Book Reviews
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Book Reviews Encyclopedia of Mission and Missionaries. Edited by Jonathan Bonk. New York: Routledge, 2007. Pp. xviii, 473. $190. It was no mean task to attempt an beyond traditions of national narratives discussed but only in the separate entry encyclopedia on a topic of such vast to a more cross-cultural and comparative on that topic. scope. The series editor recognized this perspective. It is worth noting that the concept challenge by asking for a volume that The editor, Jonathan Bonk, allowed of mission is not treated parochially as would focus only on “central themes” the contributors considerable scope to a Western or Christian phenomenon. and not cover “specific missionaries develop their topics, and the results are There are interesting essays on “reverse or mission organizations” (p. xi). It is generally of very high quality. Nonethe- missions,” from the South to the North, important that readers understand this less, it is not always easy to use this vol- as well as discussion of mission activity limitation, as the volume is misleadingly ume, and it does require some hunting in Buddhism and Islam. While some entitled, being neither encyclopedic nor and imagination to track down some entries take a pro-mission stance or about missionaries per se, even though subtopics. The index is very helpful, but address the concerns of practitioners, many significant figures (e.g., John Mott) the See also notations are not used con- as in the very lengthy entry on models do get extensive coverage. sistently. For example, the entry on war of contextualization (which argues the Although the volume is intended does not cross-reference China or opium, case for missiological anthropology to “provide the nonspecialist with an although the discussion of missionaries and contextualization as necessary for overview” (p. xi) and is therefore of most and the Opium Wars would have been a “effective Christian missions” [p. 95]), the value to students, the specialist reader good supplement to the war entry, which vast majority adhere to accepted standards will also find much that is useful here, focuses mainly on U.S. history, using the of scholarly objectivity. from the essays that deal with emerging Civil War and World War I. With its strong commitment to areas of research such as fiction, film, and In addition, readers will inevitably cross-cultural, comparative study and music to the study of visual culture in find gaps or sections that do not deliver to ecumenism, this volume deserves essays on photography and archaeology. what one might expect. The entry on art, for a wide readership among students of It offers access to research tools in entries instance, covers only Asian Christian art. religious history, comparative religion, on archives, bibliography, biography, Most disappointing to me was the entry and globalization. It will prove a worthy and online resources and hence is a on North America, which is really just a addition to any reference library. convenient starting place for further survey of the church and faith in the face —Margo S. Gewurtz study and research. Above all, however, of its now-dominant nominalism. There is it is the thematic breadth, with entries a passing reference to the denominations Margo S. Gewurtz is Professor of Humanities at York ranging from “Africa” to “War,” and the that sent missionaries abroad but nothing University, Toronto. A Canadian, her scholarship topics that occur across multiple entries is included about domestic missions to focuses on Sino-Western cultural contacts; she (e.g., indigenization) that may prove the Chinese, Jews, and others. Missions has published numerous essays on Canadian most useful to scholars who wish to go to the Native American peoples are missionaries and their Chinese coworkers. The Primitivist Missiology of Hudson Taylor can afford to ignore Groves, Anthony Norris Groves: A Radical but Müller’s decision to run his orphanage Influence on Nineteenth-Century on “faith” principles owed more to the Protestant Mission. example of A. H. Francke, as recorded in H. E. F. Guericke’s biography, than to By Robert Bernard Dann. Victoria, B.C.: Groves. Some of Dann’s claims for the Trafford Publishing, 2007. Pp. 302. Paperback influence of Groves lack substance. The C$31.04 / US$26.99 / €21.04 / £13.95. undoubted parallelism between Groves’s principles and those of Roland Allen, for Anthony Norris Groves (1795–1853), a scholarship, founded on wide reading example, does not prove indebtedness, for freelance missionary in Baghdad and in both primary and secondary sources. there is no evidence that Allen had read India, is a neglected figure in mission Dann rightly identifies Groves as one of Groves’s Memoir or any of his writings. historiography. Originally an Anglican, the principal forerunners of the “faith A more important issue raised by this he was closely associated with the early mission” tradition, as Groves not only book, however, has less to do with history Christian (or Plymouth) Brethren, notably repudiated the conventional apparatus than with the interpretation of the New through his brother-in-law, George of mission support but also was skeptical Testament. Dann commends Groves as Müller. of the linkage of missions with Western possessing greater firsthand insight into This book by Robert Dann, which is civilization. the problems of cross-cultural mission based on a Ph.D. dissertation submitted to Dann wears his admiration for than Henry Venn or Rufus Anderson, the University of Liverpool, aims to rescue Groves on his sleeve, and this book has yet he is ambivalent about missiologies Groves from his neglect by missiologists. the resulting strengths and weaknesses of constructed on the premise of cultural In many respects it is a work of impressive a panegyric. No interpretation of Müller or differentiation. This ambivalence stems 156 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 32, No. 3 from his endorsement of Groves’s native sexuality, body language, and identity and the use of parody and parallel “primitivism,” that is, his belief that the moderation resulting in spontaneous liturgy in rebellion and martyrdom. In New Testament contains a single blueprint cultural syncretism. Part 3 recounts miracle part 7, local native elites reverse roles and for church and mission practice. Living by healings of children and studies paintings appropriate a procession for sociopolitical faith, Groves believed, was “the method of the Virgin of Guadalupe, demonstrating purposes. intended by the Master when he originally the role of popular native beliefs in The diverse mosaic presented in this entrusted the Great Commission to his launching the cult. Gender is treated in part work gives a provocative picture of cultural disciples” (p. 170). If the New Testament 4 in the writings of native visionary nuns, convergence in Mexican Catholicism. enjoined one missionary method and and part 5 deals with the Inquisition and —Sherron George one ecclesiology, it followed that Groves racism, idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy, “did not expect Indian churches to be and toleration of Jewish converts. Part Sherron George, Liaison and Theological Education very different from English churches” 6 explores the musical conquest and the Consultant for South America for Presbyterian (p. 252). Dann cites with evident approval indigenous use of music to construct World Mission of the PC(USA), resides in Brazil. the Indian Brethren leader Bakht Singh, who claimed that what was needed in the Indian churches was “not Western nor Eastern culture but Biblical culture” (p. 252). Dann’s case is more subversive of missiological orthodoxy than he admits, but it deserves careful evaluation. —Brian Stanley Brian Stanley, a contributing editor, is Director of the Henry Martyn Centre and a Fellow of St. { FULLER online } Edmund’s College, Cambridge. learning without leaving the field Religion in New Spain. Edited by Susan Schroeder and Stafford Poole. MASTER OF ARTS in Global Leadership “As a result of studying in Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, the MAGL program, I have 2007. Pp. ix, 358. $39.95. • an accredited degree designed identified my gift-mix and for Christian leaders engaged in am using these to contribute In this volume, sixteen professors of Latin towards building the Lord’s American history and related fields offer ministry, wherever they are Kingdom. As a pastor, the recent revisionist scholarship on religious MAGL program is shaping me culture in diverse regions and indigenous • a collaborative approach to into a missional leader and groups in Mexico throughout the colonial a manager of change rather period. The editors, Susan Schroeder and education through learning than being merely Stafford Poole, provide excellent intro- groups of peer leaders from around ductions and a creative organization of the the world a maintenance pastor.” sixteen essays. Schroeder is professor of colonial Latin American history at Tulane • engaging online courses that University in New Orleans, and Poole explore theories, practices, and is a Roman Catholic priest and research historian. The scholars mine a wealth of global contexts of missional resources and listen to indigenous voices leadership JAPHET NDORIYIBIJYA to demonstrate that “native populations Field Coordinator, African Evangelistic in New Spain had great agency in the Enterprise (Rwanda) shaping of colonial religion” (p. 2). They nullify the stereotype that the Spanish conquest annihilated indigenous culture and religions. To the contrary, “religious convergence and continuity were the rule for colonial natives who selectively used the Catholic church and Spanish legal devices to maintain what was theirs” (p. 2). Part 1, “Encounters, Accommodation, and Outright Idolatry,” analyzes the ambivalence of Mixtecas with two hearts Theology • Psychology • Intercultural Studies and one God who converted nominally without abandoning traditional beliefs. www.fuller.edu/magl It also examines the defiance of Zapotecs 1.800.999.9578 who hanged those who reported their native communal rituals. Part 2 shows July 2008 157 Dictionary of Mission Theology: the integration of theology and mission Evangelical Foundations.