Book Reviews
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Book Reviews Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture. 2d ed., revised and expanded. By Lamin Sanneh. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2008. Pp. xiii, 318. Paperback $30. Lamin Sanneh, pioneer of the new social life, creeds and doctrines, institu- the sole preserve or vehicle of sacred historiography of world Christianity, tionsandideals,languagesandliteratures, utterance.Rather,God’sSpiritcouldmove has prepared an improved and updated and qualities and forms of artistic expres- intoandindwellanylanguageandthereby versionofhis widely acclaimed classic, sion. Variations in idiom brought further transformtheheartsandmindswithinany whichoriginally appeared in 1989. Into localized forms of Gospel embodiment, as culture. Pentecost reversed Babel. Thus this magisterialwork he has inserted a Gospel truths were themselves translated from within each language and culture, remarkably astute and insightful new and reincarnated within new languages. new features could be grafted into new chapter on the “Authorized (‘King James’) Christianity never was, and certainly is and emerging forms of Christianity. Bible,” probing both its origin and its wide- not, more inherently European (Western) Apithy summary of Sanneh’s con- ranging impact upon world Christianity; than it is Asian (Eastern) or African clusions can be found in his most recent and he has placed expanded and updated (Southern). The origins of Christian faith, work, as explained in Sanneh’s Disciples chapter bibliographies at the end, with after all, lay neither in Europe nor in Asia of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity revamped appendixes. Between these two or Africa, but in the Middle East. Thus, (2008): “Christianity’s engagement with publicationslietwentyyearsofcontinuously while Christianity was eventually heavily the languages and cultures of the world deepening reflection and fresh research. colored by cultural elements native to has God at the center of the universe Christian faith, initially Jewish, Europe (the Celtic, Latin, Nordic, Slavic, of cultures, implying equality among quickly became cross-cultural and etc.),similarcoloringsofChristianityhave culturesandthenecessarilyrelativestatus pluralistic. On the Day of Pentecost, each occurred within various African, Indian, of cultures vis-à-vis the truth of God. No listener heardrustic Galilean apostles Chinese, and Japanese contexts. cultureissoadvancedandsosuperiorthat speak “in his own native tongue” (Acts Twoessentials stand out in stark it can claim exclusive access or advantage 2:6). Each, having come from some far contrast to Islam. First, true Christianity to the truth of God, and none so marginal corner of the world, understood what broughtabouttheabolitionofterritoriality and remote that it can be excluded. All was said within idioms of a distinct and asarequirementoffaith.TheJewishtemple have merit; none is indispensable. The different culture, if not out of a unique ceased to exist; God’s indwelling Spirit ethicalmonotheismChristianityinherited primal religion. resided within each true believer. This from Judaism accords value to culture but Deep interpenetrations of Christian new temple within each person became rejectsculturalidolatry,whichmakesBible faith,beginningwithintheHellenisticand mobile, personal, and nonterritorial. The translation more than a simple exercise of Greco-Roman world, were followed by promised land was no longer a fixed place literalism. In any language, the Bible is not encounters—to the east, with cultures of onearth.Butitcouldalsoceasedwellingin literal; its message affirms all languages to Mesopotamia,Armenia,Persia,India,and anyparticularplaceifnobelieverremained be worthy, though not exclusive, of divine China; to the west, with Celtic, Germanic, there. Second, the essential translatability communication” (p. 25). andSlaviccultures;andtothesouth,within ofChristianfaith,everexpandingintonew —Robert Eric Frykenberg Ethiopian culture. Each posed a unique environments, always faced challenges. challenge, and each resulted in a further Ever aminority within non-Christian Robert Eric Frykenberg is Professor Emeritus of metamorphosis of the Gospel itself. Each societies, the faith could not long remain History and South Asian Studies at the University later expansion of the Gospel brought enshrined, encapsulated, idolized, or of Wisconsin–Madison. His recent publications unexpectedandunforeseeablemutations, imprisoned within any single language. include Christianity in India: From Beginnings with distinctive ceremonials and styles of Nor could any single language remain to the Present (Oxford, 2008). Opening China: Karl F. A. Gützlaff translated the New Testament into Thai and Sino-Western Relations, beforesevering connections with his 1827–1852. supporting agency in order to work in China. He convinced the Basel and Rhen- By Jessie Gregory Lutz. Grand Rapids: ish Missions to expand work in China, Eerdmans, 2008. Pp. xix, 364. Paperback resultingintheconversionofmanyHakka $45. people. His English wife taught Yung Wing, who later became the first Chinese Among missionaries to China, probably history at Rutgers University, has done an graduate of an American university. noneismoremalignedandmisunderstood admirablejobofsortingoutthestoriesand Needing to support his work, Gütz- than Karl F. A. Gützlaff. Afrequently defining Gützlaff’s place in history. laff took employment with Westerners heard story portrays Gützlaff trading opi- Gützlaff, born in Pomerania, was trading along the coast, and he prosely- um from one side of a coastal boat and an outsider most of his life. He lacked a tized whenever he could. Gützlaff wore handing out Bibles from the other. In this conversionexperienceuntildoingmission Chinese clothing, a practice that Hudson book, Jessie Lutz, professor emeritus of studies. Working in Siam and Java, he Taylor later adopted for the China Inland 42 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 33, No. 1 Mission. With Chinese assistants he trans- indigenous missionaries to their own to the kaleidoscopic manifestations of lated the Bible into classical Chinese and peoples.Westernexplorersandcolonialists African, Asian, and Latin American circulated thousands of copies (including oftendidnotunderstandthenativecultures Christianity.Iwholeheartedlyrecommend toTaipingleaderHongXiuquan).Gützlaff and indigenous religious traditions. Their this indispensable sourcebook to every started the Chinese Union, using native principles of “god and gold” hindered serious student of world Christianity, workers to distribute Bibles and tracts, them from seeking the welfareofthe missiology, and all non-Western studies. but many of his employees cheated him, non-Western peoples. Missionaries, in —Daniel Jeyaraj collecting pay without making their itin- contrast, empowered the local peoples— erating trips. Gützlaff baptized Chinese through Bible translations, education, Daniel Jeyaraj, a contributing editor, is Professor converts without asking too many ques- medical work, and other occupational of World Christianity and Director of the Andrew tions, assuming that in time they would training—to develop all aspects of their Walls Centre for the Study of African and Asian cometounderstandtheirreligion.Mission human potential. Christianity at Liverpool Hope University, Liver- boards soon demanded to know why This book bearsauthentic witness pool, U.K. Gützlaffhad so many converts, while their own missionaries had so few. While Gützlaff was in Europe, colleagues who had been sent to assist him challenged the work of the Chinese Union, resulting in its collapse. Lutz has done much to give FOUNDATIONSfor MISSIOLOGY Gützlafftheplacehedeservesinthehistory of Christian missions in China. —Kathleen L. Lodwick Kathleen L. Lodwick, Professor of History at the Lehigh Valley Campus of Pennsylvania State University, has written widely on Chinese mission history, including with Wah Cheng, The MissionaryKaleidoscope:PortraitsofSixChina Missionaries (East Bridge, 2004). A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450– 1990: A Documentary Sourcebook. Edited by Klaus Koschorke, Frieder Ludwig, and Mariano Delgado, in cooperation with Roland Spliesgart. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. Pp. xxxiii, 426. Paperback $35. paul themissionary More Christians now live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America than anywhere else Realities, Strategies andMethods in the world. The demographic shift that EckhardJ.Schnabel broughtthisabouthasacomplexhistorical background with a rich body of literature, Eckhard Schnabel draws on his authoritative Early but students of world Christianity and Christian Mission to provide amanageable study for mission studies have not had ready access students of Christian mission today.Schnabel focuses on to the original source materials. Professor Klaus Koschorke and his team have the realities and methods of Paul’s missionary work and accomplishedtheseeminglyimpossiblein applies them to Christian mission today. providing us with a mini-encyclopedia on the decisive turning points in the history “Invaluable to all serious students of Scriptureand in particu- of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin lar to all missionary practitioners.” America from 1450 to 1990. The first —Andreas J. Köstenberger, editor of Journal of the German edition was so successful that it Evangelical Theological Society has now been translated into English, and a Spanish edition is also planned. This English edition arranges the source materials according to continents andchronology.Itiseasytoconsult,andits