in Portugal finally per
suaded the Portuguese to free Angola and Mozambique in 1975,
which, like many countries, erupted into civil war once the
Europeans had departed. Different ethnic and political groups
that had previously cooperated in opposition to European impe
rialism now found themselves fighting over control of nations
whose boundaries, size, and even political systems had been
created by foreigners. The success of anti-imperialist indepen
dence movements, with subsequent internal struggles for con
trol in dozens of fledgling nation-states, was the most significant
political factor affecting the growth of non-Western Christianity
in the decades following World War II.
To understand why decolonization profoundly affected the
state of Christianity in the non-Western world, one must explore
the prior ambiguous relationship between Western missions and
European imperialism. On the one hand, although missionary
work often predated the coming of Western control, imperialism's
arrival inevitably placed missions within an oppressive political
context that they sometimes exploited for their own benefit. In
China, for example, the unequal treaties of 1842 and 1858 permit
ted missions to operate in selected port cities and to buy land.
Foreign missions in China benefited from extraterritoriality,
whereby they were not subject to Chinese laws and regulations.
Dana L. Robert, acontributing editor, is theTrumanCollins Professor ofWorld
Mission, Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts.
50
INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH
International Bulletin
of Missionary Research
Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the
Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary
Research 1977. Renamed INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH
1981. Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by
Overseas Ministries Study Center
490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A.
Tel: (203) 624-6672 • Fax: (203) 865-2857
E-mail: ibmr@OMSC.org • Web: http://www.OMSC.org
Editor:
Gerald H. Anderson
Associate Editor:
Jonathan J. Bonk
Contributing Editors:
Catalino G. Arevalo, S.J.
David B. Barrett
Stephen B. Bevans, S.V.D.
Samuel Escobar
Barbara Hendricks, M.M.
Paul G. Hiebert
Jan A. B.Jongeneel
Sebastian Karotemprel, S.D.B.
David A. Kerr
Graham Kings
Anne-Marie Kool
Gary B. McGee
Mary Motte, F.M.M.
C. Rene Padilla
James M. Phillips
Dana L. Robert
Assistant Editor:
Robert T. Coote
Lamin Sanneh
Wilbert R. Shenk
Charles R. Taber
Tite Tienou
Ruth A. Tucker
Desmond Tutu
Andrew F. Walls
Anastasios Yannoulatos
In colonial Africa, missions received land grants. For example, in
1898Cecil Rhodes awarded 13,000acres to American Methodists
for their Rhodesian Mission. Sometimes, however, the mission
aries themselves stood between the indigenous peoples and their
exploitationby Europeans. French Protestant missionary Maurice
Leenhardt defended the land rights of the Kanaks in face of
overwhelming pressure from French colonialists in New
Caledonia. Presbyterian missionaries William Sheppard and
William Morrison faced trial in 1909 for exposing the atrocities
perpetrated on rubber gatherers in the Belgian Congo. While
courageous individual missionaries mitigated the effects of im
perialism on indigenous peoples, by and large the missions
benefited materially from European control. Most missionaries
saw themselves as apolitical and preferred the status quo of
colonialism to the uncertainties of nationalist revolution.
Another important factor in understanding the ambiguous
relationship between missions and imperialism before
decolonization was the importance of missionary schools. Chris
tian missions pioneered Western learning in the non-Western
world. In 1935 missions were running nearly 57,000 schools
throughout the world, including more than one hundred col
leges. Mission schools promoted literacy in both European lan-
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Mission schools provided
local leadership the tools it
needed to challenge
colonial oppression.
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guages and vernaculars, and they spread Western ideals of
democratic governance, individual rights, and the educability of
women and girls. Despite their limitations, missions through
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nationalism was extremely significant, especially through the
impact of mission schools. Korea, for example, was colonized by
Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in:
the Japanese in 1910. At that time, mission schools were the only
Bibliografia Missionaria
IBR (International Bibliography of
form of modern education in the country. In 1911 the Japanese
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Book Reviews)
military police accused students at a Presbyterian school of
Christian Periodical Index
IBZ (International Bibliography of
plotting to assassinate the Japanese governor-general. The police
Guideto People in Periodical Literature
Periodical Literature)
arrested 123Koreans for conspiracy, 105 of whom were Christian
Guideto Social Science and Religion in
Missionalia
nationalists.
In 1919, thirty-three Koreans signed the Korean
Periodical Literature
Religious andTheological Abstracts
Declaration
of
Independence. Fifteen signatories were Chris
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tians, even though Christians represented only 1 percent of the
Index, abstracts, and full text of this journal are available on databases total population." Mission education, which combined vernacu
lar literacy with Western learning, clearly played a key role in
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sity Microfilms. Also consult InfoTrac database at many academic and public equipping nationalist leadership.
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The role of mission schools in creating nationalist leadership
was important not only in Asia, but also in Africa. Missions
Opinions expressed in the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN are those of the authors founded schools before those of colonial governments, including
and not necessarily of the Overseas Ministries Study Center.
the first higher education for Africans in 1827 at Fourah Bay
Copyright © 2000by Overseas Ministries Study Center. All rights reserved. College in Sierra Leone, and higher education for South Africans
at Fort Hare in 1916. By the Second World War, mission churches
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in Africa had produced a Christian elite poised to found indepen
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Christianity was a minority religion, its adherents played a much
larger role than their numbers warranted. Most black African
ISSN 0272-6122
leaders were churchmen. Kenneth Kaunda, first president of
Zambia, was the son of a Presbyterian minister. Hastings Banda,
first president of Malawi, received his early education in a
April 2000
51
mission school and attended college in the United States. Kwame ment in the early twentieth century, accession to power by the
Nkrumah, first president of Ghana, attended Catholic mission Communists in 1949 condemned Christianity as the religion of
schools and began his career teaching in them. Leopold Senghor the colonialist oppressor. Chinese churches became sites for
studied for the priesthood before entering politics and becoming Marxist struggle against the "opium of the people." In 1950 the
first president of Senegal. Similarly, Julius Nyerere, first prime Communist government organized Chinese Protestants into the
minister of Tanzania, both studied and taught in Catholic mis Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Catholics into the Catholic
sion schools. Not only did mission schools train many nationalist Patriotic Association. Under theologian Y. T. Wu, who had
leaders, but church-related institutions provided opportunities attended the Madras IMC meeting in 1938, the Three-Self Move
for developing indigenous leadership.
ment published the Christian Manifesto, which stated that mis
After World War II, with the process from decolonization to sionary Christianity was connected with Western imperialism
independence in full swing, Christianity in the non-Western and that the United States used religion to support reactionary
world faced an entirely new context. In 1954, leading East Asian political forces. The document called for Chinese Christians
Christians wrote a volume entitled Christianity and the Asian immediately to become self-reliant and separate from all West
Revolution. Reflecting on the social convulsions of the twentieth ern institutions." The Three-Self Movement began holding meet
century, the Christian leaders defined the"Asian Revolution" ings at which Christian leaders were accused of betraying the
not only as a reaction against European colonialism but also as a Chinese people and were sent to labor camps for "reeducation."
search for human rights and economic and social justice, ideas With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, the remaining
obtained from the West itself. The authors noted, "As the Ameri foreign missionaries left China, for their presence was endanger
can colonists revolted in the name of English justice against ing the Chinese Christian community. The few missionaries who
British rule, so Asians, in the name of political and social doc did not leave were imprisoned along with many leading Chinese
trines which originated in large part in Europe and America, Christians. The worst suffering of Chinese Christians occurred
revolted against European colonialism.:" The rejection of colo from 1966 to 1976 during the Cultural Revolution, a period in
nialism by Asian and African Christians included rejecting West which no public worship was permitted in China. The very
ern missionary paternalism, with its Eurocentrism and moral schools and hospitals that had seemed like the best contribution
superiority." From the 1950s through the 1970s, as nations shook of foreign missions to China were held up as the proof of
off the legacy of European domination, churches around the missionary imperialism and foreign domination of Christianity.
world accused Western missionaries of paternalism, racism, and Millions of Chinese died as the government encouraged the
cultural imperialism. The refrain "Missionary, Go Home!" reached
its peak in the early 1970s. In 1971 Christian leaders in the
Philippines, Kenya, and Argentina called for a moratorium on
missionaries to end the dependence of the younger churches on
the older ones. In 1974 the All Africa Conference of Churches,
meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, called for a moratorium on Western
missionaries and money sent to Africa, because of the belief that
foreign assistance created dependency and stifled African lead
ership.
The cries for moratorium from Latin American, Asian, and
African Christians shocked the Western missionary movement.
But indigenous Christian protests against Western mission were
insignificant compared with the wholesale rejection of Christian destruction of all things religious or traditional. Except for a
ity that occurred within revolutionary movements led by non catacombs church of unknown strength, it seemed to China
Christians. At the International Missionary Council meeting of watchers in the 1970s that the Communist dictatorship had
1938, the largest delegations of Asian Christians came from the destroyed Chinese Christianity.
countries with the largest Western-style Christian infrastruc
In parts of Africa, anticolonial movements sometimes took
tures: India and China. Both Indian and Chinese Christianity an anti-Christian stance. Nationalist leaders accused missions of
boasted national Christian councils under indigenous leader telling Africans to pray and then stealing their land while their
ship; both enjoyed thriving ecumenical movements that sup heads were bowed. Despite having been a resident mission pupil
ported organic church unions; both hosted a range of Christian in childhood, [omo Kenyatta, leader of the anti-Christian, pro
colleges and hospitals. Ironically, anti-Christian backlashes raged independence Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya during the 1950s
in both countries. Because Christianity was a minority religion in and later the country's first president, accused missionaries of
both China and India, its association with European domination trying to destroy African culture. During the Mau-Mau libera
widely discredited it as dangerous and foreign in the eyes of the tion struggle, which mobilized African traditional religion against
majority non-Christians. Despite a community that traced its Christianity, rebels killed African Christians who refused to
founding to the apostle Thomas, most Indian Christians were drink the goats' blood and other sacrifices of the pro-indepen
outcastes, members of ethnic groups despised in Hindu society. dence cult. During the cold war, Marxist ideology as well as
Practicing a double discrimination against both Christianity and funding from the Soviet Union and China began playing a role in
low caste status, the postcolonial Indian government excluded African conflicts. Following the Cuban example, Communist
Christian Dalits (outcastes) from the affirmative-action programs funded movements in Mozambique and Angola dismantled
guaranteed to other ethnic minorities. The government of India mission schools and attacked churches as supposed organs of
began denying visas to missionaries in 1964,and Christians faced capitalism and European religion.
ongoing discrimination and intermittent persecution in both
By the 1970s, on a political and ideological level, world
India and Pakistan,"
Christianity seemed in disarray. Although mission education,
In China, the place of the largest Western missionary invest literacy training, and ideals of individual human worth had
Non-Western Christians
were seen as rice Christians,
and missionaries were
thought to be as outdated
as dinosaurs.
52
provided tools that initiated intellectual leadership of indepen
dence movements in Asia and Africa, the perceived alliance of
foreign missions with European domination branded Christian
itya henchman of colonialism. In the West, reacting against the
colonial legacy, scholars and historians similarly indicted Chris
tian missions as a tool of Western domination. As far as Western
intellectuals were concerned, the non-Western Christian was a
mercenary "rice Christian," and the missionary as outdated as a
dinosaur. The teaching of missions and world Christianity began
disappearing from colleges and seminaries, a casualty of the
Vietnam-era rejection of "culture Christianity" and Western
domination in world affairs. With indigenous church leaders
calling for moratoriums on missionaries, Western mainline
churches became highly self-critical and guilt-ridden. Attempt
ing to shift from paternalistic to partnership models of mission,
they began cutting back on Western missionary personnel. Dur
ing the long process from decolonization to independence, schol
ars, politicians, and leading ecclesiastics branded both Western
missions and world Christianity failures because of their per
ceived social, theological, and political captivity to the despised
colonialist interests.
became one of the few institutions with the moral authority and
international connections to oppose the government, which it
did on occasion. In some parts of Africa, the church's infrastruc
tures and international connections provided more stability for
supporting daily life than did the governrnent.!' The
postindependence growth of Anglicanism occurred so steadily
throughout former British colonies that Africa is now the conti
nent with the most Anglicans. At the 1998 Lambeth Conference,
the highest consultative body of the Anglican Communion, 224
of the 735 bishops were from Africa, compared with only 139
from the United Kingdom and Europe." Anglicans in Nigeria
report 17 million baptized members, compared with 2.8 million
in the United States."
Given its brutal suppression under Communism after 1949,
the Chinese church provides the most stirring illustration of the
resilience of Asian Christianity. In 1979 five thousand Chinese
Indigenous Bible women,
evangelists, catechists, and
prophets were the most
effective interpreters of the
faith to their own people.
Revival and Renewal in World Christianity
The irony of world Christianity from the Second World War
through the 1970s was that even as scholars were writing books
implicating Christianity in European imperialism, the number of
believers began growing rapidly throughout Asia, Africa, and
Latin America. Perhaps if historians in the sixties and seventies
had been studying Christianity as a people's movement rather
than a political one, they might have noticed that growth among
the grass roots did not mirror the criticisms of intellectual elites.
The process of decolonization and independence began severing
the connection between Christianity and European colonialism.
The repudiation of missionary paternalism, combined with ex
panding indigenous initiatives, freed Christianity to become
more at home in local situations.
Another fallacy of treating Christianity as a politicized West
ern movement is that scholarship ignored the way in which
ordinary people were receiving the gospel message and retrans
lating it into cultural modes that fitted their worldviews and met
their needs.'? In retrospect it is evident that even during the
colonial period, indigenous Christians-Bible women, evange
lists, catechists, and prophets-were all along the most effective
interpreters of Christianity to their own people. The explosion of
non-Western Christianity was possible because Christianity was
already being indigenized before the colonizers departed.
In the uncertainty of postcolonial situations, in the midst of
civil strife and ethnic tensions in emerging nations, indigenous
forms of Christianity spread quietly and quickly. Even in the so
called mission denominations, native leaders took over and
indigenized positions held formerly by Western missionaries. In
Kenya, for example, Mau-Mau rebels targeted Anglicanism as
the religion of the colonizers during the 1950s. But after Mau
Mau, independence, and the subsequent instability of a strug
gling government, Anglicanism in Kenya emerged even stron
ger, with exponential growth among the Kikuyu from the 1970s
onward. Not only was Anglicanism now led by Kenyan bishops
and priests, but the new context transformed the liability of being
an English religion under a colonial government into the advan
tage of being a global faith under an independent government. In
the 1980s and 1990s, as political and economic institutions began
collapsing under corrupt one-party dictatorships, the church
April 2000
Christians attended the first public worship service allowed
since 1966. By suffering under Communism along with other
citizens, Chinese Christians proved they were not the "running
dogs" of imperialists but were truly Chinese citizens. With the
end of the Cultural Revolution, Christians began reclaiming
buildings that had previously been seized. The China Christian
Council opened thirteen theological seminaries and began print
ing Bibles, creating a hymnal, and training pastors for churches
that had gone without resources for fifteen years. Recent schol
arship estimates that on the eve of the Communist takeover, one
fourth of all Chinese Christians were already members of indig
enous, independent Chinese churches." It was these indigenized
forms of Christianity that provided the most resistance to Com
munist domination of the churches. Biblically literalist, directly
dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit, and emerging from
the religious sensibilities of popular Chinese religion, indigenized
forms of Chinese Christianity grew the most under Communist
persecution. What had been 700,000 Protestants in 1949 grew to
between 12 and 36 million Protestants by the end of the century."
In addition to government-approved churches, millions of Chi
nese Christians meet in house churches characterized by sponta
neous spoken prayer, singing and fellowship, miraculous heal
ing, exorcisms of evil spirits, and love and charity to neighbors.
The translation of Christianity into African cultures was
most obvious in the life and work of so-called African Indepen
dent or African Initiated Churches (AICs), defined by Harold
Turner as churches founded in Africa, by Africans, primarily for
Africans. By 1984 Africans had founded seven thousand inde
pendent, indigenous denominations in forty-three countries
across the continent. By the 1990s over 40 percent of black
Christians in South Africa were members of AICs. Chafing under
white domination and racism, African-led movements began
breaking off from mission churches in the 1880s. The earliest
independent churches emphasized African nationalism in eccle
siastical affairs. They received the name "Ethiopian" in 1892
when a Methodist minister, Mangena Mokone, founded the
53
Millennium Meditation
So it is with my wordissuingfrom my mouth;
It will not return to me empty. -Isaiah. 55:11
And the Wordbecame flesh and bedded down with us. -John 1:14
"Time and tide wait for no man":
We revolve through two millennia,
From Word embedded in the womb.
"No man is an island, entire of itself":
We're involved, interwoven,
The Word embedded on the loom.
The Son of Man sets his steps: Jerusalem,
He's resolved. Dead, interred;
The Word embedded in the tomb.
Frozen out by embittered world,
Accursed, abominable no man:
Yet he rose again,
Lord of all, laudable Son of Man,
Fired up, emblazoned Word, returning home.
-Graham Kings
Canon Graham Kings, a contributing editor, served as an
Anglican missionary in Kenya. He is the Henry Martyn
Lecturer in Missiology in the Cambridge Theological
Federation and Director of the Henry Martyn Centre,
Cambridge, England.
Ethiopian Church in the Witwatersrand region of South Africa.
Believing that Africans should lead their own churches, Mokone
cited Psalm 68:31:"Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God."16
During the early twentieth century, important African prophets
and evangelists emerged throughout the continent, often to be
arrested and persecuted by colonial authorities who deemed
spiritual independence a dangerous precursor to political inde
pendence.
By the mid-twentieth century, the largest group of AICs
were known as Spirit churches, often called Aladura in western
Africa and Zionist in southern Africa." Spirit churches were
characterized by a prophetic leader, a high emphasis on the Holy
Spirit, Pentecostal phenomena such as speaking in tongues and
exorcisms, and often a holy city or "Zion" as headquarters. With
Bible translation into many African languages, prophetic African
leaders interpreted the Scriptures for themselves in line with
African cultural practices. Zionists, for example, permit po
lygamy, which exists both in the Bible and in traditional African
cultures. Their leaders rely on dreams and visions for divine
inspiration-also both a biblical and traditional African practice.
Many people are attracted to AICs because they focus on healing
the body and spirit through prayers, laying on of hands, and
administration of holy water and other remedies. Women heal
ers treat barren women and other sufferers, providing respite for
them in healing colonies. In Zimbabwe more than 150 indig
enous churches have extended the metaphor of healing by join
ing in a movement to heal the earth through planting trees
750,000 trees in 1997 alone." Spirit churches spread rapidly
following political independence because they translated the
Christian faith into African cultures, thereby both transforming
the cultural forms and expanding the meaning of the Gospel as
received from Western missionaries. Spirit churches also spread
because they mount vigorous missionary movements, sending
out evangelistic teams that dance through the villages, singing,
praying, preaching, healing, and drawing people into a vigorous
worship life.
Another momentous change in the world church since the
1960s can be traced to the renewal of Catholicism, the largest
branch of Christianity with approximately 980 million members
in 1996. The Second Vatican Council (1962-65) brought to Rome
the Catholic bishops, who together voted major changes in
Catholicism's theological self-definition, customs, and attitudes.
As these bishops returned to their homelands, they began put
ting into practice the idea of the church as the people of God, with
Mass said in the vernacular and a new openness to current
sociocultural realities. In particular, the more than 600 Latin
American bishops who attended the Vatican Council gained a
new sense of their potential as the numerically largest block of
Catholics in the world. Latin American bishops reflected on their
common social problems-stark division between rich and poor,
takeovers by military dictatorships, and a legacy of a church that
took the side of the rich. At the meeting of Latin American
bishops in Medellin, Colombia, in 1968, the bishops evaluated
the social context of their continent and spoke with a powerful
voice against the dependence of Latin America on the industri
alized North-a dependence that perpetuated the poverty of the
South. Calling the church to take the side of the poor, the bishops
supported a new "theology of liberation/?"
The "renewed commitment to democracy and human rights
in the Catholic Church" supported a wave of democracy through
out Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Philippines during
the 1970s and 1980s.20
The movement toward democracy in traditionally Roman
Catholic countries was not universally acclaimed by the church,
as the route often entailed violent rebellion and upheaval of the
status quo. The theology of liberation immediately came into
conflict with powerful military dictatorships, which began per
secuting the church. Militaries martyred an estimated 850 bish
ops, priests, and nuns in Latin America during the 1970s and
early 1980s. Military governments targeted church leaders at all
levels because they were conscientizing the poor-teaching them
to read and defending their human rights. The Roman Catholic
Church in Latin America gained a vitality it had long lacked as
laypeople began meeting in Base Christian Communities, which
functioned as Bible study groups that reflected on the relation
ship between the church as community and social injustices. But
as the theology of liberation confronted the social and political
power structures in Latin America, the Catholic Church became
divided between those who supported liberation theology among
the "people of God" and those more conservative, who felt the
nature of the church was more hierarchical and otherworldly.
The renewal of Catholicism in Latin America since the
Second Vatican Council underscores a major tension in the
growth of non-Western Christianity since the mid-twentieth
century: the forms and structures for the growth of late twenti
eth-century Christianity could not be contained within either the
institutional or the theological frameworks of Western Christian
ity. The Base Christian Communities, for example, introduced
Bible study and a more intense spirituality into what had been
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nominal Catholic practice. Faced with the severe shortage of
priests, Latin American Catholics, once they became used to
reading the Bible for themselves, began forming their own
churches and breaking away from Catholicism. Ironically, the
liberation theologies of the Base Christian Communities may
have created heightened expectations that could not be fulfilled,
and disillusioned Catholics began founding their own churches.
Protestant growth has become so rapid in Latin America that
scholars have predicted that Protestants, notably of Pentecostal
persuasion, could constitute a third of the Latin American popu
lation by the year 2010, with their greatest strengths in Guate
mala, Puerto Rico, EI Salvador, Brazil, and Honduras." These
new Protestants are founding their own churches, such as the
Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a Pentecostal group
begun in the late 1970s by Edir Macedo de Bezerra. By 1990 this
home-grown denomination had 800 churches with two million
worshipers led by 2,000 pastors throughout Latin America.
Neither Catholicism nor the classic churches of the Protestant
Reformation can contain the vitality of Latin American Chris
tianity today.
Reasons for the revival and renewal of global Christianity
today are too complex and diverse to be encapsulated in a brief
essay. In addition to increasing indigenization within a
postcolonial political framework, many sociological factors af
fect church growth, including urbanization, dislocation caused
by war and violence, ethnic identity, the globalizing impact of
cyberspace, and local circumstances. Political contexts differ
widely for Christian communities around the world. Neverthe
less, Christianity throughout the non-Western world has in
common an indigenous, grassroots leadership; embeddedness
in local cultures; and reliance on a vernacular Bible. Where
Christianity is growing in the South, it supports stable family and
community life for peoples suffering political uncertainty and
economic hardships. The time when Christianity was the reli
gion of European colonial oppressors fades ever more rapidly
into the past.
nity of people who call themselves Christians and a multitude of
local movements for whom Christianity represents a particular
culture's grappling with the nature of divine reality. Christianity
is a world religion with a basic belief that God has revealed
himself in the person of Jesus Christ, whose adherents are spread
throughout the globe. Yet as Lamin Sanneh has so cogently
argued, by virtue of its use of the vernacular in speaking of God
and in spreading the Scriptures, Christianity has translated or
incarnated itself into local cultures." What at first glance appears
to be the largest world religion is in fact the ultimate local
religion. Indigenous words for God and ancient forms of spiritu
ality have all become part of Christianity. Flexibility at the local
level, combined with being part of an international network, is a
major factor in Christianity's self-understanding and success
today. The strength of world Christianity lies in its creative
interweaving of the warp of a world religion with the woof of its
local contexts.
The increasing cultural diversity within Christianity, with
the recognition of the local within the global and the global
within the local, complicates the writing of church history in the
twenty-first century. The days are gone when the history of
The strength of world
Christianity lies in its
interweaving of the warp of
a world religion with the
woof of local contexts.
Christianity could be taught as the development of Western
doctrine and institutions. Being in the middle of a large-scale
transformation in the nature of Christianity, we do not yet have
an adequate interpretive or even descriptive framework for what
is happening. Australian historian Mark Hutchinson advocates
a paradigm shift in the history of Christianity to a model of
multiculturalism, a globalization of evangelicalism." Others in
terpret worldwide growth as the spread of Pentecostalism, since
the majority of growing churches today express themselves in
Pentecostal worship styles." A history-of-religions framework
sees that the growing energy of Christianity has always been
drawn from primal spirituality." Sociologists have explored the
spread of Christianity today as a process of modernization, a
variant of the Weberian thesis in the growth of capitalism."
Historians influenced by liberation theology stress that the cen
tral focus of history should be the poor and marginalized rather
than the ecclesiological elites of the Christendom model." Lib
eration theology has a strong influence on the ongoing history
projects of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theolo
gians.
While each of these models has something to offer in helping
us speak and teach about world Christianity, there is danger in
theories of globalization that skip over the painstaking historical
research necessary for each local context. Global analyses need to
begin with local history, with the internal criteria of each move
ment as the starting point of our historical musings." As with the
outdated nomenclature of mission history, such as "younger
churches," "developing churches," the "history of the expansion
of Christianity," and so on, there is a constant temptation to
define the changing global patterns in relation to the European
and the North American experience.
A Global/Local Christian Fabric
As Christianity shifts southward, the nature of Christianity itself
evolves. The movement of the faith from one culture to another
typically has caused a major change in the self-understanding
and cultural grounding of the Christian movement." Past cul
tural shifts occurred when Christianity moved from a Hebrew to
a Greco-Roman milieu, and then from a Mediterranean to a
European framework. With the voyages of discovery, Europeans
began exporting their religion in the late 1400s. At that time
Christian expansion was partly a function of the state, reflecting
the Christendom model of church/state relations. Even the
voluntarism of Protestant missions occurred within a largely
Christendom model. But the end of European colonialism after
the Second World War accompanied a decline of European
religiosity relative to the rest of the world. The virtual destruction
of Russian Orthodoxy under the Communist regime was also a
major factor in the elimination of the Christendom model.
Now much of the dynamism within world Christianity is
occurring below the equator. As Christianity shifts southward,
the interpretations of Christianity by people in Latin America,
Africa, and southern Asia are coming to the fore. This changing
face of the world church also brings new interpretive challenges
for historians.
One of the knottiest interpretive problems in understanding
Christianity today is the tension between a worldwide commu
56
The tension between the global and the local is not merely an
academic exercise but is a struggle over identity. For example,
some commentators are describing the growing world church as
Pentecostal. Pentecostal and charismatic scholars want to claim
the growth of world Christianity as part of their own missionary
success." Since Pentecostal phenomena were so derided in West
ern Christianity into the 1980s, it is understandable that Western
Pentecostal scholars wish to include all phenomenologically
similar movements as somehow related to Azusa Street. Anthro
pologists might similarly wish to describe new Christian move
ments as Pentecostal because of the prominence of common
phenomena such as speaking in tongues, healing rituals, and the
alleged marginalized social status of many adherents. For politi
cal liberals who look down on what they perceive to be narrow
pietism, the word "Pentecostal" has been attractive as a negative
descriptor, as part of an implied spillover from the Christian
right in the United States.
For historians, however, unreflective use of the term
"Pentecostalism" to summarize growing world Christianity has
the same problem as calling all biblical Christianity "fundamen
talism." It reduces local identity to a standardized set of criteria,
in this case to phenomenology. Are Pentecostal phenomena the
defining mark of identity for local practitioners, or are there other
theological or communal identity markers that are more mean
ingful for them? Do all Pentecostal phenomena worldwide have
an organic connection to Azusa Street and the missionary move
ment that spread from there, or is Pentecostal practice reflective
of indigenous cultural initiative? Is the use of the word "Pente
costal" just the latest instance of categories originating from the
North being used to explain and somehow take credit for what
is going on in the South?
Non-Western historians are cautioning against blanket use
of the word "Pentecostal" to describe indigenous Christianity.
For example, Nigerian church historian Ogbu Kalu, head of the
African history project for the Ecumenical Association of Third
World Theologians, has criticized the Pentecostal terminology as
reflecting the dominance of anthropology in ignoring essential
historical and theological differences among current movements.
Kalu insists that historians be more accurate and recognize the
differences that arise within the movements themselves." Inus
Daneel, the leading interpreter of African Initiated Churches in
Zimbabwe, argues vigorously against the label of Pentecostalism
being plastered onto indigenous churches. Not only have these
churches been founded by African prophets, but they have
recruited their members largely from the traditional population,
not from so-called mission churches. Although they emphasize
the Holy Spirit, the AICs deal with issues arising from African
culture, not from Western Pentecostalism. To claim that AICs are
otherworldly, for instance, ignores the holism that undergirds
African religions."
As scholars analyze and define what is happening in world
Christianity today, we must apply such globalizing concepts as
"Pentecostal" only after careful research into the local contexts."
Historians should take the lead in acknowledging the new
Christianities as radically indigenous movements, not simply
Pentecostalism or primal religiosity, or perhaps not even
multicultural options within a global evangelicalism. Each move
ment should be studied from within its own internal logic, even
as the universal nature of Christianity is recognizable in the
construction of local identities. Popular Korean Christianity is a
case in point. David Yonggi Cho leads the largest church in the
world, the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea. Cho is by
membership a Pentecostal, a minister in the Assemblies of God.
Yet the emphasis of his congregation on material blessings and
on such spiritualities as a prayer mountain is clearly attributable
to the influence of Korean shamanism. Does Yoido Full Gospel
Church exemplify globalized Pentecostalism or localized spirit
religion? As historians work within the tensions between the
global and the local that characterize indigenous world
Christianities today, we should recognize that each form of
twenty-first century Christianity represents a synthesis of global
and local elements that has its own integrity.
As Christianity declines in Europe and grows in the South,
historians need to recognize what the International Missionary
Council saw in 1938: the future of world Christianity rests with
the so-called younger churches and their daily struggles. Ulti
mately, the most interesting lessons from the missionary out
reach during the Western colonial era is what happened to
Christianity when the missionaries weren't looking, and after the
colonizers withdrew. The challenge for historians lies in seeing
beyond an extension of Western categories and into the hearts,
minds, and contexts of Christ's living peoples in Asia, Africa, and
Latin America.
Notes
1. The World Mission of the Church: Findings and Recommendations of the
Meeting of the International Missionary Council, Tambaram, Madras,
India, Dec. 12-29, 1938 (London: International Missionary Council,
1939), p. 7.
2. In attendance were pioneer leaders like Bishop Azariah, the first
Indian Anglican bishop, and Toyohiko Kagawa, advocate ofJapanese
social Christianity. There were up-and-coming theologians such as
Christian Baeta of Gold Coast and D. T. Niles of Ceylon, both thirty
years old. Young leaders of future social struggles included Chief
Albert Luthuli, future president of the African National Congress
and first African recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960,and Y.T.
Wu, author of the controversial anti-Western Chinese Christian
Manifesto in 1950. Women leaders included Mina Soga, social
worker and the first African woman to attend an international
conference, and Michi Kawai, noted Japanese educationist. For
attendance list, see ibid., pp. 187-201.
3. Statistics taken from David B.Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, Annual
Statistical Table on Global Mission," International Bulletin ofMissionary
Research 24, no. 1 (January 2000): 24-25.
4. An earlier draft of this article was presented at the meeting of the
5.
6.
7.
1/
April 2000
8.
57
American Society of Church History in Washington, D.C., on January
9, 1999. Following both the terminology of the New International
Economic Order (Brandt Commission), and the geographic reality of
where most churches are growing, I have chosen to speak here of
Christianity in the "South." "North" I"South" nomenclature
nevertheless contains imprecisions and inadequacies, as do the
terms "West" I "East," "First World" I "Third World," or "First
World" I"Two-Thirds World."
Donald N. Clark, Christianity in Modern Korea (Lanham, Md.: Univ.
Press of America, 1986), pp. 8-10.
Rajah B.Manikam, ed., ChristianityandtheAsianRevolution (Madras:
Joint East Asia Secretariat of the International Missionary Council
and the World Council of Churches, 1954), p. 7.
Wilbert R. Shenk, "Toward a Global Church History," International
Bulletin of Missionary Research 20, no. 2 (April 1996): 51. For a
discussion of the relationship between missions and nationalism,
see Dana L. Robert, "Christianity in the Wider World," part 6, in
Christianity: A Social and Cultural History, 2d ed., Howard Kee and
others (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1998), pp. 563-69.
The rise of Hindu fundamentalism in the late 1990s increased
drastically the amount of anti-Christian violence. In Gujarat alone,
Trusts, which seeks to understand the global spread of evangelicalism.
sixty recorded incidents occurred in the second half of 1998 until 25. Walter Hollenweger, Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments
Worldwide (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997);Harvey
Christmas, and roughly the same number occurred in the few weeks
after (Thomas Quigley, "Anti-Christian Violence in India," America,
Cox, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the
April 3, 1999, p. 10).
Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century (Reading, Mass.:
9. "The Christian Manifesto: Direction of Endeavor for Chinese
Addison-Wesley, 1994); Allan Anderson, Bazalwane: African
Christianity in the Construction of New China," in Religious Policy
Pentecostals in South Africa (Pretoria: Univ. of South Africa Press,
1992).
and Practice in Communist China, ed. Donald MacInnis (New York:
26. Andrew Walls, "Origins of Old Northern and New Southern
Macmillan, 1972), pp. 158-60.
Christianity," in Missionary Movement, pp. 68-75. Sociologist Peter
·10. William R. Burrows, "Reconciling All in Christ: The Oldest New
Paradigm for Mission," Mission Studies 15-1, no. 29 (1998): 86-87.
Berger of Boston University has led a research institute investigating
11. On the church and the nation-state, see Andrew F. Walls, "Africa in
the growth of world Protestantism as an aspect of economic culture.
Christian History-Retrospect and Prospect," Journal of African 27. David Martin, Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin
Christian Thought 1, no. 1 (June 1998): 8-14.
America, foreword by Peter Berger (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1990).
12. "Background Briefing, Lambeth Conference at a Glance," Anglican 28. Enrique Dussel, A Historyof the Church in LatinAmerica: Colonialism
Communion News Service LC014, July 18, 1998.
to Liberation (1492-1979), trans. and revised by Alan Neely (Grand
13. Bob Libby, "How Many Anglicans Are There?" Lambeth Daily,
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1981); Dussel, Church in LatinAmerica.
August 8, 1998, p. 4.
29. Shenk, "Toward a Global Church History," p. 56.
14. Daniel H. Bays, "The Growth of Independent Christianity in China, 30. Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan told the Eighteenth Pentecostal
1900-1937," in Christianity in China: From theEighteenth Centurytothe
World Conference in 1998 that more than 25 percent of the world's
Present, ed. Bays (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1996),p. 310.
Christians are Pentecostal or charismatic and that "the renewal will
15. Robert, "Christianity in the Wider World," p. 570.
continuewithincreasing strength into the next millennium" ("Current
16. Inus Daneel, QuestforBelonging: An Introduction toa Study ofAfrican
News Summary," ReligionToday.com, October 5, 1998).
Independent Churches (Gweru, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press, 1987),p. 49. 31. Ogbu Kalu, "The Estranged Bedfellows: Demonization of the Aladura
17. Ibid.; Deji Ayegboyin and S. Ademola Ishola, African Indigenous
in African Pentecostalism," forthcoming in African Christian Outreach:
Churches: An Historical Perspective (Lagos, Nigeria: Greater Heights
The AlC Contribution, ed. M. L. Daneel (Pretoria: Univ. of South
Publications, 1997); John S. Pobee and Gabriel Ositelu II, African
Africa Press, 2000).
Initiatives in Christianity (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1998).
32. M. L.Daneel, "African Initiated Churches in Southern Africa: Protest
18. ZIRRCON Trust, Annual Report (Masvingo, Zimbabwe: n.p.,1997).
Movements or Missionary Churches?" (paper presented at "Currents
19. Edward L.Cleary, O.P., Crisis andChange: TheChurch in LatinAmerica
in World Christianity" conference, Cambridge Univ., July 15, 1999).
Today (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1985), chap. 2.
33. One possible paradigm is to distinguish between largely urban,
20. Samuel Huntington, cited by Paul Marshall, Their Blood Cries Out:
modernizing movements and rural, neo-traditionalist movements.
The Worldwide Tragedy of Modern Christians Who Are Dying for Their
In Singapore, for example, there are growing numbers of English
speaking, Internet-linked, young professional Pentecostals. These
Faith, introduction by Michael Horowitz (Dallas: Word Publishing,
1997),p. 9. See specific studies, for example, Robert L. Youngblood,
Christians are part of an international network replete with its own
Marcos Against the Church: Economic Development and Political
literature, hymnody, and global evangelistic consciousness. In rural
Repression in thePhilippines (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1990);
Indonesia, however, nonliterate indigenous Christian movements,
Jeffrey Klaiber, The Church, Dictatorships, and Democracy in Latin
influenced by the spirit world of Javanese mysticism, are not
America (Maryknoll, N.Y.:Orbis Books, 1998);Enrique Dussel, "From
connected to the nearby urban elites. (I am indebted to Graham
Walker for this example.)
the Second Vatican Council to the Present Day," in The Church in
LatinAmerica 1492-1992, ed. Dussel, A History of the Church in the
Third World, vol. 1 (Tunbridge Wells, U.K.: Burns and Oates;
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1992), pp. 153-82. For the struggle
within Catholicism, see Phillip Berryman, The Religious Roots of
Rebellion: Christians in Central American Revolutions (Maryknoll, N.Y.:
Orbis Books, 1984); Penny Lernoux, People of God: The Struggle for
World Catholicism (New York: Penguin Books, 1989).
21. Mike Berg and Paul Pretiz, The Gospel People (Monrovia, Calif.:
MARC and Latin America Mission, 1992);Guillermo Cook, ed., New
Face of the Church in Latin America (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books,
1994).
22. Andrew Walls, TheMissionary Movementin Christian History: Studies
in the Transmission of Faith (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1996).
Specialized collection of 2,500 volumes in history and
23. Lamin Sanneh, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on
theology of mission, intercultural studies, missionary
Culture (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1989).
biographies, world religions, etc. Write to: Missions Library,
24. Mark Hutchinson, "It's a Small Church After All," Christianity Today,
P.o. Box 1493, New Haven, CT 06506.
November 16,1998,pp. 46-49. Hutchinson is one of the leaders of the
Currents in World Christianity Project, funded by the Pew Charitable
Missions Library
for Sale
58
Lesslie Newbigin's Contribution to Mission Theology
Wilbert R. Shenk
L
esslie Newbigin (1909-98) was one of the outstanding
Christian leaders of the twentieth century.' This brief
essay considers Newbigin's contribution to theology from the
perspective of the Christian mission. He lived a long and full life
and continued to write and speak right up to the end. His
writings span six decades. In this appreciation of Newbigin's
oeuvre as reflected in his writings, I note the characteristics that
distinguish his work and assess the impact of his thought and its
continuing relevance.
A fitting starting point is the formative experience he records
in his autobiography.' He entered Cambridge University in 1928
an agnostic, but during his first year at university the example of
an older student challenged him to consider the Christian faith.
The following summer, at age nineteen, he joined a Quaker
service center in South Wales that provided recreational services
to unemployed miners. The coal mining industry was depressed,
and the situation bleak and hopeless. One night as he lay in bed
overwhelmed with concern for these men, he saw"a vision of the
cross" touching, as it were, heaven and earth.' Its outstretched
arms touched the whole world and the whole of life. This
experience left an indelible imprint on him, furnishing the point
from which Newbigin would thereafter take his bearings. The
cross as clue became a central motif for his life. Furthermore, his
relationship with God was intimate and vivid, nurtured by
continual communion. From this time he was one of God's
partisans.
Newbigin was highly disciplined. He mastered the basics of
whatever he was studying and prepared thoroughly for each
assignment.' When he arrived in India in 1936, he immediately
set out to attain proficiency in Tamil, a language nonnative
speakers find difficult to master. Next he deepened his under
standing of the culture and religion of India by spending many
hours with the Ramakrishna Mission reading alternately the
Svetasvara Upanishad and John's gospel in the original lan
guages. This attitude of readiness to fearlessly confront the
intellectual and theological demands of each situation continu
ously drew him into dialogue with a range of viewpoints, regard
less of whether or not he found them congenial.
By force of personality and giftedness, Newbigin early
emerged as a missionary statesman and ecumenical leader of
substance. His views were never parochial, and yet he remained
rooted in the local-be that the rural villages of Tamil Nadu,
urban Madras, or inner city Winson Green in Birmingham. He
modeled what it means to contextualize Christian witness by
immersing oneself in the language and culture of a particular
people. Rather than narrowing or limiting one's view, true
contextualization will extend one's horizon.
Lesslie Newbigin was a frontline thinker because of an
uncommon ability to sense the emerging issue that must be
addressed at the moment. This trait is not to be confused with the
pursuit of fads. He abhorred faddishness. What captured his
attention were the issues that impinged on the future of the
church and its obedience in mission: the nature of the church in
relation to unity and mission, the relevance of the Trinity, the
Gospel and the religions, the meaning of contextualization,
conversion, pluralism, and Christian witness in a culture that has
rejected Christendom. Time and again Newbigin led the way in
introducing an issue that would become a dominant theme in the
ensuing years."
Newbigin's mode of discourse was theological, even though
he consistently disclaimed any pretension to being a professional
theologian. In the preface to one of his most widely read books,
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society,6 he wrote: "I can make no claim
either to originality or to scholarship. I am a pastor and preacher."
Virtually everything Newbigin wrote was "on assignment," that
is, in response to a speaking or writing assignment. He found no
time for leisurely and detached reflection. He spoke and wrote on
the run, both figuratively and literally, for, despite a permanent
limp that resulted from a serious bus accident in India in 1936, he
moved with dispatch. This habit stamped his thought with an
immediacy not characteristic of the academy. He seldom both
ered with the usual scholarly apparatus of notes and references,
so that some academics felt compelled to charge that he was not
one of them; yet his thought has consistently commanded atten
tion because of its profundity, vigor, and challenge.
Newbigin remained intensely engaged in both church and
world and devoted himself to reflecting on the life of faith as it
intersects with the world; he was impatient with "airy-fairy" or
detached scholarship that flaunted its objectivity. (He could be
devastating in exposing the pretensions of the latter.) His voca
tion was to be one of the seminal frontline thinkers of the
twentieth century. He was read with appreciation by a vast
number of laypeople, while his books have regularly appeared
on the reading lists of numerous divinity schools' syllabi. Rather
than being a systematic scholar attempting to provide a compre
hensive account, he is best characterized as a strategic thinker,
one sensitive to the priority issues facing the church.
Christ's Community as Key
Newbigin was wholly committed to God's mission of the re
demption of the world. He was equally committed to the unity of
the church. At the center of mission and unity stood Jesus Christ.
His total commitment to Christ-centered mission and Christ
centered ecumenism gave his witness a coherence that leaped
over the usual ecclesiastical and theological lines. Conventional
theological labels were never adequate to describe him: he was
too evangelical for some conciliar Protestants, and too open for
some evangelicals.
This passage from the 1952 Kerr Lectures, frequently re
peated over the years, functions as something of a programmatic
statement of Newbigin's theological vision:
It is surely a fact of inexhaustible significance that what our Lord
left behind Him was not a book, nor a creed, nor a system of
thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community.... He
committed the entire work of salvation to that community. It was
not that a community gathered round an idea, so that the idea was
primary and the community secondary. It was that a community
called together by the deliberate choice of the Lord Himself, and
re-created in Him, gradually sought-and is seeking-to make
explicit who He is and what He has done. The actual community
is primary; the understanding of what it is comes second?
Wilbert R. Shenk,a contributing editor, is Professor of Mission History and
Contemporary Culture,School of World Mission,Fuller Theological Seminary,
Pasadena, California.
April 2000
59
The starting point must ever be God's initiative in Jesus Christ,
the calling of the church to be the visible and witnessing commu
nity of the Gospel, the essential structure an unfolding narrative
rather than an institutional system.
The categories of theology and missiology are almost wholly
irrelevant. N ewbigin's theology is thoroughly missiological, and
his missiology theological. The wellspring of his thought and
action was his vision of the cross that perforce thrusts the church
into missionary witness; for him, action must continually be
tested against the norm of the Gospel, the center of which is the
cross.
Newbigin's only effort to present a comprehensive state
ment of his theology of mission is his book TheOpenSecret, 8 based
on a course of lectures he gave at Selly Oak Colleges for several
years following his retirement from India. In the preface he notes
that the original germ for the work was his Relevance ofTrinitarian
Doctrine forToday's Mieeion,' This is a serviceable summary of his
theology of mission but does not anticipate his preoccupation
with "The Gospel and Our Culture" final phase of his life.
from that of Hocking's. For the latter, faith is "an individual
experience of timeless reality," a view that echoes
Radhakrishnan's. In the Bible the living God acts by gathering a
people committed to covenant relationship-that is, God takes
the initiative in creating a new social reality. According to the
biblical account, "the eternal emphatically has a history, how
ever shocking it may be to the philosopher.?" Hocking speaks
abstractly of One who is Love, but this One never engages
history. This is too vague and insubstantial to command our faith
response.
Second, Hocking is diffident about Jesus Christ, preferring
to interpret the Christ in relation to some universal religious
spirit. He suggests that Christian faith is of a piece with the faith
by which all people live. Hocking cited the words from John's
gospel: "The real light which enlightens every man was even
then coming into the world" (1:9NEB). Here Newbigin points up
the logical fallacy on which Hocking's argument turns. Hocking
bases his reasoning on personal religious experience, the classi
cal liberal premise, whereas the Johannine passage insists that
this light is "present wherever man is present, not wherever
religion is present." In this and numerous other passages,
Missionary Theologian
Newbigin warns of the danger of putting confidence in religion.
On almost every page of Newbigin's writings, one encounters Biblical faith arises from God's initiative in history, encountering
the mind and heart of the missionary theologian at work. In the us in our world, dying at the hands of sinful humans and in the
William Belden Noble Lectures for 1958 at Harvard University, resurrection gaining victory over the power of death. Biblical
Newbigin offered a rejoinder to one of Harvard's most eminent faith depends on what Newbigin repeatedly refers to as "the total
philosophers in the twentieth century, William Ernest Hocking, fact of Christ."
who two years earlier had published TheComing World Civiliza
The third criticism of Hocking concerns the way the philoso
iion:" In the 1930s Hocking had presided over the Laymen's pher argues for a necessary link between history and religion but
Foreign Missions Inquiry, which produced the multivolume fails to base this on the incarnation. Christians believe, insists
report Re-Thinking Missions," Hocking himself wrote the sum Newbigin, "that at one point in human history the universal and
mary volume, which stirred intense debate about the future of the concrete historical completely coincided, that the Man Jesus
Christian missions. Hocking's proposed reformulation of mis of Nazareth was the incarnate Word of God, that in his works and
sionary principles entailing a fundamental redefinition of mis words the perfect will of God was done without defect or
sion contributed to polarization within the missionary move remainder.r " The Christian Gospel depends on this "total fact of
Christ."16 Hocking fails to take this center seriously, opting
ment.
Newbigin's reply to Hocking posed a question: A Faith for instead for a universal mystical experience available to human
This One World?12 Already at this point Newbigin was wrestling kind but without any specific point of reference. By contrast, the
with the issue that would preoccupy him continually the last two Gospel insists that God acted decisively in Jesus Christ to reveal
decades of his life: "No faith can command a man's final and the meaning of divine love and salvation.
Ultimately, Newbigin's reply to Hocking's program is that
absolute allegiance, that is to say no faith can be a man's real
religion, if he knows that it is only true for certain places and the only viable basis for the civilization he advocates is to be
certain people. In a world which knows that there is only one found in the missionary proclamation of God's revelation in
physics and one mathematics, religion cannot do less than claim Jesus Christ, by which a new humanity is being called into being.
for its affirmations a like universal validity."13 The modern In the ensuing years Newbigin would develop his theology of
secular solution in which two mutually unintelligible categories mission further by placing it in a Trinitarian framework and
were established-"facts" and "values"-had to be rejected. The thinking through issues of conversion and contextualization. But
secularist claimed universal validity for scientific facts but al its foundation remained "the total fact of Christ."
lowed only for personal preference insofar as values were con
cerned. In making his critique and counterproposal, Newbigin Contextual Theologian
considered three schemes for a universal religious framework
for humankind put forward by Indian philosopher S. A cursory reading of the Newbigin writings might suggest a fair
Radhakrishnan, British historian Arnold Toynbee, and Ameri amount of repetition. He early developed a characteristic style of
can philosopher William Ernest Hocking. It is the latter that discourse on which he continued to rely. Certain themes recur
over the decades, and the theological framework remains se
concerns us here.
In his quest for a basis for a universal civilization, Hocking curely in place. What then accounts for the vibrancy and rel
argued that Christianity alone offered an adequate foundation. evance of his thought? I suggest that what makes Newbigin
To be viable, however, the Christian message had to strip away consistently worth listening to is his keen sense of context and his
its offensive parochialisms and doctrinal particularisms. capacity to identify with his audience. He had the ability to
Newbigin queried Hocking's proposal at three crucial points: articulate what for others remained only subliminal until he
Hocking's view of faith, his understanding of Jesus Christ, and expressed it for them.
the relationship between faith and history.
Newbigin began his missionary service in India in 1936.
First, the biblical view of faith is fundamentally different Western civilization was in turmoil, with intimations of another
60
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Noteworthy-----------
Announcing
Personalia
Gerald H. Anderson, editor of the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF
MISSIONARY RESEARCH since 1977, has announced that he will
retire in June 2000. Following missionary service in the Philip
pines, he came to the Overseas Ministries StudyCenter (OMSC),
then in Ventnor, New Jersey, in 1974as Associate Director, and
became Director in 1976. He will be succeeded by Jonathan J.
Bonk as Director and Editor. Robert T. Coote will become
Associate Director and Associate Editor.
The annual meeting of the American Society of
Missiology will be held June 16-18, 2000, at Techny (near
Chicago), Illinois. The theme is "Creative Partnerships for
Mission in the Twenty-first Century." Anne Reissner from the
Center for Mission Research and Study at Maryknoll, New
York, is the ASM president. The Association of Professors of
Mission will meet June 15-16 at the same place in conjunction
with the ASM. The theme of their meeting is "The Global
Church in the Mission Classroom." Susan Higgins of Milligan
College, Tennessee, is president of the APM. For further
information and registration for both meetings, contact Darrell
R. Guder, Columbia Theological Seminary, P.O. Box 520,
Decatur, Georgia 30031-0520 (Fax: 404-687-4656; E-mail:
GuderD@CTSnet.edu.
The International Association for Mission Studies, meet
ing in South Africa in January, 2000, elected Paulo Suess as
President. A German Catholic missionary, he is Director of
Postgraduate Studies of Missiology, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Darrell L. Whiteman, Professor of Missionary Anthropology
at Asbury Theological Seminary E. Stanley Jones School of
World Mission and Evangelism, in Wilmore, Kentucky, was
elected Vice President. They will serve for the next four years
until the next general meeting of the association.
Timothy Dakin, 41, is the new General Secretary of the
Church Mission Society (CMS), London. He takes the place of
Canon Diana Witts, General Secretary since 1995, who retires
at Easter 2000 and who will be a Senior Mission Scholar in
residence at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, New Ha
ven, Connecticut, for the Fall term 2000. Dakin was a mission
partner with the Church Army and was Principal of Carlile
College, Nairobi, Kenya, for six years. He is a graduate of
Oxford University and is ordained in the Anglican Church.
Michael Kinnamon has been appointed to the new Allen
and Dottie Miller Chair for Mission and Peace at Eden Theo
logical Seminary, Saint Louis, Missouri, effective July 1, 2000.
Kinnamon began his ministry on the staff of the World Council
of Churches as executive secretary for the Commission on
Faith and Order. An ordained minister of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ), he comes to Eden from Lexington Theo
logical Seminary, where he served as Professor of Theology
and Ecumenical Studies.
Died. Ruth Sovik, 71, American ecumenical mission
administrator, January 12, 2000, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Following missionary service in Taiwan, she moved to Geneva
and, in 1965, joined the World Council of Churches (WCC) as
editorial assistant for the International Review of Mission, a
publication of the WCC's Commission on World Mission and
Evangelism (CWME), whose deputy director she became in
1978. She left the WCC in 1980 to become associate general
secretary of the World Young Women's Christian Association
(YWCA) and later, in 1983, its general secretary. In 1985 she
was appointed as one of three deputy general secretaries of the
WCC. She held this position until her retirement in 1991,when
she and her husband, Arne, returned to the United States.
world war. Movements for political independence in the Asian
and African colonies constantly reminded the European colonial
powers that the present order would not last indefinitely. Mis
sionary leaders were aware that the so-called younger churches
were restive under continued mission control, even if the mis
sions typically seemed paralyzed as to what constructive steps
might be taken.
Newbigin begins the 1952Kerr Lectures with a discussion of
the breakdown of Christendom and its significance for
ecclesiology." Christendom stands for "the synthesis between
the Gospel and the culture of the western part of the European
peninsula of Asia" that had developed over a long period.
Christianity was so accommodated to European culture that it
had become the folk religion of the West. The ecclesiology
developed in this insular Western context was devoid of a sense
of mission to its own culture. This ecclesiology was largely
devoted to conflicts between various Christian groups rather
than being animated by a vision of the church in relation to the
pagan world. The breakup of this historical Christendom reality,
starting in the seventeenth century, coincided with the beginning
of the movement to send Christian missions from the West to
other continents. Naturally, these missions took with them the
only understanding of the church they knew, the Christendom
model. Thus, both in the historical Christian heartland called
Christendom as well as in other parts of the world where Western
missions had established churches based on this Christendom
ecclesiology, the theological understanding of the church is a
matter of urgent concern.
If we compare The Household of God with The Gospel in a
Pluralist Society, written thirty-six years apart, an underlying
coherence in theme and structure is evident. Each book models
sensitivity to the sociohistorical context in which it is set, which
characterizes a vital theology. In 1952 Newbigin is a Western
missionary living in the non-Western world trying to address
both worlds; by 1988his outlook has undergone a radical change.
Retiring from service in India in 1974,he attempted to "go home"
but discovered that the Great Britain he once knew was no more.
Instead it had become a disconcerting, even disturbing, environ
ment. Now he saw his homeland with critical concern, indeed
alarm. What some artists and philosophers were describing as
the decline of the West and the end of Christendom in the pre
World War II era, had now become reality. A palpable existential
hopelessness had settled over Western society. The bankruptcy
of the Christendom ecclesiology weighed heavily on him. It is no
surprise that the chapter in The Gospel in a Pluralist Society that
attracts the greatest reader response is chapter 18, "The Congre
gation as Hermeneutic of the Gospel." The malaise widely felt
among Western Christians is generally attributed to forms of
62
sity, Heidelberg University, and Union Theological Seminary,
New York (Th.D.), he was ordained in the Church of Scotland
and sent to China in 1938with his wife, Pearl, where he taught
at Moukden Theological College. In 1951, in Singapore, he
became the first general secretary of the Malayan Christian
Council, and lectured at Trinity Theological College. In 1958he
became the representative in South East Asia of the Nanking
Theological Seminary Board of Founders (now the Foundation
for Theological Education in South East Asia), and in 1961 he
was appointed executive director. He was the first editor of the
SouthEast AsiaJournal ofTheology, the first dean of the South East
Asia Graduate School of Theology, and the first executive
director of the Association of Theological Schools in South East
Asia. In 1968 he became Senior Lecturer in systematic theology
at the UniversityofSt.Andrews. In 1971he received an honorary
Doctor of Divinity degree from Glasgow University.
Died. Stephen Fuchs, S.V.D., 92,India missionary scholar,
January 17, 2000, at St. Gabriel near Vienna, Austria. Born in
Austria, he joined the Society of the Divine Word in 1927,
where he came under the influence of Wilhelm Schmidt, the
noted S.V.D. scholar of linguistics and anthropology. Follow
ing ordination in 1934, Fuchs went as a missionary to India
where he worked among the so-called untouchables in Madhya
Pradesh. He received his doctorate from Vienna University in
1950, with a dissertation that was a pioneering ethnographic
study of a Harijan caste in India. During his sixty years in India
he taught at various universities and institutes, including the
University of Bombay, and was a visiting professor at the
University of San Carlos, Cebu, Philippines. He also estab
lished the Institute of Indian Culture in Bombay. Among his
numerous books were AnthropologyfortheMissions (Allahabad,
1979) and TheAboriginal Tribes of India (New Delhi, 1992).
Died. Josef Amstutz, S.M.B.,72,Swiss missiologist, Octo
ber 9, 1999,at Immensee, Switzerland. Ordained to the priest
hood in 1953, he had doctorates from the Gregorian Univer
sity, Rome (1957) and Oxford (1959). After pastoral work in
Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), and teaching theology in
Switzerland, he was General Superior of the Bethlehem Fa
thers from 1967 to 1981. He was one of the founders of the
Institute of Missiology at the Universidad Intercontinental,
Mexico, from 1982 to 1985, and since 1986 he was a member of
the research group at Romero-Haus, Lucerne, Switzerland.
His most recent book is Missionarische Praesenz: Charles de
Foucald in der Sahara (Immensee, 1997).
Died. David M. Stowe, 80,executive vice president emeri
tus of the United Church Board for World Ministries, the
overseas mission agency of the United Church of Christ in the
U.S.A., January 10,2000, in Englewood, New Jersey. A gradu
ate of the University of California at Los Angeles in 1940, he
earned his B.D. degree in 1943 and his Th.D. in 1953 from
Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, which
awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1966.Ordained in 1943
in the Congregational Church, he and his wife, Virginia, went
to North China in 1945 as missionaries of the American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, where he taught at
Yenching University in Peking. In 1956 he joined the national
staff of the American Board in Boston, which became the
United Church Board for World Ministries in 1957. In 1963 he
became executive secretary of the Division of Foreign Mis
sions in the National Council of Churches in the U.S.A., and in
1970 he was elected to the top executive position of the United
Church's World Board. He retired in 1980.
Died. John R. Fleming, 88, Scottish missiologist, June 27,
1999, in St. Andrews, Scotland. Educated at Glasgow Univer
cal and missiological. From this point on Newbigin was not only
engaging a particular context but was continually asking the
question of strategy: how can the church respond faithfully in
this situation?
Yet this was no exception. Throughout his life he demon
strated an uncommon ability to discern the critical issues and
offer a strategic, constructive response. Some initiatives failed,
while others succeeded." Always one began by defining the key
concern and then working out an appropriate theological re
sponse.
church life that do not support Christian discipleship and wit
ness in modern culture. The diagnosis Newbigin offered in 1952
has, if anything, become even more compelling as the decades
have moved on.
Strategic Theologian
In 1981 the British Council of Churches asked Newbigin to draft
an aide-memoire to guide the council in responding to the crisis
of the church in modern British society. The result was a small
book entitled The Other Side of 1984: Questions for the Churches."
which sparked The Gospel and Our Culture program, a six-year
initiative under BCC auspices that culminated in a national
consultation held at Swanwick in 1992 entitled "The Gospel as
Public Truth." This was a sustained effort to get Christian leaders
in the professions, public life, and church to come together to
rethink what it means to witness to the Gospel in all sectors of life.
This effort became his consuming passion and set the course
for the rest of his life: so to renew the church in the West that it
would again bring the witness of Christian revelation to bear on
the whole of life, but do so without reverting to "Constantinian"
forms and assumptions. Newbigin deployed insights from phi
losophy, history, sociology, and science to create a compelling
analysis of the present situation, but his framework was theologi
April 2000
The Challenges Ahead
It is entirely characteristic that Lesslie Newbigin titled his auto
biography Unfinished Agenda. He lived in the present for the
future. He had a strong sense of an eschatology that gave one
nerve to face the present knowing that the victory was assuredly
in God's hands. What guidance with regard to the future did
Newbigin offer?
1. We are challenged to affirm that the cross provides the
clue to the human predicament. The Gospel tells us the story of
what God has done to redeem the whole creation from bondage
to sin, decay, and death. At the center of that story stands the
cross, representing that moment when God in Jesus Christ inter63
vened decisively "for us and our salvation." No part of human
existence is beyond the scope of God's saving purpose, for the
divine compassion encompasses the whole of creation.
Yet Christian history is filled with examples of how the
Gospel of the cross has been denied or reduced to fit the prevail
ing plausibility structure. Whenever this occurs, the power of the
Gospel is diminished. An emergent modern culture in the seven
teenth century introduced the distinction between "fact" (i.e.,
that which is empirically verifiable according to scientific laws)
and "value" (i.e., what is personal, private). Only objective
"facts" could be regarded as universally valid and authoritative.
Religion was relegated to "value" status. The Gospel of the
cross-viewed merely as a value-was regarded not only as
scandalous but as entirely out of place in the public sphere. But
if the church is to have a witness, it must reclaim "the total fact of
Christ," not a truncated version tailored to accommodate mod
ern sensibilities. This requires that the church learn once more to
indwell the biblical narrative so that its own life, witness, and
worship are shaped by that narrative rather than by secular
myth.
2. We are called to reclaim the church for its missionary
purpose. In The Household of God Newbigin pointed to the fatal
dichotomy that marks Christendom ecclesiology, that is, the
separation between church and mission. Mission is often treated
as a stepchild or, even worse, in some cases an orphan, for
traditional ecclesiology often had no place for mission. Yet the
church was instituted by Jesus Christ to be a sign of God's reign
and the means by which witness to that reign would be carried
to the ends of the earth. The church that refuses to accept its
missionary purpose is, at most, a deformed church.
3. We are called to reclaim the church for its missionary
purpose in relation to modern Western culture. While it is
essential that we press to reclaim the church for its missionary
purpose, we cannot stop here. The next step is to work out that
fundamental missional ecclesiology in relation to modern West
ern culture. This is admittedly a daunting undertaking. With its
roots in Christendom, modern Western culture manifests deep
antagonism toward religious faith. It views itself as being post
Christendom, even postreligious. Such attitudes and habits of
thought are deeply held. It is urgent that the church in the West
retrieve the integrity of its identity as a missionary presence in
society. This recovery entails learning to understand this culture,
its controlling myths and plausibility structure, from a mission
ary perspective and discern the relevance of the fullness of the
Gospel in this culture.
With full awareness of the profound changes that the Chris
tian mission had to make in light of the ending of the colonial era,
Newbigin concluded his lectures at the Kuala Lumpur assembly
of the East Asia Christian Conference in 1959by emphasizing the
urgent need for a new pattern and appropriate missionary method.
But in order to translate such talk into action, one condition had
to be met: "That condition is that there shall be distributed
throughout the whole membership of the Church a deep, and
strong, and experientially verified conviction about the suffi
ciency and finality of Christ for the whole world'"? The church
will only manifest its conviction as to the"sufficiency and finality
of Christ" when its faith is continually being tested in the world
by the world. Thus, Newbigin concluded, "It is the church which
lives on the frontier that will be ready to advance in strength.'?'
Conviction tested and tried in experience is conviction renewed.
This insight posits what it means to lead a missionary existence
in the world. It is an especially apt challenge to a church trying to
find identity amid the ruins of Christendom and the emerging
postmodern world.
Notes-----------------------------------------
Newbigin's 1963work TheRelevance ofTrinitarian Doctrine forToday's
Mission (London: Edinburgh House Press) was precursor to the
recovery of Trinitarian theology in the 1970s.In conversation in 1991
he expressed puzzlement over W. A. Visser't Hooft's dismissal of
his attempt to promote a Trinitarian theology as a counterweight to
the rising secular theology. Theologically, Newbigin and Visser't
Hooft had much in common, and they were good friends.
6. Newbigin, Gospel in a Pluralist Society, p. 10.
7. Published as The Household of God (New York: Friendship Press,
1954), p. 20.
8. First published in 1978 as The Open Secret: Sketches for a Theology of
Mission; the second edition appeared in 1995 as The Open Secret: An
Introduction to the Theology of Mission. Both editions were published
by Eerdmans.
9. See note 5 above.
10. William Ernest Hocking, The Coming World Civilization (New York:
Harper & Row, 1956).
11. New York: Harper & Row, 1932.
12. New York: Harper & Row, 1961.
13. Ibid., p. 30.
14. Ibid., p. 48.
15. Ibid., p. 51.
16. Ibid.
17. Note 7 above.
18. Geneva: WCC Publications, 1983.
19. Newbigin regarded as a failure the study entitled "The Missionary
Structureof the Congregation," which was launched in 1961following
the New Delhi Assembly, while he was director of the Commission
on World Mission and Evangelism, World Council of Churches.
20. A Decisive Hour, p. 44.
21. Ibid., p. 45.
1. This article is a revision of one commissioned for the British Bible
Society's periodical TheBible in TransMission (Summer 1998).A full
scale appraisal of Newbigin's thought appears in George R.
Hunsberger, Bearing the Witness of the Spirit (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 1998).Anyone wishing to consider more fully Newbigin's
contribution will want to avail themselves of Hunsberger's book,
including the bibliography of Newbigin's writings for the years
1933-95 (pp. 283-304).
2. Lesslie Newbigin, Unfinished Agenda, rev. ed. (Edinburgh: St.Andrew
Press, 1993).
3. Ibid., p. 11.
4. At age seventy-eight Newbigin was invited to be the 1988Alexander
Robertson Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. He understood
that this entailed the delivery of half a dozen public lectures during
the autumn term. He arrived in Glasgow with the lectures in
completed manuscript form, only to be told by the dean of faculty
that this term the lectures would be delivered as twenty classroom
lectures to first-year divinity students. Immediately he set about
reorganizing and rewriting the lectures in the form found in his book
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Geneva: WCC Publications; Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1989). In the event, he was greatly
challenged by this group of students, which ranged from new
university graduates to thirty-five-year olds who had left their
professions to prepare for pastoral ministry. They represented a
wide variety of religious experiences and levels of commitment.
5. Two examples illustrate Newbigin's thought leadership. First, the
major work by A. T. van Leeuwen, Christianityin World History (New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964), is anticipated in Newbigin's
lecture "The Work of the Holy Spirit," in A Decisive Hour for the
Christian Mission (London: SCM Press, 1960). Van Leeuwen
acknowledges Newbigin's influence on him (pp. 16-17). Second,
64
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hristianity's World Mission would be less intimidating and
more manageable if everyone spoke the same language, fol
lowed the same customs and viewed life the same way. That
idyllic world, however, is not the world Christ calls us to engage.
The real world features at least a dozen major cultu ral families
and more than 2,000 religions, 6,000 languages and 30,000 distinct
societies and cultures. There are also an unknown (and shifting)
number of sub-cultures, counter-cultures and peoples with their own
distinct name, history and identity. Furthermore, secularization has
transformed Western nations into "mission fields" once again.
Several fields of knowledge prepare the effective missionary to
"exegete" the biblical text and people's cultural context. These lit
eratures are as necessary, and as sophisticated, as the literatures
that prepare physicians to make sense of an epidemic, or
astronomers of a galaxy. Asbury's ESJ School will prepare you to
understand the historical, cultural and religious context of the field
of mission to which Christ has called you, and to serve, communi
cate and help grow the indigenous Church in that context.
So if you are interested in making sense of a piece of the
world, and in helping its people make sense of the Christian
gospel, call the admissions office today at 1-800-2-ASBURY or
e-mail us at "admissions_office@asburyseminary.edu".
C
ASBURY
THEOLOGICAL
SEMINARY
Howard Snyder
History of Mission,
Theology of Mission
Eunice Irwin
Primal Religions,
Cantextual Theology
Matt Zahniser
WorldReligions,
Cross-Cultural Discipleship
WI L M O R E ,
K Y
,~
O R l. A N D O.
FL
W WW . A SB lJ RY S F.M I NARY . E D U
-
-
--
- - -- - - - - - -
150 Outstanding Books for Mission Studies: 1990-1999
Selected by the Editors of the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH
ach year the editors of the INTERNATIO~ALBULLET!N OF ~IS
SIONARY RESEARCH select fifteen outstanding books In Enghsh
for mission studies. Here are the 150 books selected from those
published in 1990-1999.
E
___. The Theory and Practice of Missionary Identification, 1860
1920.
Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990. $79.95.
Bosch, David J.
Believing in theFuture: Toward aMissiology of Western Culture.
Valley Forge, Penna.: Trinity Press International, 1995. Pa
perback $7.
Allen, Hubert J. B.
Roland Allen:Pioneer, Priest, and Prophet.
Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement Publications; Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1995. Paperback $10.95.
Anderson, Gerald H., ed.
Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions.
New York: Macmillan Reference, 1997. $100.00. Grand Rap
ids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999. Paperback $50.
~
Robert T. Coote, Norman A. Horner, and James M.
Phillips, eds.
Mission Legacies: Biographical Studies of Leaders of the Modern
Missionary Movement.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1994. $34.95.
Ariarajah, S. Wesley.
___. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mis
sion.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1991. $44.95; paperback $25.
Braaten, Carl E.
No Other Gospel! Christianity Among the World's Religions.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992. Paperback $10.95.
Brierley, Peter, ed.
World Churches Handbook.
London: Christian Research; Monrovia, Calif.:MARC, World
Vision, 1997. £100/$150.
Brown, G. Thompson.
Earthen Vessels and Transcendent Power: American Presbyteri
ans in China, 1837-1952.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1997. $40.
.
Hindus and Christians: A Century of Protestant Ecumenical
Thought.
..
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans; Amsterdam: Editions
Rodopi, 1991. Paperback $21.95.
Bujo, Benezet,
African Theology in Its Social Context.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1992. Paperback $16.95.
Arias, Mortimer, and Alan Johnson.
Burridge, Kenelm.
The Great Commission: Biblical Models for Evangelism.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992. Paperback $12.95.
In the Way: A Study of Christian Missionary Endeavors.
Vancouver: Univ. of British Columbia Press, 1991. $39.95.
Burrows, William R., ed.
Bamat, Thomas, and Jean-Paul Wiest, eds.
Popular Catholicism in a World Church: Seven Case Studies in
Inculturation.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1999. Paperback $25.
Redemption and Dialogue: Reading "Redemptoris Missio" and
"Dialogue and Proclamation."
Barker, John, ed.
Carpenter, Joel A., and Wilbert R.
Christianity in Oceania: Ethnographic Perspectives.
Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press of America, 1991. $46.75; paper
back $29.75.
S~enk,
eds..
..
Earthen Vessels: American Evangelzcals and Foreign MIssIons,
1880-1980.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990. Paperback $15.95.
Carrier, Herve.
Bays, Daniel H., ed.
Christianity in China: From theEighteenth Century to thePresent.
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1996. $55.
Bediako, Kwame,
Evangelizing the Culture of Modernity.
Christensen, Thomas G.
Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion.
Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh Univ. Press; Maryknoll,
N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1995. Paperback $25.
An African Tree of Life.
Conn, Harvie M.
Benedetto, Robert, ed.
The American City and the Evangelical Church: A Historical
Overview.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1994. Paperback $15.99.
Presbyterian Reformers in Central. Africa: A Do~un:entary Ac
count of the American Presbyterian Congo MIssIon and the
Human Rights Struggle in the Congo, 1890-1918.
Leiden: Brill, 1997. $77.
Cook, Guillermo, ed.
TheNew Face oftheChurch in LatinAmerica: Between Tradition
and Change.
Bevans, Stephen B.
Models of Contextual Theology.
Cox, Harvey.
Bickers, Robert A., and Rosemary Seton, eds.
Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the
Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century.
Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1994. $24; paperback $15.
Missionary Encounters: Sources and Issues.
Richmond, Surrey, England: Curzon Press, 1996. Paperback
£19.95.
Blincoe, Robert.
Cracknell, Kenneth.
Justice, Courtesy and Love: Theologians and Missionaries En
countering World Religions, 1846-1914.
London: Epworth Press, 1995. Paperback £20.
Ethnic Realities and the Church: Lessons from Kurdistan. A
. .
.
History of Mission Work, 166.8-1990.
Pasadena, Calif.: Presbyterian Center for MISSIon Studies,
1998. Paperback $12.95.
D'Costa, Gavin, ed.
Christian Uniqueness Reconsidered: The Myth of a Pluralistic
Theology of Religions.
Maryknoll, N.Y.:Orbis Books, 1990. $34.95; paperback $14.95.
Bonk, Jonathan J.
Missions andMoney: Affluence asa Western Missionary Problem.
Maryknoll, N.Y.:Orbis Books, 1991. $44.95; paperback $24.95.
66
Dempster, Murray, Byron D. Klaus, and Douglas Peterson, eds,
Hefner, Robert W., ed.
The Globalization of Pentecostalism: A Religion Made to Travel.
Oxford and Carlisle, U.K.: Regnum and Paternoster, 1999.
Paperback $24.95
Douglas, J. D., ed.
Proclaim Christ Until He Comes: Calling the Whole Church to
Take theWhole Gospel to theWhole World. Lausanne II inManila:
International Congress on World Evangelization.
Minneapolis, Minn.: World Wide Publications, 1990. Paper
back $16.95.
Draper, Edyth, ed.
The Almanacof the Christian World.
Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1990. Paperback
$14.95.
Dries, Angelyn,
Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Per
spectives on a Great Transformation.
Berkley: Univ. of California Press, 1993. $45; paperback $15.
Hege, Nathan B.
Beyond Our Prayers: Anabaptist Church Growth in Ethiopia,
1948-1998.
Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1998. Paperback $14.99.
Heim, Mark S.
Salvations: Truth and Difference in Religion.
Hiebert, Paul G.
Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues.
- - - ' and Eloise Hiebert Meneses.
TheMissionary Movement in American Catholic History.
Dupuis, Jacques.
Jesus Christat the Encounter of World Religions.
Incarnational Ministry:PlantingChurches in Band, Tribal, Peas
ant, and Urban Societies.
----' Daniel Shaw, and Tite Tienou,
Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular
Beliefs and Practices.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: OrbisBooks, 1991. $39.95; paperback $18.95.
___. Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1997. $50; paperback $25.
Dussel, Enrique, ed.
Hinnells, John R., ed.
The Church in Latin America, 1492-1992.
Who's Who of World Religions.
Dyrness, William A.
New York: Simon & Schuster; London: Macmillan, 1992. $75.
Hunsberger, George R.
Learning About Theology from the Third World.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Academie Books, Zondervan, 1990.
Paperback $12.95.
Ernst, Manfred.
Bearing the Witness of the Spirit: Lesslie Newbigin's Theology of
CulturalPlurality.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998. Paperback $28.
----' and Craig Van Gelder, eds.
Winds of Change: Rapidly Growing Religious Groups in the
Pacific Islands.
TheChurch Between Gospel and Culture: TheEmerging Mission
in North America.
Suva, Fiji: Pacific Conference of Churches, 1994. Paperback
$15.
Fujita, Neil S.
Hunter, Alan, and Kim-Kwong Chan.
Garrett, John.
Irvin, Dale T., and Akintunde E. Akinade.
Protestantism in Contemporary China.
Japan's Encounter withChristianity: TheCatholic Mission in Pre
New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993. $64.95.
Ion, A. Hamish.
Modern Japan.
Mahwah, N.].: Paulist Press, 1991. Paperback $13.95.
The Cross and the Rising Sun, vol. 2, The British Protestant
Furuya, Yasuo, ed.
Missionary Movementin Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, 1865-1945.
A History of Japanese Theology.
Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1993. $49.95.
TheAgitatedMind of God: The Theology of Kosuke Koyama.
Footsteps in the Sea: Christianity in Oceania to World War II.
Isichei, Elizabeth.
Suva and Geneva: Institute of Pacific Studies, Univ. of the
South Pacific, in association with World Council of Churches,
1992. Paperback. No price given.
A HistoryofChristianity in Africa: From Antiquity to thePresent.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans; Lawrenceville, N.].: Africa
World Press, 1995. Paperback $20.
Jenkins, Paul, ed.
___. Where Nets Were Cast: Christianity in Oceania Since World
WarII.
The Recovery of the West African Past. African Pastors and
African History in the Nineteenth Century: C. C. Reindorfand
Samuel Johnson.
Suva and Geneva: Institute of Pacific Studies, Univ. of the
South Pacific, in association with World Council of Churches,
1997. Paperback $13.
Gittens, Anthony J.
Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1998. Paperback. No
price given.
Jenkinson, William, and Helene O'Sullivan, eds.
Bread for the Journey: The Mission of Transformation and the
Transformation of Mission.
Trends in Mission: Toward the Third Millennium.
Guder, Darrell L., ed.
Jongeneel, Jan A., ed.
Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in
North America.
Philosophy, Science, andTheology ofMission in the19thand20th
Centuries: A Missiological Encyclopedia, part 1, ThePhilosophy
and Science of Mission.
Gutierrez, Gustavo.
Las Casas: In Search of the Poor ofJesus Christ.
Frankfurt and New York: Peter Lang, 1995. DM 89/$52.95.
_ _. ThePhilosophy, Science, and Theology ofMission in the19th
and 20th Centuries: A Missiological Encyclopedia, part 2, Mis
sionary Theology.
Hastings, Adrian.
The Church in Africa,1450-1950.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. £65.00/$110.
- - - ' ed. A World History of Christianity.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999. $45.
Frankfurt and New York: Peter Lang, 1997. DM118.
Kaplan, Steven, ed.
Indigenous Responses to Western Christianity.
New York: New York Univ. Press, 1995. $40.
April 2000
67
Madsen, Richard.
Karotemprel, Sebastian, et aI., eds.
Following Christ inMission: A Foundational Course inMissiology.
China's Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Soci
ety.
Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1996. Paperback $19.95.
Berkley: Univ. of California Press, 1999. $27.50.
- ' ed. Heralds of the Gospel in Asia: A Study of theHistory and
Contribution ofMissionary Societies to theLocal Churches ofAsia. Makower, Katherine.
Shillong, India: FABC Office of Evangelization, Sacred Heart
The Coming of the Rain: The Lifeof Dr. Joe Church. A Personal
Account of Revivalin Rwanda.
Theological College, 1998. Rs. 295/$20.
Carlisle, U.K.: Paternoster, 1999. Paperback £9.50.
Kirk, J. Andrew.
What is Mission? Theological Explorations.
Marshall, Paul.
London: Darton, Longman and Todd; Minneapolis: Fortress
Their Blood Cries Out: The Untold Story of Persecution Against
Christians in the Modern World.
Press, 1999. Paperback £12.95/$20.
Dallas: Word Publishing, 1997. Paperback $13.
Klaiber, Jeffrey.
The Catholic Church in Peru, 1821-1985: A Social History.
Martin, David
Washington, D.C.: Catholic Univ. of America Press, 1992.
Tongues ofFire: TheExplosion ofProtestantism in LatinAmerica.
Oxford, England and Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell,
$49.95.
___. TheChurch, Dictatorships, andDemocracy in LatinAmerica.
1990. $39.95.
Mather, George A., and Larry A Nichols.
Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions, and the Occult.
Knitter, Paul F.
One Earth Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1993. $25.
Responsibility.
Miguez Bonino, Jose.
Faces of Latin American Protestantism.
Kostenberger, Andreas J.
TheMissions of Jesus and the Disciples According to the Fourth Moffett, Samuel Hugh.
Gospel: WithImplications fortheFourth Gospel's Purpose andthe
A History of Christianity in Asia, vol. 1, Beginnings to 1500.
San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992. $45.00. Maryknoll, N.Y.:
Mission of the Contemporary Church.
Orbis Books, 1998. Paperback $25.
Kraft, Charles H.
Miiller, Karl, Theo Sundermeier, Stephen B. Bevans, and Rich
Anthropology for Christian Witness.
ard H. Bliese, eds.
Dictionary of Mission: Theology, History, Perspectives.
Krummel, John W., ed.
A Biographical Dictionaru of Methodist Missionaries to Japan: Myers, Bryant L.
1873-1993.
Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transforma
tional Development.
Tokyo: Kyo Bun Kwan. Available fromCokesbury, P.O. Box
801, Nashville, Tenn., 1996. $85.
Kumazawa, Yoshiobu, and David L. Swain, eds.
Neely, Alan.
Christian Mission: A Case Study Approach.
Christianity in Japan, 1971-1990.
Tokyo: Kyo Bun Kwan. Distributed in the United States by
Friendship Press, P.O. Box 37844, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1991. Neils, Patricia, ed.
UnitedStates Attitudes andPolicies Toward China: TheImpact of
$35.
American Missionaries.
Kwok, Pui-Lan.
Chinese Women and Christianity: 1860-1927.
Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1990. $39.95.
Newbigin, Lesslie.
Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992. $29.95; paperback $19.95.
Truth and Authority in Modernity.
Lamb, Christopher,
The Call to Retrieval: Kenneth Cragg's Christian Vocation to
Valley Forge, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1996. Paper
Islam.
back $8.
___. A Word in Season: Perspectives onChristian World Missions.
London: Grey Seal, 1997. £25.
Larkin, William J., and Joel F. Williams, eds.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans; Edinburgh, Scotland: Saint
Mission in the New Testament: An Evangelical Approach.
Andrew Press, 1994. Paperback $14.99.
Petersen, Douglas.
Larson, Warren Fredrick.
Not by Might nor by Power: A Pentecostal Theology of Social
Islamic Ideology and Fundamentalism in Pakistan: Climate for
Concern in Latin America.
Conversion to Christianity?
Oxford, England; Irvine, Calif.: Regnum Books, 1997. Paper
Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press of America, 1998. $42.
back $21.
Phan, Peter C.
Lemoux, Penney, with Arthur Jones and Robert Ellesberg.
Hearts on Fire: The Story of the Maryknoll Sisters.
Mission and Catechesis: Alexandre de Rhodes and Inculturation
in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam.
Lossky, Nicholas, Jose Miguez Bonino, John Pobee, Tom
Stransky, Geoffrey Wainwright, Pauline Webb, eds,
Phillips, James M., and Robert T. Coote, eds.
Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement.
Toward the Twenty-First Century in Christian Mission.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans; Geneva: World Council of
Pinnock, Clark H.
Churches, 1991. $79.95/£44.95.
Lutz, Jessie G., and Rolland Ray Lutz.
A Wideness in God's Mercy: The Finality of Jesus Christ in a
Hakka Chinese Confront Protestant Christianity, 1850-1900:
World of Religions.
With the Autobiographies of Eight Hakka Christians, and Com
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1992. Paperback $14.95.
mentary.
Pobee, John S., and Gabriel Ositelu II.
Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharp, 1998. $69.95; paperback $29.95.
AfricanInitiatives in Christianity: TheGrowth, Gifts,and Diver
sitiesof Indigenous AfricanChurches.
Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1998.Paperback $6.25/
SFr.8.90/£3.95.
68
COMING THIS SPRING
The completely new edition
of a classic resource.
WORLD CHRISTIAN
ENCYCLOPEDIA
Second Edition
David B. Barrett, George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson, editors
ere is the greatly expand ed and
com pletely upd ated new edition of
a classic resource-the comprehensive
overview of Christianity in evety
country of th e w orld.
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Now in th ree volumes, th e Encyclopedia presents
and analyz es a wealth of information on th e
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life in general. Th is seco nd edition tak es into
account mu ch new data, all of Christianity's
many varieties, and relation s to other faiths,
w orld politics, society, and culture.
Each volume is filled w ith essential inform a
tion-s-from histo rical surveys of each denomi
nation to dem ographic profiles of belief and
believers in 251 nations. Directories of resources
and organizations, biographies, capsule guides
to th e wo rld's languages and cultures, and
thousands of illustrations mak e th e new
edition of the Encyclopedia an indispensable
resource for students, teachers, scholars, clergy,
and administrators.
Praise for the first edition
"Most impressive...brilliantlyproducedand arranged. ..a standardreference work.
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• Detailed directory of 20,800 Ch ristian denominat ions an d mo re th an 7,000 separate
dioc eses, jurisdictions, mission s, assemb lies, an d fellow ships
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• Access to an unrivalled amo unt of linguistic, cultural, demographic, political and othe r data
• Direc tori es of names, institutions, addresses, bibliography, index
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Pope-Levison, Priscilla.
Shenk, Wilbert R.
Evangelization from a Liberation Perspective.
New York: Peter Lang, 1991. $39.95.
Ranger, Terence.
Are WeNot AlsoMen?TheSamkange Family andAfricanPolitics
in Zimbabwe, 1920-1964.
Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann; London: James Currey, 1995.
$60.00; paperback $24.95.
Renault, Francois.
Changing Frontiers in Mission.
___. Write the Vision: The Church Renewed.
Valley Forge, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1995. Paper
back $10.00
- - - J ed. TheTransfiguration ofMission: Biblical, Theological, and
Historical Foundations.
Shuster, Robert D., James Stambaugh, and Ferne Weimer,
comps.
Researching Modern Evangelicalism: A Guide to theHoldings of
Cardinal Lavigerie: Churchman, Prophet and Missionary.
London: Athlone Press, 1994. £32/$60.
Robert, Dana L.
American Women in Mission: A Social Historyof Their Thought
and Practice.
the Billy Graham Center, with Information on OtherCollections.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1990. $55.
Siewert, John A., and John A. Kenyon.
Mission Handbook, 1993-95 USA/Canada Christian Ministries
Macon, Ga: Mercer Univ. Press, 1997. Paperback $30.
Ross, Andrew C.
A Vision Betrayed: TheJesuits in Japan and China, 1542-1742.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books; Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ.
Press, 1994. $34.95/£29.50.
Ruiz de Montoya, Antonio. Introduction by C. J. McNaspy.
Overseas.
Monrovia, Calif.: MARC, World Vision International, 1993.
Paperback $39.95.
Sigmund, Paul E., ed.
The Spiritual Conquest . . . A Personal Account of the Founding
and Early Years of theJesuit Paraguay Reductions (1639).
Religious Freedom and Evangelization in Latin America.
Smalley, William.
St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1993. $24.95; paperback
$17.95.
Ruokanen, Miikka.
Translation asMission: Bible Translation in theModern Mission
ary Movement.
The Catholic Doctrine of Non-Christian Religions According to
the Second Vatican Council.
Macon, Ga: Mercer Univ. Press, 1991. $22.95.
Stanley, Brian.
TheBible and theFlag: Protestant Missions and British Imperial
ism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
Leiden: Brill, 1992. Gld. 75/$43.
Saayman, Willem, and Klippies Krizinger, eds.
Mission in Bold Humility: David Bosch's WorkConsidered.
Leicester, England: Apollos/InterVarsity Press, 1990. Pa
perback £10.95.
_ _. The History of the Baptist Missionary Society, 1792-1992.
Edinburgh, Scotland: T. & T. Clark, 1992. £29.95.
Stine, Philip C., ed.
Bible Translation and the Spread of the Church in the Last 200
Samartha, Stanley J.
One Christ-Many Religions: Toward a Revised Christology.
Maryknoll, N.Y.:Orbis Books, 1991.$39.95;paperback $16.95.
Sanneh, Lamin.
Years.
Encountering the West. Christianity and the Global Cultural
Process: The African Dimension.
Stoll, David,
Is LatinAmerica Turning Protestant? ThePolitics of Evangelical
___. Piety and Power: Muslims and Christians in West Africa.
Growth.
Scherer, James A. and Stephen B. Bevans, eds.
Berkley: Univ. of California Press, 1990. $24.95.
Taber, Charles R.
TheWorld Is Too Much with Us: "Culture"in Modern Protestant
New Directions in Mission and Evangelization, vol. I, Basic
Documents, 1974-1991.
Missions.
___. New Directions in Missionand Evangelization, vol. 2, Theo
logical Foundations.
Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ. Press, 1991. $22.95.
Tang, Edmond, and Jean-Paul Wiest, eds.
The Catholic Church in Modern China.
___. New Directions in Missionand Evangelization, vol. 3, Faith
and Culture.
Thomas, Norman, ed.
Classic Texts in Mission and World Christianity.
Schreiter, Robert J.
Thorogood, Bernard, ed.
TheNew Catholicity: Theology Between the Global and theLocal.
Gales of Change: Responding to a Shifting Missionary Context.
The Story of the London Missionary Society.
~ ed. Faces ofJesus in Africa.
Shank, David A., and abridged by Jocelyn Murray.
Geneva: WCC Publications, 1994. Paperback SFr. 27.50/
$17.90/£11.90.
Van Engen, Charles.
Prophet Harris, The "Black Elijah" of West Africa.
God's Missionary People: Rethinking the Purpose of the Local
Church.
Sharpe, Eric J.
Alfred George Hogg, 1875-1954: An Intellectual Biography.
Chennai, India: Christian Literature Society, 1999. Paper
back Rs.120.
Shenk, Calvin E.
Who Do You Say That I Am? Christians Encounter OtherReli
___. Mission on the Way: Issues in Mission Theology.
and Jude Tiersma, eds.
---J
God So Loves the City: Seeking a Theology for Urban Mission.
gions.
Monrovia, Calif.: MARC/World Vision, 1994. Paperback
$21.95.
Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1997. Paperback $20.
Shenk, David W., and Linford Stutzman, eds.
Practicing Truth: Confidant Witness in Our Pluralistic World.
70
Dean S. Gilland, and Paul Pierson, eds.
The Good News of the Kingdom: Mission Theology for the Third
Millennium.
Van Gelder, Craig, ed.
Confident Witness-Changing World: Rediscovering the Gospel
in North America.
Verstraelen, F. J., et al, eds.
Missiology: An Ecumenical Introduction. Texts and Contexts of
Global Christianity.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1995. Paperback $24.99.
Walls, Andrew F.
TheMissionary Movement in Christian History.
___..I, and Wilbert Shenk, eds.
Exploring NewReligious Movements: Essays inHonour ofHarold
W. Turner.
Elkhart, Ind.: Mission Focus Publications, 1990. Paperback
$12.75.
----J
Wilson, Everett A.
Strategy of the Spirit: J. Philip Hogan and the Growth of the
Assemblies of God Worldwide, 1960-1990.
Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: PaternosterlRegnum, 1998. Paper
back $19.95.
Wilson, Frederick R., ed.
TheSanAntonioReport: Your WillBeDone-Mission in Christ's
Way.
Geneva: WCC Publications, 1990. Paperback $14.95, SFr.
22.50, £8.95.
Witte, John, Jr., and Michael Bourdeaux, eds.
Proselytism and Orthodoxy in Russia: The New Warfor Souls.
Woodberry, J. Dudley, Charles Van Engen, and EdgarJ. Elliston,
eds.
Missiological Education for the Twenty-First Century.
Yates, Timothy.
Christian Mission in the Twentieth Century.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994. £35/$59.95.
My Pilgrimage in Mission
Paul E. Pierson
I
had the privilege of being born into a strong Christian
home. My father was the son of immigrants who helped
establish a Swedish Baptist church in Forest City, Iowa, around
1870. After marriage he and my mother moved to southern
California, where he worked in an industrial plant. I was the
third of three sons, born into this Christian family and into the
Baptist Church. The church had a strong fundamentalist bent,
but I never felt the need to rebel, which I think was because of the
integrity of my parents in the practice of their faith. Beyond the
need for salvation in Christ, which my parents emphasized, I
especially remember two other things they taught me: first, that
the Gospel was for all peoples and thus that missions are essen
tial, and second, that any kind of racism was wrong. When a
Japanese family bought the house next to ours in 1937, my
parents welcomed them as neighbors, soon took the children to
Sunday School, and ultimately saw a Japanese Baptist church
established partly as a result. And when our neighbors were
taken to "relocation" camps after Pearl Harbor, my father took
care of their property, received the rent, and sent it to them
without accepting any payment. Years later a Japanese-Ameri
can pastor told me that my father was the reason he was in
ministry.
a powerful ministry, especially among returning veterans. In his
preaching I heard two primary emphases: first, that Jesus Christ
was Lord, and if we were to be serious Christians, personal
recognition of his lordship was essential. Second, Christ's con
cern was for the whole world, which clearly led to an emphasis
on mission. Here I became part of a dynamic group of several
hundred students studying the Bible and exploring these issues.
Scores of my colleagues later entered ministry and mission.
My own spiritual struggle was over the issue of the lordship
of Christ. I had been a believer all my life, but now the question
was whether I was willing to embrace Christ fully as Lord of my
life, wherever that might lead. I went through an intense struggle
for nine months before I made that decision, quietly, with no
show of emotion, in a worship service. With a fellow engineering
student who had made a similar decision, I went to talk with Dr.
Munger, wondering if that decision meant I should become a
pastor or missionary. He wisely said, "Not unless God clearly
calls you." I continued my engineering studies while my friend
immediately changed his major and planned for missionary
service. (He and his wife have spent over forty years in Pakistan.)
During my senior year I met Rosemary, a marvelous young
woman in a Bible study group, and very soon decided I wanted
to spend the rest of my life with her. She and I were married a year
after our graduation from the university. By this time I was
Facing the Mission Question
working in Berkeley in my chosen profession, and she was
After brief navy service in World War II, I went to the University teaching school. Then ten weeks after our wedding we received
of California, Berkeley, to study chemical engineering. In my what I can only describe as a very clear call, a conviction that God
junior year I began to attend the First Presbyterian Church in was calling us into missionary service. We have always been
Berkeley, where a remarkable pastor, Robert Boyd Munger, had grateful that the call came to both of us together. Our parents
were surprised but very supportive of our change in direction.
When
my father heard of our decision, he told me he had always
PaulE. Pierson served asaPresbyterian missionary in Brazil from 1956 to 1970
andin Portugal from 1971 to 1973. Hewasdean at theSchool ofWorld Mission, prayed that one of his sons would become a missionary. But he
Fuller Theological Seminary, 1980 to 1992, and continues on the faculty as had never told anyone about that prayer!
In 1951 we went to Princeton Seminary, in New Jersey.
Professor of History of Mission and Latin American Studies.
April 2000
71
Rosemary taught in a nearby school while I studied in the
seminary. The two professors with the greatest influence on me
were John A. MacKay and Otto Piper. MacKay was one of the
great missionary statesmen of the time. I can still hear him
thundering in class, "The church that is not missionary is not
truly the church." And Piper, who had courageously stood up
against Hitler in the early 1930s and been exiled from Germany,
gave me a new vision of redemptive history as the integrative
principle for the Bible. Although I was admitted to Ph.D. study
in New Testament under Piper, we decided it was time to go to
the mission field and deferred further study.
Overnight from Student to Pastor
In 1956 we sailed to Brazil to serve under the Board of Foreign
Missions of the Presbyterian Church, USA. In language school, a
Mennonite friend and I organized a study group among the
students. The first book we studied was Donald A. McGavran's
Bridges ofGod. Later, as secretary of the Commission on Theologi
cal Education of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil, I was able to
bring McGavran to lecture in the Brazilian seminaries.
The agreement between our mission and the Brazilian Pres
byterian Church was that missionaries would work mainly in the
far interior, and after language study we were sent to Corumba,
a small city on the Brazil-Bolivian border. (It is the scene of much
of the action in John Grisham's latest book, The Testament.) There
I became pastor of a group of twelve Presbyterians who had
moved there, established a congregation, and built a small chapel.
One week I was an inexperienced seminary and language school
graduate, the next week I was a pastor! I spent many hours with
the three key leaders in the congregation, drinking Brazilian
cafezinho, sharing ideas, listening, praying, and planning. I also
studied intensively the Book of Acts. I wanted to be sure that the
message I was attempting to communicate was that of the
apostles. I really learned to preach, not at Princeton, but in
attempting to communicate the Good News to people in that
church, in clearings in the jungle, and in the streets of the town.
Very quickly I discovered that any effective work has to be based
on the ministry and witness of the whole body of Christ. The
other major lesson I learned was that the Gospel is power; it can
transform lives lost in destructive lifestyles and despair. I learned
much from those believers in Corumba, and I believe they
learned something from me as we shared life together. The
church grew rapidly, and we were able to open small congrega
tions in other places.
In Recife there were a number of issues to be faced. Most of
our students came from the interior, with a faith focused prima
rily on personal salvation. As they came to the seminary in the
city, they began to ask new questions. How was their faith to
relate to the crushing poverty and political oppression? On one
side were older church leaders who saw any such questions as
dangerous, possibly leading to Communism; on the other side
were university students and others who saw Marxism as the
only alternative. Castro's Cuba seemed to be the model for many
Brazilians, especially among the students. Communist-led peas
ant leagues were organized among sugar cane workers in the
interior, threatening to march on the city. The seminary was in a
time of turmoil, and to complicate matters, because of dissatisfac
tion with the Brazilian rector at the seminary, I was suddenly
elected to that position by the Brazilian trustees. The Brazilian
government seemed to be sliding toward anarchy, and in 1964
we saw tanks half a block from our home, preparing to fire on the
local police headquarters ifit resisted the military coup in progress.
If they had done so and missed, the shells would have landed in
the middle of our seminary campus. To make matters worse, our
most popular Brazilian faculty member, who taught ethics and
theology, was accused of being a Communist by the far right, and
we discovered there was an order for his arrest. Through a series
of providential contacts we were able to keep him out of prison.
Our mission board and the
Brazilian church moved
further apart, and we
missionaries were caught in
the middle.
I remember saying, as we took him and his wife to a remote
hiding place for a few days, that I had not learned how to do that
in Princeton!
And what about the relationship with the Roman Catholic
Church, now that Vatican II was beginning? This was a difficult
dilemma. Earlier in the century a Catholic priest had hired an
assassin to kill a Presbyterian missionary physician/minister in
our state. His Brazilian helper had been killed defending him,
and that man's nephew was now an elder in a new church that I
helped organize. But I accepted an invitation from Archbishop
Dom Helder Camara to be the first Protestant on his newly
organized Commission on Peace and Justice. After the
archbishop's home was machine-gunned and one of his young
priests murdered (by the military, it was believed), he felt it best
to dissolve the group. Later, when I was in the south of Brazil,
doing research for my dissertation, I discovered that I had been
put under house arrest with an order for nlY immediate expul
sion from the country as a subversive person. Providentially,
through a series of contacts, the order was lifted.
A third issue we faced was that the theological curriculum
was far too North American; it showed little awareness of the
issues faced by the Brazilian church. Attempts at revision or
contextualization brought fears of "modernism," but some
changes were made, and an evening course was inaugurated for
laypersons. We were able to oversee the construction of several
buildings, which made it possible to more than double the
student body. I also taught as a visiting professor in the Southern
Baptist seminary in the city.
Teaching and the Brazilian Crisis
We had planned to return to Corumba after furlough, but the
national church and the U.S. mission asked me to teach in the
Presbyterian Seminary in Recife. The position was in church
history, so I returned to Princeton in 1960 to begin a Ph.D. in that
field. In 1961 Rosemary and I, now with four children, arrived in
Recife, the major city in Brazil's Northeast, one of the most
poverty-stricken regions of South America. We had seen poverty
in Corumba, but it was worse in the cities and interior of the
Northeast. The state immediately south of ours registered 46
percent infant mortality one year. Such statistics were common.
The area was a major focus of President John F. Kennedy's
Alliance for Progress, and we became friends with a number of
the USAID families, many of them strong Christians. I even had
the unenviable task of preaching in the American church there
the Sunday after Kennedy's assassination.
72
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www.c-bte.org
Alas, the Brazilian church and my Presbyterianboard moved
further apart on theological, ecumenical, and social issues, and
we missionaries were caught in the middle. Soon it became clear
that the church no longer wanted missionaries in its seminaries.
At the end of 1969 my Southern Presbyterian colleague and I
resigned, and I returned to Princeton. There I completed my
dissertation on the history of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil.
Now what to do? I had become convinced in my doctoral
studies that our method of selecting and training leaders was far
too institutionalized and elitist and hindered the growth and
ministry of the church. I also became more aware of the complex
ity of relationships between the national church, the various
missions, and their sponsoring boards. I accepted an invitation to
teach in a small seminary in Portugal and to help establish a
program in theological education by extension there. But it soon
became clear that the Portuguese churches-Anglican, Method
ist, and Presbyterian-did not want such a program, and in 1973,
after two years of frustration, we returned to the United States
believing that our missionary career was over.
Facing the Inner-City Challenge
I was called to the First Presbyterian Church in downtown
Fresno, California. It had been blessed with strong leadership,
and my predecessor, who had left to teach at Fuller Theological
Seminary, left the church with a strong college ministry and a
group of committed and able lay leaders, both men and women.
The downtown, however, was deteriorating rapidly. In my first
few months the two remaining historic downtown churches
closed, and their buildings were torn down. A nearby Baptist
church moved to the suburbs. A colleague predicted our church
would be gone within ten years. There were obviously chal
lenges to be faced. One was to increase the focus on world
mission. My predecessor had left a strong foundation, and by
bringing in missionary friends to interact with the people, en
couraging travel to mission fields, and by preaching and teach
ing, the mission vision was enlarged. A number of men and
women entered ministry and mission. Today with strong pasto
ral leadership, the church is committed to creative mission
projects in places as diverse as India, Albania, and France.
A second challenge was the inner city right around us. After
some frustrating attempts trying to work out of our own re
sources, we were able to sponsor World Impact, an inner city
ministry, whose workers live where they minister. After I left,
through various initiatives, ministries were started with South
east Asian refugees, and now two congregations have been
established among them. With the leadership of InterVarsity
staff some youth and families from the church have moved into
the downtown area.
The Fresno experience was marvelous for our entire family.
The church nurtured our children, I had an excellent pastoral
staff, and we formed deep friendships. We had no desire to leave.
But then, in the greatest surprise of my career, Fuller Seminary
called me to become the dean of its School ofWorld Mission. I had
long admired Fuller, one of our key laymen had become a trustee
there, and we had invited mission faculty members to speak on
several occasions. But I had never contemplated teaching in a
seminary in the United States.
and Latin American studies in the School of World Mission at
Fuller. I found a warm and supportive group of faculty col
leagues. Donald McGavran and Arthur Glasser, my predeces
sors as dean, were still involved and very supportive. A second
great blessing was the sense of cohesiveness among the faculty.
Of course the major focus was church growth, but we agreed that
if the church was to grow in a healthy manner, there were other
issues to be addressed. I had become convinced that while
seminaries and similar institutions had an essential function in
mission, a variety of nonformal and informal methods of select
ing and training leaders was essential if the church was to make
its greatest impact in most areas of the world, especially where it
was growing most rapidly. Thus we established a concentration
in leadership selection and training with two faculty positions.
Other new concentrations focused on Bible translation, Islamics,
urban mission, community development, and Chinese studies.
Unfortunately, the latter was discontinued for lack of adequate
financing. Greater emphasis was placed on biblical theology of
mission, and primarily through the initiative of Arthur Glasser,
a master's program in Jewish studies and evangelism was initi
ated. With our enlarged faculty we began a Ph.D. program in
intercultural studies.
Our greatest controversy emerged in 1982 around the issue
of "signs and wonders." Most missiological thinking had ig
nored the question of the miraculous activity of God in the
present, while affirming it in the past. Although some of us had
been involved in exorcisms and praying for the sick. while
overseas, we had not integrated such experiences into our
missiology, perhaps because of post-Enlightenment cessationist
theology or simply because of reluctance to deal with the issue.
But many of our students came from cultures where the issue of
power was central in religion-power over the spirits, power
over sickness, and power for help in life's crises. That kind of
power, clearly important in the Bible and the focus of traditional
religions, strangely enough had been left out of Western theol
ogy and missiology. We found that many of our students had
been converted, called to ministry, or healed from sickness
through a dream, vision, or other clear intervention of God,
especially those who came from non-Christian backgrounds.
How were we to deal with such issues?
In 1982we initiated a new course called Signs, Wonders, and
Church Growth, taught by Peter Wagner, with the active partici
pation of John Wimber. It received a great deal of attention and
became the focus of controversy both inside and outside the
seminary. Although the class was discontinued in its original
form in 1985, the emphasis continues today in courses taught by
Wagner and Charles Kraft, with consistently high enrollment.
While not all our faculty would agree with every aspect of the
original course, I believe all would agree that it resulted in
permanent gain for the church and its mission.
Lessons Learned, Beliefs Deepened
How to summarize what I have learned, especially in the last
twenty years? First, I am more ecumenical, with a deep apprecia
tion of the variety of people and movements through whom God
has worked throughout history. I have had the privilege of
teaching and learning from students from over one hundred
countries, representing a spectrum ranging from Pentecostals to
an Egyptian Coptic bishop and charismatic Roman Catholics,
while including all of the mainline denominations. I am more
convinced than ever, from the study of both history and theol
ogy, that the focus of mission must always be the communication
Fuller School of World Mission
So in July 1980,with a good deal of fear and trepidation but also
anticipation, I became dean and professor of history of mission
74
of the Good News of Jesus Christ, calling men and women to
believe in him and to be gathered into worshiping, nurturing,
serving bodies, which we call churches, and that these churches
must be appropriate to their cultural contexts. Out of such
churches ministries of compassion and social transformation can
and should flow.
Second, it is clear that mission normally comes out of re
newal, which begins with a new vision of the transcendent and
holy God, and then a new experience of his grace that both
motivates and empowers mission.
Third, I am impressed with the fact that such movements
have nearly always begun on the periphery of the institutional
church, whether at Antioch, Herrnhut, Moulton, a haystack, or
Azusa Street. This fact teaches us to be open to the Holy Spirit,
who frequently does his new work through unexpected people
in unexpected places.
When we went to Brazil in 1956, the perception was wide
spread that we were nearing the end of the missionary era. How
things change! Today the missionary movement is flourishing
and is more multinational than ever before. We have moved into
a postdenominational, post-Christendom, post-Western era. The
mission boards on which I serve are multiethnic and
multidenominational and work with a variety of churches over
seas. Today the church is being reshaped to an extent not seen
since the sixteenth century. And the challenges are great: how to
engage in mission in the burgeoning urban centers; how to help
provide better training for the two million functional pastors in
Asia, Africa, and Latin America who have no formal preparation
for ministry; how to meet the desperate physical and social needs
of the world's poor while maintaining the focus on evangelism;
how to affirm the validity of every culture but also recognize that
each culture, including our own, needs to be transformed by the
Gospel; and how can the church in the West discover how to read
the Scriptures with new eyes as we learn from the church in the
rest of the world.
Last June, at the Communion service preceding Fuller's
commencement, I walked up the aisle with a Korean trustee to
take the bread and wine. In front of me was a woman of African
descent, a member of the theology faculty. Around us were
students and faculty, men and women, from a variety of nations
and races, united as we celebrated the cross and resurrection of
our Lord, united in our desire that the world might believe that
the Father had sent him. The thought flashed through my mind,
"This is the way it is supposed to be" -so that a fragmented
world might see that in Jesus Christ lies reconciliation, unity, and
life. That experience expresses my pilgrimage. I trust it is the
pilgrimage of the church as well.
The Legacy of Timothy Richard
P. Richard Bohr
T
imothy Richard, whose name became synonymous with
the rise of modern China, was born on October 10, 1845,
into a devout Baptist farming family in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Inspired by the Second Evangelical Awakening to become a
missionary, Richard left teaching to enter Haverfordwest Theo
logical College in 1865. There he dedicated himself to China,
which he considered the "most civilized of the non-Christian
nations." I In 1869 the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS)accepted
Richard's application and assigned him to Yantai (Chefoo),
Shandong Province. He arrived there in February 1870.
Believing that China's leaders lived beyond the treaty-port
periphery, Richard moved, in 1875, to Qingzhou, an important
administrative and religious center 250 miles west of Yantai. As
the sole BMS representative in Shandong's interior, Richard
sought to appear less foreign by dressing in a Chinese scholar's
gown, shaving his head, and attaching an artificial queue to his
cap. After saving many lives by distributing quinine water
during a typhus outbreak within months of his arrival, Richard
gathered a flock of fifteen converts-baptizing some in a Bud
dhist temple so as to make Christianity seem more indigenous
and even gained entree to religious leaders, including Muslim
imams and sectarian chiefs. He appealed to the latter by compos
ing verses that mixed biblical quotations with excerpts from their
own sacred scrolls. Within a year, however, his proselytizing
efforts were cut short by a devastating drought that parched the
North China plain.
An Emerging Strategy, 1870-76
The people's indifference to Richard's street preaching soon
induced him to adopt a top-down approach. Applying advice
from Edward Irving's sermon "Missionaries After the Apostolic
School" about "seeking the worthy," Richard concluded that if
foreign missionaries could Christianize the Chinese elite, the
entire population would follow and establish self-supporting
congregations. The key to enlightening the "worthy," Richard
thought, was to "free the Chinese philosophers from the chains
of superstition ... of Yin Yang and the five elements.'? To this
end, he assisted the American Presbyterian Calvin Wilson Mateer
(1836-1908) in physics and chemistry experiments before Chi
nese audiences in Yantai.
Combating the Great Famine, 1876-79
North China's five provinces had never enjoyed abundant rain
fall. The Great Famine of 1876-79, China's most catastrophic on
record, claimed up to 13 million lives.' After three successive
years of drought-induced crop failures, desperate people de
voured sorghum stalks, weeds, and tree bark. When these re
sources were exhausted, many resorted to cannibalism.
Late in 1876, regents of the four-year-old Guangxu emperor
(r. 1875-1908) ordered traditional relief measures, including
imperial prayers for rain, diversion of tribute grain to stricken
P. Richard Bohr is Associate Professor ofHistoryandDirector ofAsian Studies
at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Minnesota.
April 2000
75
areas, exemption of land taxes, reduction of grain prices, and
creation of refugee centers to distribute rice-gruel, medicine, and
clothing. The throne tapped private wealth by selling official
ranks and offices to gentry and lineage leaders. Aside from
raising considerable sums among coastal and overseas Chinese,
the local elite did what it could to redeem women and children
sold for food.
Richard considered the famine a "direct leading from God
to open up the interior of China" to Christianity.' He seized
evangelistic advantage by urging famine victims to "turn from
dead idols to the living God and pray unto Him and obey His
laws and conditions of life.:" Overnight, some 2,000 Chinese in
Qingzhou sought catechism from Richard. Yet Richard was
equally concerned about the people's material well-being, not
ing that Christianity took "cognizance of all in this world as well
as the next, in a word, of man-body and soul/" He quickly
devised a relief plan. The same Treaties of Tianjin (1858) and
Beijing (1860) that had opened China's interior to foreign trade
also granted autonomy of missionary action. However, lest
Western charity ignite antiforeignism, Richard coordinated re
lief plans with Qing officials. He informed Governor-General Li
Hongzhang (1823-1901) that the Shandong missionaries would
supplement government grain assistance by giving cash contri
butions.
Richard solicited international donations by publishing
graphic accounts of famine suffering in the world press. Contri
butions were remitted through the China Famine Relief Fund
Committee in Shanghai. Richard, along with his Protestant and
Catholic colleagues in Shandong, resolved to be more systematic
than the government's seemingly haphazard relief effort. After
obtaining lists of victims from local officials, the missionaries
investigated individual circumstances and distributed cash di
rectly to sufferers. Richard also set up five orphanages to provide
job training for young victims.
In November 1877 Richard moved to Shanxi, the neighbor
ing province to the west, where famine had intensified. After
meeting with Governor Zeng Guoquan (1824-90), Richard began
coordinating the efforts of some thirty Protestant and Catholic
foreigners in giving cash door to door.
In October 1878 Richard married Edinburgh-born Mary
Martin (1843-1903) of the Scottish United Presbyterian Mission
in Yantai. Mary later became a noted authority on Chinese music
and an ardent antifootbinding activist. The couple eventually
had four daughters.
After the famine began to abate in the summer of 1879,
Richard-estimating that the missionaries had dispensed 60,000
English pounds in cash-concluded relief efforts.
ing many devastated areas, and government corruption at all
levels had siphoned off numerous relief supplies. Moreover,
because Confucian economic theory itself assumed that famine
was inherent in a rural economy considered cyclical and static,
the throne did no more than order such time-honored rehabilita
tion measures as relocating refugees, improving water control,
planting more durable crops, rebuilding public granaries, and
outlawing opium cultivation.
In 1879 Richard wrote: "If famine [relief] was Christian
work, education to avoid future famine was equally, or greater
Christian work."? The education he had in mind was based on
"the study of science [which] ought to be held in as much
reverence as religion, for it deals with the laws of Cod."!" During
the famine years, Richard sketched these "laws" in a series of
articles he published in Wanguo gongbao (Review of the times), a
If famine relief was
Christian work, then
education to avoid future
famine was equal or greater
Christian work.
monthly magazine begun in 1874 by the American Methodist
Young J. Allen (1836-1907) to bring Western knowledge to
China's leaders.
In 1881 Richard reissued the series in a pamphlet entitled
PresentNeeds. In it he recommended that the Qing government
(1) employ meteorology to forecast famine conditions; (2) ex
pand agriculture by improving water conservancy, teaching
agronomy, applying chemical fertilizer, cultivating hardier crops,
and developing food processing methods; (3) expand industrial
wealth through mechanization, mining, and hydroelectric power;
(4) expand commerce by stabilizing China's currency, standard
izing weights and measures, and promoting entrepreneurial
careers in science and industry; (5) open China to international
trade and investment by modernizing transportation and com
munications; (6)nurture practical knowledge and innovation by
expanding universal education in Western subjects, inserting
science and technology into the civil service examinations, set
ting up learned societies to promote research, and disseminating
new knowledge through newspapers; and (7)promote universal
religious ed uca tion so that Christian love could enrich Confucian
morality and thereby make the people loyal to the Qing emperor
and respectful of the Christian GOd.11
From 1879 to 1884 Mary and Timothy Richard were busy in
Taiyuan, Shanxi's capital, distributing Christian literature, train
ing Chinese evangelists, and supervising mission schools. Yet
Richard also found time to give lectures and demonstrations on
Western science to Taiyuan's scholar-officials in order to show
that Christian civilization had an "advantage over Chinese civi
lization ... [because] it sought to discover the workings of God
in Nature, and to apply the laws of Nature for the service of
mankind.t'" In addition, Richard was invited to advise Li
Hongzhang and Zeng Guoquan, as well as Zhang Zhidong
(1837-1909)-who succeeded Zeng as Shanxi governor in 1882
and Governor-General Zo Zongtang (1812-85) on economic
recovery steps.
In 1884-86, during his first furlough, Richard met with a
number of mission board executives in London to suggest that
Blueprint for National Reform, 1879-90
Richard emerged from the Great Famine resolved to employ the
same elements he used in relieving famine-his Christian con
victions, contacts among leaders, and public relations skills. As
he himself expressed it, his postfamine objective was to help
create the "Kingdom of God in China:" by enhancing China's
"physical, mental, social, national, and international aspects ...
[plus saving] individual souls.:"
For Richard, the famine exposed China's deepening domes
tic crisis. He noted that in the wake of a crippling population
explosion (from 300 million Chinese in 1750 to 430 million in
1850),destructive midcentury rebellions, and precipitous dynas
tic decline, China's once-extensive public granary network had
collapsed, long-neglected roads had prevented grain from reach
76
missionary societies avoid denominational rivalry (which he felt
only confused the Chinese) by establishing, in every province, an
ecumenical program to pursue philanthropic work (as he had
done in famine relief), distribute Christian literature, teach West
ern subjects in Chinese schools, establish a "high class" college in
each provincial capital, train Chinese evangelists, and promote
self-supporting churches."
After returning to Taiyuan in 1887, Richard-recalling Zo
Zongtang's remark that there was no antagonism between Con
fucianism and Christianity-sought to demonstrate that "Chris
tianity has the power of assimilating all that is good in other
religions."14 He had long admired Confucian morality and its
insistence on the goodness of human nature. In the late 1880s he
wrote in praise of Daoism as anticipatory to Christianity and
claimed that Christ himself was revealed in the love and compas
sion of Mahayana Buddhism, which, he believed, was the result
of the interchange between the apostle Thomas and Asvaghosa
in India."
In order to promote East-West religious dialogue, Richard
argued, missionaries must be better educated. In particular, they
should be required to learn the Chinese language, study Chinese
religions, utilize more Chinese catechists, and lead the Chinese to
Christianity through their own religious traditions, as Matteo
Ricci (1552-1610) had attempted. For their part, he thought,
Chinese seminarians should be trained in Western secular sub
jects as well as Christian theology.
In 1887 five of Richard's BMS colleagues in Shanxi sided
with another missionary's charge that Richard "taught a mixture
of science, popery, and heathenism for the Gospel of Christ."16
Deeply wounded by this criticism, Richard left Taiyuan for
Beijing in November 1887 to contemplate his future with the
BMS. In China's capital he formulated educational reform pro
posals based on his discussions with educators in Europe the
previous year. During the spring of 1888 he studied modern
education in Japan, and the summer of 1889 found him back in
Shandong helping to fight yet another famine.
writings during the 1880s. Asserting the superiority of Confu
cian morality and the need to free China from imperialist control,
these intellectuals also sought to enhance the people's livelihood
by proposing the creation of public schools for boys and girls.
Having raised funds in Shanghai for the Great Famine, Zheng, in
particular, praised the Christian inspiration of national develop
ment and advocated government measures to build up the rural
economy along the lines suggested by Richard, whose writings
he published with his own reform essays.
Now convinced that advocacy of reform among China's
"worthy" through the printed page must be his top priority,
Richard accepted, in June 1890,Li Hongzhang's invitation to edit
and write articles for Shibao (The Times), a Chinese-language
daily in Tianjin that, dedicated to "espousing progress," was
widely circulated among the Qing bureaucracy. In September
1891Richard was handed the opportunity to reach an even larger
audience among young intellectuals and students when the BMS
seconded him to succeed the Scottish Presbyterian Alexander
Williamson (1829-90) as secretary of the Society for the Diffusion
of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese (SDK),
headquartered in Shanghai. Through the SDK, Richard felt that
he could apply "the healing powers of the Gospel to the ... misery
and poverty of a whole nation, with the inner springs of life of
one-fourth of our human race."l?
Richard quickly determined that in addition to publishing
works on China's economic development, educational reform,
international affairs, and relations with Christian missions, the
SDK would distribute its publications at examination centers,
sponsor lectures and essay contests, and maintain study associa
tions, museums, and reading rooms throughout China. Richard
himself wrote or translated 100 of the SDK's 250 publications.
With Japan's stunning victory over China in the First Sino
Japanese War (1894-95), self-strengthening was discredited, and
Richard's writing-which now began to focus increasingly on
China's external crisis-inspired Chinese approaches to more
fundamental change. Kang Youwei (1858-1927) was the leader
of the young intellectuals who, reading SDK materials at exami
nation centers, were convinced that Richard's call for institu
Reform and World Peace, 1890-1919
tional reform was China's only hope of avoiding colonial dis
Richard was frustrated by his inability to advance the kingdom memberment. Kang thought that Richard's contention that "God
of God through his own BMS at the very moment China seemed was breaking down the barriers between all nations by railways,
most receptive to foreign advice on national reform. Officials steamers and telegraphs in order that we should all live in peace
with whom he had developed trusting relationships were, in and happiness as brethren of one family" was consonant with his
fact, the leading advocates of China's "self-strengthening" ef own belief that China would soon be integrated into world
forts to halt internal decline and foreign aggression by grafting civilization."
Western technology onto Confucian institutions. Aside from
Kang's Society for the Study of Self-Strengthening was a
importing Western arms and establishing arsenals, shipyards, mirror image of the SDK in propagating reform. In his own
and a military academy between the 1860s and 1880s, Li newspaper (also called Wanguo gongbao), Kang published
Hongzhang and Zo Zongtang opened mines and textile mills; Richard's and other SDK writings. And Kang's memorials to the
built short-haul railroads, steamships, and telegraph lines; mobi reform-minded Guangxu emperor in April-June 1895 incorpo
lized private capital for government projects; created schools to rated virtually all of Richard's recommendations in PresentNeeds
teach Western languages, science, and mathematics; and sent as well as suggestions advanced by Zheng Guanying and Young
students abroad. In Shanxi, Richard declined Zhang Zhidong's J. Allen.
invitation to become a provincial adviser and implement
Invited by both Kang and court officials to recommend
Zhang's development schemes. After being promoted to gov reform measures, Richard suggested the appointment of two
ernor-general at Canton and then Wuchang after 1884, Zhang foreign advisers, including Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909), the archi
implemented Richard's plans for steelworks and Western tect and leader of Japan's Meiji Restoration, as well as creation of
style schools.
an eight-member cabinet (one-half to be Chinese and Manchus
While Richard used the term"self-strengthening" in his own and the other half foreigners) to oversee national defense, indus
writings, his concerns went beyond China's national security to trialization, currency reform, an official press composed partly of
the physical and spiritual welfare of the country's rural poor. foreign journalists, an updated examination system devoted to
This theme deeply influenced treaty port thinkers like Wang Tao new knowledge, and a Board of Education to promote Western
(1828-97) and Zeng Guanyin (1842-1923), who read Richard's curricula.
April 2000
77
During the so-called Hundred Days of Reform (June 12
September 20, 1898), the Guangxu emperor, who himself had
studied Richard's writings, issued edicts mandating the imple
mentation of new industrial and agricultural techniques, rail
ways and mines, a national university to teach Western subjects,
conversion of temples into Western-style schools, and public
education through newspapers." The emperor contemplated
making Christianity China's official religion and, ignoring
Richard's counsel of gradual change, called for an immediate
constitutional monarchy. Although he rejected Richard's idea of
a Western protectorate of China, the emperor invited Richard to
be his adviser. But on September 21, 1898, the very day Richard
was to have his first imperial audience, China's Empress Dowa
ger (1835-1908)-fearing the imminent loss of her own power
kidnapped the emperor, revoked his reform edicts, and be
headed several reform leaders.
With hopes for modernization from the top now dashed,
Richard became increasingly concerned that Manchu conserva
tism was making China vulnerable to intensifying international
pressures as well as to revolt from below. In Present Needs,
Richard had pointed out that China's economic development
depended on its integration into a peaceful world that respected
national sovereignty and asserted the equality of all nations
under one God as well as China's access to international trade
and the West's technological innovations. For its part, Richard
advised, the Chinese government should safeguard the mission
aries (whom he saw as China's protectors in an increasingly
dangerous world), promote friendly relations with the Western
powers, and cooperate in the establishment of an "International
Peace Organization" that would guarantee China's security. In
1896 he circulated among European capitals a pamphlet advocat
ing the creation of a "League of Nations" and urged Britain's
Foreign Office to pressure nations into abandoning the scramble
for concessions in China, return tariff autonomy to the Qing
government, and finance his scheme for China's universal edu
cation.
During the Great Famine, Richard had predicted that the
West's humanitarian involvement in China might inflame na
tionalist passions. His worst fears materialized when, during the
summer of 1900 desperately poor Chinese-whom the Empress
Dowager had whipped into an anti-Christian frenzy to obliterate
all traces of the recent reforms-rose up as Boxers to massacre
159 missionaries and thousands of Chinese Christians in areas of
Shandong and Shanxi where Richard had fought famine and
planted congregations. Invited by the Chinese government to
mediate the Boxer settlement with the British government, Rich
ard convinced the British authorities to use Boxer indemnity
funds to establish Shanxi University. For the next ten years,
Richard served as the university's chancellor, developing a West
ern curriculum that he hoped would dispel Chinese ignorance of
the West.
In 1903, the year cancer claimed Richard's beloved wife, the
Manchu court honored his efforts to create a more favorable
international climate for China by conferring on him the rank of
Chinese mandarin and ennobling his ancestors for three genera
tions. Later the throne presented him with the Order of the
Double Dragon. In 1905 the throne enacted several moderate
reforms, including the abolition of the examination system and
creation of the Western-style schools Richard had long advo
cated. Zhang Zhidong, now minister of education, hired the SDK
to produce the textbooks for these new schools.
Richard feared, however, that conservative reform was in
sufficient to protect China from growing international dangers.
In 1905 he established the China chapter of the International Red
Cross Society, an institution he hoped would keep China from
being drawn into the Russo-Japanese War. In 1906 he attended
the Lucerne Peace Conference to advocate creation of a world
federation and subsequently discussed the idea with President
Theodore Roosevelt at the White House.
In 1910 the missionary community honored Richard on his
fortieth anniversary in China. The following year Dr. Sun Yatsen
(1866-1925), the Christian physician, toppled the Manchus and
created the Republic of China-an eventuality that Richard had
long feared would plunge China into political chaos. In 1913
Richard retired from the SDK (renamed Christian Literature
Richard convinced the
British authorities to use
Boxer indemnity funds to
establish Shanxi
University.
Society for China in 1906) and in 1914 married Dr. Ethel Tribe, a
physician with the London Missionary Society in Shanghai. The
couple retired to London in 1916. At the time of his death on April
17, 1919, Richard-deeply distressed by the ravages of the First
World War-was working on a scheme for a "League of Reli
gions" to safeguard world peace. He was also preparing to return
to China for the stated purpose of bringing "all nations to
submission of our Saviour in one generation."20
Richard as Missionary Pioneer
Timothy Richard's life intersected with a critical phase of China's
modern transformation. Undergirded by an evolving theologi
cal vision, Richard devised creative solutions to China's domes
tic and international problems. As Kenneth Scott Latourette
notes, Richard's multifaceted concern for China inspired his
"widening vision of the task of the Christian missionary."?'
Richard was a pioneer on several fronts throughout his
forty-five years in China. A founder of the BMS presence in North
China, he believed that Chinese civilization had prepared the
way for its fulfillment by Christianity. To this end, Richard's
evangelistic approach to the educated elite was one of many
missiological experiments that made Shandong a vibrant center
of mainstream and sectarian Protestantism." Richard also initi
ated missionary involvement in disaster relief, and his methods
were in place well into the era of the China International Famine
Relief Commission, founded in 1920.
China's catastrophic Great Famine widened Richard's voca
tional commitments, convincing him that "Christianity is the
salvation of nations as well as of individuals."23 Imbibing the
Victorian faith in the material progress of the "spirit of God in
Nature,"?' he concluded that the missionary calling must be
broadened from "saving the heathen from the sufferings of hell
... to savling] the heathen from the hell of suffering in this
world.?"
Richard shared with social gospel leaders back home the
conviction that Christianity must not only be planted, as he
wrote, "in the hearts of men, but also in all institutions.v'"
Christian reformers in the West could advance the kingdom
through existing institutions. But in China, Richard and such
78
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missionary-reformers as Alexander Williamson, Young J. Allen,
W. A. P. Martin (1827-1916), and Gilbert Reid (1857-1927) had to
start from scratch. In fact, they anticipated the expanded institu
tion-building efforts in China after 1900, when half of Protestant
involvements were devoted to medical, social, and educational
missions."
Richard's direct experience with the Chinese countryside
eventually drew him into political activism. This was new ground
for a China missionary, and the political forces became increas
ingly complex following China's May Fourth rising (which be
gan only two weeks after Richard's death). In the end, Richard's
advocacy efforts presaged Protestantism's rural reconstruction
movement, where the Welsh Baptist's hopes for the kingdom of
God in China lived on.
Notes
1. Timothy Richard, Forty-Five Years in China: Reminiscences (New 13. Richard, Conversion, 2:66.
York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1916), p. 29.
14. BMSArchives,Richard to the Committee of the BMS,March 12,1888.
15. For an important discussion on Richard's important but little-known
2. Ibid., p. 55.
views on this issue, see Ralph R. Covell, Confucius, the Buddha, and
3. Paul Richard Bohr, Famine in China and the Missionary: Timothy
Richard asReliefAdministrator and Advocate ofNational Reform, 1876
Christ: A History of the Gospel in Chinese (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis
1884 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1972), chaps. 1-2.
Books, 1986), pp. 125-28.
16. Soothill, Timothy Richard, p. 156.
4. Richard, Forty-Five Years, p. 125.
17. Albert J. Garnier, A Maker of Modern China (London: Carey Press,
5. Ibid., p. 98.
1945), p. 50.
6. Timothy Richard, Conversion bytheMillioninChina, 2 vols. (Shanghai:
18. Quoted in Soothill, Timothy Richard, p. 183.
Christian Literature Society, 1907),2:57. The italics are Richard's.
7. Ibid., 1:151.
19. Several of these same proposals had been made forty years earlier by
Hong Rengan (1822-64), a leader of the Taiping Rebellion.
8. Timothy Richard, "Discussion," in Records oftheGeneral Conference of
the Protestant Missionaries of China Heldat Shanghai, May 7-20,1890 20. Quoted in D. MacGillivray, TimothyRichard ofChina: A Prince inIsrael
(Shanghai: Christian Literature Society, 1920), p. 16.
(Shanghai: American Presbyterian Press, 1890),p. 163.For an analysis
of Richard's postfamine activities on behalf of China's national 21. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China
development, see Bohr, Famine, chaps. 5-6.
(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1928), p. 378.
9. William E.Soothill, TimothyRichard ofChina (London: Seeley, Service, 22. Norman H. Cliff, "Building the Protestant Church in Shandong,
China," International Bulletin of Missionary Research 22, no. 2 (April
1926), p. 106.
1998): 62-68.
11. Regarding this last proposal, Richard wrote a year later: "In order to 23. Timothy Richard, "Work in Tientsin," Missionary Herald, May 1,
achieve wealth and strength there are two most important matters:
1891, p. 197. See also BMS Archives, Richard to Baynes, February 17,
1892.
first is to achieve wide knowledge and skillful techniques and to
make the best of human efforts. All this is actually secondary, 24. BMS Archives, Richard to the Committee of the BMS, May 12, 1887.
however. The other is to complete one's morality by worshiping God 25. Richard, Forty-Five Years, p. 197.
and by following God's will-this is the fundamental matter" (Wanquo 26. Richard, Conversion, 1:13.
27. Latourette, History, p. 619
gongbao, January 28, 1882, p. 217).
Selected Bibliography
Books by Timothy Richard
Books about Timothy Richard
1907
Bohr, Paul Richard. Famine in China and theMissionary: Timothy Richard
as ReliefAdministrator and Advocate of National Reform, 1876-1884.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1972.
Evans, E. W. Price. TimothyRichard: A Narrative ofChristian Enterprise and
Statesmanship in China. London: S. W. Partridge, 1912.
Soothill, William E. Timothy Richard of China. London: Seeley, Service,
1926.
Conversion by the Million in China. 2 vols. Shanghai: Christian
Literature Society.
1916
Forty-five Years in China: Reminiscences. New York: Frederick A.
Stokes.
Richard's papers are contained in the BMS Archives in the Angus
Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford, England.
80
The Legacy of Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen
Lothar Schreiner
ngw er Ludwig Nommensen's life and work spanned
much of the nineteenth century and most of the first two
decades of the twentieth. He was a true expatriate, living his
entire adult life in Sumatra, then a part of the Dutch East Indies.
He made his home among the Batak people, who after a time
accepted him as one of their own and called him Apostle to the
Bataks.
Nommensen was born on February 6, 1834, on the island of
Nordstrand in Schleswig, then Danish territory. His father was a
dike-lock keeper. The experience of being able to walk again after
a serious injury in a traffic accident motivated Nommensen to
become a missionary. He entered the seminary of the Rhenish
Mission Society in Wuppertal-Barmen, now the United Evan
gelical Mission. A few months after his ordination in 1861 he
sailed for Sumatra, Indonesia, where he joined four fellow mis
sionaries. In 1864 he was able to settle among the Toba Bataks in
the valley of Silindung, Northern Sumatra. It was the beginning
of a singular Christian career of outstanding self-denial and
unfailing dedication. He preached the Gospel in word and deed
among the village people of a territory still independent of Dutch
colonial administration. Though in the beginning their behavior
seemed strange to him in many ways, he respected their human
dignity and recognized their inalienable right to their own con
victions. He mastered their language and built bridges of trust.
A local chief, Pontas Lumbantobing (1830-1900), protected
him and mediated between him and a militant group of hostile
chiefs and priests. Lumbantobing became a Christian and
Nommensen's loyal friend, and he urged his people and fellow
chiefs to receive the Gospel of peace and forgiveness. Out of a
sense of political realty, he also advocated acceptance of Dutch
rule. Nommensen and Lumbantobing, together with missionar
ies P. H.Johannsen and August Mohri, laid the foundation for the
Christianization of the Batak people. By the end of the 1870s the
leadership of the Batak traditional religion had embraced Chris
tianity.
I
Genesis and the people of Israel. His idea of an organically
growing Christian life and ethos rested on unshakable trust in
Christ. He led his dialogue partners to grasp the meaning of
salvation, emphasizing the second coming of Christ. He commu
nicated his theology and method to his fellow missionaries,
instructing them for their communication with the Batak people:
"Bear them on a priestly heart and preach the Word to them in
season and out of season. Everyone who comes to you, you
should look upon as being sent by the Lord, and devote as much
time to him as is needed to show him the way of life." Nommensen
emphasized that one must master the Batak language in order to
"live and demonstrate one's life to the heathen and study their
way of thinking."!
Nommensen integrated the revival tradition of his early
years in Germany into his daily theology. Central to his belief
was the sovereignty of God, who has revealed himself in his
living Word, Jesus Christ, "Lord and Savior of the world."? By
Nommensen practiced a
contextual ecclesiology by
using the customary Batak
law for the formation of a
people's church.
faith in the living Lord, Christians share in Christ's victory over
sin, death, and Satan. Nommensen emphasized the Satan figure
in the baptismal instructions and employed it in his teaching and
preaching, thereby showing sensitivity to the supernatural sphere
of life. His faith in the power of the incarnation (Phil. 2:5--11) led
him to his view of human beings, who are enabled with the love
of Christ to serve their fellow men and women. He taught the
missionaries, "After one has come to understand the people and
to be understood by them, one has to begin with the preaching of
the Gospel in having a twofold work, namely to pull down the
bulwark of Satan and to build up the house of truth."? His
conception of the church reflected his anthropological emphasis
and resulted in planting a truly "people's church" among the
Batak. By example he demonstrated human solidarity in Christ.
He realized this way of life by commissioning local elders and
chiefs to "gossip the Gospel" in the village. This ministry of the
laity reflected Nommensen's emphasis on the congregation as
the gathered people of God under the Word of God. He practiced
a contextual ecclesiology by using the customary law and struc
tural elements of the people for the formation of a "people's
church," as can be seen in the church constitutions of 1866 and
1881. The strong growth and coherence of the church, especially
after the resistance of the traditionalists faded, tended to be
accompanied by an uncritical allegiance to the customary law;
sometimes it became almost the pivot of Christian living. Never
theless, the indigenization of Batak Christianity has been re
garded as "the secret of the growth and the prosperity of the
Christian religion in the Batak land."!
In 1866Nommensen married Margarethe Caroline Gutbrod
Rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Revival
Nommensen owed his outlook and convictions not only to his
seminary training but also to the Lutheran revival movement in
Schleswig-Holstein. Throughout his life he interpreted Chris
tianity as "New Life," as taught by F. A. G. Tholuck (1799-1872)
and A. Neander (1789-1850). Tholuck and Neander's theological
and philosophical positions pervaded the teaching Nommensen
received during his seminary years. In Sumatra he and his fellow
missionaries explicated the New Life in every aspect of indig
enous experience: daily life and order, custom, law, time, age,
and rule. These key words represented the kerygmatic paradigm
for their evangelistic outreach. Nommensen committed himself
to see that New Life penetrated Batak life and culture.
The anthropocentric orientation of his theology led him to
evangelize dialogically. He introduced instructions for baptism
by posing questions about bliss, eternal life, and obedience to the
triune God, rather than by starting with the creation story in
Lothar Schreiner is ProfessorEmeritus ofMissiology andHistoryofReligions
in Wuppertal, Germany.
April 2000
81
(1837-87), who arrived from Hamburg in the same year. Their
family life was conditioned by the tropical climate and the hard
simplicity that prevailed in Silindung. Jonathan (1873-1950), the
youngest of their six children, became a missionary and assisted
his father as his deputy for eighteen years (1900-1918).
Nommensen went on furlough in 1880.Returning to Sumatra, he
left behind in Europe his children and his wife, who was sick and
who died in 1887. When he returned to Germany again in 1892,
he married Anna Magdalene Christine Harder (1864-1909). They
had a son, who died as a soldier in 1916,and two daughters. Anna
herself died in 1909.It was a severe testing of faith and endurance
to see his two sisters departing this life (1860and 1864),followed
by both wives and four of his nine children,"
The Batak Church, a Living Legacy
has been particularly discussed by contemporary scholars. Bengt
Sundkler recognizes Nommensen's attempt to Christianize the
adat: "Tribe and Church became one. Church life, too, was
organized around a vast number of casuistic rules. Christians of
the third generation could see in the new adat no distinction
between original Batak influence and those rules which were
specifically Christian in origin. But this was not without its
dangers. Christianity came to be regarded as a new law, nova lex,
which no longer presupposed a radical change of heart. To dispel
this impression was to be the greatest task of coming genera
tions/"? Keith R. Bridston emphasizes that "Nommensen was
well aware of the pervasiveness of the adat in shaping all dimen
sions of social and individual life and was shrewd in his use of it
in dealings with the Bataks, but he was perhaps less perceptive
of the dangers of the Christian faith being assimilated within the
adat framework as a 'new Iaw."?" Missionary bishop Stephen C.
Nommensen made a decisive effort to gather the church along
"three-self" principles. This approach was meant to help the
church survive in case of persecution or the expulsion of Euro
pean personnel. At the same time, Nommensen, in his paternal
ism and conservative social ethics, welcomed the colonial ad
ministration as the best way for development and progress," In
1904 he even proposed to the Dutch administration how to take
possession of hitherto independent Batak territory, and how to
divide the districts in the best interest of tribal boundaries?
Because of the growing success of the Batak Mission,
Nommensen gained recognition and distinction in Europe. In
1893 he was made knight of the Royal Dutch Order of Orange
Nassau; in 1904 the theological faculty of the University of Bonn
conferred on him the honorary degree of doctor of theology.
October 1911 saw two meaningful fiftieth anniversaries: the
beginning of the Batak Mission (October 7, 1861) and
Nommensen's ordination to the ministry (October 13, 1861).
Moreover, in 1911 he was honored by the queen of Holland who
conferred on him the Officer's Cross of the Order of Orange
Nassau.
But Nommensen's legacy lies preeminently in Sumatra and
in the Christian church among the Batak. By 1918, the year of his
death, the Batak church was firmly established, with 34 pastors,
788 teacher-preachers, and 180,000 members." In addition, sixty
European men and women of the Rhenish Mission served as
coworkers with the Batak leadership. By virtue of their estab
lished Christian community, the Batak were ready to enter a new
age. Nommensen's impact therefore is not so much evident in a
collection of writings, or with missionaries who followed his
missionary methods; rather it is reflected in an indigenous Chris
tian community that knows what it owes to his love and vision.
In the early part of the twentieth century, the Batak church was
the largest Protestant church in Southeast Asia.
In 1954, long after the German mission society had left the
island, Nommensen was remembered in the name of a new
university, Nommensen University. And on the 150th anniver
sary of his birth, Nommensen was celebrated in a symposium
about the meaning and ongoing relevance of his work for the
churches in western Indonesia. This important event was spon
sored in 1984 by the theological seminary of the Batak Church
(HKBP).9
Nommensen was severely
tested by the death of two
sisters, both of his wives,
and four of his children.
Neill matched his high appreciation of Nommensen as one of the
greatest missionaries of all time with a realistic evaluation of
Nommensen's last two decades. Nommensen, wrote Neill, "had
lived so long in the world of the Batak that he was hardly capable
of understanding and responding to the new ideas that were
streaming in; and, at his death in 1918, everything remained
much as it had been in 1881. Yet in every way the old ideas and
methods were out of date. Indonesian political nationalism, with
its strongly hostile reaction to everything Western, was already
a reality."12 Indigenous movements of protest have been care
fully investigated by Masashi Hirosue of Japan. Hirosue gives an
illuminating account of Nommensen's connections with
millenarian groups. They regarded Nommensen as a true Batak,
the incarnation of a legendary ancestor in the disguise of a
European. They believed that this incarnated ancestor had been
sent to his people in order to teach and to build churches and
schools." The veneration of Nommensen, along with two other
missionaries believed to have been sent as helpers by the ances
tral God, reveals that in Batakland millenarian movements were
significant factors in the Christian movement.
Owing to the absence of writings of his own, Nommensen's
religious and social thinking has not been thoroughly investi
gated, in comparison with the attention directed to his way of
building the church. Known for humbleness and self-denial, he
was a convincing Christian in his behavior, transcending na
tional, ethnic, and cultural barriers. He demonstrated his holistic
Christian way in many episodes throughout his daily life with
the local people. One day, for example, several local chiefs
entered his hut to provoke him, thinking to make his patience run
out. The whole day they pestered him with requests to be
entertained. He complied by telling Bible stories and other
stories, playing the violin, demonstrating the magnifying glass,
and offering them food. At midnight he said, "I am exhausted, I
have to sleep." His unwelcome guests laid down to sleep where
they sat. Early the next morning one of the chiefs awoke and
marveled to see that each of them had been covered by a woolen
blanket. Nommensen himself had arisen at night in order to
Focus of Scholarly Attention
Nommensen's legacy is also manifested in the wide attention he
has received through scholarly studies and popular writings. His
evaluation and Christian application of the traditional law (adat)
82
Perspectives on the World Christian Movement
(Third Ed ition)
Ralph D. Winter &
Steve Hawthorne, Edi tors
Pers pec tive s presents a mu ltiface ted collection of reading s explor ing th e
bibli cal, histor ical, cu ltural and strateg ic dimensio ns of world eva ngelization.
Writin gs from more th an 90 mission scholars and practition ers including 125
ar ticles (50 are new ) introd uce lay people and studen ts to th e astou ndi ng
potential of the globa l Christia n movemen t. Offe ring practical wis do m
ena bling Christia ns to lab or together in bold, biblical hope to finis h th e task of
seei ng that Chri st is na me d and follow ed among all th e peoples of th e earth.
WCL289-1
Following Jesus in the Hindu Context:
The Intriguing Implication s of N.Y. Tilak 's
Life and Thought
H.L. Richard
Narayan Vama n Tilak was raise d in western Ind ia in a
Bra hmin fami ly, as a Hindu of th e high est cas te. He
wa s an ar dent nationalist an d gifted p oet. Baptized in
1895, he remains one of the m ost highl y placed Hindu
lead ers ever to tu rn to faith in Jesu s Christ. This book
tells Tilak's story as one of the ou tstanding pio neers of
Pro testan t mission history.
WC L288-3 William Carey Library, pap erb ack, 145 pp.
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Unfamiliar Paths
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Chris t in Stra nge Clot hing
David Bjork
God sometimes lea ds H is servants along unfa mil iar
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WCL278-6 William Ca rey Libra ry, paperback, 192 pp.
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The 99 Beautiful Names of God
The Church is Bigger Than You Think
David Bentley
Patrick Johnstone
In a bridge-bu ild ing exercise betwe en Christians
and Muslims and other "people of the book,"
David Bentley traces th e Semitic pre-Islamic
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Dependency Among Mission-Estab lished Institutions:
Expl or ing the Issues
Glenn Schwartz
Over th e year s a tragic situation ha s develop ed
on the m ission field-ma ny mission established
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shelter them against the cold. Silently they left, ashamed of their
behavior.
Nommensen was not uncritical of himself. He told younger
missionaries that he had to learn what it meant to act with
patience. Once having become angry with a very rude intruder,
he threw the fellow out. Later he felt haunted by it. The fellow,
whom he felt he should have saved, never turned up again. "God
goes his own way," he once said, "and shows to us, that he does
not need us at all, that it is pure grace, when he uses US"14 His
unswerving loyalty to and solidarity with the Bataks, the people
of his lifelong vocation, led to his reception into the people's
destiny. He was an irresistible manifestation of a new type of
human existence. The kenotic, dialogic approach in his theology
is an outstanding feature of his legacy for contemporary reflec
tion and Christian practice.
Notes---------------------------------------
1. LotharSchreiner,ed.,Nommensenin Selbstzeugnissen. Unveroffentlichte
AUfstitze, Entwiirfeund Dokumente (Ammersbek bei Hamburg: Verlag
an der Lottbek, 1996), p. 66.
2. ZweiterBericht desMissionars Nommensen an seineFreunde (Breklum:
Sonntagsblatt fur's Haus, 1883), p. 24.
3. Schreiner, Selbstzeugnisse, p. 63. The Bataks' religion did not know of
a Satan, yet the people feared the evil spirits of the deceased as the
adversaries of the living.
4. Abraham J. van Zanen, "Voorwarden voor Maatschappelijke
Ontwikkeling in het Centrale Batakland" (jur. Dr. Diss.,
Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1934), p. 95.
5. For a fuller account, see the vivid "Focus on the Family," in Martin
E. Lehmann, A Biographical Study of Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen
(1834-1918), Pioneer Missionary to the Bataks of Sumatra (Lewiston,
N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996).
6. Manfred Streng provides an important reappraisal of the Bataks'
reaction to colonial rule and how the Rhenish Mission related,
sometimes approving and sometimes in conflict with the Dutch
government. See "Die Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft im Batakland
(1861-1940) und Formen desbatakischen Widerstandes" (Phil. Diss.
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich, 1989).
7. See Schreiner, Selbstzeugnissen, pp. 118f£., for Nommensen's
"Bemerkungen zum Kolonialbericht von 1904betreffend die Zukunft
des Batakvolkes auf Sumatra."
8. The church, however, represented only a minority of the Batak
people. By 1940,the final year of the Rhenish Mission in Sumatra, the
Christian population equalled one third of the Batak people.
9. The memorial volume Benih yangberbuah. HariPeringatan 150Tahun
Ompui Ephorus Dr. 1. L. N. (Seed bearing fruit: Commemorating the
150th anniversary ofO. Eph. Dr. I. L. N.), ed. Bagian IlmuSejarah dan
Pekabaran Injil (Pematangsiantar: Sekolah Tinggi Theologia HKBP,
1984).
10. Bengt Sundkler, The World of Mission (London: Lutterworth Press,
1965), pp. 189-90.
11. "The Batak Church and Christian Identity," in Horas HKBP! Essays
for a 125 Year Old Church, ed. A. A. Sitompul and A. Sovik
(Pematangsiantar: Sekolah Tinggi Theologia HKBP, 1986), pp. 147
48.
12. Stephen C. Neill, Colonialism and Christian Missions (London:
Lutterworth Press, 1966), pp. 188 and 197.
13. Masashi Hirosue, "Prophets and Followers in Batak Millenarian
Responses to the Colonial Order: Parmalim. Na Siak Bagi and
Parhudamdam, 1890-1930" (Phil. Diss., Australian National
University, Canberra, 1988).
14. Johannes Warneck, D. Ludwig I. Nommensen, ein Lebensbild
(Wuppertal-Barmen: Verlag des Missionshauses, 1934), p. 150.
Selected Bibliography
Writings by Nommensen
1864
"Erster Niederlassungsversuch in der Landschaft Silindong
auf Sumatra," in Berichte der Rhein.Mission 8: 225-35.
1864
"Sitten und Cebrauche der Battas," in Berichte derRhein.Mission
9: 271-81, 303-05.
1878
Endgiiltiger Bericht iiber den Krieg auf Sumatra," in Berichte
derRhein.Mission 12: 361-81.
1878,1885 The New Testament (in Batak letters). Elberfeld.
1883
Zweiter Bericht des Missionares Nommensen an seine Freunde.
Breklum: Sonntagsblatt fur's Haus.
1996
Nommensen in Selbstzeugnissen. Unveroffentlichte Auisdtze,
Entwiirfe und Dokumente. Ammersbek bei Hamburg: Verlag an
der Lottbek
Writings about Nommensen
Hemmers, J. H. L. 1. N., de Apostel der Batakkers. The Hague: J. N.
Voorhoeve, 1935;English translation by R. L. Archer, in "Malaysia
Message," Methodist Recorder (Singapore), November 1938-0ctober
1939.
Lehmann, Martin E. A Biographical Study of Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen
(1834-1918), Pioneer Missionary to the Bataks of Sumatra. Lewiston,
N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996.
Menzel, Gustav. Ein Reiskorn auf der Strasse, L. 1. N., "Apostelder Baiak:"
Wuppertal: Vereinigte Evangelische Mission, 1984.
Nommensen, Jonathan T. Toean Ephorus N ommensen, Parsorionna dohot na
nioelana. Zendingsdrukkerij Laguboti, 1921; His LifeandHis Work
(Indonesian ed., Jakarta, 1974).
Raupp, Werner. "I. L. Nommensen." In Biographisch-bibliographisches
Kirchenlexikon Hamm, 1994. Vol. 7, pp. 1004-6.
Sarumpaet, Jan Pieter. Bibliografi Batak. Melbourne: Sahata Publications,
1988.
Schreiner, Lothar. "Ludwig Nommensen Studies-Review." Mission
Studies 9, no. 2 (1992): 241-51.
Warneck, Johannes. D. Ludwig1. Nommensen, ein Lebensbild. Wuppertal
Barmen: Verlag des Missionshauses, 1934.
Nommensen's letters and papers are kept in the Archiv- und Museums
Stiftung of the Vereinigte Evangelische Mission, Wuppertal, Germany.
Documents concerning Nommensen are also to be found in the
Netherland's Rijks-Archief, The Hague.
84
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Book Reviews
The Lure of the Millennium: The
Year 2000 and Beyond.
By Raymond F. Bulman. Maryknoll, N.Y.:
Orbis Books, 1999. Pp. xvi, 238. Paperback.
$18.
This book takes the reader on a stimulating
tour of the millennial hopes and
apocalyptic fears that have decisively
shaped the West in the past. Raymond F.
Bulman, a professor of theology at St.
John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota,
also outlines some of the daunting
challenges that are likely to trouble our
future.
Bulman, however, devotes most of
his time to assessing the competing
religious visions of hope and terror that
vie to shape the landscape of tomorrow's
world. He invites his readers inside the
apocalyptic nightmares that gave rise to
Jonestown, Ruby Ridge, and Waco. He
vividly describes how white supremacist
organizations and militia groups have
been influenced by end-times conspiracy
theories to arm themselves for
Armageddon.
Then he compares a range of Christian
visions of millennia1 expectations and
apocalyptic horror that compete for our
attention. While Pope John Paul II looks
forward to a new millennium in which the
entire Christian community could be
reunited, other Catholics are caught up in
apparitions of Mary. These appearances
typically promise either global peace if
people renew their faith or sweeping
judgment if they fail to do so.
Many Christians, including many
evangelicals, he points out, look forward
to the millennial inbreaking of God's
kingdom in history. Other evangelicals,
however, embrace an end-times view that
assures them they will be raptured out of
this condemned planet before the white
heat of God's judgment falls on those left
behind.
In the final chapter Bulman rejects
millennialliteralism of historic faith and
offers his alternative vision. Influenced by
the work of Paul Tillich, he invites readers
to see the new millennium as a kairos
moment in which we can jointly develop
a new global ethic to help us steer our
The Earliest Christian Mission to
All Nations" in the Light of
Matthew's Gospel.
II
ByJames LaGrand. GrandRapids: Eerdmans,
1999. Pp. xio, 290. Paperback $32.
In this reissue of a work originally
published in 1995, the author, currently
pastor of a church in Indiana, argues the
thesis that the Matthean "Great
Commission" derives from Jesus and
charges the Twelve, both as representative
Israel and as apostolic nucleus of the
church, to fulfill the messianic mission to
the nations. After a sketch of the history of
interpreta tion and clarification of
terminology, LaGrand investigates
references to Israel and the nations in the
Old Testament, LXX, and Apocrypha, as
well as in writings roughly contemporary
with the New Testament. The bulk of the
volume is devoted to an in-depth study of
the Great Commission in the context of
Matthew's gospeL
Overall, LaGrand's thesis is sound
and represents a welcome corrective to
recent Matthean scholarship, which has
been focused on the "Matthean
community" and has largely denied the
Great Commission's authenticity.
Matthew's primary source is indeed the
Old Testament, particularly the
Abrahamic promise, the Davidic covenant,
and Isaiah's Servant songs. And in
Matthean theology, Jesus does in fact
recapitulate Israel's history with a view
toward reconstituting a new messianic
community for the purpose of fulfilling
Israel's mission to the nations.
Whether LaGrand's way of arguing
his case is the most effective is another
question. The flow of his discussion tends
to get bogged down in side issues (e.g. the
Synoptic problem, pp. 163-67); the
implications of lengthy sections for his
larger case remain regularly unstated (e.g.
chap. 2 on terminology); and there are no
chapter summaries. Failure to interact with
86
planet through the white water of a very
uncertain future.
The book is very stimulating and
informative, and Bulman's call for the
development of a global ethic is welcome,
if not new. However, he provides no
convincing reasons why we should
abandon the millennia1vision of biblical
faith, anchored in Jesus Christ's own
expectation of an earthly kingdom made
new by the decisive action of the creator
God. Many of us are persuaded that it is
naive to place ultimate hope in the ability
of the human community to fabricate
solutions to the challenges of the future.
-Tom Sine
Tom Sine is an Instructor at Fuller Theological
Seminary, Pasadena, California, andafuturist whose
latest book is Mustard Seed vs. McWorld:
Reinventing Life and Faith for the Future (Baker
Books, 1999).
important recent contributions (such as
McKnight or Goodman on the issue of a
"Jewish mission" prior to Jesus) frequently
renders LaGrand's treatment strangely
dated. These and other flaws detract from
an otherwise interesting study that no
doubt will spark further discussion on
this important subject.
-Andreas J. Kostenberger
Andreas J. Kostenberger is associate professor of
New Testamentat Southeastern BaptistTheological
Seminaryin TNake Forest, N.C. A nativeAustrian,
he is author of The Missions of Jesus and the
Disciples According to the Fourth Gospel
(Eerdmans, 1998). He also serves as editor of the
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.
Ethnic Realities and the Church:
Lessons from Kurdistan. A H istory
of M iss ion Work, 1668- 1990.
By Robert Blin coe. Pasadena , Calif. :
Presbyterian CenterforMissionStudies, 1998.
Pp. xv, 265. Paperback $12.95 .
Rober t Blincoe's su pe rb boo k chronicles
missionary work from 1668 to 1990 in
Kur d istan-that area near th e borders of
Turkey, Iran, and Iraq w he re Kurds are a
major ity. The book concerns a region with
several hist or icall y promi ne nt eth nic
groups, p rimarily rel at in g Pro tes ta n t
mission work am ong these ethnic gro u ps .
Im pact or lack of impac t on Muslim Kur ds
is th e focus. The au thor's perspective is
deep and rich, based on his tenure in the
region for m ost of the 1990s.
A hist or y of missions d irected to
ethnic Kur ds would be one- twentieth th e
size of thi s book, which points to the thesis:
"Western mission po licies had tied their
hopes of Mus lim evange lism to a revived
Chr istian witness" (p . xi). Wh y th e plan
failed so thorough ly, and how Christia n
mission s might succee d in the future, is
th e con cern of thi s wo rk .
The goa l of the missio naries from th e
beginning was to "ena ble th e . . . [church]
to exer t a comma nd ing influe nce in th e
spiritual regen erati on of Asia" (p. 118).
Wh y d id thi s goa l elude th em ? Blincoe
generalizes th ree fac tors: (l) m issions
continued to invest almost exclusively in
hist orical ch urc hes, (2) th e ve ry few
mis sionaries amo ng Ku rd s die d and we re
not rep laced, and (3)missionaries believed
the tim e for an ingathering of Kurds had
not ye t arrived (p. 193).
Particularly int eresting are nea rly 200
pages of m ini-biogr aphical materi al th at
chro nicle the faithful witn ess of foreign
and national servants who suffered and
die d . The book concludes with several
d ozen br ief perspectives on cu lture and
mission pr act ice that may hold keys to
conveying th e light of th e Gospel, resulting
in Kurd ish-b a ck g r ound C hristia n
communities .
This tim ely work conn ects past effor ts
w ith the vibran t activity of th e present.
The volu me of wo rk in Kur dis tan th is
d ecade justifies a se que l to Blincoe' s
treat m ent in the next few years, one th at
w ill no d oubt reflect th e histor ical lesso ns
learned an d pe rspectives suggeste d in this
work.
- Bill Koops
Bill Koops is founder and president of Millennium
Relief andDevelopment Seroices,inHouston,Texas.
Headministratedhumanitarian aid programsin the
Middle East between 1989 and 1997.
A p ril 2000
Changing Frontiers of Mission.
By Wilbert R. Shenk. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis
Books, 1999. Pp. xi. 207. Paperback $22.00
This w ell-w ritten coll ecti on of essays,
p roduced over a period of fifteen yea rs by
th e p rofessor of m issi on hi st or y and
contem porary cu lture at the School of
World Mission of Fu ller Th eol ogical
Semi na ry, ca lls th e m od ern mission
mov em ent to a ren ewed se nse of th e
frontier. Co nv inced that th e concep t of
geogra phy can no lon ger be used to fra me
th e missio nary task, She nk believes that
th e highly in st itutionali z ed m odern
mission ary movement is in its twili ght
stages a nd that a new epoch-st ill
und efined-is in th e process of eme rging .
New Perspectives on Mission
From Trinity Press International
The Feast of th e Wo rld's Red empti on
Eucha ristic Ori gins
and Ch ristia n Mission
by John Koenig
Arguing against recent theorie s about the
historical Jesus, Koenig states that there was indeed
an inten tional Last Suppe r at whic h Jesus, with a
messianic consciousness, fully enlisted his followers
in h is redemptive mission, and that th is continues
to provide the contempora ry churc h with an
appropri ate model for mission .
paper $25.00
The Clash o f Civ ili zations
by Robert Lee
Christianity's growth in Japan has slowed drama ti
cally because the cultur e of western indivi dualism
clashes harshly with Japan 's collective culture. Lee
contends that in order for Christianity to grow,
Ch ristians mu st radically rethink th e way th eology
and the Gospel is present ed in Japa n .
pap er $12.00
The Incarnation
and the Chu rch's Wit ness
by Darrell L. Guder
Using literary, historical, and social appro aches to
scripture, Gude r cha llenges today's church to return
to an incarnatio na l mi ssion-s-one based on the life
and death of Jesus-rather th an thinking of mission
as just ano ther chur ch program .
paper $9.00
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87
The fifteen essays that com pose this
volu me cons titu te a va lua ble resource for
understanding the mod ern mission ar y
movem ent. They are grou ped into fou r
sec tio ns : th e th eological fron tier; th e
frontier in th eory and p ractice; the frontier
of contem po ra ry culture; and di scern ing
changi ng frontiers .Most of the essays have
appeared elsewhere, but many have been
re v ised for thi s publication s . Some,
origina lly publish ed in Germ an, ap pear
for the first time in English.
She nk lays a solid fou nda tion for the
Kool
Witts
entire book in the ini tial cha p ter, in w hich
he ou tli nes in bal anced fa shion th e
eleme nts of a mission d yn am ic. He stresses
th e impo rtance of placing the reign of God
at th e cen ter of the ch urch's life and
teaching. She nk shu ns the temptation to
paint fu turistic sce na rios ; rather, he has
chose n to foc us o n those en d uring
fou ndations that have alw ays prep ar ed
th e churc h to exerci se its mission in the
face of new cha llenges.
The author argues convincing ly for
the pr iority of mission . Mission is no t only
Karotemprel
Tiessen
2000-2001 Senior Mission Scholars
OM SC welcomes into residence for the fall 2000 semes ter Senio r
Mi ssion Scholars Anne Marie Kool and Diana Witts. Dr. Kool , a gradu
ate of the University of Utrecht, Netherla nds, is Dir ector, Prote stant Insti
tute for Mission Stud ies, Budapest, Hun gary . She is a memb er of the board
and exec utive committee of the Eastern Euro pean Schoo ls of Th eology , a
memb er of the Theological Co mmission of the World Eva ngelical Fellow
ship, and a contributing editor of the International Bulletin ofMissionary
Research. Canon Diana Witts , a forme r missionary in East Afri ca with the
Churc h Mission Soc iety (C MS) and later reg ional secretary for West Af
rica, is the recentl y retired general sec retary of the CMS . In 1994 the Arc h
bishop of Canterbury awar ded her the Cross of St. Augustine in recogni
tion of her work with the Episcopal Churc h of Sudan .
In the spr ing semes ter of 200 1 OMSC's Seni or M ission Scho lars will
be Sebastian KarotempreI and Terrence L. Ti essen. The Rev. Dr.
Kar otemp rel , a memb er of the Sales ians of Don Bosco , is Professor of
Missiology, Pontifical Urban University, Rome. He is also president of Sa
cred Heart Theological College , Shillong, India , where he serves as Visiting
Professor. Fro m 1987 to 1998 he was executive secretary of the Federation
of the Asian Bishops' Co nfere nce Co mmiss ion for Eva ngelization . He is
the editor of Following Christ in Mission:A Foundational CourseinMissiology
( 1998) . Dr. Tiessen is Professor of Theo logy , Providence Seminary ,
Win nipeg, Manitoba . A for mer missionary in the Phil ippin es, he received
his Ph.D . from Loyola School of Th eology , Ateneo de Manil a University.
Fro m 1976 to 1979 and fro m 1981 to 1984 he was a memb er of the Area
Council of SEND International. He is the author of Irenaeus on the Salva
tion ofthe Unevangelized (1993), publi shed in the monograph seri es of the
American Theological Library Associa tion. In addition to providing leader
ship in OMS C' s Study Pro gram , the Senior Mission Scholars are avai lable
to OM SC resident s for counsel regarding their own mission resear ch inter
ests.
490 Prospect St., New Haven, CT 06511
Tel (203) 624 -6672
Fax (203) 865- 2857
study@ O MSC.org www.OMSC.org
88
prior to the church but also esse ntial to its
iden tity. She nk emp hasi zes that the scope
of th e Gos pe l embraces both w ord and
d eed . H is treatment of new reli giou s
movem ents, th e d epth of his histor ical
u nders tandi ng , and hi s se nsi tivity to
cultura l issues ar e amo ng the con sid erable
stre ng ths of the book.
Shenk's Menno nite heritage is evide nt
th rou gh out , parti cularly w hen he rem inds
th e rea der of the pervasiveness of the myth
of red em pt ive violence. He rightly affirms
that "the greates t integ rity and vita lity of
faith tod ay ap pears to be fou nd in those
churc hes th at hav e suffered and kn ow n
mart yrd om firsth and " (p. 190).
These essays are character ized by
car eful scho larship, thorough research,
and tight logic. The bibliography, while
ex tensive a nd found at ional , con tains
relatively few entries after 1991. The index
is selective .
-Kenneth B. Mu lho lland
Kenneth B.Mulhollandis ProfessorofMissionsand
Dean at Columbia Biblical Seminary and School of
Missions, Columbia, South Carolina. He and his
wife, A nn, served fifteen years as missionaries in
Central America.
Celestial Church of Christ: The
Politics of Cultural Identity in a
West African Prophetic
Charismatic Movement.
By Afeosemime U. Adogame.Frankfurt:Peter
Lang, 1999. Pp. ix, 251. Paperback DM79/
$49 .95.
Africa's tran sform at ion fro m a "miss ion
field" into a vigorous heartland of globa l
Christianity is due in large measure to the
explosive im pact of ind ige no us p rophet
healing and cha ris ma tic m ovem ents.
Vibra nt, im mensely popular, and roo ted
in the rich texture ofthe traditional culture,
suc h movem ent s and th e myriad churches
th ey have spa wne d have d ominat ed the
Africa n Ch ristian landscape for most of
th e twen tiet h century. By th e clos ing
d ecad es m an y h ad b egun to lo se
m omentum a nd m ember ship , having
fallen ou t of step w ith rap idl y evo lving
soc io po li tica l co n tex ts . Th e y a re
increasi ng ly
overs ha do wed
by
mod ernistic and mo re globa l-conscio us
Pen tecos tal! charisma tic movem ents.
The Celestial Churc h of Chr ist, an
Ala d ura-ty pe chu rch fou nd ed in 1947,
s tra d d les p a s t a n d p resen t b y
inco r po ra ti ng
m od ern iz in g
and
globa lizing eleme nts withou t sac rificing
its centra l prophet-healin g dimension .The
N ige ri an-born Afeose mime Adoga me
provides a comprehe nsive and perceptive
INT ERNA TIO NAL B ULLETIN OF M ISSIO N ARY R ESEARCH
treatment of the movem ent's eme rge nce,
struc ture, and impact. The book, origina lly
a 1998 d oct oral d issertat ion , re flec ts
subs tan tial research. The au thor focuses
for th e most part on tw o key areas: (1) th e
routin iz ati on of cha ris ma a nd o ther
com plex d ev elopments foll owing th e
demi se oft he movem en t's founder in 1985,
and (2) the com plex synthesis between the
ritual patt erns and belief sys tem of the
Celes tia l Churc h of Chris t and the Yoru ba
w orldview. The treatment of th e first
su ffers so mewha t from the au tho r's
attempt to w eave socia l theor y in to th e
hist orical dram a, but it unmasks vital
human as pec ts- the path os, conflic ts,
p e r so n al amb it io n , a n d so forth
in terwove n w ith over tly s uccessfu l
spiritua l en ter prise. In d ealin g with th e
seco nd key area , the intricate details of
Yoru ba cos mo logy are presented with
au tho rita tive clar ity, and th e sig nificant
extent to which the belief sys tem, ritual
observances , and liturgical struc tu res of
the Celestial Churc h of Ch ris t in N ige ria
are gro u nd ed in th e Yoruba sociore ligious
m ili eu is s uper b ly co nveyed . The
treatment of so me issues, like th e role of
wo me n and the typological confus ion that
con tinues to bed evil suc h stud ies, could
have been more critically d evelop ed .Such
points, however, d etract little fro m th is
va lua ble s tu dy o f one of th e m o s t
successf ul religiou s initi ati ves in West
Africa.
-Jehu J. Hanciles
Jehu J. Hanciles, a citizen of Sierra Leone, has lived
and taught in Zimbabweaswell as SierraLeone. He
is currently a research scholar with the Global
Research Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary,
Pasadena, California.
Th e survey fou nd 4,957 believ er s
(Jewi sh a nd n on-J e wi sh, includin g
children ) in Messian ic con gregat ion s and
house grou ps in Isra el. Of th is number,
2,178 are ad ult Jew ish believers in Jesu s.
The total of almos t 5,000 is divid ed am on g
81 congregations and indepe ndent hou se
grou ps (57 of which we re founded in th e
1990s, due largely to th e influx of Russ ian
and Ethio pian [Fala sh a] Jew s). In th e 1970
su rvey, only one indigen ou s messiani c
con gr egati on was men tion ed amo ng 43
p rofiles ofcong rega tions led by foreigne rs.
Besid es d em ogr aphics, profiles of each
cong rega tio n includ e data on th e group's
stateme nt of faith, its history and lead ers,
legal stat us, pr eferred lan gu ages, wo rshi p
style, views on wom en in ministr y, and
fina ncia l acco u ntability.
Several missiological issu es are raised
by this study: Can th e He brew-spea king
con greg ations be flexi ble eno ug h in
lan guage and wor sh ip style to we lcome
th e la r ge numbe rs of Ru ssi a n- a n d
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Mission in the Old Testament
Israel as a Light to the Nations
Walter C. Kaiser Jr.
A capable treatment demonstrating th at th e red em pt ive
dra ma began well before the Great Com miss ion. The author
briefly goes thro ugh the Old Testament canonically, high
light ing an d explaining Israel' s relatio nsh ip to the Gen tiles.
0-8010-2228-2 112 pages
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Planting Churches Cross-Culturally
Planting
hurch8S
GmSf:l
umily
North America and Beyond, 2d ed.
David J. Hesselgrave
In corporat ing relevant sociological, an thropological, a nd
hi stor ical insig hts , Hesselgrave ext rapo lates ten phases of
cross-cultura l church plan ting th at are faith fu l to Jesus '
commandmen t to m ake disciples an d to Paul's missionary
exa mp le.
0-8010-2222-3 352 pages
$24.99p
Cities
Missions ' New Frontier, 2d ed.
Roger S. Greenway and Timothy M. Monsma
Effective urban ministry requ ires that pastors, missionar
ies, and churc h leaders un derstan d m odern, socially com
plex centers of populati on , cu lture , an d political power.
This second editio n of Cities pr ovides necessary insig hts
int o m ore effective ur ban minis try.
0-8010-2230-4 288 pages
$19.99p
Facts and Myths About the
Messianic Congregations in Israel,
1998-1999.
By Ka i Kjaer-Hansen and Bodil F. Skj0tt.
Published by the United Christian Council in
Israel, in cooperation with the Caspari Center
for Biblical and Jewish Studies, 1999. Pp.319.
Paperback $25.
The Essence of the Church
A Community Created by the Spirit
Craig Van Gelder
This rep ort of a new survey of Jewish
believers in Jesu s in Israel conduc ted by
the au thors is the first such d efiniti ve
com pilation of facts since 1970, and as
such it is a sig nifica nt contribu tion to th e
wo rk of Jewi sh mission s. In th e face of
d isputed esti ma tes and lack of hard data
on congregatio na l struc tu res, Da nis h
scho lars Kjaer-Han sen and Skjatt se t ou t
to "give a rea listic pi cture of as man y of
th e cong regations and gro u ps in th e
cou ntry as possible" (p. 11).
April 2000
Encuurages read ers to reth ink th e nat ur e of the ch urc h.
Th e author ad dresses the challenges facing today's church
and urges rea ders to th ink deeply yet practically abou t
being governed by the Word and led by the Spir it.
0-8010-9096-2 256 pages
$18.99p
89
Celebrate the gift of Jesus' mission.
Reflect on current trends in mission .
Consider mission for the Church in the U.S.
Envision mission in the new millennium .
fiJI
MISSION CONGRESS
2000
Amharic-speaking believers into their
congregations? (This study documented
twenty Russian and six Amharic-speaking
congregations.) How will Israeli believers
self-identify in the face of the olim
(immigrants)? Will an indigenous
"messianic Judaism" emerge in Israel?
The study confirms that in Israel "the
gospel is proclaimed, that congregations
do exist, and Jewish people are coming to
faith" (p. 48).
It takes courage in a country not
friendly to evangelism (antimissionary
laws are pending in Israel) both to ask and
to answer questions for publication about
the congregational life of] ewish believers.
The book will undoubtedly meet with
opposition from some quarters. Such
opposition is outweighed by the
importance that it will have for future
studies of indigenous congregations of
Jewish believers in Israel and elsewhere.
-Theresa T. Newell
Theresa T. Newell, former director of Shoresh
Ministries (Church's Ministry Among the Jewish
People, USA), is North American Coordinator of
the LausanneConsultation on Jewish Evangelism,
and Travel-Study Director at Trinity Episcopal
School for Ministry, Ambridge, Pennsylvania.
The Mission of Christ in the
New Millennium
September 28 - October 1, 2000
Mission Congress 2000 will focus on the
way the Catholic Church experiences and
practices mission in the contemporary
world .
Internationally recognized speakers and
panelists will guide delegates as they
reflect on and discuss the following
elements of mission:
• Prayer, Spirituality and Liturgy
• Proclamation , Conversion and
Catechesis
• Social Transformation and Solidarity
• Dialogue with Other Religious
Traditions
• Mutual Exchange between Churches
Mission Congress 2000
3029 Fourth Street, NE
Washington , DC 20017
202-832-3112
uscma@uscatholicmission.erg.
www.uscatholicmission.org
Sponsored By :
• Catholic Network of Volunteer Service
• Conference of Major Superiors of Men
• Leadership Conference of Women Religious
• NCCB-Committee on World Mission/Soc. for
Prop. of the Faith and Holy Childhood Assn.
• United States Catholic Mission Association
THIS PUBLICATION
AVAILABLE FROM UMI
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Education and Transformation:
Marianist Ministries in America
Since 1849.
By Christopher J. Kauffman . New York:
Crossroad Publishing, 1999. Pp. xoii, 366.
$29.95.
The Society of Mary was founded in 1817
by William Joseph Chaminade (1761
1850) . Against the background of
postrevolution France and the French
school of spirituality, Chaminade
developed a network of faith communities
intended to reintegrate culture and religion
and to re-Christianize the country,
especially from among the laity (chap. 1).
The first Marianists in the United
States arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1849
to take charge of a parish boys' school.
Chapters 2-8 describe the growth of the
Marianist ministries, noting especially the
influence of major superiors or those in
charge of education. Throughout the book
Kauffman, who holds the Catholic
Daughters' Chair at Catholic University
of America and is editor of U.S. Catholic
Historian, places a major theme-the
growing fissure between "monasticizing"
religious life and their apostolate and the
ultimate transformation of the group-in
the context of American and US. Catholic
history. Chapter 9 depicts the last twenty
years of the society and unfolds the reasons
for some of the disorientation felt by many
U.S. Catholics after the Second Vatican
Council. An afterword by David Fleming
suggests the present and future
implications gleaned from Marianist
history. Appendixes list past and present
Marianist leadership and communities.
In the United States, the Society of
Mary was instrumental in the
establishment of several high schools and
colleges, the National Catholic Education
Association, and the development of the
Black Catholic Clergy Caucus. Marianists
sent personnel to Puerto Rico (1938), Latin
America (1939), and Africa (1957).
90
Of particular interest to mISSIOn
studies is chapter 6, which describes the
interaction of the pedagogical and sp iritual
principles of The Manual of Christian
Pedagogy for Use of the Brothers of Mary
(1899), later used by other teachers in the
United States, and several chapters that
examine Marianist responses to religious
pluralism and their interaction with ethnic
and racial issues.
-Angelyn Dries , OS.F.
Angelyn Dries, O.S.F., is Associate Professor and
Chair of the Religious Studies Department at
Cardinal StritchUniversity,Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Desecularization of the World:
Resurgent Religion and World
Politics.
Edited by Peter L. Berger, Grand Rapids,
Mich ,: Eerdmans, 1999 . Pp. viii , 135.
Paperback $17,
This book challenges the assumption that
the world is becoming secular, In the lead
article, Peter L. Berger refutes the
secularization theory that modernization
necessarily leads to a decline of religion.
After the editor's global overvi ew,
particular studies follow.
George Weigel writes that the Roman
Catholic Church, through its methods of
persuasion, "has reacquired a certain
critical distance from the worlds of power,
precisely in order to help hold those worlds
[of power] accountable to universal moral
INT ERN ATIONA L BU LLETIN OF MISSIO N ARY R ESEARC H
norms" (p. 32). Davi d Martin assigns th e
polit ical im plication s of the evangelical
up surge to its individualistic approach
and pragm ati sm . Jon athan Sack s, w ho
focuses more on Jewish id entity in the
co n tex t of p o stm od ernity a nd
secularizatio n, says th at "Jew s have been
living . . . in a condition of ambivalen ce
abou t them selves and trauma abo u t their
relation sh ip with the wo rld " (p. 63).
Whil e th e rest of th e w orld tends
toward d esecul arizati on, Eu rope see ms
to be the exce ption to th e rul e, says Gr ace
Dav ie, becau se Eu ro pea ns are less capable
of reme mbe ring religion as a collective
m em ory . In Co m m u n is t C h ina Tu
Weiming writes that "as China is well on
its way to becom ing an active memb er of
th e in terna tio na l society, th e political
sig nificance of religion will conti nue to be
obvious" (p . 100). In tod ay's mod ern world
Abd u lla hi A . a n-Nai m says that th e
principl e of pluralism and th e p rot ection
of basic human rig h ts, which is an Islamic
imperati ve, should be followe d .
From the above su mmary, we can see
th at not all th e contributors have fu lly
tar geted th e genera l aim of th e book. But
i t is cl ea r th at r eli g ions tod a y a re
influe n tial. Since religion s, like culture in
gene ra l, are d ynamic, they can assume
n ew fo rm s w ith m od ern iz ation .
Furthe rmo re, while the many external
religious trappings may have disappear ed
in the mod ern cities, religio ns as imman ent
rema in resu rgent.
-Leonardo N. Mercado, S.V.D.
Leonardo N . Mercado, S.VD .,formerlyamissionary
to PapuaNew Guinea, is Executive Secretaryof the
Episcopal Commissionfor Interreligious Dialogue,
Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines.
During a 1999 sabbatical leavehe was a research
fellow at the Yale Divinity School, New Haven,
Connecticut.
John Stott: The Making of a
Leader. A Biography: The Early
Years.
By Timothy Dudley-Smith. Downers Grove,
Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999. Pp. 513. $25 .
This is a goo d read! It is th e first vo lu me in
a pr ojected tw o-volume work by Timo thy
Dudley-Smith, d escribing his friend and
colleag ue , John Sto tt, now rector emeritus
of All Souls (Ang lican) Churc h, Lang ha m
Place, Lon do n.
The presen t vo lu me cove rs th e first
for ty years of Stott's life (1921- 60). It is
d etailed an d comprehe ns ive, written to
"su p ply material for jud gem ent , rather
than to p ron ounce judgeme n t" (p . 12). It
has 36 pages of notes and an index .
April 2000
The book sup plies ins ights int o Stott's
famil y background and struggles during
Wo rld War II. The influe nces on his life as
a stude nt in Rugb y Pu blic School and lat er
in Cambridge in the wa r yea rs were critical
in his spiritua l form ation . In his teen s, th e
thr ee emp hases of his life eme rge as his
person al w alk with Jesu s Christ, the Bible,
and th e drive to bring othe rs to share his
faith.
First as curate (1945) and th en rector
(1950) of All Souls Chur ch, in the heart of
London, we see him doing th e w ork of
p a stor , tea ch er, a n d eva ngelis t. He
mod eled new pa tterns of minist ry that
others follow ed. His visio n w as wider
than th e local churc h. As a un iversit y
mission er all ove r Britain and th en in man y
part s of th e world, he filled a rol e th at no
one had filled in th e stu de nt wo rld since
John R. Mo tt.
It is salu tary for those who now tak e
for gran ted the influen ce of eva nge lical
faith in th e Churc h of Eng lan d to read of
th e battl es th at had to be foug ht to secure
this p o si ti on. Nor was hi s v isio n
T
H E WORLDWI D E irnpacr of Christia nity is a d irec t result uf people who
. have played key roles in the missionary enterprise. T his unique reference
work do cuments the globa l histo ry of C hristian missions wit h biograp hica l
articles on the most out sta ndin g missionar ies fro m the past 2,000 yea rs.
Written by 350 experts from 45 cou ntries,
the Biographical Dictio:rary con tain s more than
2,400 original, signed biog ra phi es that por
tray leading missionary figures frum Rum an
Catholic, O rt hodox, Anglica n, P rot estant,
Pentecostal, independent, and indi gen ous
churches. Arranged in a co nveni ent A- Z
format, the articles provide biograp hical
information for each . missio nar y covered as
well as discussion of th eir wr itings, pu blic
achievements, and co nt ributions to conte rn
po rary mission issues.
"An outs tanding refe rence work . . .. Broadly conceived and well executed , it
makes a significa nt contribution to the stu dy of Christian mission and the
history of religion s."
- Religious Studies Review
"Here is a veri tab le treasure trove of mission s history. ... Every libr ary in the
Eng lish-spea king wo rld with a credible claim to uffering genera l facilities for
historical research ought to have this volum e. . . . It has set a new sta nda rd."
- t'Vfl1lgelical M issions Q!tarterly
91
Uve and Learn
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Study Center
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Fully furnished apartments
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Contributions by U.S. taxpayers are
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constricted to the boundaries of his own
denomination. Before his fortieth birthday,
he wa s beginning to be involved tirelessly
in wider initiatives at home and abroad.
The final chapter of the book is a
delightful description of the cottage in
Wales that became the haven to which he
resorted to give concentrated attention to
writing. His writing was to become one of
his major contributions to the lives of his
cont emporaries and generations to come .
What keeps one reading the book is
the "Who's Who" of personalities in the
evangelical Christian world that crossed
Stott's pa tho Also there are things we never
kn ew and are surprised to find out.
Timothy Dudley-Smith had many
difficult choices to make, as he says in his
foreword . He ha s made them well, and
those who read this book will look forward
to volume 2.
-Tom Houston
TomHouston,aScot now retired inOxford,England,
servedasapastor (1951- 71) inScotlandandNairobi,
Kenya. Between 1972 and 1994 he was the chief
executive officer of the British and Foreign Bible
Society, then of World Vision International, and
finally of the Lausanne Committee, which he also
served as minister at large (1 994- 98).
Discipling Nations: The Power of
Truth to Transform Cultures.
By Darrow L. Miller, with Stan Guthrie.
Seattle, Wash.:YWAM Publishing, 1998. Pp.
308. Paperback $14.95.
Darrow L. Miller, vice president of staff
development at Food for the Hungry
Int ernational, argues that poverty and
hunger are "the logical result of the way
people look at themselves and the world.
. . . Physical poverty is rooted in a culture
of poverty, a set of ideas held corporately
that produce certain behaviors, which in
turn yield poverty" (p.63). Poverty, Miller
argues, is most likely to be present in
settings where the biblical worldview is
absent.
In the Christian worldview God is
good and rational. Creation is orderly.
Work is sacred. Progress is po ssible.People
are agents.Wealth is created. Stewardship,
"a metaphor for development" (p.227), is
a core value. This world view is
foundational to physical well-being and
prosperity.
While written in an attractive and
inspirational style, and while I appreciate
the Weberian point that ideas matter, I
have substantive concerns. The author
blames poverty on the "poverty of mind"
(p.63) of those who are poor. Animistic
peoples prize ignorance (pp. 92, 113),
which explains African poverty (p. 113).
In fact, however, many animistic tribal
peoples have profound knowledge of their
physical world and may do well in terms
of nutrition and diet-until a larger world
impinges on them, expropriates their land,
and turns them into landless peasants at
the bottom of a new socioeconomic order.
Their knowledge related to prudential
matters concerning food and housing wa s
not problematic until others changed their
world. Many of the poorest people on
earth represent such subordinated
minority groups. In su ch cases , blaming
92
their "poverty of mind" is a way ofblaming
the victim.
The author argues that the area with
the least Christian presence (the so-called
10/40 Window) is also the area with the
most poverty (p. 61). He fails to note,
however, that this region also includes
so me of the richest nations on earth.
Whatever the variable separating these
rich and poor nations, it is not that of a
Christian worldview.
An adequate biblical response to
poverty requires a more balanced
understanding of complex and variable
factors contributing to poverty th an
anything presented in this book, which I
cannot recommend.
-Robert J. Priest
Robert J. Priest is Associate Professor of Mission
and Anthropology at Trinity EvangelicalDivinity
School, Deerfield, Illinois. The son of Wycliffe
missionaries,hegrewup with the Sirionoof Bolivia
andsubsequently conductedanthropologicalresearch
with another Amazonian minority group, the
Aguaruna of northern Peru.
The Reformed Church in Dutch
Brazil (1630-1654).
By Frans Leonard Schalkwifk. Zoetermeer,
Netherlands: Boekencentrum, 1998. Pp. xiv,
353. Paperback f 69.
The author, who served for years as a
missionary in Brazil, has done meticulous
research and given us a fine work on a
I NTERN ATIONAL B ULLETIN OF MISSION ARY R ESEARCH
littl e-kn own coloni al / mission ary venture
of the Dutch in northeast Brazi l. During
the Eighty Years ' War for indep enden ce
from Spain, th e Dut ch invade d Brazil, a
colony of Portugal th en under Spanish
d omination . Whil e it was cl earl y a
commercial ve nt u re, ther e was also strong
missionar y motivat ion .
The Reformed Church, tran splanted
to Brazil, se rved p rimaril y th e Du tch
colonis ts but also held services in English ,
French, and Span ish and soo n began w ork
amo ng the indigeno us population.Several
pa stors worked amo ng th em, learning the
Tu pi lan guage, orga nizi ng th ree churches.
Some in d igeno us "c om fo rt ers" (lay
pastors) we re ap po inted .
Education wasa priorit y, and schoo ls
were established for both sexes w he rever
there wer e children . Instruction w as give n
in Du tch and Tupi in th e indigen ous
villages, and severa l indigeno us teachers
w ere h ir ed. A modi fic ation of the
Heid elb er g Ca techism w as prepared and
publish ed in Dutch, Portugu ese, and Tu p i,
but con tro versy arose, and it was never
used . Ap pare n tly th is ea rly attem pt at
contextualizati on was unacceptable to th e
Dutch church.
The extent of religious liberty was
unique for the period. Rom an Ca tho lic
p riest s wer e allowe d to function if they
took an oa th of loyalt y to the go vernment.
Nearly 1,500 Jews w ho had fled from
Portugal to the Netherla nds no w came to
Recife and built th e first sy nagogues in
So u th Ame rica . A fte r th e Po rt u g ese
reco nques t, most Jews fled , ma ny to Ne w
Ams terd am (Ne w York). Tra gicall y, of
th ose who rem ain ed, 400 were condemned
to pri son , and at least 18 were executed .
This is a va lua ble work, espe cially for
th ose interest ed in Br azilian ch u rch
hist or y.
-Paul E. Pie rso n
recently th e d irector of the John Knox
Internati on al Reformed Cen ter in Gene va,
and Luka s Vis che r , w i th ex te ns ive
ex perie nce in th e World Co u nci l of
Church es an d p ro fessor emeritus of
ecu me nical th eology at the Eva nge lical
Reformed Theo logical Facu lty of Bern,
Sw itzerla nd, ha ve skillfu lly coo rdi na ted
an d edi te d th e contributions of 122
Reformed chu rch lead ers from aro u nd
the wo rld.
The publish er ' s infor ma tio n sheet
sta tes succ inctly th e nat ure of thi s work:
"The book includes a complete list of the
churches and institution s that toda y claim
for thems el v es th e h erit a g e of th e
Re for m a ti on a nd pro v id e s b a s ic
infor ma tio n on each of th em . All strea ms
of th e Reformed tradition-Reformed ,
Pr esb yt eri an, Co ngrega tio na l, Eva n
gelical, and Un ited -have been br ou ght
together; th e book incl u des 746 ch urches
and 529 theological schools. This refer en ce
work p resents a su pe rb overview of the
Reform ed family." What isn't sta ted her e
is that Luk as Vischer also contribu tes a
he list of suggested readings add
of the twenty-eight essays is the
,?ibliography of current viewpoi
missions that I have seen, and
enough to recommend the bo
st
, and anyone else wh
ians regard their glo
..
. -SAMUEL HUGH MOFF
Paul E. Pierson is Dean Emeritus and Senior
ProfessorofHistoryof M ission and Latin American
Studies in the School of World Mi ssion, Fuller
Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. He
servedasaPresbyterian missionaryin Brazil (1956
70) and Portugal (1971-73).
21st Centu
an Mission
DBY -
-
- - --
- - --
-------'"
ES M. PHILLIPS • ROBERT T. COOTE •
The Reformed Family Worldwide:
A Survey of Reformed Churches,
Theological Schools, and
International Organizations.
ISBN 0-8028-0638-4
Paper, $24.99
Compiledandeditedby Jean-Jacques Bauswein
and Lukas Vischer. Grand Rapids, M ich.:
Eerdmans, 1999. Pp.xiii, 740.Paperback $35.
This is a supe rb vo lume th at mor e th an
fu lfills its promise as ind ica ted in th e
su b title . Jean-Jacques Bausw ein, most
Apri l 2000
93
·f
splendi d thirty-three-page introductory
essay en titled "The Reformed Tradition
and Its Multiple Facets ."
In ad d ition to statistics on each of the
Reformed churc hes and schools, larger
ar eas have bri ef historical ske tches of the
formati on and d evelopment of Reformed /
Presb yteri an churc hes in th e countries
involved . He nce thi s is more than sim ply
a book of sta tistics, valuable as the y ar e.
Rep re sentati ve s o f p articular
d en omination s may feel the writer has not
d on e justice to th eir chu rch, but th e bri ef
hist orical sketc hes for each denomination
ap pea r to be accura te and objective. On e
could qu estion some of the judgments,
howev er, in th e category "The ologic al
Schools wit h Reformed Teaching." For
exam ple, how much di stinctly "Reform ed
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l. John Hessellink was a missionaryofthe Reformed
Church in America to Japan (1953-73), where he
served as professor of historical theology, Tokyo
Union Seminary (1961-73). He was president
(1973- 85) and professor of systematic theology
(1986-98), WesternTheologicalSeminarq.Holland,
Michigan, and is now Professor of Theology
Emeritus.
An Ecumenical Theology of the
Heart: The Theology of Count
Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf.
By Arthur]. Freeman. Bethlehem, Pa.: The
Moravian Church in A merica, 1998. Pp. vi,
346 . $36; paperback $24.
A DDRESS .
PHONE ( .
tea chin g " t akes plac e at Chicago
Th eol o gi cal Semin ar y or Trinity
Evangelical Divinity Scho ol? But this is a
m ino r quibble. This volume is a
ma gnificent resource that will be of interest
not only to libr ari es, church executives,
and hist orian s but to anyone interested in
th e Reformed tradition.
- 1. John Hesselink
•
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I
Nic ho las Lud wig, Count vo n Zin zend or f,
was a pivotal figure in the development of
Christianity in Europe and N orth Am erica
in th e eig h tee n th century . Offerin g
sa nctuary on his estate at Berthelsd or f to a
r emn ant
of
M oravians
fr om
Czechoslova kia, Zinzendorf soon found
himself drawn into a leadersh ip rol e for a
community of Christians whose pa ssion
for world mission ha s inspired countless
othe rs, mo st not ably William Car ey. Th eir
commu nity, Herrnhut, becam e a center
for r en ewal, pra y er, in te rcessio n ,
hymnod y, and eva ngelism, as well as a
mod el for Christian com mu nity .
Arthur Free ma n, r etired New
Test am ent profe ssor a t M ora v ian
Theological Seminary and a bish op of the
Mo ravian Church, has been a stude nt of
Zinze nd orf for many yea rs. Thi s book is
th e fruit of his research and reflection.
Little o f Z inz e n do rf's cr eati ve
approach to th eology has been av ailabl e
to th e Engli sh-sp eaking world. George
For ell' s engag ing translat ion of N ine
Lectures on Important Subjects in Religion
(1973)standsou tasa unique contribu tio n.
Drawing from many sou rces, Free ma n
has now added a grea t d eal of orig inal
Zinz endo rf material. Tha t it has tak en so
lon g for a Moravian to do so perhaps
ind icates th e ambig uity of Mor av ian
sen time nts abo u t th e m an For ell called the
"noble Jesu s freak. "
Writing with an eye to con tempo ra ry
issu es in th eology, ecu me nical as well as
di stinctly Mor avian , Free ma n see ks to
94
br ing the treasures of Zinzendorf's unique
C hristo logy into current di scussions.
The re is a fair amou nt of Freeman' s ow n
theology here, and it is not always clear
whether Free ma n is speaking for himself
or for Zin zendor f. Freeman is at his best in
pl acing Zin zendorf within th e context of
his tim e. His pr esentation of Zin zendorf
engag ing the issu es of th e Enlightenment,
espec ially the emerg ing field of bibl ical
criticism , is helpful.
Zinze ndorf's important contribution
to ecumenism is addressed, but his semina l
missiology ge ts scant attention, a curiou s
omission cons id ering the fin gerprints that
Zinzendorf left on H errnhut's mission
effor ts ove r a period of nearl y thirty year s.
The fo o t n o tes ar e co p io us an d
d etailed. Future Zinzendorf researchers
w ill a p p re cia te Freeman' s exte ns ive
bibli ogr aphy and the listing of Zin zendorf
writings.
-Hampton Morgan , Jr.
Hampton Morgan, [r ., is Executive Director of the
Board of World Mission of the Moravian Church.
He served as pastor of New Herrnhut Moravian
Church in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and of
Macedonia Moravian Church in Advance, North
Carolina,beforeappointment tohis present position
in 1995.
I NTERNATION AL B ULLETIN OF M ISSIO N ARY R ESEARCH
ulhat a C;reat Idea!
Live and Study at OMSC, fall 2000
Martha Lund Smalley
Sept. 11-15, 2000
How to Develop Church and Mission Archives. Yale
Divinity Sch ool Research Services Librarian helps mis
siona ries and church leaders identify, organize, and pre
serve essential records, with int roduction to computer and
int ern et skills. Eight session s. $95
David Pollock & Janet Blomberg
Sept. 18-22
Nurturing and Educating Transcultural Kids. Special
ists in MK counseling and educa tion help you help your
children meet the ch allen ges of third-culture kids. Co
sponsored by Wycliffe Bible Translators. Eight sessions. $95
Donald Jacobs & Douglas McConnell
Sept. 25- 29
Servant Leadership for Today' s
Mission. Directors of th e Men
nonite Leadership Foundation
and Pioneers team up at O MSC
to apply foundation al principles
McConnell
Jacobs
in light of th e int ern ation aliza
tion of th e Christian mission. Cosponso red by Christ for
th e City Int ern ation al. Eigh t sessions. $95
Oct. 3-6
Gerald H. Anderson
Christian Mission in the New Millennium.
The newly retired director of OM SC explores
major issues facing th e mission ary commu
nit y, including holistic witn ess, uniquen ess
of Jesus Christ, and th e place of interreligious dialogue.
Cosponsored by Latin America Mission, LCM S W orld
Mission, Mennonite Board of Missions , and Mennonite
Ce ntral Co mmittee. Four morning sessions. $75
Anne Marie Kool
Oct. 9- 13
Mission in Central and Eastern Europe: A Biblical Model
for the Twenty-first Century. O MSC's Senior Mission
Scho lar and Dire ctor of the Protestant Institute for Mis
sion Studies, Budapest, focu ses on mission histor y and
prospect s in Hungary and its neighbors. Cosponsored by
Marykn oll Mission Institute and RCA Mission Services.
Eight sessions. $95
Jean-Paul Wiest
O ct. 30-Nov. 3
Doing Oral History: Helping Christians Tell Their Own
Story. The director of the Maryknoll history project teaches
skills and techniques for documenting church and mis
sion history. Eight sessions. $95
"EMEU" Conference
Nov. 2-4
Spiritual Riches of Middle Eastern Christianity. Annual
conference of Evan gelicals for Middl e East Understand ing, First Presbyterian Ch urch, Evanston , Ill.Cosponsored
by O MSC. $60. Further information : www.EMEU.org; e
mail: sklavin@ northpark.edu, or call 773-244- 5786.
Peter Kuzmic
Nov. 6-10
Mission in the Ethnic and Religious Mo
saic of Eastern Europe. Dr. Kuzmic, Evan
gelical Seminary, Osijek, Croa tia, helps Prot
estant missionaries bring authenticity and sen
sitivity to their evangelical witn ess. Cosponsored by East
ern Mennonite Missions, and Int erV arsity Mission s/Ur
ban a 2000. Eight sessions. $95
DianaK. Witts
Nov. 14-17
"As the Father Has Sent Me." A biblical
study by OM SC's Senior Mission Scholar and
newly retired general secretary of the Church
Mission Society targets practical issues in mis
sion. Four sessions. $75
Scott Moreau
Nov. 27-Dec. 1
Advancing Mission on the Information Superhighway.
Wheaton College's professor of mission s shows how to
get th e most out of th e worldwid e web for mission re
search. Cosponsored by th e Billy Gra ha m Ce nte r and
Mission Aviation Fellowship. Eight sessions. $95
Dec. 4-8
J. Dudley Woodberry
Islam and Christianity in Dynamic Encoun
ter. Fuller Sch ool of W orld Mission 's profes
sor of Islamic Studies lays the groundwork
for constructive Christian witness in Muslim
communities. Cosponsored by Christian Reformed W orld
Andrew F. Walls
O ct. 23-27
Mission s, O C Intern ati on al, a nd Southern Baptist
Christian Missions: Agents of Social Trans
W oman's Mission ary Union . Eight sessions. $95
formation. Prof. W alls, Edinburgh Uni ver
sity, demon strates the impact of mission s on
the social and moral fabric of modern societ
490 Prospect Sr., New Haven, CT 06511
ies. Cosponsored by Americ an Baptist Int ern ation al Min
(203) 624-6672 study @OMSC.org
istries . Eigh t sessions. $95
www.OMSC.org
Book Notes
Anderson,Allan H., and Walter J. Hollenweger, eds.
Pentecostals After a Century: Global Perspectives on a Movement in Transition.
Sheffield, U.K.: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999. Pp. 226. Paperback £15.95/$21.95.
In Coming
Issues
Berthrong, John H.
The Divine Deli: Religious Identity in the North American Cultural Mosaic.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1999. Pp. xxvi, 163. Paperback $16.
The Ecumenical Missionary
Conference, New York City, 1900
Thomas A. Askew
Brown,Michael L.
Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus.
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1999. Pp. xxvii, 270. Paperback $15.99.
Developments in Mission Studies
Jan A. B. Jongeneel
Cobb, John B., Jr.
Transforming Christianity and the World: A Way Beyond Absolutism and
Relativism.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1999. Pp. 189. Paperback $25.
Evangelicalism, Islam, and
Millennial Expectations in the
Nineteenth Century
Andrew Porter
Durchholz, Patricia.
Defining Mission: Comboni Missionaries in North America.
Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press of America, 1999. Pp. xiii, 353. $33.
Kenneth Cragg in Perspective: A
Comparison with Temple Gairdner
and Wilfred Cantwell Smith
James A. Tebbe
Greenlee, James G., and Charles M. Johnston.
Good Citizens: British Missionaries and Imperial States, 1870-1918.
Montreal and Kingston, Ont.: McGill-Queen's Univ. Press, 1999. Pp. xxi, 274. $49.95.
Evangelization, Proselytism and
Common Witness: Roman Catholic
Pentecostal Dialogue on Mission
Greenway, Roger S.
Go and Make Disciples: An Introduction to Christian Missions.
Phillipsburg,N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 1999. Pp.ix, 190.Paperback $9.99.
Veli-Matti Kiinkkiiinen
(1990-1997)
Henry, Helga Bender.
Cameroon on a Clear Day: A Pioneer Missionary in Colonial Africa.
Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 1999. Pp. xi, 194. Paperback $12.95.
Kirk,J. Andrew, and Kevin J. Vanoozer, eds.
To Stake a Claim: Mission and the Western Crisis of Knowledge.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1999. Pp. xvii, 254. Paperback $30.
Li, Li.
Mission in Suzhou: Sophie Lanneau and Wei Ling Girl's Academy, 1907-1950.
New Orleans, La.: Univ. Press of the South, 1999. Pp. xiv, 139. Paperback $49.95.
Montgomery, Robert L.
Introduction to the Sociology of Missions.
Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999. Pp. xxi, 183. $57.95.
Thorne, Susan.
Congregational Missions and the Making of an Imperial Culture in Nineteenth Century England.
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1999. Pp. ix, 247. $49.50.
Witte, John, [r., and Richard C. Martin, eds.
Sharing the Book: Religious Perspectives on the Rights and Wrongs of Proselytism.
Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1999. Pp. xviii, 423. Paperback $25.
What's Behind the 10/40 Window?
A Historical Perspective
Robert T. Coote
In our Series on the Legacy of
Outstanding Missionary Figures of
the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries, articles about
Norman Anderson
Thomas Barclay
Rowland V. Bingham
Helene de Chappotin
Orlando Costas
Francois E. Daubanton
G. Sherwood Eddy
James Gilmour
Karl Giitzlaff
Robert Reid Kalley
Hannah Kilham
George Leslie Mackay
William Milne
Lesslie Newbigin
Constance E. Padwick
Julius Richter
Elizabeth Russell
Johannes Schutte, S.V.D.
William Shellabear
James Stephen
Bengt Sundkler
William Cameron Townsend

FULL ISSUE (48 pp., 2.5 MB PDF)

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