Book Reviews
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Book Reviews The Witness of the Student Christian Movement: Church Ahead of the Church. By Robin Boyd. London: SPCK, 2007. Pp. xii, 212. Paperback £14.99. It has been almost a decade since Risto M. M. Thomas, Lesslie Newbigin, and, of Evangelical Students (IFES), founded Lehtonen published Story of a Storm: The particularly for their biblical emphases, in 1947. There is an unfortunate personal Ecumenical Movement in the Turmoil of Suzanne de Diétrich and Hans Ruedi reference to one of its leaders (p. 41), and a Revolution (Eerdmans, 1998). Now Robin Weber. But there are also individuals caricature of evangelicals (p. 172) as being Boyd, whose career with the Student who bear responsibility for the collapse slow to accept women as equal partners Christian Movement (SCM) goes back of SCM during “the storm,” especially in ministry. Actually, IFES was a pioneer to 1951 (part of the “golden years” of Ambrose Reeves, general secretary from among evangelicals in placing women in SCM), when he was appointed secretary 1962 to 1965. That was the point when, significant leadership roles. Boyd deplores of its theological college department, has Boyd asserts, SCM sowed the seeds evangelical separatism but, in providing a provided us with his own analysis of the of its own destruction by becoming a hitherto unchronicled story of the defection rise, fall, and (possibly) rebirth of that single-issue society (political and social of the Edinburgh Christian Union in 1952–54 ecumenical student ministry. His own roots justice) and establishing a policy of open (pp. 86–89), shows how necessary it was for in the progress of global Christianity go membership. In chapter 9 he analyzes the the IFES’s own integrity. Hopefully, as the back to 1899, when his father, then a student question, “Why did the SCM collapse in celebration of the centennial of Edinburgh at Queen’s Belfast, signed onto the Student ‘the Storm’?” He sees the failure of the 1910 approaches, there will be many other Volunteer Movement as a missionary movement as being due to detachment similarly helpful retrospectives. recruit, serving in India and then as home from the wider Christian community, an —A. Donald MacLeod convener of the foreign missions of the interesting development for “the church Irish Presbyterian Church. ahead of the church.” A. Donald MacLeod, Research Professor of Church The story Boyd tells is thus a personal Throughout the book Boyd is aware History at Tyndale Theological Seminary, Toronto, is one at the end of a long life of service that evangelical student ministry has the author of C. Stacey Woods and the Evangelical in India, Australia, and Ireland. There experienced explosive growth with the Rediscovery of the University (InterVarsity are heroes in this book, among them expansion of the International Fellowship Press, 2007). The Copts and the West, 1439–1822: highlighting major developments in the The European Discovery of the interaction between the Copts and the Egyptian Church. West during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the appearance of By Alastair Hamilton. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Coptic Protestant communities. Press, 2006. Pp. xvi, 344. £85. —Stephen J. Davis Alastair Hamilton’s book The Copts and Florence in 1439 and ending with the Stephen J. Davis, Associate Professor of Religious the West, 1439–1822 is a masterful and establishment of the Coptic Catholic Studies at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, highly engaging history of the relationship Church in the eighteenth century. Part specializes in the history of Christianity in late between missions and scholarship in the 3 covers this same period, but with a antiquity. early modern period. Based on extensive different goal in mind—to trace the role research into manuscript collections and of Western European missionaries and early printed volumes, and grounded in scholars (both Catholic and Protestant) linguistic expertise that includes Coptic, in the acquisition of knowledge about the Arabic, Greek, Latin, and a wide range of Copts. For those interested in a fascinating European languages, Hamilton’s work account of how various mission objectives, Religion in Latin America: should become a standard reference in theological disagreements, linguistic A Documentary History. the field. factors, institutional politics, cultural Divided into four parts, the book prejudices, and personal idiosyncrasies Edited by Lee M. Penyak and Walter J. Petry. begins with a survey of Egyptian church contributed to missteps and advances Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2006. Pp xxiv, history from late antiquity to the Islamic in intercultural encounter, parts 2 and 3 423. Paperback $40. period, ending with a discussion of Coptic are highly recommended reading. Part education, belief, and customs under 4, an often quite technical treatment of The authors have compiled a wide- Ottoman rule. Parts 2, 3, and 4 are more Western progress in the study of the Coptic ranging array of views of religion in Latin substantive and represent the author’s language, will be of greater interest to America. The result is one of the first an- main body of original research. linguists, manuscript experts, and biblical thologies to offer a long overdue perspec- Part 2 focuses primarily on the scholars. For students of mission, however, tive on the diversity of religions, not all history of Roman Catholic missions in Hamilton’s epilogue helpfully brings his of them Christian. This marks a major Egypt, beginning with the Council of historical account into the modern period, advance from focusing on the region as July 2007 153 STUDY WITH Catholic, with some Protestant groups standing how the Catholic Church came present, or as a great Pentecostal challenge to be what it is today. The documents of to Catholicism. the Medellín (1968) and Puebla (1979) THE BEST! The main strength of the book is that General Conferences of the Latin American it conveys a sense of religion as a lived Bishops Conference (CELAM) are water- experience. This is especially evident shed events, but their conclusions find no in the colonial and national periods, place in the volume, despite their influence SENIOR MISSION SCHOLARS which are crucial for understanding the on other regions. The statements by Central central place of religion. The selection of American bishops (1984) about no outside Senior Mission Scholars in documents is much less satisfactory for the intervention in the region and the letter Residence at OMSC provide contemporary period (say, from 1950) and from Pope John Paul to the Brazilian leadership in the study program gives little sense of the current vitality of bishops (1986) about liberation theology and are available to residents the Catholic Church or of the diversity of are among missing documents. In a word, for counsel regarding their own its Pentecostal challengers, which in- documents from bishops are still impor- mission research interests. cludes Bishop Edir Machedo’s Universal tant influences for many Catholics and Church of the Reign of God, now present need to be remembered. also in the United States. —Edward L. Cleary, O.P. Fall 2007 This volume suffers from the omission of some essentials. A book purporting to Edward L. Cleary, O.P., is Professor of Political DR. KIRKLEY SANDS be a documentary history ought to include Science and Director of Latin American Studies at An Anglican pastor and educator documents that are fundamental for under- Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island. for more than thirty-five years, Kirkley Sands is a priest and canon in the Diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Since ordination in Globalizing Theology: Belief 1968 he has and Practice in an Era of World ministered both Christianity. in the Bahamas and in London Edited by Craig Ott and Harold A. Netland. and Edinburgh. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006. Pp. 384. H e i s c h a i r Paperback $27.99. of the School of Social Sciences and assistant This edited volume is a Festschrift for American theology. Craig Ott’s conclusion professor in the Department of evangelical missiologist Paul G. Hiebert urges a global dialogue of local theologies Religion and Theology at the and follows up the important addition he as the way forward for evangelical College of the Bahamas. made to the three “selfs” of mission theory. theology—although the limitation of Hiebert argued that new churches should this dialogue to evangelical Christians be not only self-governing, self-supporting, seems rather unnecessary after such DR. FRANK NOLAN, M.AFR. and self-propagating but also self- stimulating articles that interact widely, Frank Nolan, M.Afr., ordained in theologizing. But what are the implications and after Charles Van Engen’s reminder May 1958 as a Catholic priest by for Christian belief and practice if each that catholicity is an essential part of the the Society of the White Fathers, church does theology locally? And how church’s nature. moved to Rome in 2006 to work in does the localization of theology play —Kirsteen Kim the society’s archives of ce. He was alongside the forces of globalization and a missionary teacher with the White in an era of world Christianity? These Kirsteen Kim, Honorary Lecturer (Theology), Fathers, also are the issues addressed in this forward- University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, known as the looking book. has served in mission and theological education in Missionaries In the introduction, Harold Netland South Korea (1987–92) and India (1993–97). of Africa, at calls evangelicals to rethink the definition St. Columba’s and method of theology in the light of C o l l e g e i n global or world Christianity. There follow thirteen contributions to the debate from S c o t l a n d colleagues of Hiebert and one from Hiebert (1962–66); in himself. The chapters are of varying style, The Mission of God: Unlocking Tanzania at Itaga Seminary, Tabora, but most are of high quality.