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408 Paul M. Miller the Protestant Missionary Movement That Found Its 408 Book Reviews Paul M. Miller Evangelical Mission in Co-operation with Catholics: A Study of Evangelical Missiological Tensions, Eugene or: Wipf and Stock 2013. 291 p., isbn 978-1-62564-131, price US$ 49.60 The Protestant missionary movement that found its origin in the great revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries has always been known for its evangelistic zeal and its pragmatic ethos. Perhaps less known is its persistently anti-Catholic rhetoric. By and large, the Roman Catholic Church was seen as baptized pagan- ism, a structure rife with superstition and power abuse, even if most Protestants would admit that true Christians could be found within the Church of Rome. This anti-Catholicism was a characteristic of all Protestant mission societies, resulting in the establishment of Protestant missions in most Catholic nations of Europe, beginning with the last decades of the 18th century. In an age of ecumenism this traditional antagonism has calmed down con- siderably, at least in official discourse. Mutual understanding has grown in many doctrinal issues. From a Protestant perspective it can also be acknowl- edged that Roman Catholicism has changed after Vatican ii, for example in its recognition on the importance of the Bible, the need for personal conver- sion, and the pivotal character of evangelization. However, particularly in Evangelical circles classic anti-Catholic rhetoric has remained very much alive. As Evangelicalism is a major contributor to mission and evangelism all over the world, this is a serious matter and worth investigating. Paul Miller takes up this task in a very readable and interesting study. As an evangelical missionary in Europe who was converted from nominal Catholicism to Evangelicalism in his early years, he has a personal interest in this subject. The main body of his book (Chapters 3 and 4) consists of an extended case study of two Evangelical missionaries in Catholic Europe: Bruce Clewett in Austria and David Bjork in France. Both began their careers as fairly standard evangelicals with fairly standard opinions about ‘Rome’ and ‘popery’, but they adapted their views while working in a Roman Catholic context to the extent of working together with Catholics in evangelism. Real-life encounters with Catholics, including high-ranking Catholic clergy, contributed strongly to this paradigm shift. Through these contacts both missionaries were encouraged to study Roman Catholic doctrine directly (rather than through polemical distor- tions), but they also found that leading figures in the Roman Catholic Church were very welcoming towards their contributions, and recommended them to local clergy as counsellors and trainers of evangelism. Clewett and Bjork arrived at the view that the evangelization of ancient Catholic nations should © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi �0.��63/�57�543X-��34�4�9 Book Reviews 409 be done as much as possible through co-operation with Catholics, while con- verts should be encouraged to stay within the Church. On the other hand, both remained self-defining evangelicals with a long list of objections against Roman Catholic church practice and doctrine. This tension between a strong evangelical identity and the realities of mission in a Catholic context is explored by Miller, first by interviewing four leading European theologians with a stake in Catholic-Evangelical dialogue (Chapter 5): Peter Hocken (Catholic), Henri Blocher, David Hilborn, and Timothy George (all Evangelicals). As could be expected, their responses are diverse, but given the difficult history of Evangelicalism’s relationship with Catholicism it is striking that the reactions are not altogether negative. French systematic theologian Henri Blocher may be representing the opinion of Protestant minority churches in Europe here, in that he neither wants to con- demn Clewett’s and Bjork’s approach nor to applaud it. He admits that the mis- sional context may require such an approach even though he cannot embrace it himself. Miller continues his analysis by exploring an influential document of the World Evangelical Alliance, adopted by its Singapore meeting in 1986: An Evangelical Perspective on Catholicism. This document rejects co-operation with Catholics on the grounds of doctrinal differences that are considered too large to be overcome without a thorough reformation of the Roman Catholic Church. In Chapters 6 to 8 Miller discusses the three main objections against cooperation mentioned in this document. He argues that the document does not seem to take into account the changes that have been applied in Roman Catholic practice and theology since Trent. Also, he emphasizes how the docu- ment is determined by a strong systematic-theological approach, which leads to a discussion of theological issues abstracted from concrete practices. Miller admits, however, that some differences mentioned by the document still stand, among which the most important may be the difference between imputed and infused righteousness in soteriology. He holds that this difference, even though it is not futile, should not be used to frustrate cooperation in evangelism. After all, evangelicals have always been quite pragmatic in this area, emphasizing that it is crucial that people are saved by grace alone, regardless of their precise doctrinal definitions of how this has happened. Miller concludes in Chapter 9 that, in order to make a fair assessment of the possibilities of cooperation between Evangelicals and Catholics, it is important to pay attention to missiology. Too often the differences between both forms of Christianity have been approached exclusively from a theological viewpoint, at the expense of missional praxis. He argues that it is in the best traditions of Exchange 45 (�0�6) 399-4��.
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