Vol. 29, No. 1 January 2005

Tracking World Christianity

o mark this journal’s fiftieth anniversary, Robert T. TCoote—then assistant editor—told the story of the IN- TERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH in his article “Fin- On Page ger on the Pulse: Fifty Years of Missionary Research” (IBMR 24 [2000]: 98–105). Evolving from R. Pierce Beaver’s mimeographed 2 Radical Mission in a Post-9/11 World: Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library, launched Creative Dissonances in 1950, the IBMR is among today’s most trusted and widely Norman E. Thomas circulated sources of mission-related information and analysis. 8 Christian Missions and Islamic Da‘wah: In January 1985 David Barrett’s inaugural “Annual Statisti- A Preliminary Quantitative Assessment cal Table on Global Mission” appeared in the IBMR. Coauthored Todd M. Johnson and David R. Scoggins with Todd M. Johnson since 1998—joined this year by Peter F. 12 Shifts in the North American Protestant Crossing—this feature has now appeared in twenty-one con- Full-time Missionary Community secutive January issues. Robert T. Coote With some frequency over the past two years, journalists 14 Enabling Encounters: The Case of Nilakanth- from major newspapers have requested information on the Nehemiah Goreh, Brahmin Convert number of Christian missionaries engaged in mission to Mus- Richard Fox Young lims. Thanks to the article by Todd M. Johnson and David R. 16 Noteworthy Scoggins, we are now able to venture a response: an estimated 21 Religious Studies and Research in Chinese 57,300 Christian missionaries work in countries that are pre- Academia: Prospects, Challenges, and dominantly Muslim or that have significant numbers of Mus- Hindrances lims. Conversely, some 141,630 Muslim missionaries work in Jean-Paul Wiest countries that are predominantly Christian. Both groups of mis- 27 Missiometrics 2005: A Global Survey of World sionaries, surprisingly, seem to focus most of their efforts and Mission resources on fellow believers. David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Tallies do not tell the whole tale of world Christianity, of Crossing course. Ideas, scholarship, books, and archives are also an inte- 31 2004 Forum for World Evangelization: A Report gral part of the Christian story, making absolutely essential the Wilbert R. Shenk kind of institutions and activities described in the articles by 32 The Archives on the History of Christianity in Jean-Paul Wiest and Kylie Chan. China at Hong Kong Baptist University Everyday human life must be lived in contexts over which Library: Its Development, Significance, and we have little or no control. Swept along like flotsam on geopo- Future litical, economic, and social tidal waves, not even the most Kylie Chan powerful human being can control the nature, direction, speed, 35 My Pilgrimage in Mission or impact of these overwhelming and often destructive forces. In Thomas Hale, Jr. such a world, Christian missionaries—insofar as they resist 38 The Legacy of Ernest Oliver being drawn into the maelstrom of competing, aggressively self- Richard Tiplady serving nationalisms, choosing rather to live Christianly in con- 42 Book Reviews texts of hatred and turmoil—will be radical in Norman E. Thomas’s 43 Fifteen Outstanding Books of 2004 for Mission instructive sense of that word. The IBMR deems it high honor Studies indeed to play its part in tracking the radical movement that 54 Dissertation Notices continues to turn the world upside down. 56 Book Notes Radical Mission in a Post-9/11 World: Creative Dissonances Norman E. Thomas

ill mission in the twenty-first century be “business as sion what is radical in this sense points us toward the mission Wusual”? Will the tried-and-true models for mission of models of the apostolic church. the late twentieth century provide sufficient creativity and vital- Effective mission in the twenty-first century will require ity for the new century now dawning? Respected missiologists creative approaches to the dissonances in our world. Here I answer No. “The missionary movement is now in its old age,” consider five of the most sobering dissonances currently facing declares Andrew Walls. “What is changing is not the task [of us in this new century.6 world evangelization] but the means and the mode.”1 Wilbert Shenk, in the final chapter of his Changing Frontiers of Mission, Reconciliation vs. New Forms of Violence probes deeper: “Christendom as a historical reality is finished,” “God . . . entrusting the message he concludes. “The conditions that made it possible in the past no of reconciliation to us” (2 Cor. 5:19) longer exist.”2 Instead, we should expect creative dissonances. “The road to hell” is the way Robert Rotberg, director of Harvard Radical Changes “turning the world University’s Program on Intrastate Conflict, describes the esca- upside down” (Acts 17:6) lating levels of violence in today’s world. Wars since the early 1990s in and among failed nation-states have killed close to eight When did the twenty-first century begin? According to the million people and made refugees of an additional four million. Gregorian calendar it began January 1, 2001. Historians may give Hundreds of millions have been left impoverished, malnour- a different answer. How about September 11, 2001? Now into the ished, and deprived of fundamental needs for security, health fifth year of the new century, is it possible that more than the care, and education. Some violence, especially in Rwanda and Twin Towers fell on 9/11? Are we now in a permanent state of western Sudan, involved the genocide of whole ethnic groups. war against terrorism that will define this century? Failed states, including Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Somalia, What about the church and its mission? Do we also face a have been not only “breeding grounds of instability, mass migra- world with radical changes from the past? Wilbert Shenk, a tion, and murder” but also reservoirs and exporters of terror.7 respected missiologist teaching at Fuller Seminary, says, Yes. He How shall churches in mission respond to such escalations writes, “Renewal will not come by way of incremental revisions of violence? Humanitarian aid to the victims is one ongoing of structures and liturgies inherited from the past.”3 Lyle Schaller, response—from the refugee camps of the Congo to the violated a noted North American church consultant, concurs. In Twenty- women of Kosovo and the Sudan. Another is the World Council one Bridges to the Twenty-first Century, Schaller contrasts the of Churches’ Decade to Overcome Violence (2001–10), an effort, relatively modest degree of change of a century ago with the through the use of nonviolent tactics, “to overcome the violence increasingly sudden and discontinuous changes that the church of division in our societies and to respond to the yearning for now faces in the new millennium.4 peace and a life of dignity for future generations.”8 Another is the Doug Nichols, international director of Action International South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Originally Ministries in Bothell, Washington, warns of the folly of a “busi- a secular response to the scars of apartheid, the commission ness as usual” approach to missions. “If missions are not care- became a Christian effort against injustice under the leadership ful,” he writes, “they may become like the old empty cathedrals of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. in Europe.” He feels that putting first the care of missionaries One growing form of violence is religious persecution, with (salaries, retirement benefits, insurance, housing, etc.) could martyrdom as a frequent outcome. Barrett and Johnson estimated detract from the primary mission of taking the Gospel to the that there would be 167,000 Christian martyrs in 2004, with an masses. The consequence, he fears, would be that missions will increase to 210,000 per year by 2025.9 In their encyclopedic become “a shell, possibly with lots of activity, but no life.”5 survey of world Christianity, they judged martyrdom to be “the What a contrast with Paul’s model for mission! When syna- most significant and far-reaching of all the modes and method- gogues barred their doors, house churches were formed. Jails ologies of evangelization.”10 Martyrdom in Christian witness is were no longer places of confinement but of witness. Women not victimization. International missiologists have judged it to be took their place as early leaders. So transforming was the first “the experience of being uncompromising in the choice of mis- Christian missionaries’ witness, by word and deed, that in sion, including the mission of the people of the Church. Witness Thessalonica they were known as “people who have been turn- in martyrdom is incumbent on both the individual and the ing the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). community. It is a choice for the God of justice and righteousness My thesis is that creative twenty-first-century mission will and it rejects the God of exploitation and oppression.”11 require a radical response to the creative dissonances of our age. The Reconciliation will be a missionary task amid the violence of term “radical” is pregnant with meaning. I am interested here, this century. Robert Schreiter develops five understandings of not so much in its common usage (referring to something ex- the Christian message of reconciliation. First, it is God who treme), but in the sense closer to its derivation from the Latin initiates and brings about reconciliation. We, both victims and radix, “root,” referring to what is fundamental or basic. In mis- oppressors, are invited by God to cooperate in God’s reconciling ways. Second, reconciliation is more a spirituality than a strat- Norman E. Thomas is the Vera B. Blinn Professor Emeritus of World Christian- egy. It needs to become one’s vocation or way of life, not just a set ity at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He is the editor of of discrete tasks to be performed and completed. Third, reconcili- International Mission Bibliography: 1960–2000 (Scarecrow Press, 2003) ation makes of both victim and oppressor a new creation. It is not and of Classic Texts in Mission and World Christianity (Orbis Books, 1995). just righting wrongs or restoring a past state. Fourth, it is the

2 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus that overcomes the International Bulletin experience of conflict and violence. The symbol of God’s own of Missionary Research martyrdom restores and gathers together those who suffer and Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary have been driven apart in violence and conflict. Finally, reconcili- Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary Research in 1977. ation embraces all dimensions of reality. It both breaks down Renamed INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH in 1981. human enmity and embraces the entire cosmos.12 Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by Overseas Ministries Study Center Contextualization vs. Fear of Syncretism 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A. “To the Jews I became as a Jew, Tel: (203) 624-6672 • Fax: (203) 865-2857 in order to win Jews.” (1 Cor. 9:20) E-mail: [email protected] • Web: www.OMSC.org “What is distinctive about Ghana Methodism?” I asked Brew Editor: Associate Editor: Riverson, then a student at Yale Divinity School but more re- Jonathan J. Bonk Dwight P. Baker cently president of the Ghana Methodist Church. Without hesi- Assistant Editor: Managing Editor: tation he replied: “Our churches have organs, and our pastors Craig A. Noll Daniel J. Nicholas wear clerical collars with tabs like John Wesley.” Ten years later, Senior Contributing Editors: in 1987, I stood outside a Lutheran church in Tirupati in the Gerald H. Anderson Robert T. Coote Andhra Pradesh state of India. My guide said with pride: “Our church is an exact replica of a Lutheran church in the Black Forest Contributing Editors: of Germany.” From Ghana to India came examples of the previ- Catalino G. Arévalo, S.J. Mary Motte, F.M.M. ously dominant mission approach to Third World cultures—that David B. Barrett C. René Padilla Daniel H. Bays James M. Phillips Christianity should be dressed in Western garb. Stephen B. Bevans, S.V.D. Dana L. Robert Syncretism has been a subject of vigorous debate. In 1978 the Samuel Escobar Lamin Sanneh Lausanne Committee’s Theology and Education Group invited John F. Gorski, M.M. Wilbert R. Shenk thirty-three mission leaders and anthropologists from six conti- Paul G. Hiebert Brian Stanley nents to study “Gospel and culture.” Their Willowbank Report Daniel Jeyaraj Charles R. Taber warned of the danger of syncretism, or “harmful carry-overs Jan A. B. Jongeneel Tite Tiénou Sebastian Karotemprel, S.D.B. Ruth A. Tucker from the old way of life.” It declared that “elements which are David A. Kerr Desmond Tutu intrinsically false or evil clearly cannot be assimilated into Chris- Graham Kings Andrew F. Walls tianity without a lapse into syncretism.”13 Anne-Marie Kool Anastasios Yannoulatos Eighteen years later in Salvador, Brazil, 574 participants in the Gary B. McGee Advertising: WCC’s eleventh ecumenical conference on world mission and Circulation Coordinator: Ruth E. Taylor evangelism (1996) grappled with the same issue under the theme Angela Scipio, Coordinator 11 Graffam Road “Called to One Hope—the Gospel in Diverse Cultures.” The [email protected] South Portland, Maine 04106 subsection on syncretism in the conference report begins: “Dy- www.OMSC.org (207) 799-4387 namic interactions between the gospel and cultures inevitably Books for review and correspondence regarding editorial matters should be addressed raise the question of syncretism. From one perspective, syncre- to the editors. Manuscripts unaccompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope tism is merely a mixture of elements from different sources. In (or international postal coupons) will not be returned. Opinions expressed in the that respect, any cultural expression of the gospel is syncretic.”14 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN are those of the authors and not necessarily of the Since the term “contextualization” was first coined in 1972, Overseas Ministries Study Center. missiologists and Third World theologians have deepened our Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in: understanding of the new paradigm. Indigenization of clerical Bibliografia Missionaria IBR (International Bibliography of dress or church architecture or music will not suffice. The very Book Reviews) Book Review Index heart of a culture needs to be embraced and transformed by the Christian Periodical Index IBZ (International Bibliography of Guide to People in Periodical Periodical Literature) Gospel. Such radical contextualization is similar to that of the Literature Missionalia apostle Paul, who wrote, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order Guide to Social Science and Religion Religious and Theological Abstracts to win Jews” (1 Cor. 9:20). in Periodical Literature Religion Index One: Periodicals Thomas Thangaraj of India has had an odyssey from cultural dissonance to radical contextualization. Two hundred years ago Index, abstracts, and full text of this journal are available on databases provided by ATLAS, EBSCO, H. W. Wilson Company, The Gale Group, and University Microfilms. his ancestors converted from Hinduism to the Christian faith. Back issues may be seen on the ATLAS Web site, www.ATLA.com. Also consult Upon doing so, they destroyed the Hindu shrine in their village InfoTrac database at many academic and public libraries. International Bulletin of and built a Christian church in its place. Thangaraj himself grew Missionary Research (ISSN 0272-6122) is published by the Overseas Ministries Study up in two worlds—those of Tamil culture and of Western culture. Center, 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511. For subscription orders and changes of address visit www.OMSC.org or write In the multireligious urban settings of Madras and Calcutta as a International Bulletin of Missionary Research, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834- theological student and later a teacher, he discovered how bicul- 3000. Address correspondence concerning subscriptions and missing issues to: tural he was, and how his theology was informed by both Hindu Circulation Coordinator, [email protected]. Periodicals postage paid at New Haven, and Christian traditions. For thirty years he has been writing CT. Single Copy Price: $8.00. Subscription rate worldwide: one year (4 issues) $27.00. Foreign subscribers must pay in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank, Visa, MasterCard, hymns in the Tamil language. His reformulation of the idea of the or International Money Order. Airmail delivery $16 per year extra. POSTMASTER: uniqueness of Christ employs the Hindu concept of guru as a Send address changes to International Bulletin of Missionary Research, P.O. Box Christological model. Thangaraj relates that Hindus have come 3000, Denville, New Jersey 07834-3000. with new receptivity as the Christian Gospel is conveyed in Copyright © 2005 by Overseas Ministries Study Center. All rights reserved. language familiar to them.15

January 2005 3 Radical contextualization in twenty-first-century mission Roman Catholics find in the Second Vatican Council (1962– will be affirmed as “mission in Christ’s way.” Christopher 65) important milestones in the church’s theology of the reli- Duraisingh believes that such a mission “does not seek the gions. They include the affirmations that major world faiths disappearance of another culture or religion” and does not “do represent what is “true and holy” and “reflect a ray of the Truth away with differences,” but rather holds them together in a that enlightens all people,” and that “whatever good or truth is “community of communities.” In the resulting dialogue “Chris- found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a prepara- tians may give an unequivocal witness to God’s love in Jesus tion for the Gospel” (Nostra aetate 2; Lumen gentium 16). Christ.”16 Ecumenical Protestants draw upon the World Council of In a chapter entitled “Culture and Coherence in Christian Churches’ affirmation that “God . . . has not left himself without History,” Andrew Walls concludes, “The faith of Christ is infinitely a witness at any time or any place” (1982), and that “we cannot translatable; it creates ‘a place to feel at home.’”17 The challenge point to any other way of salvation than Jesus Christ; at the same for twenty-first-century mission is for each church to embody time we cannot set limits to the saving power of God” (1989).23 this truth—and feeling—in its own changing cultural context. The council continues to recognize the tension between those two statements—”a tension which has not yet been resolved.” Radical Dialogue vs. Exclusivism Christians were encouraged to practice a dialogue of life. Faith- “In him was life, and the life was fulness in love of one’s neighbor—even one’s enemy—may be the light of all people.” (John 1:4) the best form of witness through “a humble, kenotic style of mission, following Christ’s vulnerable life in service, not domi- David Bosch, in his magnum opus Transforming Mission, identi- nation.”24 fied witness to people of other faiths as one of the “largest Can such a dialogue take place with the so-called hidden unsolved problems for the Christian church.”18 Since publication Christians? In 2000 the World Christian Encyclopedia reported that of this work in 1991, the debate has intensified. On the one hand, there were 13,676,310 nonbaptized believers in Christ. They are claims of Christian exclusivism have intensified, as has the members of non-Christian religions who have been converted to ascendancy of fundamentalisms in other faiths.19 On the other faith in Christ as Lord and Savior but who choose to remain in hand, walls of division between Christians and persons of other their religions as witnesses to Christ. The largest numbers are faiths have been broken down through mutual searches both for Hindus, primarily in India, followed by Buddhists, primarily in peace and justice and for salvation across traditional confes- China. Projections are that their numbers will grow to 23,480,000 sional lines. The result is creative dissonances. by the year 2025.25 Philip Jenkins’s prediction of the “next Christianity” in- Ralph Winter has called this estimate in the WCE “poten- cludes the clash of fundamentalisms, especially in the Southern tially the most explosive revelation in the entire work.” As Hemisphere. Recent violence between Muslims and Christians corroborating evidence he cites the careful study of over ten in Nigeria raises the prospect that Nigerian society “might be million people in the city of Chennai (Madras) in India, where brought to ruin by the clash of jihad and crusade.” Similar there are four times as many Hindus who are devout followers religious conflicts cloud the future of Indonesia, the Philippines, of Christ as there are believers affiliated with the official Chris- Sudan, and a growing number of other African nations. Hindu tian churches. Significant numbers of persons remain culturally extremists persecute Christians in India.20 Hindu but embrace Christ, reading the Bible and worshiping By contrast, partnership by persons of diverse faiths is him daily.26 What is the potential for a dialogue of life among increasing in work for justice and the integrity of creation. The these persons? Peace Council, for example, an offshoot of the World Parliament Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder, after surveying his- of Religions, unites religious leaders of varied faiths to work for torical theologies of mission, propose “mission as prophetic dialogue” as a synthesis of the theology of mission needed for the twenty-first century. It is multidimensional, including witness Nonbaptized believers and proclamation, liturgy, prayer and contemplation, justice, peace and the integrity of creation, interreligious dialogue, remain in their religions inculturation, and reconciliation. It is a lived-out theology— as witnesses to Christ. open to people of other faith perspectives and to the contexts in which people live. As Christ embodied the reign of God in his preaching, serving, and witnessing, so also the church is called to nonviolent and just resolution of conflicts. “Acting, struggling, work for justice among humans and in creation with openness, and suffering together for the cause of peace or justice make for determination, sensitivity, and courage.27 special friendships,” Paul Knitter reports.21 Similar interfaith partnerships have addressed the HIV/AIDS pandemic and hun- Cybermission vs. Conventional Communication ger issues. “I have become all things to all people, Radical dialogue in the twenty-first century will continue to that I might by all means save some.” (1 Cor. 9:22) take two paths. Theologians will continue to push the frontiers of Christian theology toward greater Christian appreciation of “Electronic media is to the Reformation of the twenty-first century God’s work among persons of living faiths. Meanwhile a dia- what Gutenberg’s press was to the Reformation of the sixteenth logue of life will intensify as persons increasingly embrace Christ and seventeenth centuries.” This is the conviction of Michael while continuing to affirm their cultural heritages. Aloysius Slaughter, pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in North Pieris, a Sri Lankan Jesuit, believes that the uniqueness of Christ— America today. He argues: “No wonder the Church isn’t making in whom God became poor, a victim, and one of the oppressed— sense for most people in North American culture. We are speak- can be shared best as Christians stand for justice with those who ing a different language. We are still using the language of a have been victimized, exploited, and powerless.22 literate culture in a post-literate visual age.”28

4 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 January 2005 5 Nor is this just a First World discontinuity. Basil A. Rebera communication. Expressive elements (storytelling, preaching, writes: “When I think of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, music, dance, painting, sculpture, etc.) can continue to evoke with a population larger than China’s, to say that TV and video faith alongside video, film, CD, and sound-card technologies. is all the rage is not a journalistic banality. That medium is creating social and cultural transformations more rapid and Radical Leadership vs. Creeping Clericalism more profound than centuries of earlier colonial rule.”29 “gifts . . . to equip the saints Scholars tell us that a radical discontinuity is taking place, for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:11–12) not simply the replacement of one technology by another. “The media are no longer screens we watch, or a radio we listen to,” “Is our goal to send missionaries or to reach the unreached?” wrote Cardinal Martini of Milan. “They are an atmosphere, a Alex Araujo posed this question to evangelicals planning for milieu in which we are immersed. They surround us and pen- mission in the twenty-first century. If it is the latter, what will be etrate us from every side. We live in this world of sounds, images, the most effective method? In one case it may be to send North colors, impulses, and vibrations as primitive men and women Americans. In another it may be more effective to assist local were immersed in the forest, as a fish is in water. It is our Christians. In yet another it may be better to form a partnership environment, and the media are a new way of being alive.”30 with Christians of a similar culture nearer the unreached people. No technology has grown faster than the World Wide Web. Then, reflecting on the dominant paradigm of the twentieth In 1969 there were but four Web sites in the entire world. By 1990 century, that of the salaried cross-cultural missionary, Araujo there were 333,000. By the end of 1997 Web sites had increased to continued: “If our goal is to send missionaries, we may find almost 20 million. By 2004 Google, the most widely used search ourselves sending hundreds of them very efficiently, while fail- engine worldwide for English speakers, surpassed 6 billion ing to reach the lost.” He concluded: “If our methods are wrong Internet items.31 Compare this transformation with earlier media in relation to our ultimate goal, efficient implementation cannot technologies. It took 40 years for radio to attract 50 million users prevent failure.”35 in the United States; it took television 14 years; but it took the In the last 100 years almost 90 percent of the world’s full-time Internet just 4 years.32 foreign missionaries came from Europe and North America. At The Internet is no longer used predominantly by English the close of the century, by contrast, an increasing number came speakers. Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans are major Internet from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Present estimates suggest users, as well as Europeans in various languages. It was projected that by 2025 as many as half the world’s full-time Christian that between 709 and 945 million people would use the Internet missionaries will be sent by churches of the Two-Thirds World.36 in 2004. Joseph Healey, with abundant examples of East African Catho- Sarang Presbyterian Church in Seoul, Korea, is an effective lics in mission, details how African missionaries are called forth congregation in its use of multimedia. It began its digital ministry by their local churches and sent to other parts of the world.37 Jehu in 2000. By 2003 its seeker-sensitive approach increased average Hanciles documents the dynamism of African Christian leaders Sunday worship attendance to over 20,000. Sarang Church spon- who have migrated to Birmingham, New York, and Moscow, sors separate Web sites in English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, ministering not only to immigrants but also to unchurched and Russian. They feature inquiries about what Christianity is Westerners.38 and also provide worship in each language. Their goal is to The second radical shift in leadership will be from clergy to present Christ to as much of the unchurched new generation as laity and from salaried to volunteer persons in mission. It is a they can.33 return to an apostolic church paradigm in which God’s gifts were Cybermission works best in active synergy with other forms believed to have been given, not exclusively to a set-apart profes- of mission. The ongoing challenge is to bring persons out of sional leadership, but rather “to equip the saints for the work of individual isolation into online groups, and eventually into face- ministry” (Eph. 4:11–12). to-face communities of faith. The new structure may involve “A core characteristic of the twenty-first-century church is the mobilization of the laity,” declared a church leadership training team. Now there is “a high value placed on mobilization We can have confidence that with each person seen as having a gift, role and place to serve. There is a systematic approach to the process of identifying gifts the Spirit will raise up new and talents, equipping/coaching and placement for service. witnesses as in the past. Mobilization is implemented by a leadership team with a desig- nated point person for lay mobilization.”39 The fastest growing stream of Christianity—that of Pentecostals and charismatics, hundreds of volunteers in different time zones coordinated by a who worldwide claim the loyalty of some 534 million adher- central team of permanent staff. Ministries may include evange- ents—has empowered laity at the grassroots to affirm their lism (with Web pages “What is Christianity?” or “How to be- ministries through the gifts of the Spirit.40 come a Christian”), chat rooms for inquirers, mentoring for At the beginning of the twenty-first century, mission plan- missionaries and pastors, TEE courses, online counseling, and ners face the daunting challenge of countries resistant to the prayer ministries.34 Gospel and denying entry to foreign missionaries. In hope, we The apostolic church was creative in mission as it used the have confidence that the Spirit will raise up new witnesses as in traditional oral culture (e.g., the parables of Jesus) while embrac- the past. In 1993 C. Duh Kam of the Chin Baptist Convention in ing the emerging literate culture. Paul symbolized that creativity Myanmar (Burma) gave this testimony: All foreign funds and both as preacher and writer, saying, “I have become all things to personnel had been cut off for more than thirty years, but still all people, that I might by all means save some” (l Cor. 9:22). mission was the center of the church’s life. Local churches Those in twenty-first-century mission who embrace the new supported 150 young people who were serving as missionaries. multimedia technology have a similar potential to meld modes of By 1995 there were 225 in service. The goal of their 250,000-

6 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 member convention was to win a million Chins for Christ by the have included others: evangelization versus humanization as the year 2000. primary mission of the church, Pentecostal/charismatic vitality What will be the paradigm for mission leadership in the versus routinization of the Spirit, the struggle for justice of the twenty-first century? First, we can predict that it will be pluriform poor versus the forces of globalization, and radical unity versus as Christians engage in mission on six continents. Mutuality in ecclesial competition. mission will be facilitated by international mission agencies. “This is the time to be bold and creative,” Michael Amaladoss Cross-cultural persons in mission not only will share their special concluded in “The Future of Mission in the Third Millennium.” gifts in service but also will be catalysts for change and servants He continued: “We are living in an age of transition—a liminal in ministry. We can also anticipate that local, shared, and most period.” He called upon Christians in mission to return to their often voluntary leaders in mission will be the normative model apostolic stance as a counterculture. “The need of mission today in this new century.41 is not numbers,” Amaladoss emphasized, “but quality of Chris- tian life in community. Such communities will be free, creative, Conclusion committed to a faith that does justice, open to all people of good will with whom it will build up human communities as a fore- Creative dissonance was the defining experience of the prophet taste of the Kingdom, and sensitive to the mystery of God to Elijah. Amid political violence he fled for his life to the wilderness whose mission in the world we are but humble servants.”42 of Horeb and hid in a cave. There God spoke to him, but not in a The five creative dissonances in mission presented here tornado that split mountains or in an earthquake or fire, but in “a presume that radical change is ahead in mission. Radical recon- sound of sheer silence” (NRSV), or “a gentle whisper” (NIV). In ciliation, contextualization, dialogue, communication, and lead- the calm after the storm Elijah received both the summons and ership will be needed. Mission in the twenty-first century must priorities for his mission (1 Kings 19:11–18). be rooted firmly in the biblical mandate, trusting in the one who This article is an introduction to five creative dissonances promised his followers: “In the world you face persecution. But facing mission in the twenty-first century. A fuller study would take courage; I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).

Notes 1. Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History 14. Christopher Duraisingh, ed., Called to One Hope: The Gospel in Diverse (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1996), p. 261. Cultures (Geneva: WCC Publications, 1998), p. 68. 2. Wilbert R. Shenk, Changing Frontiers of Mission (Maryknoll, N.Y.: 15. See M. Thomas Thangaraj, The Crucified Guru: An Experiment in Orbis Books, 1999), p. 188. Cross-Cultural Christology (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), and 3. Wilbert R. Shenk, “Mission, Renewal, and the Future of the Church,” Relating to People of Other Religions (Nashville: Abingdon Press, International Bulletin of Missionary Research 21, no. 4 (October 1997): 1997), pp. 7–10, 97–107. 154. 16. Duraisingh, Called to One Hope, pp. 204–5. 4. Lyle E. Schaller, Twenty-one Bridges to the Twenty-first Century 17. Walls, Missionary Movement, p. 25. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), pp. 11–22. 18. David Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of 5. Response to Alex Araujo, “Retooling for the Future: A Look at US Mission (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1991), pp. 476–77. World Missions in the Twenty-first Century,” Evangelical Missions 19. Many evangelicals prefer the term “particularism.” See H. A. Netland, Quarterly 29, no. 4 (October 1993): 368. “Christian Attitudes to Non-Christian Religions,” in Dictionary of 6. For related strategies of mission agencies, see the editorial “Mission Contemporary Religion in the Western World, ed. Christopher Partridge Agencies in Century Twenty-One: How Different Will They Be?” (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2002), pp. 12–13. International Bulletin of Missionary Research 23, no. 4 (October 1999): 20. Philip Jenkins, “The Next Christianity,” Atlantic Monthly, October 145, plus several related articles on pp. 146–63; and Stanley H. 2002, p. 68. Skreslet, “Impending Transformation: Mission Structures for a New 21. Paul Knitter, Introducing Theologies of Religion (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Century,” ibid., 23, no. 1 (January 1999): 2–6. Orbis Books, 2002), p. 244. 7. Robert I. Rotberg, “Failed States in a World of Terror,” Foreign Affairs 22. Aloysius Pieris, “Christ Beyond Dogma: Doing Christology in the 81, no. 4 (July–August 2002): 127–28, quoting political scientist Context of the Religions and the Poor,” Louvain Studies 25 (2000): Stephen Walt. 187–231. 8. Decade to Overcome Violence newsletter, January 2001, http:// 23. WCC Central Committee, “Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/dov/01news-e.html. Affirmation,” July 1982; Conference on World Mission and 9. David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, “Annual Statistical Table on Evangelism, San Antonio, 1989. Global Mission: 2004,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 28, 24. WCC, “Mission and Evangelism in Unity Today,” International no. 1 (January 2004): 25. Review of Mission 88, nos. 348/49 (January–April 1999): 121–22. 10. David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends: AD 25. David B. Barrett, George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson, World 30–AD 2200 (Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 2001), p. 7. Christian Encyclopedia, 2d ed. (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2001), 11. Workshop Report, “The Church and the Power of the People: 1:20, 29. Martyrdom and Mission,” Eighth IAMS Conference (Hawaii 1992), 26. Ralph Winter, “Strengths of WCE II,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly Mission Studies 10 (1993): 204–5. 38, no. 2 (April 2002): 160–61; Herbert Hoefer, Churchless Christianity 12. Robert J. Schreiter, “Reconciliation as a Missionary Task,” Missiology (Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 2001). 20, no. 1 (January 1992): 7–9. See also Schreiter, Reconciliation: Mission 27. Stephen B. Bevans and Roger P. Schroeder, Constants in Context: A and Ministry in a Changing Social Order (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Theology of Mission for Today (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2004), Books, 1992), and The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and pp. 348–51, 394–95. Strategies (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1998). 28. Michael Slaughter, Out on the Edge: A Wake-Up Call for Church Leaders 13. Robert T. Coote and John Stott, eds., Down to Earth: Studies in on the Edge of the Media Reformation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, Christianity and Culture; the Papers of the Lausanne Consultation on 1998), pp. 25, 24. Gospel and Culture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), p. 334. 29. In Fidelity and Translation: Communicating the Bible in New Media, ed.

January 2005 7 Paul A. Soukup and Robert Hodgson (Kansas City, Mo.: Sheed & 37. Joseph G. Healey, “Now It Is Your Turn: East Africans Go in Ward, 1999), p. ix. Mission,” Missiology 31, no. 3 (July 2003): 349–66. 30. Carlo Maria Martini, Communicating Christ to the World (Kansas City, 38. Jehu J. Hanciles, “Mission and Migration: Some Implications for the Mo.: Sheed & Ward, 1994), pp. 96–97. Twenty-first-Century Church,” International Bulletin of Missionary 31. PC World, November 4, 2004. Research 27, no. 4 (October 2003): 146–53. 32. Leonard Sweet, SoulTsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture 39. “Helping Church Leaders Make the Transition from the Present to (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999), p. 32. the Future,” Net Fax: Leadership Network, July 21, 1997, quoted in 33. Seok Jae Jeon, “Toward Effective Evangelism in Electronic Culture: Slaughter, Out on the Edge, p. 112. A Focus on the New Generation in Seoul, Korea” (D.Miss. diss., 40. See Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, “Pentecostal Missiology in Ecumenical United Theological Seminary, 2004), pp. 125–28. Perspective,” International Review of Mission 88, no. 350 (July 1999): 34. John Edmiston, “Missions in Cyberspace: The Strategic Front-Line 207–25. Use of the Internet in Missions,” International Journal of Frontier 41. See Lois McKinney, “Missionaries in the Twenty-first Century: Missions 19, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 15–19. Their Nature, Their Nurture, Their Mission,” Missiology 21, no. 1 35. Araujo, “Retooling for the Future,” p. 365. (January 1993): 55–64. 36. Samuel L. Dunn, “Christianity’s Future: The First-World Church 42. Michael Amaladoss, “The Future of Mission in the Third Millennium,” Takes a Back Seat,” Futurist 23 (March–April 1989): 37. Mission Studies 5, no. 2 (1988): 96–97.

Christian Missions and Islamic Da‘wah: A Preliminary Quantitative Assessment Todd M. Johnson and David R. Scoggins

hristians and Muslims have a long history of outreach This ideal, however, is often not realized. In Pakistan, for ex- Cbeyond their own communities. This short article ex- ample, the vast majority of missionaries in fact work either with amines the status of Christian mission to Muslims and of Islamic tribal groups or with existing Christian communities, not with outreach as worldwide phenomena. In both cases we focus only the 95.9 percent of the population who are Muslim. In this case, on foreign outreach, counting missionaries who leave their na- then, the actual number working among Muslims is lower than tional boundaries to work in another country. Although our reported here. This same discrepancy is especially true in the 7 estimates are preliminary, we believe they will be helpful in countries listed where Muslims are in a minority, which means providing a context for understanding the significance of both that only a very small percentage of the 41,000 missionaries movements. shown in the table work in Muslim communities. In this postcolonial context one should note that few of the Christian Missions in Muslim Contexts countries listed offer missionary visas. This situation has caused a profound shift in the nature of Christian missions among Table 1 summarizes the Christian missionary enterprise as it Muslims. Whereas in the past missionary work (sometimes relates to the Muslim world. Of the 52 countries listed, 45 are 50 encouraged by colonial powers) often included both educational percent or more Muslim, and the remaining 7 countries each has and medical initiatives, today social betterment is almost always a Muslim community of at least 10 million persons. The table an essential aspect of mission. Very few of these missionaries are reports the number of Muslims in each country, the percentage in the Muslim world simply planting Christian churches. of the country’s population that is Muslim, the status of religious Another new factor is the way in which foreign missionaries liberty in each country, the total number of Christian missionar- today typically think about the religion and cultures of Islam. ies sent to that country, and the number of Christian missionaries Increasingly, Muslim culture is seen as a bridge to Christianity to Muslims per million Muslims. The number of Christian mis- and not an obstacle. A robust literature exists today on radical sionaries to these 52 countries is 13 percent of the world total— contextualization of the Christian Gospel among Muslims— over 85 percent of all Christian foreign missionaries (now total- such as new believers in Christ continuing to meet in mosques on ing 443,000) work in the other 186 countries (141 of which are 60 Fridays, just as first-century converts from Judaism met in syna- percent or more Christian). gogues. The number of foreign missionaries working in each country Finally, a new development in Christian missions to Mus- is an estimate that includes initiatives of all six ecclesiastical lims is the shift in where these missionaries come from. The megablocs (Anglican, Independent, Marginal, Orthodox, Prot- country sending the largest number of missionaries to Muslims estant, Roman Catholic). The calculation in the column “Mission- today is the Philippines (which sends Roman Catholics, Protes- aries per million Muslims” assumes that foreign missionaries are tants, and Independents). The growing participation of large evenly deployed across the religious traditions in a given coun- numbers of Southern Christians in missions to Muslims will try—for example, that in a country that is 90 percent Muslim, 90 likely begin to challenge the perception that Christianity is a percent of the Christian missionaries are focusing on Muslims. Western religion in opposition to Islam.

Todd M. Johnson is Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, International Islamic Da‘wah part of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachu- setts, and David R. Scoggins is a student in the Master of Arts in Theology Islamic da‘wah, or missionary, efforts rarely exhibit a one-to-one program at Gordon-Conwell. correspondence with those of Christian missionaries. Combined

8 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 with the lack of literature on Muslim “missions,” this lack of though their interests are often distanced from the often minute correspondence often contributes to significant misunderstand- legal questions of traditional Islamic scholarship. ings on the part of Western audiences. Muslims almost never The word “da‘wah” comes from the triliteral Arabic root travel to other countries en masse in the manner of Christian d‘w, whose most basic meaning is “call.” As such, the word can missionaries. Instead they send money or a few charismatic or describe (1) preaching, (2) theological-political campaigning or organizationally skilled leaders to Muslim groups in other coun- propagandizing, and (3) calling others to the Islamic faith, analo- tries, whom they assist primarily in bringing a revitalized Islam gous to the Christian concept of missions. Here we define to local nominal or folk Muslims. The revitalized form of Islam “da‘wah” as any effort by a Muslim to propagate, protect, or that Muslim missionaries bring is often a repackaged version of preserve a version of the Islamic faith, either to other Muslims or Islam; typically, missionary groups reject the classical Islam of to non-Muslims. An international da‘i, or Muslim missionary, is the ulama or Islamic scholars in favor of a return to what they see any individual who crosses a political border for the purpose of as the most basic foundations of the faith. In so doing, these propagating or defending a version of the Islamic faith for two groups assert the right to interpret the sources of Islam (the years or more. Qur’an and the Traditions of Muhammad) as they see fit, regard- Table 2 summarizes, in less detail than table 1, the entire less of whether their interpretations reflect what the ulama have Muslim missionary enterprise. The table is organized differently held as unchanging interpretations for some one thousand years. than table 1 because detailed information on da‘wah is not Sufi groups are an important exception to this general rule, available at a country level. It presents a taxonomy of different

Table 1. Christian Missions to the Muslim World, mid-2005

Population Muslims Muslims as Total Missionaries per Country (1,000s) (1,000s) % of pop. Level of religious liberty missionaries million Muslims Countries with a majority of Muslims: 45 Afghanistan 26,163 25,605 97.9 state hostility and prohibition 500 19 Algeria 33,076 32,027 96.8 state interference and obstruction 100 3 Azerbaijan 8,282 7,106 85.8 state hostility and prohibition 100 12 Bahrain 696 573 82.3 minorities discriminated against 50 72 Bangladesh 152,552 131,156 86.0 state subsidizes schools only 1,200 8 Bosnia-Herzegovina 4,209 2,510 59.6 state interference and obstruction 500 119 Brunei 359 225 62.6 limited political restrictions 30 84 Chad 9,194 5,188 56.4 limited political restrictions 500 54 Comoros 702 690 98.3 minorities discriminated against 40 57 Djibouti 666 643 96.5 state subsidizes schools only 70 105 Egypt 73,807 62,284 84.4 state interference and obstruction 1,000 14 Gambia 1,467 1,271 86.6 complete state noninterference 100 68 Guinea 8,780 5,875 66.9 state interference and obstruction 100 11 Indonesia 225,338 121,988 54.1 limited state subsidies to churches 5,000 22 Iran 75,366 72,253 95.9 minorities discriminated against 200 3 Iraq 26,322 25,258 96.0 state interference and obstruction 300 11 Jordan 5,652 5,284 93.5 state subsidizes schools only 200 35 Kyrgyzstan 5,216 3,346 64.1 state interference and obstruction 100 19 Kuwait 2,175 1,806 83.1 state interference and obstruction 100 46 Libya 5,905 5,666 96.0 state hostility and prohibition 50 8 Maldives 338 333 98.6 complete state noninterference 10 30 Mali 13,127 10,553 80.4 state subsidizes schools only 600 46 Mauritania 3,089 3,062 99.1 complete state noninterference 50 16 Mayotte 115 113 97.8 complete state noninterference 20 174 Morocco 32,531 32,012 98.4 state hostility and prohibition 1,000 31 Niger 12,986 11,719 90.2 state subsidizes schools only 300 23 Northern Cyprus 190 171 89.9 state hostility and prohibition 20 105 Oman 2,989 2,616 87.5 limited political restrictions 40 13 Pakistan 160,347 153,792 95.9 state subsidizes schools only 1,000 6 Palestine 3,819 2,963 77.6 limited political restrictions 500 131 Qatar 610 505 82.7 state interference and obstruction 10 16 Sahara 292 290 99.4 limited state subsidies to churches 10 34 Saudi Arabia 23,765 22,275 93.7 state hostility and prohibition 100 4 Senegal 10,677 9,306 87.2 state subsidizes schools only 500 47 Somalia 7,665 7,540 98.4 state interference and obstruction 30 4 Somaliland 3,172 3,159 99.6 state hostility and prohibition 10 3 Sudan 34,887 24,920 71.4 state interference and obstruction 500 14 Syria 18,389 16,772 91.2 minorities discriminated against 100 5 Tajikistan 6,300 5,278 83.8 state hostility and prohibition 40 6 Tunisia 10,013 9,909 99.0 complete state noninterference 200 20 Turkey 71,209 69,157 97.1 state interference and obstruction 500 7 Turkmenistan 5,204 4,580 88.0 state hostility and prohibition 50 10 United Arab Emirates 2,840 2,149 75.7 limited political restrictions 120 42 Uzbekistan 26,675 20,355 76.3 state interference and obstruction 200 7 Yemen 22,484 22,243 98.9 state interference and obstruction 150 7 Subtotal 1,139,640 946,526 83.1 16,300 14

Other countries with at least 10 million Muslims: 7 China 1,305,864 19,829 1.5 state hostility and prohibition 5,000 4 Ethiopia 70,962 24,296 34.2 state interference and obstruction 2,500 35 India 1,088,581 133,130 12.2 minorities discriminated against 8,000 7 Malaysia 24,213 11,469 47.4 state interference and obstruction 1,000 41 Nigeria 129,722 54,605 42.1 limited state subsidies to churches 5,500 42 Russia 140,920 10,662 7.6 state hostility and prohibition 15,000 106 Tanzania 39,435 11,859 30.1 complete state noninterference 4,000 101 Subtotal 2,799,697 265,850 9.5 41,000 15 Grand total 3,939,337 1,212,376 30.8 57,300 15

Source: David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Trends, A.D. 30–A.D. Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, 2200 (Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 2001), country names, methodology, and Massachusetts), updated figures for population, number and percentage of Muslims, explanation of religious liberty; and World Christian Database (Center for the Study of and number of missionaries.

January 2005 9 kinds of da‘wah groups in order to make an initial set of estimates of the diversity and large number of groups in the third category, of the total number of Muslim missionaries. One similarity we divide it further into voluntary independent groups, Sufi between Christians and Muslims is who they send most of their groups, and groups specifically targeting the Islamic diaspora in missionaries to. We estimate that some 85 percent of Muslim the West. da‘wah endeavors direct their efforts toward other Muslims. The first category primarily consists of Saudi-run intergov- Islam generally does not distinguish between religion and ernmental organizations (IGOs), several of which have varying politics, so that many of these groups have either specific political degrees of official recognition by the United Nations. Some of ideologies, as in Libyan or Iranian interpretations of Islam, or these groups have fifty or more member countries; as such, they more general sociopolitical agendas that they promote, as in the represent an extremely broad range of Islamic beliefs and can act Saudis’ various promotions of Wahhabi belief worldwide. only in the broadest of categories, such as mosque building, In spite of the excessive media attention given to Islamic qur’anic printing and distribution, and anti-Christian polemics. militancy—which, as a form of protection and preservation of These IGOs also send imams to needy mosques throughout the the Islamic faith against real or perceived anti-Islamic forces, we world, with Africa and Asia receiving the most attention. We include in our figures here—these constitute a small minority, should also note that these groups exercise significant political even of the most radical interpretations of Islam in the most and financial clout for various Muslim causes, particularly in desperate of contexts. such places as Mindanao, Philippines, and in Chechnya and the The simplest way to distinguish among the various Muslim Balkans. Their financial and political influence is quite dispro- missionary groups is through their sponsorship: those spon- portionate to their personnel in terms of the number of interna- sored by multiple governments, those sponsored by single gov- tional da‘is. ernments, and those with no government sponsorship. Because Many Muslim countries have some version of our second

Table 2. Islamic Da‘wah Groups Engaged in Foreign Missions, mid-2005

Name Foreign (date of founding, headquarters) missionaries Known activities1 Sponsored by multiple governments Muslim World League (1962, Mecca) 1,080 D: Muslims, non-Muslims, multimedia, training; Q: distribution; L: dissemination, publishing, periodical(s); MG: schools, funding, oversight; O: relief work, mosque construction 15 other groups2 4,500 Subtotal 5,580

Sponsored by a single government Saudi Arabia (1932, Riyadh) 5,000 D: Muslims, non-Muslims, Web, multimedia, training; Q: distribution, translation, small groups; L: dissemination, publishing, periodical(s); MG: schools, funding, oversight; O: relief work, mosque construction, military action Iran (1979, Tehran) 450 D: Muslims; MG: funding, oversight; O: military action Libya (1972, Tripoli) 1,500 D: Muslims, non-Muslims, multimedia, training; Q: distribution, translation; L: dissemination, publishing, periodical(s); MG: oversight; O: relief work 35 other groups3 4,500 Subtotal 11,450

No government sponsorship: voluntary independent groups Muslim Brotherhood (1928, Cairo) 500 D: Muslims; Q: small groups; L: periodical(s); O: politics Jema‘at-i Islami (Islamic Society) (1941, Pakistan) 850 D: Muslims, training; L: dissemination, publishing, periodical(s); O: politics Tablighi Jama‘at (Missionary Society) (1926, 75,000 D: Muslims, non-Muslims, Web, training; L: dissemination, publishing, periodical(s) Lahore, Pakistan) Ahmadiyya (1889, London) 10,000 D: Muslims, non-Muslims, Web, training; L: dissemination, publishing, periodical(s) 500 other groups4 35,000 Subtotal 121,350

No government sponsorship: Sufi organizations Naqshbandiyah Order (ca. 1350, Turkish Cyprus) 750 D: Muslims, non-Muslims, training; Q: small groups; L: publishing, periodical(s); MG: oversight Chishtiyya Order (ca. 1150, Rajasthan, India) 500 D: Muslims, Web, training; L: periodical(s); MG: schools; O: relief work 75 other groups5 5,000 Subtotal 6,250

No government sponsorship: Groups targeting the Muslim diaspora Islamic Society of N. America (1974, Plainfield, Ind.) 50 D: Muslims, non-Muslims, Web, multimedia; Q: small groups; L: periodical(s); MG: funding, oversight; O: relief work, mosque construction Islamic Council of Europe (1973, London) 500 D: Muslims; L: dissemination, publishing; MG: oversight 75 other groups6 5,000 Subtotal 5,550

Double counting -8,550 Grand total 141,630

Source: The main sources used in compiling this table include the Web sites of the Muslim newsletter, or magazine), MG involvement with various Muslim groups (establishing World League (Arabic; www.muslimworldleague.org/) and the World Islamic Call schools, funding other Muslim groups, overseeing other Islamic organizations), and Society (Libya; www.islamic-call.org/); “The Islam Website,” sponsored by the Univ. of O other activities (relief work, including aid to the poor or uneducated or aid to Georgia (http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/home.html); Mumtaz Ahmad, “Islamic victims of disasters or war, mosque construction, political campaigning, military Fundamentalism in South Asia: The Jamaat-i Islami and the Tablighi Jamat,” in action). Other activities not listed here include correspondence courses, da‘wah to Fundamentalisms Observed, ed. Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (Chicago: Univ. of correctional facilities, and the comprehensive “Islamization of Knowledge” project. Chicago Press, 1991); John Esposito, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World 2. These other groups include the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, World Council of (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995); S. V. R. Nasr, The Vanguard of the Islamic Mosques, and Organization of the Islamic Conference. Revolution: The Jama‘at-I Islami of Pakistan (Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press, 3. Other such groups are under the direct supervision of the governments of Brunei, 1994); Jørgen S. Nielson, Muslims in Western Europe (Edinburgh: Univ. of Edinburgh Kuwait, Sudan, and Turkey. Press, 1995); Mohamed Nimer, The North American Muslim Resource Guide (New York: 4. Other such groups are the Higher Council of Islamic Affairs in Cairo, the Bilal Muslim Routledge, 2002). Missions of Tanzania and Kenya, Hamas, Nigeria’s Izala movement, and the Nation of Islam. 1. In the entries below, D signifies various da‘wah activities (to Muslims, to non- 5. Other Sufi groups are the Nimatullahi, Shadhili, and Tijani Orders. Muslims, via the World Wide Web, multimedia [television or radio], and training in 6. Other groups for the Muslim diaspora include Islamic Foundation (England), Muslim da‘wah), Q activities involving the Qur’an (distribution, translation, small-group American Society (North America), and Federation of Student Islamic Societies study), L literature (dissemination, publishing, the regular production of a journal, (England).

10 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 category, primarily because of the nature of Islamic da‘wah, Islamic groups truly acquiring a Western face in an effort either which includes the “defense” of Islam in the sense of preserving to convert Westerners or, more often, to preserve Islam as an religious, cultural, and political heritage among diaspora Mus- active and vital force among the Muslim diaspora. One would lims. These groups range widely from Libyan and Iranian da‘is not readily realize that the Islamic Foundation of Leicester, spreading their respective revolutionary ideologies to imams in England, and the Islamic Circle of North America (with head- Germany sponsored by the Turkish government. quarters in Jamaica, N.Y.) are simply the European and Ameri- The voluntary independent groups exhibit the widest vari- can branches of Pakistan’s Jama‘at-i Islami. ety, both in methods of propagating or defending Islam and in At the bottom of the table we correct for the fact that an the versions of Islam that they propagate. Together with the estimated 8,550 Muslim foreign missionaries have been counted multiple-government organizations they are the most significant twice—those whom governments funnel through multi- and influential of Muslim missionary organizations in this sur- government organizations, and those in the receiver groups vey. What they lack in financial and political power they more targeting the Muslim diaspora. than compensate for in their numbers, religious zeal, and ability to contextualize the Islamic message. These groups vary from the Conclusions extremely political and influential Jama‘at-i Islami (Islamic Soci- ety) to the extremely apolitical and highly successful Tablighi The most surprising conclusion of this brief study is that Chris- Jama‘at (Missionary Society), which is by far the largest Muslim tians and Muslims both send the bulk of their missionaries to missionary movement in the world. people of their own faiths. In this sense, the foreign missionary Contemporary Sufi movements generally do not consider enterprise of the world’s two largest religions is largely an their work proselytism because it is so nonconfrontational. Nev- attempt to renew their own traditions. This fact is surprising ertheless, they win their share of converts both in the Islamic because both Christians and Muslims already have an enormous world and in the West. The respect they receive in some parts of indigenous presence in the countries to which they send most of the Muslim world, as well as the ease with which their experien- their foreign missionaries. tial and intellectual mysticism fits with postmodern Western Our other major conclusion is that in a postcolonial world, culture, gives them success in both areas. Somewhat surpris- both Christian and Muslim missionary efforts are being recast in ingly, Sufi orders can be highly politically active, both in the a global, multicultural, and multilingual context. As noted ear- Muslim world and in the West. They are particularly active in lier, the dichotomy between the Christian West and Islam is sub-Saharan Africa, Turkey, India, North America, and Europe. diminishing. Although there are many reasons to fear clashes The groups targeting the Muslim diaspora in the West between conservative Southern Christians and Muslims, there is represent a special category. Nearly every organization we have at the same time an opportunity for fresh dialogue that could surveyed has branches in at least two Western countries. The transform Christian-Muslim relations in the years to come. branches often contextualize in interesting ways, with pious

Selected Bibliography Barrett, David B., and Todd M. Johnson. World Christian Trends, AD 33– Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The AD 2200. Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 2001. Jama‘at-i Islami of Pakistan. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, Barrett, David B., George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson. World 1994. Christian Encyclopedia. 2d ed. 2 vols. New York: Oxford Univ. Poston, Larry. Islamic Da‘wah in the West: Muslim Missionary Activity and Press, 2001. the Dynamics of Conversion to Islam. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, Esposito, John, ed. Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. New 1992. York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995. Schulze, Reinhard. Islamischer Internationalismus im 20. Jahrhundert: Mattes, Hanspeter. Die innere und äussere islamische Mission Libyens. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Islamischen Weltliga. Leiden: Munich: Kaiser, 1986. Brill, 1993.

January 2005 11 Shifts in the North American

1918 1935 1952 1968 1980 (Beach and Fahs1) (Carpenter2) (First ed.3) (Eighth ed.) (Twelfth ed.) xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx ssssssssss xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx ssssssssss xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx sssssss ss ssssssssss ssssssssss s sssss 9,600 8,600 9,900 10,200 5,000 oooooooo ooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo eeee eeeeeeeeee oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo eeeeeee oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo 1,200 uuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee oooooooooo oooooooooo eeeeeeeeee oooooooooo oooooooooo 3,500 e ooooooo oooooooo uuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee uuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee KEY uuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee Each symbol represents 100 full-time uuuuuu eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee missionaries. (Affiliation totals are rounded to eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee the nearest 100.) Measuring from 1968, when 8,700 eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee the personnel total was about 34,000, the increase eeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee in personnel to 45,600 as of January 1, 2002, uuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee approximates the rate of population growth in uuuuuuuuuu eeee the United States. During the same period of uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu time, the total number of Protestant mission uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu sending agencies has ranged from the low- to uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu mid-400s. uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu Columns 1996 and 2002 highlight the change in uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu affiliation of three large agencies: New Tribes uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu Mission, Southern Baptist Convention uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu International Mission Board, and Wycliffe Bible uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu Translators. Changes in affiliation over the last uuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu several decades have not been limited to these uuuuuuuuuu 24,100 uuuuuuuuuu three; in the case of EFMA alone, more than uuuuuuuuuu twenty agencies have dropped their affiliation uuuuuuuuuu or merged with another agency, have failed to uuuuuuuuuu report, or have ceased operations altogether. In uuuuuuuuuu the same period of time a comparable number uuuu of newly founded agencies have affiliated with EFMA. 30,600 Symbols: x DOM/NCC and CCC/CWC s Seventh-day Adventist o IFMA e EFMA c AFMA u Unaffiliated (mostly independent; some affiliated with small, separatist associations)

10,800 12,100 18,600 34,300 35,600

1 Harlan P. Beach, Yale 2 Joel Carpenter, in an 3 R. Pierce Beaver Divinity School li- appendix to Earthen produced data for brarian, and Charles Vessels, ed. Joel A. what became the first H. Fahs produced a Carpenter and Wilbert in a series known as world missionary atlas R. Shenk (Eerdmans, the Mission Handbook. in 1925, with data for 1990), reproduced 1918. information from a 1935 world mission atlas, with refined data.

12 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 Protestant Full-time Missionary Community

1996 2002 Robert T. Coote (Seventeenth ed.) (Nineteenth ed.) xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx he October 1998 issue of this journal featured a graph xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx Tentitled “Twentieth-Century Shifts in the North American xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx Protestant Missionary Community.” The nineteenth edition of the sssssss xxxxx sssss Mission Handbook 2004–2006: U.S. and Canadian Protestant Missionar- ies Overseas (EMIS, 2004) provides an opportunity to measure the latest changes in the North American Protestant missionary commu- nity. The Mission Handbook reports a grand total of nearly 400,000 North American personnel as of January 1, 2002, including about 350,000 short-termers (serving from two weeks to less than a year). 3,600 4,000 However, the accompanying graph purposely reflects only full-time oooooooooo oooooooooo overseas missionaries. Short-term data is notoriously misleading. oooooooooo oooooooooo Also not included in the graph are so-called “nonresident” mission- oooooooooo oooooooooo aries, persons who minister in, but who do not live in, their place of oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo oooooooooo ministry; their total as of January 1, 2002, was 1,984. oooooooooo oooooooooo Several points may be observed in the present graph: oooo ooo 1. Mainline agencies (Division of Overseas Ministries, National eeeeeeeeee oooooooooo eeeeeeeeee ooooo Council of Churches in the U.S.A.; and Canadian Council of Churches, eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee Commission on World Concerns) reflect an increase of 600 mission- eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee aries over the number reported in 1996. This change checks a eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee previously unremitting downward slide, dating from 1968. eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee 2. Agencies affiliated with the Interdenominational Foreign eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee Mission Association appear to have gained about 1,400 missionary eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee personnel since 1996. However, the increase reflects the recent eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee addition to IFMA membership of New Tribes Mission (1,496). With- eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeee eeee eee out this change in affiliation, IFMA as a whole would have shown a uuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee net decline of 100. uuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee 3. Agencies affiliated with the Evangelical Fellowship of Mis- uuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee sion Agencies appear to have gained about 8,000 missionary person- uuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee uuuuuuuuuu eeeeeeeeee nel since 1996. This increase, however, is due to the addition to the uuuuuuuuuu Notes: eeeeeeeeee EFMA list of the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission uuuuuuuuuu Boxes represent eeeeeeeeee Board (5,437) and Wycliffe Bible Translators (3,907); both agencies uuuuuuuuuu shifts of agency eeeeeeeeee were formerly unaffiliated. Without the addition of these two agen- uuuuuuuu affiliation. See text, eeeeeeeeee cies to the EFMA group, EFMA would have shown a net loss of about uuuuuuuuuu observations 2 and 3. eeeeeeeeee uuuuuuuuuu e 1,300 personnel. uuuuuuuuuu Shaded symbols to ccccccc 4. A newer association of charismatic agencies, Alliance for uuuuuuuuuu the right indicate uuuuuuuuuu Missions Advancement (represented by “c” in the 2002 column of uuuuuuuuuu duo-affiliation with uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu EFMA and are not uuuuuuuuuu the graph), reports fewer than 700 missionaries. Only 16 out of 68 uuuuuuuuuu counted in the total uuuuuuuuuu AFMA agencies reported data for the current edition of the Hand- uuuuuuuuuu of 45,600. See text, uuuuuuuuuu book. It is not known whether this small percentage reflects a paucity uuuuuuuuuu observation 4. uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu of overseas missionaries or simply a failure to report. (Four AFMA uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu agencies maintain membership also in EFMA, creating a double uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu count of about 300 personnel. Three symbols are shaded to indicate uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu this, and the duplication has been eliminated from the grand total of uuuu uuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuu 45,600.) uuuuuuuuuu 5. Overall, the graph exhibits a net increase in total personnel of uuuuuuuuuu about 2,000 as compared with 1996. Again, this increase is more than 40,000 41,600 accounted for by just two agencies: the SBC International Mission Board and Wycliffe Bible Translators. In 1996 the two agencies 43,600 45,600 reported a combined total of 7,200 missionaries, while in the latest Handbook they report nearly 9,350, recording a gain of 2,150. In other Outlined = New Tribes Now affiliated: NTM words, as the North American Protestant missionary community Mis., 1,605; SBC, 4,177; w. IFMA, 1,496.; SBC enters the twenty-first century, statistical measurement does not Wycliffe Bible Trans., and WBT w. EFMA, 3,023. Total: 8,805. 5,437 and 3,907. Total: indicate much momentum. More often than not, IFMA and EFMA 10,840. agencies are static or in decline, offsetting the expansion of the few agencies that exhibit significant growth.

Robert T. Coote, a senior contributing editor, has authored assessments of the size and character of the North American missionary community for more than two decades.

January 2005 13 Enabling Encounters: The Case of Nilakanth-Nehemiah Goreh, Brahmin Convert Richard Fox Young

n the preface of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall ous evidence. First, at the high end, the Indian corollary to an IDown: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Colli- “ivory tower” intellectual, I adduce Vitthal Shastri, a Maratha sion of Two Cultures, author Anne Fadiman, a self-described pandit who taught Hindu philosophy at the Benares Sanskrit “cultural broker,” sets forth her reasons for writing the book. I College, which had been established with British patronage in find them more broadly relevant than she perhaps anticipated. the last decade of the eighteenth century. The missionaries, he They are intriguingly descriptive of the creative possibilities explained, “mistake our silence. When a reply which we think awaiting people who situate themselves between cultures, soci- nonsense, or not applicable, is offered to us, we think that to retire eties, and religions: “I have always felt that the action most worth silently and civilly from such useless discussion is more merito- watching is not at the center of things but where the edges meet. rious than to continue it. But our silence is not a sign of our . . . There are interesting frictions and incongruities in these admission of defeat, which the Missionaries think to be so.”3 places, and often, if you stand at the point of tangency, you can I shall return to Vitthal Shastri later, for the most interesting see both sides better than if you were in the middle of either cross-cultural intellectual activity taking place in Benares in- one.”1 The mission history of nineteenth-century India, indisput- volved the Sanskrit College. For a sense of what was happening ably full of frictions and incongruities, suggests exactly that— in the more public spheres of Benares, however, I turn to standing at the point of tangency between Hinduism and Chris- Pratapnarayan Mishra (1856–94), the editor of a local Hindi tianity could be transformative and sometimes was. One indi- periodical. In an essay entitled “The Useless Efforts of the Mis- vidual for whom this was true was the now out-of-vogue Indian sionaries,” Pratapnarayan tells of having silenced a missionary Christian theologian Nilakanth-Nehemiah Goreh (1825–85) of by challenging him to compare the Bible with the Ramayana. Benares (more commonly Varanasi or Kasi), whose conversion Chagrined at having his ignorance of the sacred text exposed, the urges us, even at this distance in time, to rethink where the edges missionary beat a hurried retreat. What makes the anecdote between Hinduism and Christianity might actually lie. especially noteworthy is that Pratapnarayan claims to be an admirer of Jesus, whose teachings he praises as “nectar for the On the Edges in Benares soul of man.”4 Like Vitthal Shastri, there may have been other moderates In mid-nineteenth century Benares, which was far from the who experienced more than a mere flicker of “active theoretical metropolitan centers of colonial India where Christian mission- interest” in Christianity, even though the evidence is yet to be ary endeavors had by this time attained a public notoriety, the found that would attest to it; likewise, there may have been other edges between Hinduism and Christianity were hardly notice- activists like Pratapnarayan Mishra who responded to “the able. One census put the number of Christians in the city at 390, foreign challenge,” even though a single instance of intervention most of them orphans, mestizo drummers of the East India only underscores how courteous most people were, most of the Company regiments, and outsiders from elsewhere in India— time. Relations with the missionaries were rarely adversarial; the even though by this time missionaries from the London Mission- worst the missionaries complained of was the occasional verbal ary Society, Church Missionary Society (CMS), and Baptist Mis- taunt or well-aimed brickbat from Hindu hecklers and rabble- sionary Society were active in the city. For a sample of the Good rousers, who were few. In Benares, a countervailing force for the News they proclaimed, consider a tract from the archives of defense of Hinduism never emerged, the likes of which one finds Princeton Theological Seminary, printed by the Presbyterians in around this time in the metropolitan centers of colonial India. It Allahabad for distribution in Benares: “Beloved friends! Reflect seems all the more noteworthy, therefore, that when resistance to on this, that all people deserve to suffer in hell, for all have sinned Christianity began to manifest itself in the mid-1840s, it was a and provoked God’s wrath.” A bleak proclamation indeed! John Maratha youth, a Chitpavan Brahmin by the name of Nilakanth 3:16, the classic escape clause for substitutionary-atonement Goreh, barely nineteen years old, and from a backwater princely theology, comes next, followed by the Ten Commandments, lest state in Bundelkhand, acting alone, who took the lead. Nilakanth anyone mistake the Christian dharma (moral order, religion) for did so by taking to the ghats, chowks, and bazaars where William an easy way out. And then a gratuitous slap on the face of Hindu Smith (1806–75) of the CMS was sure to be found, eager to talk up Benares, gloved in the cadences of Sanskrit: “Fools who afflict the Gospel. themselves with the pains of asceticism, who worship idols of When Nilakanth took to the Benares streets to confront clay, metal, and wood, cannot attain salvation.” missionary Smith, it was not only because Smith’s no-other-way- When the missionaries presented Christianity in this man- than-faith-in-Christ-the-avatar-of-God Hindustani preaching style ner, it comes as no surprise that there was “no sign of active irked him greatly. To Nilakanth, Benares was under spiritual theoretical interest” from the learned communities of Benares, or siege, not by ordinary mortals but by the same destabilizing that representatives of Sanskritic Hinduism, the pandits, were forces lurking in the cosmos that were always undermining cool toward it and made “no attempt to . . . enter into a ‘dia- dharma. Nilakanth articulated this perspective on Christianity in logue.’”2 This was certainly so; still, one wonders why. Fortu- the idiom of antiquity, drawing on stories about fraudulent nately, we have from Benares a range of helpful contemporane- avatars who propagate fraudulent religions—Jainism and Bud- dhism are generally implied—by propounding fraudulent scrip- Richard Fox Young is the Timby Associate Professor of the History of Religions, tures to deceive the witless and hapless and thereby establish Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. adharma (moral disorder, religious anarchy). Missionary Smith

14 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 well knew the biblical corollary, for he spoke of equipping philosophical systems), also in Hindi, dating to 1860.9 Ample himself with the “full armor of God” before going out to the scope is afforded by these three texts for a diachronic view over streets: “[O]ur struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, a twenty-year period, most of which transpired in Benares, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic where Nilakanth served the CMS as a catechist and appropriated powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of the freedom to individuate himself and assert his identity, often evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). In short, a colossal— in opposition to the one missionary Smith envisioned for him. probably overdramatized—confrontation was in the making. Even in these early years Nilakanth came into contact with other European Christians who broadened the horizons of his Saboteur or Seeker? emerging self-identity. Before turning to those individuals, it must be emphasized that the early postconversion Nilakanth It may seem counterintuitive, but Nilakanth the saboteur was was virtually the mirror image of missionary Smith, who, to actually a seeker, and so the denouement of his confrontation reinforce his new Christian’s wavering commitments, had with missionary Smith need not be delayed by withholding the Nilakanth out on the thoroughfares of Benares in no time, fact that Nilakanth eventually apostatized and converted to proclaiming the no-other-way-than-faith-in-Christ-the-avatar-of- Christianity, receiving at baptism the name “Nehemiah.” How- God message that had irked him so much initially. For an ever, once we take into account certain predictors of a future individual almost pathologically indecisive, the routine and conversion experience, the hunch seems valid enough that events rigor of CMS discipleship was genuinely reinforcing. The dark would take this course. The ties of Nilakanth’s household to the side, however, was that Nilakanth was plagued to his very prestige of declining princely families in rural Bundelkhand, deathbed by an unshakable regret that his conversion had not Nilakanth’s ties to an overprotective father at whose feet he been like the apostle Paul’s, which is to say, sudden, ecstatic, precociously mastered Sanskrit, his ties to a tyrannical uncle so mystical, and once-for-all, according to the conventionalized orthodox that Nilakanth could not mingle with students of the account of it that, inspired by the Book of Acts, dominated in Sanskrit College, where the action most worth watching in Evangelical circles. As a lad in Yorkshire, missionary Smith had Benares was then occurring—all these factors indicate an iden- experienced a conversion of that very kind. tity tightly bounded by family and community. Why exactly the Evangelical idiom of metanoia resonated so Obviously, Nilakanth might never have transcended such resoundingly with Nilakanth remains unclear, because the Ver- an identity had missionary Smith not gotten in the way, offering dict, his preconversion treatise on Hinduism and Christianity, unsolicited critiques of other peoples’ religion and envisioning talks of sin only abstractly as a problem of theodicy. But resonate for them a new identity grounded in a different reality, which it did, and the reason perhaps had to do with fear, the kind of fear necessarily placed the Christian dharma in tension with the that might have been instilled in him by the same bleak message Hindu dharma. In that tension, however, Nilakanth became more that was conveyed by the Presbyterian tract mentioned earlier; keenly aware that he could change his mind about life’s funda- later on, Nilakanth would write, “It was the doctrine of everlast- mentals, that his identity need not be communally determined, ing punishment which shook my soul from the very bottom”10— and that he could choose a path for himself by himself. Mission- and, very probably, spurred him into taking the step he had long ary Smith did what missionaries do: he communicated choice.5 delayed. Once he took that step, the role of true-to-form Christian And in the exercise of choice that missionary Smith enthusiasti- convert that he assumed was already being scripted for him by cally encouraged, Nilakanth discovered the possibility of an missionary Smith, whose biography of him,11 fresh off the press individuated self, a possibility that Europe enhanced—inadvert- almost before the waters of baptism had dried, plays upon the ently—by overrunning India. etymological meaning of the common synonym for a Brahmin— Since in Nilakanth’s case it can be said that conversion was dwij or twice-born (i.e., a Brahmin who has undergone the also apostasy, a space on the edges between Hinduism and Christianity had been opened up by missionary Smith where Nilakanth could step back from both religions, the better to see The early postconversion them more clearly than if he had stood in the middle of either one. What Nilakanth saw at the point of tangency between Hinduism Nilakanth was virtually and Christianity were frictions and incongruities that would the mirror image of keep him preoccupied for many years. His conversion was not sudden but gradual, of the kind that involves cognitive issues, so missionary Smith. for now I simply note that his transition to the identity mission- ary Smith envisioned for him was agonistic, disorienting, and frightfully wrenching. sacred-thread initiation ritual)—to signify that Nilakanth had Naturally, the experience of Nilakanth the apostate/convert experienced a spiritual rebirth that conformed to the idealized will remain inaccessible. Fortunately, however, one can recon- Evangelical norm. Nilakanth, who anyway was learning to be a struct from his various writings what Christianity looked like to Christian by imitating the only available model, took to his role him as a Hindu, and—conversely—what Hinduism looked like with avidity. That is why the section on Christianity in his first to him as a Christian. That corpus is essentially threefold: first, piece of postconversion writing, the Inquiry, couches itself in the the preconversion Shastratattvavinirnaya (A verdict on the truth idiom of sin and grace: “Scholar or fool, celebrity or unknown, of the Scriptures) in Sanskrit, dating to 1844–45,6 which I dis- householder or ascetic, all alike are in the grip of the disease of cussed at length in Resistant Hinduism and will therefore use the sin. . . . May the Supreme Lord, Savior of the World, bestow his least;7 second, the early postconversion Vedant mat ka bichar (An grace upon you, so that you may escape the jaws of death and inquiry into Vedanta) in Hindi, dating to the very year of his attain eternal life and the highest bliss.”12 The text goes on like conversion, 1848, although printed later;8 and third, the late this, and on, metabolizing Evangelical metanoia into a Hindi postconversion Shaddarshandarpan (A mirror of the six Hindu idiom for the Hindus of Benares. One finds the same trope in each

January 2005 15 of Nilakanth’s postconversion writings, but other concerns— his postconversion career as a Christian apologist. Only a few more authentically his and not missionary Smith’s—start to years earlier, in his preconversion Verdict, he had defended surface around this same time. asceticism and world renunciation against the aspersions of John Muir (1810–82), whose work of anti-Hindu apologetics, the From Foolishness to Wisdom Examination of Religions,14 had been presented to him by mission- ary Smith, thus eliciting from Nilakanth his own work of anti- One very interesting concern reveals itself in Nilakanth’s Christian apologetics. A moderate Evangelical from Kilmarnock postconversion writings in the idiom he uses to describe his who had been educated at the Universities of Glasgow and transition from Hinduism to Christianity, which for him was not Edinburgh at the end of the Scottish Enlightenment, Muir had from sin or darkness or death to grace or light or life but from ajñana gone to Benares as the acting principal of the Sanskrit College, (ignorance and foolishness) to jñana (knowledge and wisdom). bringing in his baggage some of the Scottish school of common This more culturally appropriate idiom, however, does not ap- sense for local application. Michael Dodson has written of Muir pear all at once. There was an intermediate stage in which the two that he “subscribed to a developmental hierarchy of civilization, vocabularies intermingled while Nilakanth disentangled him- in which Britain stood at the top, distinguished by its commercial self from the Evangelical conversion paradigm and discovered prosperity, the operation of justice, and a religion supported by, his own. The hybridity of his idiom is especially evident in a and based in, science and rationality, rather than superstition.”15 longish, didactic tirade against Hindu asceticism and world- This, indeed, is the bias that oozes out of the Examination, renunciation in the early postconversion Inquiry: “People who when Muir implies that India would never rise higher on the renounce the world [i.e., become samnyasis] become self- ladder of nations without renouncing world-renunciation, which centered, and because they are of no use to anyone they stand is not only detrimental to its economic development but also before God as egregious sinners. . . . True renunciation is to religiously untrue (as in the monistic maxim of Advaita Vedanta, detach oneself from the things of this world while remaining “I am Brahman,” aham brahmasmi, which identifies the individual involved in worldly affairs, loving God above all else and being self with Brahman, the ground of being). The indictment of prepared to surrender everything, should God demand it.”13 Brahmin gymnosophists (mendicant ascetics, portrayed as so- These lines exemplify one of the most spectacular somer- cially parasitic) is as old as antiquity, except that the ones being saults Nilakanth felt compelled to perform in the early phase of indicted in antiquity for being like the Brahmin gymnosophists Noteworthy

Announcing Catholic missiologists gathered September 29 to October “Unexpected Angles: The Potential and Challenges of Mis- 3, 2004, in Cochabamba, Bolivia, for the Second General As- sionary Archives” is the theme for a roundtable at the Ameri- sembly of the International Association of Catholic can Historical Association annual meeting in Seattle, Wash- Missiologists. They discussed the theme “Hear What the ington, January 7, 2005. This session will bring together histo- Spirit Says to the Churches: Sharing Diversity—Issues of rians and archivists to reflect on the characteristics, potential, Theological Language.” The assembly, which drew seventy- and limitations of missionary archives for historical research. three participants, was hosted by the Missiological Institute of Jon Miller, professor of sociology and director of the Center St. Paul’s Catholic University, Cochabamba, the Bolivian Epis- for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern copal Commission for Mission and Dialogue, the Maryknoll California, Los Angeles, will chair the roundtable. Ryan Dunch Language School, and the Bolivian Mission Secretariat of the and Jane Samson of the University of Alberta, Rhonda Semple Divine Word Missionaries. Outgoing IACM president John of the University of Northern British Columbia, and Martha Gorski, M.M., of St. Paul’s University, an IBMR contributing Lund Smalley of Yale Divinity School are the panelists. Reg- editor, convened the meeting. Teresa Okure, S.H.C.J., a New ister by visiting www.historians.org. Testament scholar from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, gave the The Nordic Institute for Missionary and Ecumenical foundational address, “The Diversity of Theological Lan- Research will hold a course, “Methodological Plurality and guage in the New Testament.” Academic Integrity in Missiology,” March 7–11, 2005. Doc- The Internet Mission Photography Archive, a new Web toral students are invited for the research course, which will be resource hosted by the University of Southern California, held in Magleås, Denmark. Details may be found at offers a database of more than two thousand mission photo- www.missionresearch.net. graphs dating from the nineteenth century to World War II The Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Mis- from repositories in Britain, continental Europe, and North sionary Movement and Non-Western Christianity will hold America. Included are photographs from the Leipzig Mission, its annual meeting July 7–9, 2005, at Yale Divinity School, New Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll), Haven, Connecticut, addressing the theme “Identity, Ethnic Norwegian Missionary Society, School of Oriental and Afri- and Christian, in the History of Christian Missions.” The study can Studies, London, and Yale Divinity School Day Missions group is cosponsored by the Centre for the Study of Christian- Library. Photographs from the archives of the Moravian Church ity in the Non-Western World at the University of Edinburgh, and other missions will be added to the database. Jon Miller, the Yale Divinity School, and the Overseas Ministries Study [email protected], is leading the project. To search the photog- Center. Visit www.library.yale.edu/div/yaleedin.htm for raphy archives, visit http://library.usc.edu/uhtbin/ details. catstat.pl/impa.

16 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 were the Christians. One hears in Muir’s idiom an echo of Smith, whose ignorance of Hinduism irked him the way it used theological Orientalism—perhaps of Presbyterian Orientalism!— to irk Nilakanth. It was in interacting with Ballantyne that which, as such, belongs to what postcolonial scholars call the Nilakanth finally disentangled himself from the Evangelical “discourse of domination.” That is to say, Muir justified British conversion paradigm and found a more congenial idiom in colonialism by depicting Hinduism’s traditions of jñana as too ajñana and jñana. Thus he began to remake himself in the image mystical, impractical, and effeminate to empower India to rise to of a Benares pandit, transformed by Christian wisdom and called the level reached by European—that is, Christian—civilization. by God to make that wisdom Indian wisdom. In responding to In the lines extracted above Nilakanth unwittingly mimics this this call, Nilakanth’s postconversion exegetical strategies for bias, but not for long, because the trope of world-affirmation engaging Hinduism changed in substance but not in method. versus world-renunciation vanishes from his follow-up The action most worth watching in Benares around this time postconversion writing, the more elaborate Mirror, even though was occurring at the Sanskrit College, for the project Ballantyne the agenda otherwise remains the same. Nilakanth, who eventu- was busy implementing exemplified a new strategy quite differ- ally renounced all financial support from Christian missionary ent from missionary Smith’s or Orientalist Muir’s for eliciting a agencies to live the life of a wandering Christian samnyasi, was response to Europe and a “dialogue” with Christianity. becoming aware around this time that Western Christianity was Ballantyne’s methodology was to invoke Indian antiquity to not so hostile toward contemplative practices as he had been led affect Europe’s modernity, thus to poke and prod India toward to believe. the modernity that Europe represented in India by means of To see more clearly that Nilakanth was a subaltern neither of Anglo-Indian institutions such as the Sanskrit College. Since the Evangelicalism nor of Orientalism, one must add to the list of project was essentially dialogic, Ballantyne saw it as hopeful for Europeans with whom he interacted a third figure, James Robert expanding the horizons both of India and of Europe. It was, of Ballantyne (1813–64), a Scot from Kelso who superintended the course, transparently—and unapologetically—biased toward Sanskrit College after Muir left. Although Ballantyne and Muir Christianity. were similarly shaped by the Scottish Enlightenment, they dif- The Ballantyne project unfolded progressively, commenc- fered in significant respects. Most important, Ballantyne was by ing in 1848 with publications in Sanskrit on secular knowledge no means a Presbyterian Orientalist. He was, in fact, openly anti- (logic, science, history) and culminating in 1860 with The Bible for Calvinist and in frequent conflict with the likes of missionary Pandits, a work of exegesis that was intended to undo the damage

Personalia Nigeria among the Yala people and supervised the translation Michael W. Treneer is the first non-American to be appointed of the Yala New Testament. In 1977 Buckman became area international president of the Navigators, Colorado Springs, secretary for Africa, Europe, and the Middle East for the Board Colorado, effective January 1, 2005. Treneer, an Englishman for Mission Services of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, trained as a chemical engineer, served as the Navigators’ and in 1989 the board named him director for world services. director for Africa from 1981 to 1998. In 1998 he became an Society information is found at www.lsfmissiology.org. international vice president, overseeing ministries in Austra- Richard J. Wood, president of the United Board for lia and New Zealand, Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States. Christian Higher Education in Asia, will retire in December For the past three years he has led the European work. Treneer, 2005. He became president in 2001 after retiring from Yale with his wife, Chris, pioneered the Navigator ministry in Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut, where he was Nigeria. A staff of more than 4,000, representing 63 nationali- dean. He also served for eleven years as president of Earlham ties, ministers among college students, military personnel, College, Richmond, Indiana. As professor of philosophy at business and professional people, communities, and churches Earlham, Wood became well known for his contributions to in 110 countries. For details, visit www.navigators.org. the understanding of Japanese philosophy in the English- Frontier Internship in Mission elected Manuel Quintero, speaking world. He was instrumental in establishing Earlham an electrical engineer and journalist from Cuba, as director, College’s Japanese Studies Program. The United Board, based during their International Coordinating Committee meeting in New York City, makes grants and operates programs in Indonesia in October 2004. Quintero, who assumes his supporting colleges and universities throughout Asia with the duties in January 2005, was director of communications for the stated aim of “enhancing Christian presence” in Asian higher Latin American Council of Churches, Quito, Ecuador. Previ- education. Under Wood’s leadership, the United Board ex- ously he was general secretary of the World Student Christian panded the Asia-based programs while continuing its grant- Federation. FIM, based at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, making with greater focus on particular needs and demon- Switzerland, offers internships with emphasis on justice is- strated outcomes. For details, see www.unitedboard.org. sues in South-to-South exchanges. FIM is guided by represen- Johannes J. Visser, 60, principal since 1993 of the Hendrik tatives from the World Council of Churches, the regional Kraemer Institute, Utrecht, Netherlands, was granted early ecumenical councils, and the World Student Christian Federa- retirement. Before coming to the institute, he served in Gambia tion. For details, visit www.tfim.org. and Kenya. At the celebration of his retirement, October 8, he The Lutheran Society for Missiology chose Allan was honored with a Festschrift, A New Day Dawning: African Buckman, 64, as executive director effective November 1, Christians Living the Gospel, edited by Kwame Bediako, Mechteld 2004. A North Dakotan, he was an evangelistic missionary in Jansen, Jan van Butselaar, and Aart Verburg.

January 2005 17 inflicted on Christianity by the likes of missionary Smith. Chro- who accommodated bhakti to the Vedanta, that intellectual mo- nologically, the Ballantyne project spans the period from nism rests uneasily on a foundation of intuitive theism. One can Nilakanth’s conversion (1848) to the second of his postconversion go at least part way with him in this respect.19 writings, the Mirror (1860). Although Nilakanth had a minor role But to go with Nilakanth into his second major argument is in Ballantyne’s project (Vitthal Shastri was the primary collabo- virtually impossible without a technical knowledge of Indian rator), his interest in it becomes evident only at the penultimate philosophy. He draws not from Scottish commonsense philoso- stage, when Ballantyne first addressed the subject of sacred phy but rather from the anti-Vedantic arguments of Vijñana knowledge in Christianity Contrasted with Hindu Philosophy. The Bhikshu’s theistic Samkhya (late sixteenth century) to argue that school of Hindu philosophy that Ballantyne most explicitly Advaita invalidates each element essential to it by presupposing engages in this text is Advaita Vedanta, the monistic nondualism a cognizing self (jivatman) and a timeless power different from the transempirical Brahman (namely, maya, which conjures the appearance of empirical multiplicity). In short, duality is im- Ballantyne was engaging plied, though not admitted. The third argument seeks to demonstrate the logical absur- Vedanta in a way that was dity of Advaita monism on a number of particulars. Note here original and perhaps right. that in Nilakanth’s preconversion persona as the author of the Verdict, his work of Hindu apologetics, he had declared Advaita off-limits to rational inquiry because Brahman can be declared of Shankara, for which he felt a deep affinity: “Theologically, the only by the Veda, revelationally, and to appreciate the revelatory Vedantin, asserting that the Deity is nirguna, and the Christian, truths of the Veda one must have faith, which is divinely given. asserting that God is immaterial, are asserting the very same fact Instead of faith, from Nilakanth the Christian one hears a great in terms of separate theories. . . . Instead of holding, as [the deal about reason and about humankind’s innate powers of Vedantins] have been accused of holding, that God has no intelligence, which Vedanta deadens and Christianity revivifies. attributes in our sense of the term, they hold in fact, that He is all Revitalization of the intellect is for Nilakanth very much what the attribute,—sheer existence [sat], sheer thought [chit], sheer joy Good News is all about. The idiom of his argument is less alien [ananda].”16 In the entire Ballantyne corpus in Sanskrit, however, and more culturally appropriate than it might seem, however, I have yet to find that he actually used “Brahman” as the name of since Nilakanth draws upon the theological anthropology of God. On the contrary, God is always Parameshvara (Supreme Hinduism, which holds that reason differentiates human beings Lord) and is said to be saguna, endowed with countless attributes from all other forms of life. But the argument stops there, with the besides sat, chit, and ananda, such as justice, goodness, and truth,17 Vedanta in pieces and Christianity intact, only because Nilakanth which signifies that the transformed Vedanta Ballantyne envi- now declares Christianity off-limits to rational inquiry: God can sioned would not be monistic but theistic. be declared only by the Bible, revelationally, and to appreciate Legend has it (namely, the shastri legend, from the honorific the truths of the Bible one must have faith, a divine gift. title Christians later gave him18) that Nilakanth was an authority The circle thus becomes complete. A latent substratum of on the whole range of Indian philosophy before his conversion. Vedanta, evident in the subordination of reason to revelation, More accurately, he was a Vaishnava whose affinities for the remetabolized for Christian purposes, emerges and enables bhakti (devotional theism) of the Bhagavata Purana exceeded his Nilakanth to speak in his own voice instead of Ballantyne’s, fondness for philosophical abstraction, although his bhakti was whose Benares project engaged the sacred knowledge of Hindu- tinctured with Vedanta, for that was the norm. Frankly, I find it ism and Christianity with the exhortation, “Let professing scrip- puzzling—and not a little disappointing—that Nilakanth de- tures be examined!”20 At this point the subordination of Christian fined himself in opposition to Ballantyne, for Ballantyne was revelation to reason was precisely what Nilakanth rejected. If the engaging Vedanta in a way that was original and perhaps even essentially right, but react he did, and in reacting, Nilakanth found the theological voice that was most authentically his, even Subordination of Christian though this voice is not the one I would most like to hear. For him, there was no convergence between Vedanta and Christianity, revelation to reason was and for Ballantyne’s mediation between the two, Nilakanth felt what Nilakanth rejected. considerable disdain. He therefore refashioned the Inquiry, his early postconversion work of apologetics, into the Mirror to restore to the Vedanta the concrete particularity and otherness bias in this seems stunningly obvious—one standard for Chris- that Ballantyne had drained from it. The text of the Mirror is too tianity, another for Vedanta—it was an acceptable bias in the complex to summarize briefly, but three strands of argument in tradition of Indian philosophical disputation called vada-vitanda. it deserve attention. Properly understood, they may help to On this point, B. K. Matilal observes: “It is quite feasible for a rehabilitate the image of Nilakanth, which has suffered in recent debater (or skeptic) to conduct an honest (nontricky) form of years, considering that so much Christian thinking has been debate consisting only in refutation. Such a debate . . . can be invested in the quest for a fundamental rapport with the Vedanta. undertaken by a genuine seeker after truth.”21 The Mirror is classic vada-vitanda, but because of my need to condense it, it Reparticularizing Vedanta seems more relentless and less civil than it really is. More than anything else, the Mirror reflects Nilakanth’s own image. First, if Brahman is the only actually existing reality, then Who, though, would speak in such a voice nowadays, when relationality becomes problematic. Time and again, Nilakanth so much Christian thinking is being invested in the search for a admonishes the Vedantins to follow their hearts instead of their fundamental rapport with the Vedanta? The question Max Müller heads, for he knows, because he was himself a sectarian Hindu raised after meeting Nilakanth in Oxford in 1877—by which time

18 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 NEW MISSION William Carey Library RESOURCES! www.WCLBooks.com

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*3 or more of the same title. Prices do not include shipping. Prices are subject to change without notice. January 2005 19 Nilakanth had transformed himself into an Anglo-Catholic and postconversion works of Christian apologetics seem a retro- was about to become a Christian samnyasi—still seems relevant: grade model for engaging Vedanta today. Even now, however, “Men such as Dr. Henry Brown were Christian Platonists at the otherness of Nilakanth Goreh poses serious challenges for Cambridge; why then should there be no Christian Vedantists, Hindus and Christians who endeavor to understand the trans- such as Nehemiah Goreh [could have been] in the beginning of formative power that comes from being on the edges between his career?”22 There is no denying that Nilakanth seems an Hinduism and Christianity. obsolete figure in Indian Christian theology and that his

Notes 1. Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong 11. W. Smith, Dwij: The Conversion of a Brahman to the Faith of Christ Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (New (London: James Nisbet, 1850). York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1997), p. viii. This article is a condensed 12. Goreh, Inquiry, pp. 44–45, 56. version of one of the lectures given by Richard Fox Young at 13. Ibid., pp. 32, 53. Cambridge University as the Henry Martyn Lecturer for 2002. 14. John Muir, Examination of Religions (Calcutta: Bishop’s College Press, 2. On Hindu-Christian interaction in the prior period, see Wilhelm 1839). Halbfass, India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding (Albany: State 15. Michael Dodson, “Re-presented for the Pandits: James Ballantyne, Univ. of New York Press, 1988), p. 437. ‘Useful Knowledge,’ and Sanskrit Scholarship in Benares College in 3. Quoted in James Robert Ballantyne, The Bible for Pandits: The First the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” Modern Asian Studies 36, no. 2 (2002): Three Chapters of Genesis Diffusely and Unreservedly Commented, in 271. Sanskrit and English (Benares: Medical Hall Press, 1860), p. xli. 16. James Robert Ballantyne, Christianity Contrasted with Hindu Philosophy 4. Quoted in Vasudha Dalmia, The Nationalization of Hindu Traditions: (London: James Madden, 1859), pp. 45–46. Bharatendu Harishchandra and Nineteenth-Century Banaras (Delhi: 17. Ballantyne, Bible for Pandits, p. lxiii. Oxford Univ. Press, 1997), p. 112. 18. Shastri is one of the lesser titles bestowed on Hindu scholars for their 5. For this way of formulating the missionary endeavor, see Kenelm mastery of certain genres of Sanskrit literature. Though well-read in Burridge, In the Way (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1990), pp. 3–34, from many respects, Nilakanth’s attainments were too modest to merit which I draw heavily for idiom in this paragraph. this or any other distinction, for which, in any event, he disqualified 6. Nilakantha Goreh, Shastratattvavinirnaya (A verdict on the truth of himself by apostatizing from Hinduism. His preferred form of self- the Scriptures), ed. S. L. Katre (Ujjain: Scindia Oriental Institute, reference was pandit, a term broadly applied to anyone who had 1951). received a classical education. It was Nilakanth’s missionary 7. Richard Fox Young, Resistant Hinduism: Sanskrit Sources on Anti- “handlers” who invented the shastri legend to claim for him a Christian Apologetics in Early Nineteenth-Century India (Vienna: Univ. prestige he never enjoyed among his peers. of Vienna, Indological Institute, 1981). 19. For an Indologically informed theological appraisal of Vedanta with 8. Nehemiah Nilakantha Shastri Goreh, Vedant mat ka bichar (An inquiry respect to the problem of relationality, see S. Mark Heim, The Depth into Vedanta) (Allahabad: North India Christian Tract & Book of the Riches: A Trinitarian Theology of Religious Ends (Grand Rapids: Society, 1904). Eerdmans, 2001). 9. Nehemiah Nilakantha Shastri Goreh, Shaddarshandarpan (A mirror 20. James Robert Ballantyne, A Synopsis of Science (Mirzapore: Orphan of the six Hindu philosophical systems) (Calcutta: Calcutta Christian School Press, 1856), p. 151. Tract & Book Society, 1860). 21. Bimal Krishna Matilal, The Character of Logic in India (Albany: State 10. Nehemiah Nilakantha Shastri Goreh, A Letter to the Brahmos from a Univ. of New York Press, 1998), p. 55. Converted Brahman of Benares (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1867), 22. Max Müller, Auld Lang Syne, 2d series, My Indian Friends (New York: p. 53. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899), pp. 70–71.

The Centenary of Edinburgh 1910 and the Direction of Christian Mission in the Twenty-first Century

Mission thinkers and practitioners around the world have for the event(s) to be held in 2010. Study Commissions, each detected in the centenary of the Edinburgh 1910 World Mis- based in a suitable center of excellence, will be established to sionary Conference an opportunity for the communities of examine each theme. Christian mission to re-gather in order to focus on the mission- You are invited to: ary challenges of the twenty-first century. A consortium of Scottish-based church and academic • Pray for God’s blessing on this attempt to discern the institutions has begun work on coordinating an approach to meaning of Christian mission for our time. the centenary that is fully international, widely representa- • Suggest themes which you think call for attention in tive, and thoroughly forward-looking. The aim is to discern this consideration of the direction and practice of the shape of Christian mission in the coming century and to Christian mission in the twenty-first century. stimulate fresh commitment to missionary tasks. In June 2005 a group of international mission thinkers and Visit the Web site: www.towards2010.org.uk leaders will meet to make initial plans. It will aim to identify Send your suggestions by May 1, 2005, to Kenneth Ross at the key themes on which work should be done in preparation [email protected]

20 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 Religious Studies and Research in Chinese Academia: Prospects, Challenges, and Hindrances Jean-Paul Wiest

nder the impetus of Deng Xiaoping’s guiding principle Conflicts in China (1987), by Zhang Li and Liu Jiantang; Religion Uthat “education should be geared to the needs of mod- Under Socialism in China (1988), by Luo Zhufeng; and The Chinese ernization, of the world, and of the future,”1 Chinese academia Catholic Church, Past and Present (1989), by Gu Yulu.3 has undergone important changes since the early 1980s. Travels These four books were still ideologically and politically abroad for conferences and research have become commonplace, Marxist in their critique of religions, Christianity in particular, ties with Western academic institutions are flourishing, salaries but one notices a clear progression in their appreciation of some are much higher, and the government has made grants and aspects of the missionary enterprise. They not only saluted the subsidies available. Not surprisingly, Chinese universities are scientific and artistic achievements made in the seventeenth and registering a growing number of foreign visiting professors and eighteenth centuries by the missionaries employed at the impe- a steady increase in the number of returning Chinese graduates rial court but also acknowledged some later contributions in to fill vacant or new positions. This situation has contributed to fields such as education, medicine, and agriculture. a steady improvement in the depth and scope of Chinese Three articles published in the early 1990s in the Institute of academia. Today, courses and research at top Chinese universi- World Religions’ journal, Studies in World Religions, are typical of ties compare well with those at renowned Western institutions. academic studies during that period. The first essay, by Fang Prospects of finding well-paying jobs with joint ventures and Litian, entitled “Ten Years of Religion in China,” analyzes changes high-flying local enterprises have swollen the ranks of students that took place in the religious world as “changes for the better.” majoring in business, engineering, and computer science. But Although the author acknowledges that problems still exist, he other faculties and departments are also well attended, including credits the “harmonization between Christianity and socialism” some that had been banned for a long time, like sociology, for the rapid increase in numbers of believers. The second article, psychology, and religious studies. by Wang Weifan, is entitled “Forty Years of Christianity in In 1978 Deng revived the United Front. But unlike the United China.” In it Wang states that “if it had not been for the creation Front formed by the Communists and non-Communists to de- of a new China under the leadership of the Communist Party, feat the Japanese invaders during the Sino-Japanese War, this there would have been no possibility of an entirely independent new United Front was an alliance to muster all the forces in the Chinese church and no possibility of radical changes in Chinese society toward the common task of modernizing the country. Christianity.”4 This policy called for a more benevolent and open attitude He Guichun wrote the third article in 1991 under the title “A toward religion. Among the many signs of such a change was the Summary of Research in the Last Ten Years into the History of reappearance of representatives from the five officially recog- Christianity in China.” Regarding the contemporary religious nized religions—Taoism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestant- situation, the author concludes: “There is a shortfall between ism, and Islam—at the meeting of the Chinese People’s Political research and actual needs. Very little systematic, rigorous re- Consultative Conference. Then, in 1982, China’s new constitu- search has yet been carried out into the reasons for and effects of tion dropped the ultraleftist content of the preceding ones and the rapid growth in numbers of Christian believers in China. We recognized the freedom of religious belief for all Chinese people. must increase research into the situation of the church and believers in all parts of China and aim at developing education on Pioneer Studies on Religion atheism and the eradication of superstitions so as to implement fully the religious policy. This approach has great significance for This inclusion of religion in the common task of modernization positive attitudes toward the development of socialism among also required a reinterpretation of the history of Christianity in believers and nonbelievers.”5 China. In 1978, with the restoration of colleges, universities, and The most significant change during this period was indeed other academic institutions, the Institute of World Religions the gradual abandonment of the government’s dogmatic Marxist reopened, including its Department of Christian Studies.2 Until interpretation of religion and the adoption of a more open the late 1980s this department remained the only institution attitude toward religions. The idea of religion as the opium of the entrusted with the study of Christianity. people gave way to the idea of “religion as culture,” an expres- Meanwhile, the lifting of the prohibition on religious activi- sion coined by Chinese scholars to describe “religious phenom- ties and of the persecution of religious people led to a rapid ena closely connected with human cultural phenomena.”6 One of revival of religions, which was reinforced by the spiritual void these scholars wrote very appropriately: “Looking back at the caused by a widespread disillusion with Communism and a road religious studies has traveled since 1949, we can say that no rampant moral chaos. Such a revival could not escape the atten- other theory or idea restrained the thinking of scholars of religion tion of scholars and some government officials. Four major so severely as the idea of religion as ‘reactionary politics,’ and no studies published in the 1980s testify to an increasingly positive other theory or idea played a liberating role so great as the idea view of Christianity among Chinese academics: Missionaries and of ‘religious culture.’”7 Modern China (1981), by Gu Changsheng; The History of Religious Study and Research Programs on Christianity Jean-Paul Wiest is Research Director of the Jesuit Beijing Center and Visiting Professor at the Center for the Study of Morality and Religion of Tsinghua The effort to adjust the relation between religion and socialism University in Beijing. and to look at religion from the standpoint of culture led a

January 2005 21 growing number of intellectuals to undertake more in-depth institutions on religion were created. The Religious Studies studies of Christianity, its influence on the development of Institute of the Department of Philosophy at Peking University Western civilization, its past dealings with China, and its pos- was the first one to be launched, and to this day it has maintained sible contribution to contemporary Chinese society. Some of a solid curriculum of Christian studies. In 1995 it also became the these scholars were themselves undergoing a personal reorienta- first such program to be elevated to the rank of department, tion of values, and they thought that religion might provide although it shares its faculty with the philosophy department. something to fill the spiritual void of the Chinese people. Zhao Dunhua serves as chair of both departments. Under their leadership over the past fifteen years, a number In 1989 Zhang Kaiyuan, president of Central China Normal of universities and local academies have established centers and University in Wuhan, launched the Center for Historical Studies institutes devoted to the study and research of religions. These of Chinese Christian Colleges as part of the History Department. organizations function mainly under the umbrella of depart- The center has strong links with the Department of Religion at the ments of philosophy and history. Among those that focus prima- Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Ricci Institute of the rily on Christianity, several train undergraduate and graduate University of San Francisco. It has convened several interna- students, organize local and international conferences, head tional colloquiums, and the scope of its research has broadened research projects and surveys, and publish scholarly studies and to include all Christian educational institutions formerly estab- journals. Yet full-fledged academic departments of religious lished in China. studies are still a rarity because the State Council, also known as Chen Cunfu of the Department of Philosophy at Hangzhou China Central Government, and the Ministry of Education seem University (now Zhejiang University) spent three years planning reluctant to let them be formed. This in turn tends to keep down for the Center for the Study of Christianity before he could finally the number of China-trained scholars with M.A.’s and Ph.D.’s in launch it in March 1991. When it opened, it became the first such religious studies. center operating within a university setting. In September 1999, Between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, three research during my first meeting with him, Chen told me why he decided

Centers for the Study of Christianity in China

Listed here, by locality, are more than forty centers, institutes, Tsinghua University, Philosophy Department, Center for the and departments across China that support an academic pro- Study of Morality and Religion (2001). gram of Christian studies or sponsor research on Christianity Yenching Graduate Institute, Institute of Western Civilization and other religions. The information appears “largest to small- and Religion. est”: name of the university or institution, then department, then specific institute or center. When known, dates of the Fuzhou, Fujian Province beginning of journals and of the founding of institutions Fujian Normal University, Philosophy Department, Institute appear in parentheses. for the Study of Religious Culture.

Beijing Municipality Guangzhou, Guangdong Province Beijing Foreign Studies University, International Exchange Zhongshan University, Philosophy Department, Institute of Institute, Research Center of Overseas Sinology (1999). Comparative Studies of Religions, and History Depart- Journal: International Sinology (1997). ment, Institute of Religious Culture. Beijing Normal University, Research Center for Culture and Values. Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province Beijing Union University, College of Arts and Sciences, Insti- Zhejiang University, Department of Philosophy, Institute for tute for the Study of Nationality and Religion. the Study of Religious Culture (1991). Journal: Religion and Central University for National Minorities, Department of Culture (1995). Philosophy and Religious Studies, Institute of Religious Studies. Huhhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for the Institute of World Religions, Department of Christian Study of Religion. Studies (1964).11 Journals: Studies on World Religions (1979) and World Religious Cultures (formerly Materials on Jinan, Shandong Province the Study of Religions (1979). Shandong University, Philosophy Department, Institute for Center for the Study of Christianity (1998). Journal: the Study of Religious Culture. Study of Christianity (1999). Graduate School, Department of Religious Studies. Kunming, Yunnan Province Peking University, Departments of Philosophy and Religious Yunnan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for Studies (1988). the Study of Religion and Institute for National Minorities. Renmin University of China, Department of Chinese Lan- guage and Literature, Institute for the Study of Christian Lanzhou, Gansu Province Culture (1996). Since 2000 this institute and the same Gansu Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for the university’s Institute of Buddhism Studies have formed the Study of Religion. National Research Center of Religious Studies. Journal: Journal for the Study of Christian Culture (1998).

22 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 to establish what is now known as the Institute for the Study of and dissertations that have appeared since the late 1990s. Al- Religious Culture. “Since the fourth century Christianity has though many academics remain wary of possible adverse reper- been the main factor of Western culture and has influenced all cussions and therefore prefer the “safe zone” of the sixteenth to aspects of Western society. Western philosophy, including some eighteenth centuries, more and more are venturing beyond and of its newer trends, is intertwined with Christian thought. There- even into contemporary Christianity. fore without understanding Christianity, one cannot fathom One-sided and sweeping criticisms of Christianity in the Western society and culture—and by the same token Western nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries are rare. philosophy.”8 Chinese scholars consider Chen to be the pioneer Studies of this period rightly expose the appallingly imperialistic in grassroots research on contemporary Christian communities. and culturally insensitive character of some Catholic and Protes- The articles he has published on the subject and his firsthand tant missionaries, but scholarly attention seems to have shifted to experience are much admired and valued. the contributions made by a much greater number to the Chinese Listed below are more than forty institutions in China that state and the Chinese people. Rather than playing obediently to currently have an academic program of Christian studies or do the tune of Marxist propaganda, recent studies by Chinese research on Christianity. In addition, nine journals in the field of scholars are more complex, for they consider closely all the religious studies are listed. factors—economic, social, cultural, and political—that contrib- uted to the ups and downs in the relationship between Christian- Prospects for Grassroots Research ity and China. The role of some Christian individuals and agen- cies in the development of modern Chinese education, medical Nowadays Chinese scholars on the mainland encounter very care, the press, and social and relief services is being documented little official constraint in teaching, researching, and publishing and acknowledged from sources sometimes not available to, or about religion before the advent of the People’s Republic of overlooked by, Western scholars. China in 1949. I am impressed by the quality of articles, books, On the 1937 Japanese invasion and its aftermath, Chinese

Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region Wulumuqi, Xinjiang Province Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for the Study of Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for the Study of Religion. Religion.

Nanchang, Jiangxi Province Xi’an, Shaanxi Province Jiangxi Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for the Shaanxi Normal University, Institute of Christian Cultural Study of Religion. Journal: Religion. Studies.

Nanjing, Jiangsu Province Xining, Qinghai Province Nanjing University, Philosophy Department, Institute for Re- Qinghai Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for the Study of ligious Studies (1979). Religion.

Shanghai Municipality Yinchuan, Ningxia Autonomous Region Fudan University, Department of Philosophy, Center for Chris- Ningxia Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for the Study of tian Studies. Religion. Huadong Normal University, Department of Philosophy, Re- search Center of Religious Culture. Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for Religious Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions have Study, Center for Contemporary Religious Research. six institutions with a strong focus on Christianity. They often Shanghai University, Department of Philosophy and History work closely with several of the above in Mainland China but Department, Center for Religion and Peace. remain entirely free from government interference or control.

Taiyuan, Shanxi Province Baptist University of Hong Kong, Department of Philosophy Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for the Study of and Ethics. Religion. City University of Hong Kong, Centre for Cross-Cultural Shanxi University, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Studies. Research Center of Religion. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Chung Chi College, De- partment of Religion and Centre for the Study of Religion Tianjin Municipality and Chinese Society (1996). Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, Institute for the Study of Holy Spirit Seminary (Hong Kong), Holy Spirit Centre. Jour- Religion. nal: Tripod (1981). Macau Ricci Institute (1999). Journal: Chinese Cross Currents Wuhan, Hubei Province (2004). Central China Normal University, History Department, Cen- Tao Fong Shan (Hong Kong), Institute of Sino-Christian Stud- ter for Historical Studies of Chinese Christian Colleges. ies (1995). Wuhan University, Department of Religious Studies. —Jean-Paul Wiest

January 2005 23 scholars have also begun to look beyond the de facto backing of comings of empirical studies did not all stem from the inexperi- the Nationalist regime by the Christian churches to study the ence and the poor training of researchers but were too often due commitment and contributions of Western missionaries to the to the lack of cooperation from the relevant government offices drive of the Chinese people for national development and libera- and religious organizations. At present, grassroots studies still tion. Some academics have even told me that the time might be cannot occur freely because these activities are often classified as near when Fr. Vincent Lebbe, who did so much for China but is intelligence gathering and therefore are restricted. Any research still considered a villain by the present government because of based on interviews of believers requires prior approval of the his Nationalist ties, could be recast in a much more favorable localities to be investigated, of the format and content of ques- light. tionnaires, and of the list of persons to be interviewed. From the Research in the postliberation and contemporary periods is discussion, it became very clear that in places where local offi- the most difficult because of government control and censorship. cials are friendly and accommodating, these measures are a mere Yet a very low-key, government-authorized gathering in Octo- formality. Researchers in many other areas, however, have en- ber 2003 shows that academia might be gradually getting more countered words and measures of intimidation, as well as official freedom for field research on contemporary religions in present- distortion of facts. Furthermore, the authorities’ strict control of day China. At this two-day event thirteen scholars, all engaged publications on religion continues to muzzle academic freedom in such research, met in Beijing to discuss the theme “Contempo- of data analysis by preventing the dissemination of studies rary Religions and the Methodology of Empirical Research.” deemed inadequate. This informal meeting centered on two main topics: (1) the Unanticipated events can also easily turn a rather favorable presentation of findings and the discussion of the pros and cons atmosphere into one that is difficult, if not impossible. The 2000 flare-up of the dispute between the Vatican and the Chinese government regarding the ordination of bishops and the canoni- Grassroots studies cannot zation of 120 martyrs had negative repercussions on several empirical projects. A grassroots research project on Catholic occur freely because these communities in Zhejiang province was severely disrupted when activities are often local government and religious affairs officials heretofore very cooperative became afraid of being blamed by Beijing. They classified as intelligence withdrew their cooperation, thus preventing the completion of gathering and are restricted. the survey administered by graduate students of Chen Cunfu. In some rural communities the Catholics (who were already natu- rally suspicious of outsiders) became afraid and gave researchers of various investigative methods, and (2) the sharing of strategies the cold shoulder. And in the city of Hangzhou, the bishop, and ideas on how to gain the trust of the people, the cooperation incensed by Rome’s denunciation of his recent consecration, of local religious leaders, and the support of local officials. forbade the research team to administer the survey in his Of the seven major papers presented at this conference, four cathedral. looked specifically at Christianity, and one focused on Chinese It was good to see how the scholars who assembled at this Buddhism. The other two studied new expressions and practices October 2003 gathering shared ways to minimize the harm of faith. Many issues were considered, but all the papers in one coming from the difficulties and obstacles they faced. The discus- form or another dealt with the challenges brought to religion by sion was especially interesting to observe because of the partici- a fast-changing society and the advent of a market economy. pation of a representative of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Some focused on how this new situation is positively and nega- United Front Work Department. At no time did that person tively affecting the life and religious practices of ethnic minority attempt to control the discussion or to hand down directives Christians, as well as those of rural and urban Han Christians. from higher up. At the same time, I was struck by the unre- Others discussed how this rapid economic change and social strained freedom of expression of the scholars. The conversation, dislocation have also led new urban dwellers who are not Chris- with its frank sharing of experiences, solutions, and suggestions, tians to find religious expressions that give meaning to their seemed to represent a genuine effort on both sides to foster a personal lives. For instance, one scholar focused on the special friendlier climate for research in contemporary Chinese society. economic zone of Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong I was not able to assess, however, whether the absence of papers Kong, documenting the rise of a new spiritual consciousness on Taoism, Islam, and Tibetan Buddhism had been due to the thriving on elements of the popular religion that were once lack of significant current studies on these religions or whether considered forgotten or moribund. These city dwellers have scholars expert in these fields had had other engagements that incorporated such elements into their contemporary life as a prevented them from attending. In the cases of Islam in western source of personal meaning and spiritual nourishment. China and of Tibetan Buddhism, I would not be surprised if These researchers concurred that in recent years more and government restrictions and the reticence of religious authorities more Chinese scholars have begun to attach importance to has made such research nearly impossible. empirical research on the present situation of religion in China. In March 2004 at the annual meeting of the Association for But coverage of the field is still in its initial stages, too sporadic, Asian Studies, a panel entitled “Field Research on Christian and very limited in scale. They agreed that there was a great need Communities in China Today: Insights and Implications” gave for more comprehensive methodologies, for better-constructed international exposure to indigenous grassroots research. Yet, questionnaires, and for analyses based on reliable data rather while two of the three presenters were ethnic Chinese, they were than merely on common assumptions. I would add that many not Chinese citizens. Moreover, they and the chair were all studies would also benefit from a historical perspective that attached to American universities. From what has been said looks back further than the time of the liberation in 1949. above, it should come as no great surprise that neither panelist The Chinese scholars were quick to point out that the short- came from an academic institution in the People’s Republic of

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January 2005 25 China. Given its tight internal control over contemporary reli- thorough as they can be. I wish I were as adept as my Chinese gious issues, most of which are considered extremely sensitive, colleagues at reading between the lines! the Chinese government is even less willing to let mainland Moreover, while studying Christianity, several Chinese re- researchers discuss such topics in international gatherings abroad. searchers have come to discover in it a moral code and altruistic If native Chinese researchers doing research on their own principles very much needed in present-day Chinese society. face many obstacles, foreign scholars or teams of local and This valuation stands in sharp contrast to the collapse of the foreign scholars fare even worse because of government regula- traditional Confucian system of moral values and the erosion of tions regarding empirical research in China by non-Chinese the Communist ethic under the assaults of modernization. The citizens. In 1998 the Office of the Central Committee of the CCP material, scientific, and economic progress brought about by the and the Office of the State Council jointly issued a confidential process of modernization goes hand in hand with terrible evils document authorizing the Ministry of State Security to supervise such as moral decay, rampant corruption, selfish pursuit of all grassroots research sponsored or conducted by foreign schol- money, and the deterioration of the environment. These academ- ars. Since then, all academic institutions in China have been ics view the present time as a golden opportunity for religion, required to submit surveys initiated by foreign individuals or and Christianity in particular, to play an important part in the institutions to their local bureau of state security. The bureau has building of a modern spiritual and civilized China. Chinese the prerogative not only to amend questionnaires and monitor society is undergoing a spiritual crisis centered on a moral the way they are administered but also to review the data vacuum. A code of morality and ethics such as the one provided collected and decide what can be released to foreign researchers. by Christianity is one of the viable avenues that could simulta- The document, obviously aimed at restricting collaboration be- neously strengthen the process of modernization and defeat tween Chinese and foreign scholars on contemporary issues, at modernization’s negative effects.9 first had a chilling effect. Since the bureau of state security is in Without getting involved in the controversy surrounding charge of its application, anyone trying to go around it is open to the use of the ambiguous expression “cultural Christians,” one the charge of peddling or stealing state secrets. As is so often the must recognize the existence of a significant group of Chinese case in China, the enforcement of this document varies from one intellectuals who have gained a profound knowledge of the Bible locality to another, depending mostly on the disposition of the and Christian values, and their message on the meaning of life local representative of the state security bureau. Yet in the past and of our world. A small number have actually converted and few years, as we know too well from press reports of the jailing joined a church. The majority, however, refuse to belong to a of foreign and Chinese researchers, the threat remains very real. church or to be identified as converts. They prefer to identify themselves as friends who admire and espouse the moral values Conclusion of Christianity, without rejecting the values of other religious or ideological systems. To use a sentence coined by Zhou Enlai, I It would be wrong to end on such a pessimistic note. From my would say that their attitude toward Christianity is to “seek the understanding of Chinese academic journals and books on reli- common ground while reserving differences [qui tong cun yi].”10 gion, I see scholars dealing with sensitive topics and giving broad Just a few years ago, who in the West could have foreseen that hints about what is really going on, even though the government’s non-Christian Chinese scholars supporting the adoption of Chris- censure prevents them from being too explicit. Within the limi- tian values would spearhead the field of religious studies? tations explained above, these studies are often honest and as

Notes 1. Deng Xiaoping’s message to the Jingshan school on October 1, 1983, 1978–1999, and Their Connections with Political and Social in China (Beijing: New Star Publishers, 1999), p. 202. Circumstances,” China Studies Journal 15, no. 1 (2000): 9. 2. The Institute of World Religions was created in 1963, and the 7. Lu Daji, quoted in ibid., p. 10. Department of Christian Studies one year later. They were shut 8. Interview with Chen Cunfu in Hangzhou, September 1999. down during the Cultural Revolution. In 1978 the Chinese Academy 9. Among the recent articles on the subject, see He Guanghu, “Religion of Social Sciences was founded, and the Institute of World Religions and Hope: A Perspective from Today’s China,” China Study Journal, was placed under it. 13, no. 2 (August 1998): 5–11; Wu Ximing, “Christianity and Chinese 3. Gu Changsheng, Chuanjiaoshi yu jindai Zhongguo (Missionaries and Culture in the Twenty-first Century: A Study from the Viewpoint of modern China) (Shanghai: Renmin shubanshe, 1981); Zhang Li and Academic Research,” ibid., 15, no. 2/3 (August/December 2000): Liu Jiantang, Zhongguo jiao’an shi (The history of religious conflicts in 6–13; Gao Shining, “Twenty-first-Century Chinese Christianity and China); Luo Zhufeng, Zhongguo shihuizhuyi shiqide zongjiao wenti the Chinese Social Process,” ibid., pp. 14–18; You Xilin, “Christianity’s (1988; translated as Religion Under Socialism in China, by Donald E. Dual Meaning in the Modernization of China,” Chinese Cross Currents MacInnis and Zheng Xi’an [Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe, 1991]); Gu Yulu, 1 (2004): 12–34; and Wang Xiaochao, “Raising Civic Morality Among Zhongguo Tianzhujiao de guoqu yu xianzai (The Chinese Catholic Chinese Citizens in the New Century: The Role of Christian Values,” Church, past and present) (Shanghai: Shehui kexue, 1989). ibid., pp. 36–53. 4. Fang Litian, “Zhongguo zongjiao sinian” (Ten years of religion in 10. Sentence spoken by Zhou Enlai at the Bandung Conference of China), Shijie zongjiao yanjiu (Studies in world religions), no. 2 (1990); nonaligned nations in 1955. and Wang Weifan, “Zhongguo jidujiao sishinian” (Forty years of 11. In most academic institutions, institutes are attached to departments. Christianity in China), ibid., no. 4 (1990). In the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, however, the Institute of 5. He Guichun, “Jindai shinianlai Zhongguo jidujiaoshi yanjiu World Religions is the larger umbrella under which function eight zongshu” (A summary of research in the last ten years into the departments: Buddhist Studies, Christian Studies, Islamic Studies, history of Christianity in China), Shijie zongjiao yanjiu (Studies in Taoist Studies, Confucian Studies, Contemporary Religious Studies, world religions), no. 4 (1991): 115–25. In this article He Guichun also Studies on the General Theory of Religion, and Studies on Religious reviewed the two previous articles by Fang Litian and Wang Weifan. Culture and Art. 6. Fang Litian, quoted in He Guanghu, “Religious Studies in China,

26 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 Missiometrics 2005: A Global Survey of World Mission David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Crossing

ounting in the Christian tradition has a long and re- ping precipitously to only 300 by mid-2000. The main reason for Cspectable history, stretching from its biblical roots “Take this decline appears to have been organizational fatigue over a census” (Numbers 1:2), to “Count the worshippers” (Revela- negative findings such as declining church membership. Today tion 11:1), to the massive annual surveying that today we call “the this trend is turning around. New research centers are emerging, megacensus.” This report continues in the missiometric tradition, not surprisingly, among Christians in the Southern Hemisphere, bringing the reader up-to-date on the art and science of counting, where Christianity is vibrant and growing most rapidly. The on global documentation, on numbers of religionists and growth Center for the Study of Christianity in Asia, based at Trinity rates, on key trends related to Christian mission, and on the Theological College in Singapore, opened its doors in 2001. megacensus as a central ongoing phenomenon. In light of this Recent initiatives in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Chiang Mai, Thai- collecting of statistics that occupies millions of Christian workers land, are focused on analyzing the growth of Christianity in and costs over $1 billion annually, we hope to provide a reliable China. The Nigerian Evangelical Missions Association is spon- quantitative framework for understanding global Christianity. soring a state-by-state inventory of Christians in Nigeria. The India Missions Association has similar goals for India. These Missiometrics is accounting, not bookkeeping examples show that the rise of Christianity in the South is accompanied by a growing investment in research. The annual collecting of statistics on church membership and Second, a potential setback for missiometrics has been religion can be compared to the bookkeeping aspect of account- averted. With the rise of the postdenominational churches (Inde- ing—simply recording financial transactions. Missiometrics, in pendents), we expected an aversion toward counting and, conse- contrast, is parallel to accounting in the financial world, defined quently, a dearth of reports of membership figures. Surprisingly, as “the system of classifying, recording, and summarizing busi- these movements have shown that they are intensely interested ness and financial transactions in books of account and analyz- in keeping track of their members. Leaders of African Indepen- ing, verifying, and reporting the results” (Webster’s Unabridged). dent Churches and Chinese house churches have continuously The emphasis here is on analyzing large amounts of data that published their own stories, insisting that accountability is a may or may not be comparable. In light of financial scandals central feature of their movements. Accountability implies some around the world in both business and ecclesiastical arenas, it sort of counting, and even for what would seem to be the most would be absurd to suggest that “accounting” is not needed. disorganized and diffuse movements, figures are available on Missiometrics serves this function in the assessment of the quan- the number of cells, their growth rates, and the location of new titative status of global Christianity. cells. Today many of these churches have elaborate web sites and produce detailed reports. Challenges to the discipline Third, the secularization myth has been soundly discred- ited. A short time ago it was considered preferable in the aca- In recent times many forces have worked to diminish the signifi- demic world to hate the subject that one was studying in order to cance of missiometrics. One of these is innumeracy or math- attain some kind of objectivity. Tragically, this led to a bias ematical illiteracy, which continues to plague Christian agencies against religion and, indirectly, against counting religionists. from all national backgrounds. Although numbers and math- Pundits like sociologist Peter Berger, in a famous comment in the ematics are ubiquitous in the 21st century, most Christians do not New York Times in 1968, predicted the extinction of religion by the see the need to become numerate. This results in an unhealthy year 2000, while missionaries projecting the growth of Christian- dependence on the intuition of Christian leadership. Preferring ity and other religions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America were not to wrestle with the numbers, many instead rely on off-the- ignored as biased. Belief that religious statistics are exaggerated cuff remarks from Christian leaders. Yet another force is found may have had its roots in the idea that “superstitious people” among academics and journalists who continue to assert that (i.e., committed religionists) did not know how to count. Now religious statistics are “notoriously unreliable” or “exaggerated.” that this myth has been overturned, there will likely be much more serious reflection on statistics of religious communities. Four trends reinforcing missiometrics Fourth, over half of the world’s governments continue to ask a question about religion in their censuses. These questions One can identify at least four significant trends in missiometrics provide a rich source of data in trying to assess the status of both that highlight its resilient nature in such a potentially hostile Christianity and other religions around the world. environment. First, new Christian research centers are sprouting up around the world. This fact reverses a recent trend when such The future of missiometrics centers were being closed down in rapid succession. In 1970 over 900 Christian research centers operated around the world, drop- Missiometrics, then, has a potentially bright future under the leadership of Christians from across the world. In the South, where Christianity is growing the fastest, research centers, de- This four-page report, which is also available as a separate offprint, was prepared by David B. Barrett, a contributing editor, Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. tailed membership reports, and a concern for accuracy are pro- Crossing, who publish widely in the field of missiometrics. Most subjects liferating. In the postmodern North, one finds a struggle for mentioned in this report are expanded in detail in their World Christian balance in the qualitative/quantitative research continuum. In Encyclopedia (1982, 2001) and World Christian Trends (2001) and in both cases, understanding and interpreting numbers related to www.WorldChristianDatabase.com. global Christianity and world evangelization are essential.

January 2005 27 Documenting Global Statistics of World Mission

he table opposite is the twenty-first in an annual series with 300 affiliated bodies in 60 countries; and 1896, the Interna- Tdescribing statistics, trends, and documentation sup- tional Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities porting the Christian world mission. A document is here defined and Social Sciences (IBZ). as anything written or printed, relied upon to record or prove something past, present, or future for reference or as evidence; it The Third Epoch of Global Documentation, AD 1900–AD 1970 can be a tablet, scroll, codex, sheet, card, pamphlet, tape, article, report, journal, book, or encyclopedia. A record is a more concise Picturesque title: The Age of Bibliometrics (Library Science) Orga- fact, figure, statistic, or event formally written down as past, nized by Librarians. In 1902 the Book Review Digest appeared, present, or future evidence. If the worldwide situation is being eventually with reviews from 600 periodicals; then in 1927, the described, the adjective “global” may be added. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Thus the table opposite contains 72 Lines with 432 numbers (IFLA), relating in 1946 to the International Organization for each of which could be termed a global record. (Six other Lines, Standardization (ISO), which promulgated the 10-digit Interna- 38–43, each refer to only one continent.) Together, these 72 global tional Standard Book Number (ISBN); in 1949, Religious and records constitute a global document. And global documentation is Theological Abstracts/Religion Index One/Periodicals, index- the vital process of organizing and making sense of global ing articles annually from 645 journals, linked to the Association records and documents covering both religious and nonreligious of Theological Libraries of America (begun 1946) whose data- materials in 5 Epochs over the last 6,000 years. base holds 1,315,000 records with 12,000 new records annually; in 1957, the Christian Periodical Index/Association of Christian The First Epoch of Global Documentation, BC 4000–AD 1450 Librarians; in 1963, the Association of International Librarians; and in 1963, the International Bibliography of Book Reviews A more picturesque title would be: The Age of Limited Library Index with 4 million reviews of 2 million book and periodical titles. Access Only to the Privileged. In BC 4000 the Mesopotamian city- This expansion parallels our table: in these 70 years, literates state Ur invented clay tablets to record double-entry accounting, increased by 5 times (Line 5), Christians by 2 times (Line 12), banking, mathematics, astronomy, religion, and cosmogonies. Bibles by 4 times (Line 66), denominations by 10 times (Line 44). Libraries arose in most great temples (BC 2500 Nippur, also in China, Egypt, Greece, Rome). The Assyrian conqueror The Fourth Epoch of Global Documentation, AD 1970–AD 2000 Ashurbanipal (BC 650) maintained a personal archive of 25,000 clay tablets. And the Old Testament emerged as a vast storehouse Picturesque title: The Age of Large-Scale Computerized Information of censuses and statistical data. Databases Operated by Professionals. Several computer develop- Outstanding in size was the Great Library of Alexandria, ments began this Epoch. In 1971 OCLC (Online Computer Li- commissioned by Ptolemy I. In BC 284 its first superintendent brary Center) began its work. By 2004 it had grown to 9,000 Zenodotus organized its 500,000 papyrus scrolls, classifying member institutions with the world’s 50,000 largest libraries in them alphabetically. His successor, mathematician Eratosthenes, 84 countries totalling 55 million titles (bibliometric records). became the first to prove Earth is a sphere, calculating its global Two other documentation developments now swept the circumference at 30,000 miles (a “global record,” to us). world. First, from its origins in 1968, the Internet had by 1983 Throughout the medieval Christian era libraries existed become commercially available. Second, in 1989 staff at the only for the privileged—rulers, generals, officials, scholars, popes, European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva in- bishops, clerics, abbots, monks, scribes. Ordinary Christians vented the World Wide Web. By 1991 a million users were online. owned no scriptures or documents and had no access to Scripture Churches and mission agencies soon found themselves except through hearing portions read aloud in church services. spending vast sums, estimated at US$12 billion a year, for armies This Epoch can be said to have ended in AD 1450 as pope of professionals to operate increasingly complex computer sys- Nicholas V founded the elite Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome. tems numbering 328 million by 2000 (Line 61).

The Second Epoch of Global Documentation, AD 1450–AD 1900 The Fifth Epoch of Global Documentation, AD 2000–AD 2050

Picturesque title: The Age of Public and Private Libraries Accessible Picturesque title: The Age of Total Information Instantly Accessible to to All Literates. Suddenly the emphasis on privilege collapsed as All. Suddenly, as in the year 1450, a professional-dominated Gutenberg invented movable type and printed the whole Bible. Epoch ended as some 640 millions now discovered they were Europe’s 30,000 books in AD 1450 mushroomed by AD 1500 to online and so able to instantly consult 70 million book titles, 15 million copies of books, mostly on Christianity. And this surge 8 billion web pages, and a host of other documentation. continued throughout the Epoch’s 450 years to AD 1900 as The number of Christians active online has now passed 350 Christian literates rose from 2 million to 200 million. million, using over 4,000 languages, producing on the Internet A major reason for this increase must be the proliferation of 2,470 million web pages. Library books primarily on Christianity all kinds of libraries: national, public, private, religious, church, number 5.7 million titles. Denominations working online num- school, college, university, special, city, archive, research. Al- ber 8,000. Christian global documentation covers 190 subject most all were open to all literate seekers after knowledge. areas producing over one million new statistics each year re- Near the close of this Epoch, new documentary organiza- ported in the annual Christian megacensus, described here on tions arose of significance to the churches: 1895, the Institut the fourth page of this report. Internationale de Bibliographie (IIB) later renamed the Interna- Users wanting reliable numbers on any subject within this tional Federation for Documentation (FID) emphasizing research vast web of related global records can now get instant response.

28 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 Status of Global Mission, 2005, in Context of 20th and 21st Centuries

Year: 1900 1970 mid-2000 Trend mid-2005 2025 GLOBAL POPULATION % p.a. 1. Total population 1,619,625,000 3,692,495,000 6,070,581,000 1.23 6,453,628,000 7,851,455,000 2. Urban dwellers 232,695,000 1,362,294,000 2,878,859,000 1.87 3,158,016,000 4,572,884,000 3. Rural dwellers 1,386,930,000 2,330,201,000 3,191,722,000 0.64 3,295,612,000 3,278,571,000 4. Adult population (over 15s) 1,073,621,000 2,313,053,000 4,241,871,000 1.74 4,624,300,000 5,950,587,000 5. Literates 296,146,000 1,476,797,000 3,251,554,000 1.75 3,546,029,000 5,015,884,000 6. Nonliterates 777,475,000 836,256,000 990,317,000 1.72 1,078,271,000 934,703,000 WORLDWIDE EXPANSION OF CITIES 7. Metropolises (over 100,000 population) 300 2,400 4,050 2.13 4,500 6,500 8. Megacities (over 1 million population) 20 161 402 1.82 440 650 9. Urban poor 100 million 650 million 1,400 million 3.09 1,630 million 3,000 million 10. Urban slum-dwellers 20 million 260 million 700 million 3.47 830 million 1,600 million GLOBAL POPULATION BY RELIGION 11. Total of all distinct organized religions 1,000 6,000 9,900 1.76 10,800 15,000 12. Christians (total all kinds) (=World C) 558,131,000 1,234,339,000 2,000,836,000 1.31 2,135,783,000 2,640,665,000 13. Muslims 199,914,000 549,125,000 1,194,396,000 1.93 1,313,984,000 1,825,283,000 14. Hindus 203,003,000 462,379,000 808,104,000 1.49 870,047,000 1,065,868,000 15. Nonreligious 3,024,000 532,338,000 762,028,000 0.17 768,598,000 806,884,000 16. Chinese universists 380,006,000 231,866,000 390,850,000 0.71 404,922,000 431,956,000 17. Buddhists 127,077,000 232,667,000 362,374,000 0.89 378,809,000 457,048,000 18. Ethnoreligionists 117,558,000 163,477,000 239,108,000 1.40 256,341,000 270,210,000 19. Atheists 226,000 165,391,000 147,212,000 0.58 151,548,000 151,742,000 20. New-Religionists (Neoreligionists) 5,951,000 78,324,000 103,846,000 0.81 108,132,000 122,188,000 21. Sikhs 2,962,000 10,618,000 23,509,000 1.54 25,374,000 31,985,000 22. Jews 12,292,000 15,097,000 14,401,000 1.01 15,146,000 16,895,000 23. Non-Christians (=Worlds A and B) 1,061,494,000 2,458,156,000 4,069,745,000 1.19 4,317,845,000 5,210,790,000 GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY 24. Total Christians as % of world (=World C) 34.5 33.4 33.0 0.08 33.1 33.6 25. Unaffiliated Christians 36,489,000 105,626,000 105,372,000 0.81 109,711,000 112,779,000 26. Affiliated Christians (church members) 521,642,000 1,128,713,000 1,895,464,000 1.34 2,026,072,000 2,527,886,000 27. Church attenders 469,303,000 885,777,000 1,359,420,000 1.04 1,431,573,000 1,760,568,000 28. Evangelicals 71,726,000 98,358,000 224,790,000 2.21 250,776,000 348,648,000 29. Great Commission Christians 77,931,000 277,153,000 650,094,000 1.14 688,034,000 853,179,000 30. Pentecostals/Charismatics/Neocharismatics 981,000 72,223,000 526,916,000 2.24 588,502,000 798,320,000 31. Average Christian martyrs per year 34,400 377,000 160,000 1.10 169,000 210,000 MEMBERSHIP BY 6 ECCLESIASTICAL MEGABLOCS 32. Roman Catholics 266,546,000 665,475,000 1,055,651,000 1.17 1,118,992,000 1,336,338,000 33. Independents 7,931,000 96,926,000 379,085,000 2.39 426,672,000 612,670,000 34. Protestants 103,024,000 211,052,000 347,762,000 1.56 375,814,000 491,084,000 35. Orthodox 115,844,000 139,646,000 214,436,000 0.47 219,501,000 235,834,000 36. Anglicans 30,571,000 47,409,000 75,164,000 1.18 79,719,000 108,257,000 37. Marginal Christians 928,000 11,100,000 29,501,000 2.97 34,150,000 49,768,000 MEMBERSHIP BY 6 CONTINENTS, 21 UN REGIONS 38. Africa (5 regions) 8,756,000 117,227,000 346,415,000 2.36 389,304,000 595,821,000 39. Asia (4 regions) 20,759,000 96,460,000 302,649,000 2.64 344,828,000 498,119,000 40. Europe (including Russia; 4 regions) 368,209,000 467,935,000 532,051,000 -0.04 531,086,000 513,706,000 41. Latin America (3 regions) 60,027,000 263,561,000 477,149,000 1.42 511,908,000 623,355,000 42. Northern America (1 region) 59,570,000 168,943,000 216,221,000 0.95 226,685,000 270,186,000 43. Oceania (4 regions) 4,322,000 14,587,000 20,976,000 1.19 22,258,000 26,691,000 CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS 44. Denominations 1,900 18,800 33,800 1.83 37,000 55,000 45. Congregations (worship centers) 400,000 1,450,000 3,448,000 1.50 3,714,000 5,000,000 46. Service agencies 1,500 14,100 23,000 1.68 25,000 36,000 47. Foreign-mission sending agencies 600 2,200 4,000 1.64 4,340 6,000 CONCILIARISM: ONGOING COUNCILS OF CHURCHES 48. Confessional councils (CWCs, at world level) 40 150 285 1.20 300 380 49. International councils of churches 10 36 59 1.10 62 80 50. National councils of churches 19 283 598 1.50 640 870 51. Local councils of churches 70 2,600 9,000 2.20 10,000 15,500 CHRISTIAN WORKERS (clergy, laypersons) 52. Nationals (citizens; all denominations) 1,050,000 2,350,000 5,104,000 0.97 5,357,000 6,500,000 53. Aliens (foreign missionaries) 62,000 240,000 420,000 1.07 443,000 550,000 CHRISTIAN FINANCE (in US$, per year) 54. Personal income of church members, $ p.a. 270 billion 4,100 billion 15,680 billion 2.04 17,350 billion 26,000 billion 55. Giving to Christian causes, $ p.a. 8 billion 70 billion 270 billion 4.72 340 billion 870 billion 56. Churches’ income, $ p.a. 7 billion 50 billion 108 billion 3.78 130 billion 300 billion 57. Parachurch and institutional income, $ p.a. 1 billion 20 billion 162 billion 5.33 210 billion 570 billion 58. Cost-effectiveness (cost per baptism, $) 17,500 128,000 330,000 2.80 349,000 650,000 59. Ecclesiastical crime, $ p.a. 300,000 5,000,000 16 billion 5.77 21 billion 65 billion 60. Income of global foreign missions, $ p.a. 200,000,000 3.0 billion 15 billion 5.70 20 billion 60 billion 61. Computers in Christian use (numbers) 0 1,000 328 million 6.05 440 million 1,200 million CHRISTIAN LITERATURE (titles, not copies) 62. Books about Christianity 300,000 1,800,000 4,800,000 3.08 5,746,000 11,800,000 63. Christian periodicals 3,500 23,000 35,000 4.20 43,000 100,000 SCRIPTURE DISTRIBUTION (all sources, per year/p.a.) 64. Bibles, p.a. 5,452,600 25,000,000 53,700,000 4.96 68,397,000 180,000,000 65. Scriptures including gospels, selections, p.a. 20 million 281 million 4,600 million 2.24 5,140 million 8,000 million 66. Bible density (copies in place) 108 million 443 million 1,400 million 1.97 1,540 million 2,280 million CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING 67. Total monthly listeners/viewers 0 750,000,000 2,150,000,000 2.30 2,409,000,000 3,800,000,000 68. over Christian stations 0 150,000,000 600,000,000 3.13 700,000,000 1,300,000,000 69. over secular stations 0 650,000,000 1,810,000,000 1.76 1,975,000,000 2,800,000,000 CHRISTIAN URBAN MISSION 70. Non-Christian megacities 5 65 226 1.14 239 300 71. New non-Christian urban dwellers per day 5,200 51,100 129,000 1.79 141,000 200,000 72. Urban Christians 159,600,000 660,800,000 1,160,000,000 1.59 1,255,000,000 1,720,000,000 CHRISTIAN EVANGELISM 73. Evangelism-hours per year 5 billion 25 billion 165 billion 3.86 200 billion 425 billion 74. Hearer-hours (offers) per year 10 billion 99 billion 938 billion 6.23 1,270 billion 4,250 billion 75. Disciple-opportunities (offers) per capita per year 6 27 155 4.96 197 541 WORLD EVANGELIZATION 76. Unevangelized population (=World A) 879,672,000 1,641,300,000 1,717,522,000 0.95 1,800,228,000 2,034,713,000 77. Unevangelized as % of world 54.3 44.4 28.3 -0.28 27.9 25.9 78. World evangelization plans since AD 30 250 510 1,500 2.77 1,720 3,000

January 2005 29 Measuring the status of global Christianity, 2005: the annual megacensus of 190 major religious subjects, from background context to Great Commission Instrument Panel.

The circle describes, under 10 headings, organized Christianitys annual decentralized censuses held by most 1. Background 2. Secular data of its 37,000 denominations, 25,000 service agencies, and Interpretation and analysis of the annual megacen- See WCT Table 12-1, cols. 1-53 (pages 407-413). 5.4 million workers. In aggregate, these are termed here: sus is grounded in the following 6 secular documents. the annual megacensus. Subjects are listed in box 3 below. UN Demographic Database, also WHO, UNDP, etc. 4. Enumerators Resulting data may be located from World Christian Ency- clopedia (WCE) and World Christian Trends (WCT). Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) Like other church leaders, all Roman Catholic bishops New Encyclopaedia Britannica on race, ethnography (pictured in Sistine Chapel) are each required to answer 3. Major religious subjects measured annually Linguasphere register of the worlds languages every year 141 statistical questions concerning their work. The following 190 subjects are quantified by churches, Long-range world population projections to AD 2200 agencies, and missions worldwide each year: World Futures and the UN: 250 books religions, adherents, members, practice, attenders, polls, To the above 6 seminal documents must be added beliefs, sects, cults, megablocs, communions, confes- todays easy electronic access to the 55 million dis- sions, ecclesiastical traditions, councils, conferences, tinct book titles on the shelves of the worlds 50,000 denominations, jurisdictions, dioceses, cathedrals, basil- largest libraries. icas, abbeys, priories, parishes, chapels, churches, wor- ship centers, affiliated members, adult members, their The annual megacensus children, full-time workers, clergy, priests, deacons, pas- tors, ministers, chaplains, lay workers, friars, brothers, monks, contemplatives, bishops, archbishops, metropol- 1. BACKGROUND itans, cardinals, patriarchs, popes, women workers, sis- 5. Questionnaires ters, nuns, lay readers, musicians, choirs, missions, 2. SECULAR DATA preachers, missioners, home missionaries, foreign mis- Each year churches and agencies send their workers 10 million questionnaires in 3,000 languages asking 2,000 sionaries, medical missionaries, missiologists, colpor- 3. SUBJECTS teurs, catechists, evangelists, evangelism, evangelistics, different statistical questions. Total cost of this mega- census: $1.1 billion per annum. evangelization, urban-industrial mission, campaigns, cru- 4. ENUMERATORS sades, audiences, church growth, catechisms, cate- chumens, home visits, converts, baptisms, confirma- 6. Instruments 5. QUESTIONNAIRES tions, ordinations, consecrations, marriages, divorces, These 2,000 measuring devices are enumerated in funerals, excommunications, renewals, revivals, perse- WCT page 48, showing where to find these data. cution, martyrs, service agencies, religious orders, so- 6. INSTRUMENTS cieties, institutes, institutions, youth ministries, schools, 7. Analyzers colleges, universities, study centers, students, hospi- 7. ANALYZERS The Christian world owns 440 million general-purpose tals, clinics, beds, outpatients, medicines, orphanages, computers with access to many supercomputers that research, scholarship, scholars, theologians, libraries, 8. DATABASES work at speeds up to 37 trillion operations a second. holdings, bibliographies, administrators, nuncios, sem- inaries, seminarians, monasteries, convents, sunday- 9. FINDINGS schools, ss teachers, ss pupils, retreats, pilgrimages, lo- gistics, strategies, tactics, global plans, finances, 10. GCIP PANELS offerings, collections, budgets, incomes, expenditures, properties, endowments, assets, embezzlements, audits, literature, tracts, books, magazines, periodicals, jour- 10. Great Commission Instrument Panel (GCIP) nals, newspapers, yearbooks, directories, annual reports, This selection below of a panel composed of the top publications, publishing houses, bookshops, scriptures, 6 instruments critical for the progress of Christs Great scripture distribution, scripture density, scripture use, Commission is designed to serve the worlds 5,000 scripture translations, translators, names for God, trans- computerized GC networks. It enables comparison of portation, travel, itineration, aviation, ships, vehicles, any country with other countries, facilitating strategy, communications, broadcasting, radio/TV stations, lis- tactics, decision making. It aids collaboration to avoid teners, films, viewers, viewings, audiovisuals, corre- every agency working from scratch, overlapping or 8. Databases spondence courses, tapes, discs, videos, DVDs, com- duplicating. It then assists navigation, targeting, up to As in World Christian Database (WCD). puters, computer personnel, e-mail volume, webmasters, closure. WCT Part 15 has GCIPs of the 77 countries websites, hits, networks, futuristics, projections, trends, each with population over 10 million; and WCE Vol- 9. Findings prospects, scenarios. ume 1, Part 4, shows GCIPs of all 238 countries. As reported in WCT Part 1, WCE Part 1, et al.

C=2.5% H=1.2% % 600 $2m e=evangelistic offers $1.5m 80 per capita per year 450 $1 million A=53.2% I=22.3% 60 300 Pakistan P=47.1% E 40 $0.5m Worlds largest M=96.1% 150 B=44.3% R=30.6% Cost per World A country 20 baptism = $12,100 0 0 e 1900 1925 19501975 2000 2025 1900 1925 19501975 2000 2025 C=2.5% 3 Worlds, AD 2000 Religions, AD 2000 Ecclesiastical megablocs Evangelization, 1900-2025 Offers, 1900-2025 Cost-effectiveness, AD 2000

600 $2m T=4.3% M=1.5% R=8.4% % C=7.1% e=evangelistic offers $1.5m 80 per capita per year a=8.1% 450 A=35.2% E $1 million 60 300 China B=8.4% Q=42.2% 40 $0.5m Worlds largest B=57.7% I=90.7% 150 Cost per World B country F=28.5% 20 baptism = $15,800

0 0 e 1900 1925 19501975 2000 2025 1900 1925 19501975 2000 2025 C=7.1% 3 Worlds, AD 2000 Religions, AD 2000 Ecclesiastical megablocs Evangelization, 1900-2025 Offers, 1900-2025 Cost-effectiveness, AD 2000

A=1.5% M=1.5% O=2.6% % 600 $2m J=2.0% m=4.6% E e=evangelistic offers $1.5m B=13.8% Q=9.0% 80 per capita per year 450 $1 million 60 e I=35.8% USA R=26.4% 300 C=84.7% 40 $0.5m Worlds largest C=84.7% 150 Cost per World C country P=29.4% 20 baptism = $1,551,000

0 0 1900 1925 19501975 2000 2025 1900 1925 19501975 2000 2025

3 Worlds, AD 2000 Religions, AD 2000 Ecclesiastical megablocs Evangelization, 1900-2025 Offers, 1900-2025 Cost-effectiveness, AD 2000 2004 Forum for World Evangelization: A Report Wilbert R. Shenk

oming from some 130 nations, 1,517 delegates met socioreligious minorities are among the leading concerns facing CSeptember 29–October 5, 2004, in Pattaya, Thailand, for the world. This setting also provides the context for the ongoing the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization. The Lausanne Com- task of evangelization. mittee for World Evangelization (LCWE), in partnership with One plenary session was devoted to a review of some of the the Great Commission Roundtable, convened the forum around findings of the World Inquiry, a research project coordinated by the theme “A New Vision, a New Heart, a Renewed Call.” Over Luis Bush over the past three years. Of the 6,970 participants in half the delegates—58 percent—came from the Majority World this inquiry, 90 percent were from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. (Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific), and the remaining They met in 117 groups in major cities to reflect on the question: 42 percent were from Europe, Australia–New Zealand, and What are the barriers and opportunities for evangelization in North America. This was the fourth international consultation to your situation? From this exercise there emerged a vision of meet under the Lausanne banner. The first took place in 1974 in transformation as the new paradigm. Lausanne, Switzerland, the second in Pattaya in 1980, and the C. René Padilla, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, developed third in Manila in 1989. the theological basis for transformation. Returning to the theme In preparation for the forum the LCWE executive committee he first addressed in a plenary address at Lausanne 1974, Padilla commissioned Peter Brierley, senior Lausanne associate for re- asked rhetorically, “What are the marks of a church which, search, to conduct a global survey that would identify what through the power of the Spirit, is prepared to fulfill its role in its own surroundings as ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light of the world,’ a task to which all followers of Jesus Christ have been called?” A primary requirement for “practicing integral mission is to be an Evangelicals have tended to integral church.” Evangelicals have tended to allow pragmatic allow pragmatic concerns to concerns to override their theological vision. Padilla argued that override their theological the strategic should serve the theological imperative. Otherwise the result will be a reduced or emaciated Gospel. vision. Padilla argued that Richard Howell, executive director of the Evangelical Fel- the strategic should serve lowship of India, spoke movingly of initiatives being taken by various groups of Christians in India to work for justice on behalf the theological imperative. of Dalits and other marginalized peoples by drawing on all dimensions of the Christian Gospel. In a summary of affirmations issued at the end of the forum, Christians regard as the main obstacles to effective evangeliza- six themes were stressed. tion at the beginning of the new century, as well as the key opportunities. At the outset Brierley noted that two develop- 1. The church must give priority to those peoples who have ments will shape Christian reality in the coming century: (1) had no access to the Gospel. Majority World Christians account for 60 percent of the total 2. We must renew our commitment to ministries of love Christian population, and (2) evangelicals are the dominant force and compassion. in world Christianity. 3. The church in the Majority World is leading the way in Brierley’s survey identified thirty-one priority issues, in- evangelization. cluding globalization, holistic mission, transformation of cities, 4. A large group of people in today’s world consists of “oral marketplace evangelism, and religious nationalism. Issue groups learners,” who must be communicated with other than were organized to grapple with each of the thirty-one themes, by written materials. and twenty hours were dedicated to working in these groups. 5. The church must use the media effectively in order to The assignment of each was to investigate its particular theme, draw nonbelievers Christward. demonstrate the significance of the issue for evangelization, 6. We reaffirm the priesthood of all believers and encour- propose action steps, and produce a 25,000-word report. It is age the church to equip women, men, and youth for anticipated that many of these group reports will be published as participation in the ministry of the church. occasional papers. Many evangelicals regard the Lausanne Covenant adopted The forum concluded with the installation of new leaders of by the Lausanne Congress in 1974 as a landmark. The covenant LCWE. Doug Birdsall, president of Asian Access, was elected has served as a theological benchmark for evangelicals, and it has LCWE executive chair, and Ted Yamamori, president emeritus fostered unity and cooperation. But it is also recognized that over of Food for the Hungry International, will be the LCWE interna- the past thirty years much has changed. The HIV/AIDS pan- tional director. Six regional deputy directors were also appointed: demic had not been heard of in 1974, and globalization has Paul Choi (East Asia), Adrian de Visser (South Asia), Fiodor steadily gained momentum. Religious nationalism, terrorism, MoKan (Eastern Europe), Norberto Saracco (Latin America), oppression of children, the neglect of the disabled, pervasive Kadebe Daniel Bourdanne (Francophone Africa), and John poverty, powerful global media, and the persecution of Azumah (Anglophone Africa).

Wilbert R. Shenk, a contributing editor, is Professor of Mission History and Contemporary Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.

January 2005 31 The Archives on the History of Christianity in China at Hong Kong Baptist University Library: Its Development, Significance, and Future Kylie Chan

he Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) is a regional and mass education.”3 In addition, women missionaries made Tpioneer in establishing a valuable archives collection on important contributions as educators, role models, and social the history of Christianity in China, with the aim of preserving service workers. various facets of the Christian heritage in China.1 Archival materials on Christianity in China help to shed light on the anti-Christian movements in the 1920s that were Archives on the History of Christianity in China supported by political parties hoping to raise their political profile. Some recently surfaced publications on the Chinese The Archives on the History of Christianity in China (AHC) churches under the People’s Republic of China will allow more collection, consisting mainly of materials in either English or understanding of official churches, that is, the Catholic Patriotic Chinese, covers topics of Chinese Christians, missionaries, church Association and the Three-Self Movement, as well as of their history, and the history of Christianity in China. The archives counterparts among the underground churches. emphasizes the period before 1950. At the end of 2003, there were 3,084 volumes of monographs (2,078 in English and 1,006 in Development and Mission of the Archives Chinese), and 31,000 microform items, with thirty linear feet of archival records on the history of Christianity in China. Although Christianity first spread into China over 1,300 years The archives contains over 200 biographies and memoirs ago, formal research on the history of Chinese Christianity did detailing prominent missionaries, such as Hudson Taylor, James not begin before the 1930s and the 1940s.4 From 1949 to 1976 Outram Fraser, Karl Ludvig Reichelt, David Abeel, and John missionary activities in China were considered to be associated Leighton Stuart. The archives contains various valuable and with Western imperialism. With the open-door policy adopted in scarce materials, including letters and postcards written by China in the late 1970s, studies have been undertaken of the Frederick Webb and 219 lantern slides taken by missionaries of history of cultural exchange between China and other nations the China Inland Mission. These lantern slides, useful in docu- and have consequently aroused scholars’ interest in researching menting the social and economic activities of the Chinese from the history of Christianity in China. the 1900s to the 1930s, were donated to the HKBU Library by the The initial search for archival materials on Christianity in Billy Graham Center, Wheaton, Illinois. China began sporadically in the early 1960s in North America. In The library also includes later works. For example, of the 183 the first decade or two, scholars who wished to study the influ- titles discussed by Jessie G. Lutz in “Chinese Christianity and ence of Christianity in China needed to spend most of their time China Missions: Works Published Since 1970,”2 120 titles are held doing research in Europe or the United States, which was where by the various archives in HKBU. most primary sources were. Things began to change in 1987, when “a new law was passed in China [that] promised a gradual Importance of the Archives release of historical archives including [those of] Christian col- leges in China. Around the same time, many universities and One of the growing areas of study in Asia is the history of institutions that were formerly related to Christian colleges in Christian missions in China. Faculty members of the Department China began to write their own histories.”5 of History and the Department of Religion and Philosophy of The study of the history of Christian colleges in China was HKBU have come to recognize that this is a new source of further encouraged by a conference in 1987 at Sichuan University documentation for the study of East-West relations. Besides under a project on Sino-Western universities in Chinese society bringing religious teaching to China, missionaries played an sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation.6 In 1993 an interna- important role in the transfer of knowledge and values between tional symposium entitled “Historical Archives of Pre-1949 Chris- East and West, helping to cross-fertilize the distinctive cultures tian Higher Education in China” was held in the Chinese Univer- of Confucianism and Christianity. Missionaries had a long-term sity of Hong Kong. It demonstrated to scholars the value of impact on Christian education, the adoption of Western medi- Christian archives in exploring the significance of Christian cine, and social services in China as they established Christian education in the development of modern education in China, schools, hospitals, orphanages, and publishing houses. Christian East-West relationships, and East-West cultural exchanges in the missions contributed to leaders’ training “in the fields of educa- nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This topic of interest tion and medicine; in the introduction of professions such as was further reinforced locally by three symposia held at HKBU: journalism, nursing and dentistry, library science, physical edu- the International Symposium on the History of Christianity in cation, and agriculture; in the fostering of formal education for China (1996), the Second Symposium on the History of Christian- women; [and] in the inculcation of ideals of civic responsibility ity in Modern China (2001), and the Third Symposium on the History of Christianity in Modern China—History of Christian- ity in Hong Kong (2003). Kylie Chan is Associate Librarian (Technical and Collection Services) of the In 1989 Barton Starr, a Southern Baptist missionary educator Hong Kong Baptist University Library in Hong Kong. She has been working in with the HKBU Department of History, started his research work academic libraries for nearly two decades and joined the HKBU Library in 2000. on Robert Morrison (1782–1834) and, in the same year, estab-

32 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 lished the Morrison Research Center in the department. Besides and 1935–51), and Kwangsi-Hunan Mission (1911–34 collecting manuscripts of Robert Morrison, Starr also collected a and 1935–51), selected files in Missions to Women, and number of journal issues from the nineteenth and twentieth selected files in Central Records; centuries, as well as archival records of different mission boards • Conference of British Missionary Societies Archives (Zug, relevant to the history of Christianity in China. Switzerland), containing area files of China; In 1995, while Starr’s collection was increasing, he and • International Missionary Council Archives, 1910–1961 (Zug, Lauren Pfister of the Department of Religion and Philosophy Switzerland), holding selected country files including recommended establishing an “Archive for the Study of Chris- China and Hong Kong; tian Missions in China.”7 They sought to (1) make research • Presbyterian Church of England Foreign Missions Archives, materials readily available locally in Hong Kong for the increas- 1847–1950 (Zug, Switzerland); ing number of scholars, researchers, pastors, and seminary stu- • Religious Education Fellowship Bulletin (Shanghai, China); dents from Asia interested in the study of Christian missions in • Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (London) Archive China, where the history occurred; (2) preserve the records of the (Zug, Switzerland), holding subseries of Home and Gen- multidimensional Christian heritage in Asia for the sake of eral, China, Special Series, Women’s Work Collection: scholarly research; and (3) enhance the distinctive image of the Minutes, Reports, Correspondence China, and Overseas university. With the approval of HKBU and the support given by Schedules. the university library, the Archives on the History of Christianity in China (AHC) was officially established in the library building Generous donations from well-known local researchers on the in October 1996. Hong Kong is the ideal location for this archive history of Christianity in Hong Kong, including social activists because of its connection with Protestant missionaries in China. Rev. Carl T. Smith and Elsie Tu, have further enriched the And HKBU is an appropriate place, given its Christian heritage collections in recent years. and ethos, as well as the research already being undertaken by its academic personnel. Some Current Activities and Goals According to its 1997 mission statement, “The Archives pursues the collection of materials relevant to the study of The collections of the archives are constantly growing. We are Christianity in China, regardless of denomination or nationality. gratefully accepting items from Christian charitable organiza- These concern Chinese Christians, or missionaries, and will tions. Despite the current level of openness in China, it is often include materials such as biographies, letters, diaries, church not an easy task to acquire Chinese materials, especially rare or histories, and periodicals in English, or Chinese. The Archives out-of-print books. It has been very time-consuming to identify has aimed at collecting both primary and secondary source relevant titles held in the universities and libraries in China. materials, majoring on (but not exclusively) pre-1950.” Nevertheless, the AHC has so far managed to obtain microfilm The University Library and Teaching Development Grant of copies of out-of-print Chinese books on the history of Christian- the University funded the acquisition of materials during the ity from a few universities in China. In addition, the AHC has early phase of establishment. The archives concurrently applied for funds and endowments from various foundations and was subsequently awarded a three-year grant of US$120,000 by the Hong Kong is the ideal prestigious Henry Luce Foundation in 1997. This grant has affirmed the importance of and need for further research into the location for this archive history of Christianity in China and can also be seen as a sign of because of its connection confidence in the establishment of archives in HKBU. The collection has a focus on the period before 1950, with with Protestant materials after 1950 being selectively collected. The archives missionaries in China. began actively soliciting records of Chinese Christians, Protes- tant missionary activities, churches, and related institutions in China. The materials collected have been mainly in Chinese and recently acquired a significant collection of over two hundred English, with Japanese, Korean, German, French, and other rare out-of-print books in English on missions or Christianity in languages also represented. China. They had been in the library of the Society for Promoting Major archives acquisitions have included the following in Christian Knowledge in London. microform: Because of the growing demand to access archival materials in full text online, HKBU has developed an AHC Web page • The Archives of the Council for World Mission, 1775–1940 (http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/lib/collections/sca-christian.html) (Zug, Switzerland), incorporating the archives of the linked to the library home page and the UNESCO Archives London Missionary Society, selected sub-series includ- Portal. Useful related links on the study of Christianity, mission- ing Committee Minutes, Candidates Papers, Home, aries, and churches, as well as a link to the Journal of the History of China General, Fukien, South China, North China, and Christianity in Modern China, published by the Department of Central China; History of HKBU, have been established. This journal, published • Bulletin of the East China Christian Educational Association since 1998, is indexed in Historical Abstracts; currently its table of (Shanghai, China); contents and abstracts of papers can be viewed online. • Church Missionary Society Archive (Marlborough, En- gland), including selected files in East Asia Missions Future acquisitions. We will continue to develop the AHC collec- pertaining to the China Mission (1834–1914), South China tion, adding both English- and Chinese-language materials. The Mission (1885–1934 and 1935–51), Western China Mis- major online bookstores are important places to search for rare sion (1898–1934 and 1935–51), Fukien Mission (1911–34 books relating to the history of Christianity in China. In addition,

January 2005 33 it is possible to find missionary manuscripts, letters, or rare books newspaper clippings in the collection is prohibitive. The project through stamp auctions or auction sites on the Web. was completed in June 2004. This “Christianity in Contemporary Many Christian archival materials available in the Western China Clippings Database” is available at http:// world about Christianity in China are mission oriented, but very www.hkbu.edu.hk/lib/electronic/christian_c.html. few of them are about local churches in China. Archival materials from organizations in China other than university libraries, such Regional cooperation. The archives sees the importance of coopera- as Christian schools, hospitals, and social service institutions, tion and of developing projects with other Christian organiza- which are commonly neglected, are as important as the conven- tions. The university library is an active member of the Hong tional university archival materials and will be targets of collec- Kong Archives Society, a local organization of archives and tion. archivists. The archives is making plans to develop a collection of As Peter Ng has noted, “There are huge collections of archi- relevant dissertations and theses, in both English and Chinese, val materials from Christian colleges in China. The estimate is on the history of Christianity in China. Also, the history of all more than 13,000 volumes.”8 They are widely spread over China, local churches in Hong Kong will be an important area of as well as in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and several Western countries, research. in university libraries and institutions associated with former Christian colleges. Many valuable personal archives that be- Digitization projects. The archives has been at work on two digi- longed to missionary educators in China can be located in tization projects. (In the summer of 2002 the library acquired a national, provincial, and municipal archives throughout the system that incorporates special thesauri of Chinese phrases, country. Shanghai Municipal Archives and the Second Histori- cal Archives in Nanjing are the two most dominant. A series of catalogs of Christian university archives in China was published There are huge collections by Ng and others in 1996–98.9 It is hoped that a network of regional and international scholars, researchers, and archivists of archival materials from can be formed. Every opportunity will be explored to facilitate Christian colleges in China. the exchange of documentation and archival materials between cooperative institutions for the common goal of returning the history to the people of China, for the preservation of memories synonyms, and subject headings, which facilitate searching and of our past, so that they can help shape our present and our indexing, with an added capability of URL linkage to the records.) future. The first project was to digitize the lantern slides held by the AHC, which was accomplished in the summer of 2003. Informa- Conclusion tion regarding the collection of lantern slides, entitled “China Through the Eyes of China Inland Mission Missionaries,” can be By establishing its Archives on the History of Christianity in accessed at http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/lib/electronic/ China, HKBU has become a regional pioneer. Many primary lantern.html. source materials and records of local churches are at risk if The second project is to digitize a small subset of the library’s appropriate preservation measures are not adopted. The HKBU large holdings of Chinese newspaper clippings covering the Archives on the History of Christianity in China recognizes the period from 1950 to 1976. This project contains more than 1600 value of such a collection and has developed a vision of rescuing clippings pertaining to the development of churches and Chris- and preserving the memory. tianity in China during this period. These newspaper clippings If we lose our way to the past, we lose our way to the future. are major components of the Contemporary China Research Although the challenges and tasks we are facing in the HKBU Collection, which were purchased from the former Union Re- archives can be daunting, I believe they will only motivate our search Institute (Hong Kong) in the 1980s and are kept at the library staff to remain dedicated and active in maintaining Special Collections and Archives in the library. A subset was functional archives that will indeed preserve a part of China’s selected to be digitized because the cost of digitizing all the living memory.

Notes 1. I am grateful to J. Barton Starr, Lauren F. Pfister, Shirley Leung, and 6. Ibid., p. xv. Irene Wong for their help in the preparation of this article. 7. J. Barton Starr and Lauren F. Pfister, “A Proposal for the Senate to 2. Jessie G. Lutz, “Chinese Christianity and China Missions: Works Consider Concerning the Establishment of an ‘Archive for the Study Published Since 1970,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 20, of Christian Missions in China’” (unpublished proposal addressed no. 3 (1996): 98–106. to the president and vice-chancellor of the Hong Kong Baptist 3. Ibid., p. 105. University, April 5, 1995). 4. Zhang Kaiyuan, “Chinese Perspective—a Brief Review of the 8. Peter Tze Ming Ng, “Historical Archives in Chinese Christian Colleges Historical Research on Christianity in China,” in China and Christianity: from Before 1949,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 20, no. Burdened Past, Hopeful Future, ed. Stephen Uhalley, Jr., and Xiaoxin 3 (1996): 106–8. Wu (Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe, 2001). 9. Peter Tze Ming Ng et al., Zhongguo jiaohui daxue wenxian mulu 5. Peter Tze Ming Ng, “Historical Archives of Pre-1949 China Christian (Catalogs of documents on Christian colleges in China), 5 vols. Colleges and Recent Development of Research on Education in the (Hong Kong: Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, Chung Chi College, People’s Republic of China (Abstract)” in Essays on Historical Archives 1996–98). of Christian Higher Education in China (in Chinese), ed. Peter Tze Ming Ng (Hong Kong: Chinese Univ. Press, 1995), p. 18.

34 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 My Pilgrimage in Mission Thomas Hale, Jr.

was born in 1937 in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew It was sixteen years between my call to Nepal and our Iup in a culturally Christian home. My family went to arrival. People sometimes comment about how faithful I was church; I went to Sunday school. We said prayers and sang during those years, but I always tell them that God’s faithfulness, hymns. If you had asked me in my early teens if I was a Christian, not mine, kept me on track. And that faithfulness has remained I would have unhesitatingly said yes. true every day of my life since. Then I met God. I was sixteen, a junior at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, when God entered my life. In a way I More than Need had never experienced before, I became aware of his presence, his power, his holiness, and his care for me. He showed me that My early spiritual pilgrimage was not all steady and upward. I had been living for myself and that he wanted me to live for him Several months after my initial encounter with God, the marvel- instead. I felt him asking me to give him my life, and so I said ous joy and elation that I had experienced went away. I was yes—little knowing all that was involved. tempted to think it had just been a passing phase of adolescence. Two days later I came across a brochure describing the My parents certainly thought so. They refrained from comment- opening of the first mission hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. The ing on my plans to go to Nepal, preferring simply to wait until I year was 1954. I had hardly heard of Nepal, except that I knew grew out of it. But God never let the vision die. And then on that Mount Everest was there. The brochure described Nepal as first day of medical school, he put into effect his plan for resus- having the earth’s lowest standard of health, the lowest number citating my spiritual life, namely, a cute fellow student named of doctors per 1,000 population, and the lowest average life Cynthia, standing across that cadaver. expectancy—twenty-seven years. In addition, it had the lowest When we arrived in Nepal, we were assigned to a partially number of known Christians—zero. The brochure went on to say constructed rural mission hospital seventy miles northwest of that doctors were urgently needed to staff the new mission Kathmandu, situated near the base of 26,000-foot mountains. hospital. One had to walk fifteen miles from the nearest road to reach the Having just given my life to God, I concluded that through hospital. There were only three doctors—myself, Cynthia, and this brochure God was giving me instructions for my life: to be a Helen Huston of Canada—to serve a population of half a million medical missionary to Nepal. Again I said yes, with small aware- needy people. (In most parts of North America there are over a ness of what I was getting into. I had been a Christian only two thousand doctors for each half million population.) My call from days. the beginning had centered on need—in particular, physical and Fortunately, God confirms his call in various ways; I never earthly need. I believed that the need constituted the call. Nepal advise anyone to simply pick up a brochure and do what it says. needed doctors, so I became a doctor to meet that need. I felt that My own call was confirmed many times throughout my univer- my missionary call was simply to go out to Nepal and love people sity days. Mount Everest had recently been climbed for the first by meeting their physical needs. time, and Nepal was in the news. I read National Geographic However, after interaction and discussion with missionary articles on Nepal. My love for Nepal and its people grew and colleagues in Nepal and especially with Cynthia, I began to feel grew. that my understanding of the missionary call was inadequate. The most wonderful way in which God confirmed my call to First, I realized that the call to missions was, properly speaking, medical missions came on my first day of medical school in not constituted by the need but rather by God’s Word, together Albany, New York, when I met my wife-to-be, Cynthia—literally with the Holy Spirit. The need, then, was a form of guidance as over a dead body. We had been assigned as lab partners in to how one fulfilled the call. We cannot say that the need is not anatomy, the first course in medical school. After a few weeks of important, for, all things being equal, God wants to use us where dissecting that cadaver together, I finally got up the courage to our skills and experience are needed most. ask Cynthia why she was studying medicine, for there were few But second, I realized that I had been focusing too much on women in medicine back then. Cynthia replied, “God has called physical need. Here we were, saving lives almost every day, yet me to be a medical missionary.” in a few years these same people would eventually die of some- “Wow,” I said, “same with me.” thing else. And then what? Healing people’s bodies without Cynthia did not know to which country God had called her, healing their souls was at best a temporary benefit. but I was able to clarify that detail. We concluded that God Furthermore, I began to realize that meeting people’s physi- wanted us to do it together. We were married in the second year cal needs alone tended to turn their attention away from spiritual of medical school during pathology class. We finished our train- matters. Patients would go away from our hospital healed in ing—mine was in general surgery, and Cynthia’s was in pediat- body but less aware of their spiritual need than when they came. rics—and after my obligatory stint as a surgeon during the It was as if our physical ministry was undermining our spiritual Vietnam War, we went off to Nepal in 1970, taking with us our ministry. two small sons, one and four years old. It was Cynthia who led us to reevaluate our medical work and to begin placing more emphasis on meeting the spiritual Thomas Hale, Jr., and his wife, Cynthia, served as medical missionaries in Nepal needs of patients. This goal was not easy to reach in a country between 1970 and 1996 under the United Mission to Nepal and their sending where it was illegal to proselytize and also illegal for Nepalis to agency, Interserve. He is the author of three books on his family’s missionary become Christians. But we prayed for opportunities to witness, experiences in Nepal and also of On Being a Missionary (William Carey to discreetly share our faith. We prayed increasingly that God Library, 1995), an overview of the missionary vocation. would open people’s hearts to the Gospel. We came to realize

January 2005 35 that our calling as medical missionaries was not simply to love otherwise have benefited from safe and simple surgical proce- people but to love them in such a way that they would encounter dures. But above all, each death negated the purpose for which Christ and be drawn to him. Medicine and other social ministries I had trained as a surgeon and come to Nepal. I had many are often called preevangelism, but if evangelism proper does conversations with the Lord about this matter. not follow, in one form or another, then the ministry will bear no One day, after the particularly heart-wrenching lasting fruit. (nonanesthetic) death of a patient following elective surgery, I When Cynthia and I arrived in Nepal in 1970, there were, out felt like throwing in the towel. I poured my heart out to the Lord. of a population of fifteen million, fewer that one thousand Nepali He said to me, “Why are you cast down? After all, these are not believers—up from zero in 1950. Our mission hospital was your patients; they are my patients. You are merely my assistant. located near the top of a 5,000-foot “foothill,” and from our house Let me carry this burden for you. Furthermore, how can you talk we could look out over scores of other foothills dotted with about quitting? Did I not provide you with all your surgical thatch-roofed villages, encompassing a population of several instruments?” Yes, he had—and in an extraordinary way. I had obtained, essentially free of charge, every possible instrument that I could ever need from two U.S. Army hospitals. With no advance It has often been said that knowledge or coordination, the hundreds and hundreds of the number one problem instruments from the hospitals exactly complemented each other, for missionaries on the field so that I ended up with neither too few nor too many of any single instrument. On dark days I learned to remember the marvelous is interpersonal conflict things the Lord had done for me and to draw strength to carry on. with other missionaries. I was learning many other things too. I learned, for example, what happens if you almost kill a cow in a Hindu kingdom. Talk I found it to be true. about a cross-cultural experience! In Nepal the penalty for killing a cow is life imprisonment—the same as for killing a human— which technically means eighteen years (I suppose because no hundred thousand non-Christians. How was our little church of one survives Nepali prisons longer than that). I had not intended a dozen or so Nepali believers going to make a difference in that to kill the cow, only to drive it out of Cynthia’s vegetable garden. vast spiritual desert? I used a small sickle to poke the cow, but unfortunately I poked Tiny trickling streams ran down our mountain into the a hole in the main artery of the cow’s hind leg, and the animal surrounding valleys. But when the monsoon rains came in the nearly bled to death. It hovered between life and death for many summer, those little trickling streams would turn into rushing days, and so did I. The cow was one of my early surgical patients. torrents, flooding the land below. After watching the monsoon No patient of mine, before or since, has received more diligent seasons come and go for several years, I remember one year care and attention. when the rains came late. The land was parched; the streams Happily, most of my learning experiences were not so dra- were dry. I was sitting out on our lawn reading a book by Michael matic. Most important were the things I learned from my mis- Harper, when I came across a line that struck me. Harper was sionary colleagues, such as how to get along with them. It has commenting on John 7:38 about the “rivers of living water” that often been said that the number one problem for missionaries on would flow from believers, and he concluded by asking (para- the field is interpersonal conflict with other missionaries. I would phrased): “Why pray for trickles, when the world needs rivers?” never have believed it, but I found it to be true. Tiny spiritual trickles were going to do little for that vast I recall the day Cynthia and I went for our interview with spiritual desert surrounding us. So together with fellow mission- Interserve’s director, a Britisher, before joining the mission. Of all aries and Nepali Christians, we began praying for rivers of living the questions he asked during the hour-long interview, I can water to flow down our mountain and flood the valleys below. remember only one: “Have you ever worked with British people?” In other parts of Nepal, the same kind of prayer was being lifted I thought, “What’s the point of that question? What difference is up. In God’s sovereign grace, his Spirit moved across the land, that going to make?” Now I know. and now as a result, thirty years later, there are at least half a In Nepal I worked overtime learning all the practical lessons million Nepali believers—this in a land where it is still illegal for the Bible teaches about interpersonal relations. I learned that a Nepali to become a Christian. Yes, the world needs rivers; why Satan’s chief tactic is to bring division between Christians, and pray for something less? that he does so primarily through interpersonal conflict. I saw that if he could produce disunity within a Christian team, he New Lessons would rob us of our fruit. Perhaps that is why there are over sixty verses in the New Testament telling us to remain united—not so I was thirty-two when we began our adventure in Nepal. The much organizationally, but spiritually and personally. Working learning curve was steep! I was a “fully trained” surgeon, yet I in international teams in a foreign setting is a stretching and needed almost total retraining in order to work in that bare-bones refining experience. Sadly, not everyone survives it. mission hospital stuck out in the Himalayan foothills at the end As I look back on my years in Nepal, an overall lesson of a fifteen-mile trail. One major problem was that I had no one emerges. As I experienced the culture shock, the primitive con- qualified to give anesthetics. Therefore, periodically patients ditions, the surgical deaths, the misunderstandings and con- died from an anesthetic accident. To this day, I remember every flicts, and, above all, my own personal failings, I realized that I death. It did not help to reflect that almost all these patients was not up to any of it, that there was no way I could bear any would have died anyway without surgical treatment. Modern lasting fruit by my own strength and resolve. I relearned in a medicine—surgery, in particular—was new in our area of Nepal, deeper way the meaning of Jesus’ words, which I had known so these deaths served to frighten away patients who would since becoming a Christian: “Apart from me you can do noth-

36 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 ing.” I came to know experientially that those words were true. pealing, I eventually realized I would need either to accept the For me, that is the greatest lesson of the missionary life. When new assignment or to resign from the mission. After much prayer people ask me what has blessed me most about being a mission- and inner struggle, I decided to submit to the decision of the ary, I answer, “The chance to learn real dependence upon God.” mission leaders. I still had no peace about the new assignment, but I did have peace about submitting. To have resigned at that Struggling to Speak point would have amounted to insubordination. Three months later the decision was reversed. New circum- An additional struggle I had was learning the Nepali language. stances had arisen. However, a new missionary surgeon had I knew that if I wanted to communicate the Gospel to Nepalis already been assigned to our old hospital, and for the first time (virtually none in our area spoke English), I had to learn their during our years in Nepal, the mission had all its surgical language. However, in terms of language ability, I was definitely positions filled. At that very time of wondering what I should do at the bottom of the class (exactly the opposite of Cynthia!). I have next, one of the leading Nepali Christians approached me and spent close to five thousand hours studying Nepali and still suggested that I write a one-volume New Testament commen- mangle the language; Cynthia spent a tenth of that time and tary in Nepali. This suggestion was subsequently confirmed by speaks like a Nepali. all the major leaders of the Nepali church. So I embarked upon For many years I fretted with the Lord over my linguistic what, by any rational assessment, was a most unlikely project: a ineptitude. If he wanted me to be leading Bible studies, sharing surgeon with no formal Bible training and poor verbal language in church services, and so forth (which I was sure he did), then skills writing a commentary on the New Testament. why was he not helping me more? Why was he causing me to In an extraordinary manner God provided a Nepali co- waste hours upon hours learning grammar and vocabulary, worker named Tirtha Dhakal. I had pretty well mastered the reading Nepali books and newspaper editorials, and still leaving grammar and vocabulary (thanks to those thousands of “wasted” me at a fourth-grade level when it came to actually speaking with hours studying Nepali), but I had no ear for the language and people? This frustration was all the more perplexing because gradu- ally over the years I had been experiencing a greater and greater One of the leading Nepali burden for teaching the new Nepali believers. In about 1980 John Stott came to speak at our annual workers conference in Nepal. Christians approached me He told us that in places where the church was growing fastest, and suggested that I write a teaching and discipling of new believers often lagged behind. He said that, in his view, the greatest need of the church in many one-volume New Testament fields was for teaching, which corresponded with what we were commentary in Nepali. seeing in Nepal. (In mission history, it seems fair to say that establishing the church is one part evangelism and nine parts teaching and disciple making.) needed help from someone who did. Tirtha was a math teacher At that conference Stott set aside an afternoon during which whom Cynthia had led to the Lord years earlier. He had the ear he offered to pray with individual missionaries. Cynthia and I but could not construct a Nepali sentence on his own. We were met with him and asked him to pray that we might have an like the proverbial deaf man and blind man, pooling our skills. anointing as teachers. Perhaps I unconsciously hoped that his When the commentary was published five years later, the Nepali prayer might improve my ability to speak Nepali! But no church had grown to 150,000. The mission’s decision may have discernable improvement resulted. I struggled on, preparing been wrong, but God’s decision had been right. messages and Bible studies, and practicing their delivery ad Other language groups expressed an interest in having the nauseam. commentary published in their languages, and so I rewrote it in At about that time I was struck by a statement in J. Herbert English (with general articles contributed by Stephen Thorson, a Kane’s book Life and Work on the Mission Field, to the effect that the fellow medical missionary in Nepal) in order to facilitate its greatest need on the mission field was for teaching material to translation. To my surprise, the English version was subse- use in discipling the newly emerging churches. I began to think quently published by Kingsway in England and by Victor Books about writing such material. I even thought about writing a New in the United States for English-speaking readers, under the title Testament commentary in Nepali, though most of the believers Applied New Testament Commentary. It has now been translated or were illiterate. (By this time the church had grown to ten thou- is being translated into twenty-five languages around the world, sand or so.) But where was I going to find the time for such a and from our current home in upstate New York, I am engaged venture? I was the only surgeon for half a million people, and in in writing a companion commentary on the Old Testament. spite of those early anesthetic deaths, the number of surgical I can only think that when God wants a particular work patients was increasing year by year. done, he chooses an unlikely person—a “nothing,” to use Paul’s Then an interesting thing happened. The mission decided to thought in 1 Corinthians 1:28—to accomplish his purpose. What transfer us to another project. It came as a great shock. I deeply a surprising list of things I have witnessed in the past nearly half believed the decision itself was wrong—and still do. After ap- century that clearly illustrate this passage!

January 2005 37 The Legacy of Ernest Oliver Richard Tiplady

rnest Oliver—the first executive secretary of the United we should not spend too much time in preparation, we must get EMission to Nepal (1954–61), executive secretary of the out to the place of God’s calling as quickly as possible, for the Regions Beyond Missionary Union (1961–76), the first general Lord’s return was imminent.” secretary of the Evangelical Missionary Alliance (1966–83), and This experience was to influence his work in later life. As a director of Tearfund (1976–86)—was one of the most influential executive secretary of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union figures in the British evangelical missionary movement in the (RBMU), and later as general secretary of the Evangelical Mis- twentieth century. His clear sense of the priorities for Christian sionary Alliance (EMA), he supported the development of an mission in the middle of the twentieth century left a legacy that appropriate missions course for inclusion in the curriculum of all still shapes much of the British evangelical missionary move- EMA member colleges. He taught various of the courses from ment. 1961 to 1983, and his notes from that time represent a comprehen- Oliver was born in London on August 20, 1911. One of three sive and somewhat prescient introduction to the emerging disci- children, he grew up attending the local Baptist church in Chelsea. pline of missiology. He left school when he was sixteen, having been baptized the Oliver entered All Nations Bible College fully convinced previous year. He spent three years at the Hammersmith School that he was preparing to go to work in Belgian Congo with of Art in London, concurrent with a six-year apprenticeship to an RBMU. In January 1934, however, a devastating earthquake hit architectural calligrapher. Nepal and the Ganges Valley in Bihar, North India, and in a Interested in missionary work from an early age, Oliver prayer meeting after hearing the news, Oliver sensed a strong described the annual Missionary Sunday in his local church as call instead to Nepal. RBMU had worked in North Bihar since “the most exciting Sunday of the year to me.” Following his 1899, with a view to the ultimate opening of Nepal, but had since baptism, he moved from Sunday school teaching to open-air decided to suspend sending of new missionaries to the region preaching and preaching in local churches and mission halls, all because of the lack of results and the seeming impassability of the by the age of eighteen. He described his call to missionary service Nepal border. But then a supporter of the mission sent funds overseas as “a process, largely the outcome of a growing under- specifically for sending two new workers to India, and so Oliver standing of the Word of God in relation to his love for the world was accepted for work in North Bihar. and his passion for the salvation of all.” However, he also wrote During his time at college, Oliver spent some time working of a sense of assurance of a call, which happened while attending with the Caravan Mission in Suffolk in the east of England. Many a circus and amusement park with a group of young people from of the young people on those missions visited a particular house his church, through which “the Lord spoke to me about wasting for times of fellowship, and it was on one such visit that Ernest my time on trivial amusements and showed me that I had to walk met Margaret, one of the daughters of the household, who firmly and resolutely in pursuance of his call.” Neither was he worked as a schoolteacher. Margaret’s home had often been taken aback by his mother’s question, “Who do you think you frequented by visiting missionaries, and she had long had an are, David Livingstone?” when he informed her of his decision. interest in missionary work in India. Both of them later said that In their devout household, to be a missionary was regarded as they knew instantly that they would marry one another. the ultimate in Christian service. Yet his sense of call was never Margaret’s family was Christian Brethren, and Oliver made this based on his own sense of ability or worth: “I was naturally tradition his spiritual home, whose outlook shaped both his somewhat shy and timid, content to do the tasks assigned to me devotional life and his ecclesiology. as well as I was able, but with no pretensions of being a leader. It Mission rules forbade the recruitment of married missionar- took quite a time to wean me from the prayer ‘give me tasks equal ies, and so Ernest sailed alone to India in 1935, as Margaret went to my ability’ to ‘give me ability equal to my tasks.’”1 to Mount Hermon Missionary Training College. It was also required that missionaries had to be in country for a year, and to Training and Early Ministry pass language exams, before they were allowed to marry (a reasonably sure incentive to study!), and so while Margaret In 1933 Oliver left his apprenticeship and enrolled at All Nations joined him in India in 1937, they were not married until 1938. Bible College in South London. He later wrote of this time; “The course was not very demanding intellectually, but its value for Bihar, North India me lay in its emphasis upon the authority and content of the Bible, its cultivation of a devotional life, its wide window on the Ernest and Margaret were based in Motihari, the main town of world, and the disciplining experience of living in community. the district of Champaran in North Bihar. It was this district that . . . There was no attempt to produce ‘the compleat missionary’ Mahatma Gandhi made the center of his campaign of satyagraha at the end of two years, but it was a worthy and purposeful (nonviolent noncooperation) for the workers exploited by the launching pad for the takeoff into God’s great adventure over- indigo planters and for the end of British imperial rule in India. seas for many of us. There was an urgency abroad in those days: In 1939 Oliver was privileged to have an audience with Gandhi himself and wrote later of being “greatly impressed by him.”2 Language learning merged into evangelism and basic medi- Richard Tiplady works in the United Kingdom as an organizational develop- cal work using the common drugs available. Oliver decided to ment consultant, specializing in innovation, new projects, and start-ups. From try to learn more about medicine, and while attending a mission 1996 to 2002 he was associate director of Global Connections (previously known hospital in Raxaul on the Nepal border, he befriended a minor as the Evangelical Missionary Alliance). member of the Nepali royal family, Nararaj Shamsher Jang

38 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 Bahadur Rana, who became known as Colonel Sahib. Somewhat modernism. Oliver’s response was that UMN was not going to out of favor, he had been exiled from Kathmandu to become set up churches, since it was not permitted to do so, and in any governor of a state on the southern border of Nepal and was at the case he wanted to see what the Spirit of God was saying as hospital with his grandson. Colonel Sahib played chess with churches grew from Nepalese roots: “We determined that we Oliver, read the Bible with him, and soon was converted. He would not engage in any sort of church order—not Anglicans, or would not be baptized, however, for he said that it would cost anything like that—because this church had to have liberty in the him everything, but they kept in touch during Oliver’s time away Spirit to find something suitable to the place.” from Motihari during the Second World War. Here we see one of Oliver’s lifelong concerns, which was for Oliver was one of several British RBMU missionaries called fully indigenized national churches. This impulse may have up in 1940 and appointed as lieutenants in the Indian Army, at come from the Christian Brethren influence, but he also said he that time still led by the British. Work as a cipher officer with the Sixth Indian Division in Iraq until 1942 was followed by appoint- ment as adjutant of a unit in India, and Oliver ended the war at Oliver was strongly the rank of major. He considered that it was during this time that he had his first real experiences of leadership, learning, as he put influenced by Roland it, how to look after people and help them. His ministry was not Allen’s ideas about curtailed by his military appointment, even if his audience had changed. He preached in local churches on Sundays and worked church development. alongside a chaplain in an army prison. In 1946 Oliver was demobilized in London. Although the army wanted him to stay in the service, he had not lost his sense of call to Nepal, and so, was strongly influenced by Roland Allen’s ideas about church following a year studying medicine in London, he returned with development. Awareness of the possibly limited timescale of his family to Motihari in 1947 to lead the RBMU work in North work in Nepal also focused his mind on the need for a church that Bihar. could survive and thrive by itself. Oliver wrote later of his joy at Leprosy was endemic in the region, and Ernest and Marga- the development of a vital Indian church leadership following ret took in a young boy named Mangul who had been rejected by the reduction in the numbers of expatriate missionaries in that his family. They found him a place in a children’s home and country in the years after independence.3 decided that something should be done about the social ostra- The first church in Kathmandu began meeting in the home cism of those suffering from leprosy. Under Oliver’s leadership of Colonel Sahib, who also helped with the revision of the Nepali RBMU set up a hospital in the Muzaffarpur Leprosarium, which Bible by the Bible Society. In 1960 Oliver helped to form the Nepal had hitherto only provided a home to those excluded from their Christian Fellowship (now the National Christian Fellowship of society because of leprosy. Nepal). At the time, there were no more than a hundred converts, but it laid the foundation for church structures appropriate to the Nepal culture and context of Nepal, which now encompass some thou- sands of churches and as many as 700,000 Christians. Cracks finally began to appear in Nepal’s fortress borders. A palace revolt against the ruling family of hereditary prime min- Evangelical Missionary Alliance isters took place in 1950. One of the leaders of the revolt had been treated at the RBMU mission hospital in Raxaul, and he was well In 1961, at the invitation of the RBMU Board of Directors, Oliver disposed toward the possibility of Christians being allowed to returned to London to take up the newly created post of execu- work in Nepal. Oliver and a colleague, Dr. Trevor Strong, were tive secretary. The post included responsibility to assist in and allowed to visit Kathmandu in 1951. coordinate the planning of the several RBMU fields, recruitment In 1952 Colonel Sahib wrote to Oliver, stating that he in- of personnel to those fields, and responsibility to ensure good tended to visit at Easter and that he wished to be baptized, which communication between the various RBMU fields and the send- he was, in full view of his servants and the local townspeople. His ing councils, as well as representation of RBMU further afield. wish that no one should be told of his baptism was somewhat Concurrent with his appointment as executive secretary of undermined by this large audience, and upon his return to Nepal RBMU, Oliver joined the Committee of Management of the he lost all his property and was cut off from his family. He moved Evangelical Missionary Alliance, which had been created in back to Kathmandu and provided the means of entry for three 1958. He quickly became heavily involved in the work of this new young Indian Christians who made a survey visit to Nepal. network, joining various subcommittees and speaking at EMA Subsequent visits to Kathmandu established that the British conferences in 1962 and 1964 on the subject of missionary coop- ambassador and the head of the American trade mission were eration. This dual focus—on missionary cooperation and on Christians, and they advocated to the government the need for relationships between mission agencies and national churches— Christian mission work in Nepal. There was a clear conviction characterized his work with the EMA for the next twenty years. among many that this work should be through a united front and Gilbert Kirby, general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, not fragmented through numerous agencies, as had happened so had led the work of the EMA since its inception, but he resigned often elsewhere. And so in 1954 the United Mission to Nepal in November 1965. He had already approached Oliver about the (UMN) was formed, and Ernest Oliver was appointed as its possibility of being seconded part-time from RBMU to replace executive secretary. him within the EMA. So from January 1966 Oliver became EMA Some mission agencies refused to join the UMN because of general secretary for two days each week. One of his first major restrictions on open evangelism. Others held back because the undertakings was to hold a conference on the missionary society’s Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was involved, a denomination that relationship to the church overseas. Convened in 1969 and some regarded as unacceptably contaminated by theological entitled “The Role of Missionary Societies in the 1970s,” it consid-

January 2005 39 ered the growth of the churches worldwide, coupled with a Time and again throughout his leadership of EMA, Oliver rising awareness of national identity. In proposing the confer- helped British missionary societies to navigate the challenging ence, Oliver commented: “Churches have been planted in almost waters of indigenization and relationships with national churches. all countries of the world and Missionary work can no longer be In 1978 an EMA conference entitled “The Missionary in Contem- carried on as though they did not exist.”4 porary Tensions” considered how to respond to economic and For the British missionary movement of the time, the end of political tensions when missionaries were closely integrated into the colonial era, coupled with the undeniable reality of the the lives of national churches, as well as how to deal with growth of the church worldwide, made the issue of relationships disagreements between missionaries and national church lead- with national churches, and the debate about any ongoing role ers over leadership and priorities. for expatriate missionaries, vital and challenging. The Evangeli- Oliver was committed to cooperation in mission at every cal Alliance appointed a Commission on World Mission in 1970, level, and the EMA gave him a platform to develop this vision in whose task was to “clarify the relationship between the Church operations at the “home end” as much as “overseas.” This theme in Britain and the Church in the Third World.”5 Along with his of cooperation, and its centrality to the role of the EMA, was a theological commitment to the vitality of indigenous local recurring note in Oliver’s reports to EMA Annual General Meet- ings. He wrote of his desire that “considerable prayer and thought will be given to ways in which the EMA can become The end of the colonial more adequately the platform for united thinking, planning and action,”10 and later that “in the EMA we are climbing towards era made the issue of that level of cooperation between our member societies where it relationships vital and is normal to consult one another, to coordinate our endeavours, to cooperate where a joint effort is likely to be more productive, challenging. and to consider forwarding the activities of another society where those activities are, for reasons of strategy or time, more important than their own.”11 Toward the end of his time with churches, Oliver viewed political nationalism as a pragmatic EMA, he noted that “it is easier to go it alone than to try and work necessity for many of these new countries, quoting Harold Isaacs together, but I believe that the benefits of working together are of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: “In virtually all of immeasurably greater than what we achieve singly.”12 these, the first task of the new man in power is to create a new national identity that their fragmented people will recognise and Tearfund accept.”6 Although he was not blind to the problems that such nation- In 1976 Oliver retired from his role in RBMU. At an age when alism could cause, Oliver advised mission agencies not to be too most people’s thoughts turn to retirement activities, Oliver not worried about the effect of nationalization on their institutions: only remained as general secretary of the EMA but also became “The Mission should not be afraid if the country’s Government an associate director of Tearfund, an autonomous relief agency decides to nationalise. We must assume that in spite of the that was founded in 1968 as the Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund, heyday of nationalism, Governments are becoming progres- on whose board Oliver served since its inception. Tearfund’s first sively saner in the conduct of their public service programmes director, George Hoffman, had considered EMA’s close involve- and are likely to leave undisturbed a Mission hospital provided ment with the new organization to be crucial: “We saw the it is functioning satisfactorily.”7 potential of working closely with the EMA, with its worldwide During 1974, in his capacity as executive secretary of RBMU, contacts through its 80 or so member societies.”13 Oliver returned to Nepal to participate in the celebrations of the Oliver’s initial role was to advise Tearfund on all aspects of twentieth anniversary of UMN’s work. In his report the twin its work, for it was recognized that no one else on its board or staff themes of cooperation and the importance of national leadership had his experience of managing change overseas. Through in every area come through clearly: Tearfund, churches were being encouraged to make strategic changes in their commitment to and involvement in their local There can be no doubt now that the decision of the RBMU to enter communities. But Oliver soon became involved in the develop- Nepal with the UMN was the right decision. No one Society could ment of a new aspect of Tearfund’s work, and in 1979 he became have accomplished what this group of societies has been enabled the first director of its Overseas Evangelism and Christian Edu- to do by a pooling of resources in personnel and finance. The cation (OECE) department. hospitals, schools and technical institute are all highly effective institutions contributing very considerably to the health and The origins of the OECE department lay in discussions that education of a nation emerging from years of despotism. . . . One had been taking place within the Evangelical Alliance. The of the great features of the United Mission to Nepal has been the success that Tearfund experienced in fostering evangelical in- priority given to the training of nationals and the willingness to volvement in relief and development had led to numerous give them responsibility. The new training scheme for auxiliary requests from Third World churches to the Evangelical Alliance nurses and midwives and health assistants at Tansen continues for similar financial support for their evangelism and leadership- this pattern and points to the wisdom of the United Mission’s training programs. The Evangelical Alliance formulated plans to 8 priorities. launch a new organization that would fulfill this role—Evangeli- cal Partnership with the Overseas Church (EPOCH). Tearfund In the same year the International Congress on World Evan- and the EMA, however, had already been having similar discus- gelization, meeting in Lausanne, set the agenda for discussions sions about the need for such funding. When he heard of the within EMA. Oliver attended this congress and considered “the Evangelical Alliance’s plans, Oliver suggested that rather than emergence of Third World missionary societies to be of the set up a new organization, which would compete with Tearfund 9 highest significance.” for funds as though their objectives were different, it would be

40 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 better for the aims of EPOCH to be included within Tearfund’s doing do, he helped to raise Tearfund’s profile and enabled it to charge. To do otherwise, he considered, would be to deny what contribute to and learn from a wider network, again demonstrat- he called the fullness of mission. In this example we see again ing the value of cooperation. Oliver’s commitment both to a holistic understanding of mission and also to the importance of the growth and development of Legacy indigenous churches. Following his (second) retirement in 1983, when he gave up On Oliver’s retirement from Tearfund, Gilbert Kirby described the role of EMA general secretary, Oliver took on the additional him as “a man ahead of his time.”14 While this was undoubtedly responsibility of overseas director of Tearfund. He undertook true, he was also very much a man for his moment in history: a this task along with his leadership of the OECE department of person committed to evangelical cooperation in mission and the Tearfund until his (third and final) retirement from these posts in importance of strong indigenous national churches and leader- 1986 at the age of seventy-five (although he continued in the role ship. This dual focus stayed with Oliver throughout his mission- of international consultant for a further three years). The role of ary career and characterized every stage of that journey, allow- the overseas director was to provide leadership and give cohe- ing him to provide clear leadership to the U.K. missionary sion to the various aspects of Tearfund’s work, including devel- movement dealing with the challenges of indigenization and opment grants, international personnel, leadership training, child nationalism. His excellent organizational skills meant that he sponsorship, and fair trade. Those who worked with him during started and left behind organizations that work, and his clear this time say that Oliver’s primary contribution in this role was sense of vision, coupled with excellent interpersonal and diplo- not perhaps what was intended, since he was a leader and matic skills, means that he is still remembered with affection by inspirer rather than a strategic thinker or manager. But he gave those who knew him. Tearfund the confidence to work with other organizations and to Ernest Oliver died on September 20, 2001, in Luton, England. share resources. He facilitated its involvement with the United He is survived by his wife, Margaret, their three children, eight Mission to Nepal, the International Assistance Mission in Af- grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. ghanistan, and the Association for Cooperation in Tunisia. In Notes 1. Unless otherwise indicated, the Oliver quotations in this article are 8. Ernest Oliver, RBMU correspondence, October 12, 1961. taken from his personal papers. I am very grateful to Ernest’s widow, 9. Ernest Oliver, Report of the RBMU Executive Secretary’s tour, Margaret, and their daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, for their February 27–May 10, 1974, p. 3. kindness in granting me full access to these papers. 10. EMA Committee of Management minutes, June 19, 1974. 2. Ernest Oliver, “Before and After the Raj,” Tear Times 24 (Summer 11. Report to EMA Annual General Meeting, November 21, 1974. 1984): 12. 12. Report to EMA Annual General Meeting, November 17, 1977. 3. Ibid., p. 13. 13. Report to EMA Annual General Meeting, November 19, 1981. 4. Numbers obtained from Betty Young, United Mission to Nepal, in a 14. Quoted in Mary Endersbee, They Can’t Eat Prayer: The Story of Tear personal e-mail dated October 10, 2002. Fund (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1973), p. 38. 5. EMA Planning Committee minutes, April 16–17, 1969. 15. Gilbert Kirby, “Ernest Oliver, Missionary Statesman: A Man Ahead 6. EMA Committee of Management minutes, March 19, 1970. of His Time,” Tear Times 33 (Autumn 1986): 14. 7. Ernest Oliver, “Missionary Methods and Pastoralia” lecture notes, lecture 10, emphasis in original.

Bibliographical Note Ernest Oliver’s contribution was in mission administration, not writing, Tearfund. His other executive correspondence remains with the and he left no published works. His personal papers are in his family’s organizations for which he worked. The EMA archives are comprehensive keeping. These are not extensive, but they do include a partly-completed and take the form of reports incorporated into minutes of meetings. To biography begun by a family member (which covers his life up until his date, no works have been published about him. entry into Nepal) and detailed correspondence relating to his time with

January 2005 41 Book Reviews

Mission Handbook 2004–2006: U.S. and Canadian Protestant Missionaries Overseas.

Edited by Dotsey Welliver and Minnette Northcutt. Wheaton, Ill.: Billy Graham Center, Evangelism and Missions Information Service, 2004. 19th ed. Pp. 551. US$49.95 / CA$57.95.

The Mission Handbook has come a long (formerly Evangelical Foreign Missions the change in the subtitle of the Handbook way since 1953, when the late R. Pierce Association, now Evangelical Fellowship from “Christian Ministries Overseas” to Beaver produced a mimeographed essay of Mission Agencies), and 3,500 others the older title “Protestant Missionaries entitled “The Protestant Foreign (mostly unaffiliated). Lacking affiliation Overseas,” inasmuch as this wording Missionary Enterprise of the United analysis in the nineteenth edition of the reflects a move away from recognition of States.” Beaver had developed a list of Mission Handbook, this reviewer did some Roman Catholic and Orthodox missions, about 200 sending agencies, with a additional data processing to complete which earlier editions provided in editorial combined missionary force of some 18,000. today’s picture (includes both U.S. and notices or brief reports. Another The nineteenth edition, based on data as Canadian agencies): peculiarity is that an appendix lists of January 1, 2002, reports 451 sending agencies holding membership in EFMA, agencies (p. 12, fn. 8), with a total of 45,617 4,033 Mainline/ecumenical denom- IFMA, and AFMA (Alliance for Missions full-time resident missionaries inations (includes 573 Seventh- Advancement, a charismatic group), but (incorporating Canadian as well as U.S. day Adventists) it omits listing the members of the mainline statistics). Adding 1,984 “non-resident” 19,376 EFMA associations DOM (Division of Overseas personnel—persons fully supported by 7,764 IFMA Ministries, National Council of Churches mission agencies who travel regularly into 14,444 Mostly unaffiliated (evangelicals, in the United States) and CCC/CWC “restricted” countries for ministry and fundamentalists, charismatics, (Canadian Council of Churches, Com- witness—brings the grand total of North independents) mission on World Concerns). Americans engaged in full-time overseas 45,617 Total (excludes “non-resident” Scott Moreau of Wheaton Graduate Christian ministry to 47,601. One caveat: personnel) School provides a 54-page overview, Today’s “full-time” missionary may be “Putting the Survey into Perspective.” committed to a lifetime career or to as little The decline of mainline forces over Peppered throughout the analytic essay are as a one-year assignment. While service of as the years—in 1968 mainline personnel twenty-seven tables and an equal number little as a year is doubtless the exception, it topped 10,000—and the swelling of of graphs. While noting 346,270 short- is nevertheless clear that today’s category conservative forces is reflected in the termers in the U.S. report, Moreau of “full-time” missionary is not equivalent shifting cycle of publishers of the Handbook: acknowledges that the huge change from to the former “career” missionary. from mainline offices in the 1950s and the prior Handbook (which reported less than Somewhat more than half of the 1960s to World Vision MARC in the 1970s, 100,000) is likely “due to changes in report- missionaries represented in Beaver’s and from MARC to the Evangelism and ing rather than actual growth” (p. 14). report belonged to mainline denomi- Missions Information Service (EMIS), —Robert T. Coote nations, and the rest were identified as headquartered at Wheaton College, serving with conservative evangelical or Illinois, in the late 1990s. John Siewert of Robert T. Coote, a senior contributing editor, has fundamentalist agencies—3,000 with MARC worked with the EMIS staff on the authored assessments of the size and character of the IFMA (Interdenominational Foreign previous edition; this time the production North American missionary community for more Mission Association), 2,200 with EFMA fell entirely to EMIS. This reviewer regrets than two decades.

The West and the Rest: individual freedom has led to a “culture Globalization and the Terrorist of repudiation” of religion, patriotism, and Threat. tradition—the very sources of their previous sense of membership. By Roger Scruton. Wilmington, Del.: Globalization has brought these divergent Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2002. Pp. xi, perspectives together, and the material 187. $19.95; paperback $15. success of the West—and particularly the United States—in contrast to the failed Roger Scruton analyzes the roots of Islamic Traditional Muslims, on the contrary, have Islamic states has led to anger. terrorism by identifying what Muslim based their political order on their The analysis, however, does not give extremists find offensive in Western understanding of the law of God, which enough attention to the Arab and Muslim institutions and ideas. He argues that the transcends country boundaries, which feeling of Western injustice in Palestine/ West, with its roots in Christianity and the consequently do not attract their basic Israel, the visual images of “Christians” Enlightenment, developed a political order loyalty and sense of membership. killing “Muslims” in Afghanistan and Iraq, on the basis of a social contract between Today, Scruton observes, the West the increasing gap that industrialization people of a given region, based on the has been losing the political vision that has brought between the rich and the poor, legitimacy of secular authority and law. held its societies together. Its emphasis on the importance of honor and shame, or the

42 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 role of ethnic differences. An example of Fifteen Outstanding Books of 2004 for the last point is the uncompromising Pushtunwali code of the Taliban versus Mission Studies the value of harmony among the Javanese majority in Indonesia, leading to a system of government based on the unity of God In consultation with thirty distinguished scholars from around the world, the editors of rather than on Islam. the INTERNATIONAL B ULLETIN OF MISSIONARY R ESEARCH have selected fifteen books published For the Christian in mission this book in 2004 for special recognition. We commend the authors, editors, and publishers offers additional dimensions of represented here for their contribution to the advancement of scholarship in studies of understanding of the current “clash of the Christian mission and world Christianity. civilizations” and the challenges to Anderson, Allan. expressing the transnational character of An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity. the kingdom of God and the vulnerable Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. £42.50 / $65; paperback £15.99 / $22.99. power of the cross. Bevans, Stephen B., and Roger P. Schroeder. —J. Dudley Woodberry Constants in Context: Theology of Mission for Today. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books. Paperback $30. J. Dudley Woodberry is Dean Emeritus and Professor of Islamic Studies, School of Intercultural Studies, Coakley, John W., and Andrea Sterk, eds. Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. Readings in World Christian History. Vol. 1: Earliest Christianity to 1453. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books. Paperback $30. England, John C., et al., eds. Asian Christian Theologies: A Research Guide to Authors, Movements, Sources. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books; Delhi: ISPCK; Quezon City: Claretian Publishers. 3 vols. God in Chinatown: Religion and $100. Survival in New York’s Evolving Immigrant Community. Hillerbrand, Hans J., ed. The Encyclopedia of Protestantism. By Kenneth J. Guest. New York: New York New York: Routledge. 4 vols. $695. Univ. Press, 2003. Pp. xi, 225. Paperback $10. Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti. An Introduction to the Theology of Religions: Biblical, Historical, and Ken Guest, assistant professor of Contemporary Perspectives. anthropology at Baruch College, City Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press. Paperback $29. University of New York, traces the immigration trail of the young adult Kent, Eliza F. Fujianese who have departed the region Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India. of Fuzhou City, China, in droves over the New York: Oxford Univ. Press. $47.50. past twenty-five years. The vast majority Koschorke, Klaus, Frieder Ludwig, and Mariano Delgado, eds. have come to the United States illegally as Außereuropäische Christentumsgeschichte (Asien, Afrika, Lateinamerika), 1450– indentured servants of human smugglers, 1990. or “snakeheads,” and arrived in Lower Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag. €24.90. Manhattan, replacing the Cantonese who Lewis, Donald M., ed. populated Chinatown in the early Christianity Reborn: The Global Expansion of Evangelicalism in the Twentieth twentieth century. The factors of language, Century. religion, education, and occupation have Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Paperback $40. created an ethnic enclave within a transnational network reaching across the Ludwig, Frieder, and Afe Adogame, eds., in cooperation with Ulrich Berner and Christoph United States and back to Fuzhou. Guest Bochinger. presents this work in the context of a well- European Traditions in the Study of Religion in Africa. researched study of the historical Chinese Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. €78. in America, focusing on the replication of Mallampalli, Chandra. religious affiliations brought from Fujian. Christians and Public Life in Colonial South India, 1863–1937. Exploitation and isolation entrap New York: RoutledgeCurzon. $100. these new Americans in a prison of language barriers and financial obligations Parratt, John, ed. to the snakeheads who facilitate this An Introduction to Third World Theologies. network. Six religious organizations are Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. £40 / $65; paperback £16.99 / $25.99. the havens of support for these immigrants Pfister, Lauren F. (a Buddhist temple, a Taoist temple, two Striving for the “Whole Duty of Man”: James Legge and the Scottish Protestant old established Catholic parishes, and two Encounter with China. Assessing Confluences in Scottish Nonconformism, newly organized Protestant communities). Chinese Missionary Scholarship, Victorian Sinology, and Chinese Protestantism. They provide outreach in the form of Frankfurt: Peter Lang. 2 vols. Paperback SFr 167 / €107.50 / £76 / $128.95. housing, legal aid in immigration affairs, employment opportunities, and all- Porter, Andrew. important hometown community centers, Religion Versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, which create an “alternative citizenship” 1700–1914. for Chinatown’s newest residents. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press. £60 / $74.95; paperback £18.99 / $29.95. The book highlights the power of Shenk, Wilbert R., ed. religious revival in China, the dominant North American Foreign Missions, 1810–1914: Theology, Theory, and Policy. role of women in many churches, and the Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Paperback $45.

January 2005 43 absence of true religious freedom in China. overstated. After a year and a half of work- logical estimates of Islam. The level of Because of this last factor, political splits ing with them, I find that most are happy abstraction reaches heights such that in Lower Manhattan can affect religious and comfortable in their newfound home. readers of this doctoral thesis for the communities halfway around the world. —Gregory McLaughlin Norwegian Lutheran School of Theology, Guest correctly notes the church/ Oslo, may, like U.N. ambassadors, be temple as the source of “social capital” Gregory McLaughlin, a retired investment banker, pardoned for wondering, “What exactly vital to the survival of Fujian immigrants. is a volunteer ESL teacher at Transfiguration did that resolution say?” Still his depiction of their misery may be Catholic Church, Chinatown, New York. A reader with no access to current Scandinavian and German work on cross- cultural philosophy of religion or interreligious theology, however, must be very grateful to Mæland for bringing some of their models and concepts to bear on We Have Toiled All Night: evaluating Smith’s and Cragg’s English- Christianity in The Gambia, language responses to Islam. Specifically, 1456–2000. Mæland uses relevant ideas of Regin Prenter on the Holy Spirit and of Hans- By Martha T. Frederiks. Zoetermeer: Georg Gadamer, Annette Hammer- Boekencentrum, 2003. Pp. vii, 458. €29.90. schmidt, and Carl Heinz Ratschow on hermeneutics and truth. As a bonus, this At roughly 4,360 square miles, The Gambia supplanted each other, is particularly volume contains the most complete is continental Africa’s smallest country. insightful. In the final analysis, however, bibliography I have seen of works by and Somewhat unusual for a former British she posits a fifth model, that of kenosis about these two lifelong Christian students colony, its Christian population forms a (signifying self-emptying, incarnation, of Islam. tiny minority (estimates range from 2.0 to identifying with the other) as the most While honoring the theological effort 3.7 percent). Muslims account for between effective option, one that requires the of both men to reckon with truth in Islam, 85 and 95 percent. In this richly detailed church to develop an identity and witness Mæland in the end aligns himself more study, Martha Fredericks provides a that is “Islam-sensitive.” closely with Cragg because of Smith’s historical assessment of Christianity in Originally a Ph.D. dissertation, We abandonment of orthodox Christology. The Gambia that covers a range of familiar Have Toiled All Night furnishes the reader Mæland asks, however, whether Cragg themes: the colonial nature of the initial with a wealth of documentation on the has allowed his own Christian standpoint Christian encounters, the critical history of The Gambia. Also, at a time to be questioned as seriously as he himself accommodation to indigenous religions when African Christianity is the focus of questions and pushes at the boundaries of by both Islam and Christianity, efforts at considerable scholarly attention, it doctrines held by today’s prevailing vernacular translation, denominational provides a fitting reminder that the African Muslim theologians. rivalry and cooperation, overdependence experience provides rich lessons in part Differences do matter to Cragg, yet on education as a tool of evangelism, the because much of Africa remains non- he is not satisfied with merely identifying emergence of an indigenous ministry in Christian. differences. Probing beyond “unhappy the face of European racism and —Jehu J. Hanciles polemic and mutual denigration” (p. 20) paternalism, and the energizing if divisive in Am I Not Your Lord? Cragg searches also impact of Pentecostal-charismatic Jehu J. Hanciles, a Sierra Leonean, is Associate for areas of elasticity and for possibilities movements. Peculiarities include the Professor of Mission History and Globalization at within each living tradition to reconceive decidedly foreign nature of Gambian Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. even fundamental ideas. Christianity (adherents have historically One such idea and one such reality been refugees and migrants), the nominally shared by Christianity and competing aspirations of Islamic jihadism Islam, although differently and too little and European colonialism, and the dismal considered, is Satan. Christians and failure of education as a tool of Christian Muslims can agree that God acts to bring expansion. Rewarding Encounters: Islam and his own claim of divine unity to bear by The volume, as the author is quick to the Comparative Theologies of asking humanity: “Am I not your Lord?” point out, is not merely intended to be a Kenneth Cragg and Wilfred (sura 7:172). Against this rightful and history of Christianity. The supreme Cantwell Smith. universal claim by God, however, a challenge facing Gambian Christians in a conspiracy is at work. The Qur’an, despite predominantly Muslim society, of By Bård Mæland. London: Melisende, 2003. an overall high regard for human maintaining a meaningful and credible Pp. vi, 387. Paperback £18. perfectibility, alerts its hearers to dynamic (nonconfrontational) witness, forms an evil, referring to “the whispering overarching theme. Apart from the Am I Not Your Lord? Human insinuator who whispers in the bosoms of occasional confrontation, relations Meaning in Divine Question. men” (sura 114:4–5). Satan—whether between the two groups have historically named Iblis, the angel who at creation been characterized by peaceful By Kenneth Cragg. London: Melisende, 2002. resisted God’s folly in entrusting earthly coexistence, cooperation, and even Pp. 256. £18. dominion to humanity, or called Shaitan, intermarriage. Yet genuine conversions who vows to waylay human beings on from one to the other are uncommon. Acronyms, circumlocution, and God’s straight path and must be resisted Frederiks identifies four models of abstractions—tools that helped soldier- with ritual stone-throwing on every Christian missionary engagement in the scholar Bård Mæland carry out a U.N. pilgrimage to Mecca—is known to Gambian experience: expansion, diakonia peacekeeping assignment in southern Muslims for his “evil scheming and lurking (service), presence, and dialogue. Her Lebanon—seem to have helped him also in the human scene” (p. 54). The Prophet analysis of these models, which historically in exploring Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s Muhammad encountered intrigue, have supplemented rather than and Kenneth Cragg’s contrasting theo- mischief, calumny, and contradiction. So

44 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 today human beings are both tempted caste system and Western colonialism and single standard system of transliteration. and assaulted by usurpers of God’s rightful their impact on Indian Christians. These Overall, though, the authors deserve our lordship. refreshingly insightful essays then warm appreciation, for they have Ever since perpetrators with Muslim describe the complexities of conversion admirably enhanced our understanding affiliations attacked sites of American and proselytism in such a way that every of Christianity in India. Students of India power on September 11, 2001, both reader can feel the challenges that Indian and of Indian Christianity will find this scholarly and commonsense minds have Christians face. Moreover, they elucidate remarkable volume very helpful indeed. been pondering the links between religion the plural identities of Indian Christians —Daniel Jeyaraj and violence. Unresolved religiously and their enormous variety of experiences, fueled conflicts in Africa, the Balkans, and including different degrees of acceptance Daniel Jeyaraj, a contributing editor, is the Judson- the Middle East underscore the question. and adaptation, as well as of rejection, DeFrietas Associate Professor of World Christianity Some thinkers locate violence near the even derision, alienation, and suffering. at Andover Newton Theological School, Newton, core of religions. Others find violence an The authors of these essays follow no Massachusetts. aberration from religions. Cragg is bold to assert that just as the Pentagon is no rightful Lord, neither is Shari‘a law, coercive conversion, or the Islamic ummah conceived as a human cause. He seeks to #!,,&/20!0%23 expose all of these as wiles and works of Satan. 'LOBAL#HRISTIANITY#HALLENGING-ODERNITYANDTHE7EST Skimmed in haste by combatants seeking ammunition, this dense and "!9,/2).34)454%&/2&!)4(!.$,%!2.).' learned book will yield points to indict self-appointed holy warriors on both sides. 025)4-%-/2)!,39-0/3)5- Pondered with a humble and hopeful heart, it points backward to pre- Constantinian powerless Christianity and 4HURSDAY .OVEMBERˆ3ATURDAY .OVEMBER  pre-Hegira persecuted Islam as models for the truest living under God. 0LENARY3PEAKERS —Richard J. Jones $AVID"EBBINGTON 5NIVERSITYOF3TIRLING"AYLOR5NIVERSITY 0AUL&RESTON #ALVIN#OLLEGE Richard J. Jones is Professor of Mission and World -ARK.OLL 7HEATON#OLLEGE Religions at the Protestant Episcopal Theological $ANA2OBERT "OSTON5NIVERSITY Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. ,AMIN3ANNEH 9ALE5NIVERSITY "RIAN3TANLEY 5NIVERSITYOF#AMBRIDGE

0ROGRAM$ESCRIPTION Christians and Missionaries in #HRISTIANMOVEMENTSCONTINUETOEXERTSIGNIFICANTINFLUENCE NOTONLYIN.ORTH!MERICA BUTINCREASINGLYIN,ATIN!MERICA !FRICA %ASTERN%UROPE AND!SIA4HEGROWTHOFWORLD India: Cross-Cultural #HRISTIANITY SINCE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY HAS CONFOUNDED CONVENTIONAL EXPECTATIONS Communication Since 1500. OF MODERNITY AND SECULARIZATION CHALLENGED THE CENTRALITY OF THE h7ESTv IN TRADITIONAL NARRATIVESOF#HRISTIANITY ANDPRESENTEDANINTRIGUINGRELIGIOUSASPECTOFTHEPOSTMODERN Edited by Robert Eric Frykenberg. Grand CONDITION )N LIGHT OF THESE DEVELOPMENTS THIS INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM WILL GATHER Rapids: Eerdmans; London: RoutledgeCurzon, HISTORIANS POLITICAL SCIENTISTS SOCIOLOGISTS THEOLOGIANS AND OTHERS TO DISCUSS PAST 2003. Pp. xii, 419. $39 / £25. MANIFESTATIONSANDFUTURETRENDSOFGLOBAL#HRISTIANITY7EAREPARTICULARLYINTERESTEDIN #HRISTIANITYS WORLDWIDE GROWTH AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO MODERNITYPOSTMODERNITY AND The sixteen essays of this book examine #HRISTIANITYS RELATIONSHIP TO SECULARIZATION COLONIZATION DECOLONIZATION NATIONALISM the beginning, progress, and challenges of INTERNATIONALISM ANDGLOBALIZATION Christian cross-cultural communication 4HISANNOUNCEMENTINVITESPAPERPROPOSALSFORCONCURRENTSESSIONS in India. They locate Christianity within "ESIDESINDIVIDUALPAPERS SESSIONPROPOSALSONSPECIFICTOPICS QUESTIONS ORRECENTBOOKS the sociohistorical life of India and present AREWELCOMED0OSSIBLETOPICSINCLUDE BUTARENOTLIMITEDTO it, not as an extension of Western colonialism, but as an inherently Indian s-ISSIONSANDIMPERIALISMCOLONIZATIONs-ISSIONSANDCULTURALRESISTANCE reality with 2,000 years of its own history. s#HRISTIANITYANDCULTURALIDENTITIESs2ELIGIOUSSOURCESOFNATIONALISM Fourteen essays are written by Western s)NDIGENOUS#HRISTIANITIESs2ELIGIOUSANDECONOMICGLOBALIZATION scholars, and the remaining two are s#OMMUNICATIONTECHNOLOGIESANDGLOBAL#HRISTIANITYs#ULTURALMEANINGSOFCONVERSION written by Indians who have long s4RANS NATIONALTHEOLOGICALANDPOLITICALALLIANCESs#ROSS CULTURALEVANGELISTICSTRATEGIES associations with Western scholarship. s3UPERNATURALISMANDh%NLIGHTENMENTvINGLOBALPERSPECTIVEs#HARISMATICRENEWAL Their outsider views incorporate what s#HRISTIANENCOUNTERSWITHOTHERFAITHSs7ORLD#HRISTIANITYANDPOLITICALACTIVISM Indians have been saying and writing on s.ON 7ESTERNINFLUENCESON7ESTERN#HRISTIANITYSTHOUGHTANDPRACTICES their rightful place in Indian society. Their s7ORLD#HRISTIANITYSENGAGEMENTWITHIDEOLOGIESOFCLASS GENDERANDRACE essays thus authentically represent the !BSTRACTSOF WORDSSHOULDBESUBMITTEDBY-AY  ANDINCLUDETITLE NAME multiple expressions of Indian OFAUTHORS INSTITUTIONALAFFILIATIONANDPOSITION MAILINGADDRESS ANDE MAILADDRESS0LEASE Christianity. SENDBYMAILTO With convincing examples these authors illustrate how Indian Christians have been interacting with Indian cultures, "!9,/2).34)454%&/2&!)4(!.$,%!2.).'s/.%"%!20,!#%s7!#/ 48  religions, languages, and people groups. 3ENDE MAILTO)&, BAYLOREDU3EEWWWBAYLOREDU)&,FORFURTHERDETAILS They explore the harsh realities of the

January 2005 45 Spoken Here: Travels Among Europe we recognize some of the Threatened Languages. languages and their speakers: the struggling Mohawks, the entertaining By Mark Abley. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Yiddish, and the recently reinvigorated 2003. Pp. 320. $25. Welsh. Others are not well known, such as elderly Yuchi Indians in Oklahoma (some The concept of endangered species is Abley’s travels and interviews start of whom remember beatings in school for entrenched in Westerners’ minds, but the in Australia, arguably the country with speaking their language), the very parallel of endangered languages is only the most extremely endangered languages opinionated Provençal speakers of France, starting to sink in. Abley, a Canadian in the world, where he encounters the and the remote but actually increasing journalist, succeeds in putting faces and social decline of speakers of Tiwi, who Hixkaryana in Brazil. Abley describes personalities to a few of these languages now live in towns and are losing cultural parents not teaching their children their and the people who still speak them. cohesiveness. In North America and language, painfully realizing only decades later that something irrecoverable has been lost. There is no magic recipe for saving a language, but having youngsters immersed in it for hours a day seems the best strategy. 0ROFESSIONAL Abley sprinkles fascinating language examples throughout: in Turkish the word for “stone” also refers to a chess piece or 0RACTICAL an innuendo; some Aboriginal languages have six words for “you.” There is just no such thing as a primitive language—they %SSENTIAL
are all complex. Missionaries, priests, and Bible %-1 IS 02/&%33)/.!, translations often appear in passing. The ˆOURWRITERSAREVETERAN author details the case of the Hixkaryana MISSIONWORKERSWHOBRING in Brazil and commends the help given by YEARSOFEXPERIENCETOTHE SIL Bible translators, though questioning TABLEASTHEYRESEARCH ANALYZE SIL’s motives because of “their faith in such hard-line Protestant doctrines as the ANDREmECTONTHEIRTOPICS divine inspiration of all biblical texts” (p. 238). %-1 IS 02!#4)#!, Abley is not a linguist, but he has read ˆEACHISSUEOFFERSVALUABLE quite extensively and talked to the experts, INSIGHTSANDPRACTICALHELPS h)HAVEFOUND%-11TOBEAN resulting in a factually solid and entertaining book. TOEQUIPYOUFORMOREEFFECTIVE INDISPENSABLESOURCEFOR KEEPINGABREASTOFTHEMAJOR —Michael Cahill CROSS CULTURALMINISTRY CURRENTISSUESFACINGTHECHURCH INITSMISSIONTOTHEWORLDANDIN Michael Cahill, International Linguistics Coordinator of Summer Institute of Linguistics %-1 IS %33%.4)!, OFFERINGABREADTHOFRELEVANT International, Dallas, Texas, served for eleven years ˆWEKEEPYOUONTOPOFTHE BIBLICALRESPONSETOTHESEISSUESv in Ghana with SIL, working on a literacy and Bible ˆ*$UDLEY7OODBERRY LATESTTOPICS TRENDSANDISSUES &ULLER4HEOLOGICAL3EMINARY translation project with the Koma people. INWORLDMISSIONSTODAY%ACH EDITIONOFTHIS PAGEJOURNAL h%VANGELICAL-ISSIONS1UARTERLY ISPACKEDWITHSOLID WELL RE IS ANOUTSTANDINGMISSIONS SEARCHED THOUGHT PROVOKING PUBLICATION)TISUP TO DATE INFORMATIONONGLOBALOUTREACH PERTINENTANDQUITEREADABLEv ˆ(OWARD&OLTZ 2EGENT5NIVERSITY MAKINGITESSENTIALREADINGFOR An Introduction to Pentecostalism: ANYONEINVOLVEDINREACHING %-1IS THEQUINTESSENTIAL Global Charismatic Christianity. OURWORLDFOR#HRIST VOICEOFEVANGELICALMISSION
By Allan Anderson. Cambridge: Cambridge 4HEOLOGICALLYRELIABLE MISSIOLOGICALLY Univ. Press, 2004. Pp. xiii, 302. £42.50 / $65; #HECK%-1OUTONLINE RELEVANTANDEDITORIALLYRIGOROUSx paperback £15.99 / $22.99. WWWBILLYGRAHAMCENTERORGEMIS 4HEREISNOOTHERJOURNALQUITELIKEITv ˆ*ONATHAN"ONK /VERSEAS Allan Anderson offers an up-to-date -INISTRIES3TUDY#ENTER survey of the kaleidoscopic nature of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements. About two-thirds of the book is historical; .%735"3#2)"%233!6% the remaining third is mostly theological /NLYFORONEYEARISSUES  but includes the impact of Pentecostalism /RDERONLINE WWWEMISDIRECTCOM on missions, ecumenism, and culture, as well as a useful treatment of the shifts in %VANGELICAL-ISSIONS1UARTERLYY%-1 ISPUBLISHEDBY%-)3 ADIVISIONOFTHE"ILLY'RAHAM #ENTER 7HEATON )LLINOIS2EGULARSUBSCRIPTIONRATEISYR4HISINTRODUCTORYOFFERIS Pentecostal theological education. FORNEWSUBSCRIBERSONLY$OESNOTAPPLYTORENEWALS Anderson writes as “a sympathetic yet critical insider” (p. xii), having served

46 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 as a card-carrying Pentecostal minister keen interest in Christianity. The Bishop K. H. Ting. Regrettably, the single and theological educator in South Africa. experiences he recounts in this chapter on Roman Catholic Christianity is Over the past decade he has emerged as kaleidoscopic compendium are based on poorly sketched. While there is good the successor to Walter Hollenweger at evocative interviews, human interest synoptic background of the initial twelve the University of Birmingham, where for stories, and personal accounts, many from centuries of solely Catholic Christianity in decades serious academic research on anonymous sources. China until the early nineteenth century, Pentecostalism has been conducted. Unfortunately, the work is almost little attention is given to many significant Two distinct contributions of exclusively skewed to the perspectives of developments in Chinese Catholicism in Anderson’s book are his recognition of unregistered Chinese Protestant the past quarter century. the global origins of Pentecostalism, in Christians. Aikman makes their case by Predictions made to substantiate the contrast to the usual North American negative criticisms of the Chinese Christian stated contention that “Christianity will Parham-Seymour account, and his critical Church and by severely judgmental change the nature of China in many assessment of the widely reported attacks on outstanding leaders such as different ways over the next several numbers of Pentecostals and charismatics, which Anderson shows depend heavily on the definitions of included groups. “ Readers will pick up interesting facts. ASIAN THEOLOGY HAS For example: the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada was originally formed as a COME OF AGE.” —MICHAEL AMALADOSS Jesus Name group (p. 49); G. T. Haywood, an early black Pentecostal leader, was among those invited to Hot Springs (p. Editors: 53); the Korean Assemblies of God DR. JOHN C. ENGLAND DR. LILY A. QUINTOS, RC organization has associated with the JOSE KUTTIAIMATTATHIL, SDB DR. DAVID SUH KWANG-SUN Korean National Council of Churches (p. JOHN M. PRIOR, SVD JANICE WICKERI 139); and the vice president of Zambia is a Pentecostal pastor (p. 262). Asian Christian Theologies Some, however, may be puzzled to A Research Guide to Authors, find Crystal Cathedral pastor Robert Movements, and Sources Schuller listed with the “Faith teachers” (p. 222) and secondary documentation for Volume 1: Overview 7th-20th Centuries, early Christian sources included but South Asia, Austral Asia author Philip Jenkins excluded from both Volume 2: Southeast Asia index and bibliography. Volume 3: Northeast Asia Still, this volume is the place to begin if one is searching for a single-volume This ecumenical reference work provides information introduction to Pentecostalism. This book essential to every serious scholar and library of world is exactly that, and profitably so. Christianity, mission, and religion in Asia. —Russell P. Spittler “Asian theological scholars to [share] in an Russell P. Spittler is Provost Emeritus and Senior unprecedented way their theological insights...” Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological —DR. KIM YONG BOCK, Seoul Seminary, Pasadena, California. He currently serves “A stepping stone towards a bright future for as Interim Provost at Vanguard University, Costa Christian theology and Christian presence in Asia.” Mesa, California. —DR. THERESA CHU MEI-FEN, Bejing “These rich cultural, historical and religious resources [are] invaluable for students and teachers.” —ANNA MAY SA PA, MIT

Along with extensive bibliographies and indexes, each Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity volume includes brief biographies of area theologians. Is Transforming China and Complete set is now available Changing the Global Balance of Power. at a special price. 1-57075-484-5 hardcover $100.00 (Set of 3 volumes) By David Aikman. Washington, D.C.: Regnery 1-57075-481-0 hardcover $40.00 (Vol. 1) Publishing, 2003. Pp. 344. $27.95. 1-57075-482-9 hardcover $40.00 (Vol. 2) As the subtitle reveals, this book presents 1-57075-483-7 hardcover $40.00 (Vol. 3) provocative perspectives keyed to events sensationalized in daily headlines: the rise Co-sponsored by the Christian Conference of Asia, the Asian Pacific Missiology and of Islam, the agonizing Middle Eastern Research Program, Missio (Aachen) and The Council for World Mission, London conflicts, and the exponential growth of China’s economy as it integrates into the global trade and political world order. In At your bookseller or direct: ORBIS BOOKS the mid-1980s, David Aikman was Time Visa/MC Order Online! www.maryknollmall.org Maryknoll, NY 10545 magazine’s Beijing bureau chief, later A World of Books that Matter 1-800-258-5838 returning as a freelance journalist with a

January 2005 47 decades, and, in so doing, will change the undergirding the best of what it means to Christians and Churches of Africa: world in which we live” (p. 292) reflect the be Chinese and Christian. This reviewer Salvation in Christ and Building a recently much-heralded emergence of a wishes it would have more objectively New African Society. numerically explosive, almost exclusively celebrated this encounter in all its richness Protestant, urban, and educated Chinese and variety. By Kä Mana. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, Christian entrepreneurial class, which will —Janet Carroll, M.M. 2004. Pp. 108. Paperback $18. significantly impact China’s development as a world power. Janet Carroll, M.M., is a Maryknoll missioner who Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: Jesus in Beijing serves to memorialize, served many years in pastoral and social ministries History and Experience. albeit in rather narrow perspective, the in Taiwan. From 1989 to 2003 she was executive millions of Chinese Christians of whatever director of the United States Catholic China Bureau, By Kwame Bediako. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis persuasion who have always been living which exists to foster missionary partnership with Books, 2004. Pp. xvii, 124. Paperback $18. temples of irrepressible religious faith, the Roman Catholic Church in China. Beads and Strands: Reflections of an African Woman on Christianity in Africa. OUR By Mercy Amba Oduyoye. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Ordinary STUDENTS, Orbis Books, 2004. Pp. xiv, 114. Paperback THEIR $18. Extraordinary WORKS In these three books the medium is as important as the message because the production and dissemination of 1-800-2ASBURY knowledge is a crucial aspect of the WWW.ASBURYSEMINARY.EDU problem of African theological education. The three first appeared in a collaborative effort by Editions Clé, Cameroon, and Akrofi-Christaller Center, Ghana (through Regnum Africa), to publish the theological reflections of Africans at affordable prices. This is only one of the pioneering ways in which Kwame Bediako, the director of the center, has sought to define the theological enterprise in contemporary Africa. Orbis Books is to be commended for encouraging this effort by sharing these works with a global audience through their Theology avid lifted the garage door open and a smile developed on his in Africa series. Among the three authors, face. He turned around and looked at the group as if to say, the anglophone voices of Oduyoye, who “Here it is.” served as a deputy secretary of the World Council of Churches, and Bediako are DAnd there it was. A small warehouse space stuffed with furniture, housewares, vacuum cleaners, toasters and lamps. Anything and everything to furnish more familiar. Mana, who teaches at the an apartment. Institut Protestant de Théologie de Porto- Novo, Benin, introduces the scholarship A native of Kenya, David Gichuru knows what it’s like to come to the United of a number of francophone Africans. States with only a few suitcases filled with clothing. Because of this, he loves his job. He oversees a unique ministry at Asbury Seminary aimed at Oduyoye strengthens the voice of in-coming international students. Christian women in patriarchal African churches; Bediako delineates the critical In this warehouse the Asbury Community comes together. Students, staff, faculty African contribution toward the numerical and administrators donate used items which will be given to international students. David’s job is to organize the filling of their homes. Before the growth and changing faces of African students arrive, their apartments are furnished right down to the bed sheets. Christianity; and Mana reflects on a theology of hope or renaissance in the David’s not that unusual at Asbury Seminary. Our students are ordinary midst of African pathology, or recovery people, doing extraordinary things. Ministry doesn’t just happen after graduation, it happens during the preparation. And the sound academic from “the devaluation of our presence in programs offered at Asbury are enhanced through real life, hands-on ministries the world of today” (p. 27). just like this one. All offer the same solution, which urges Africans to dig deep into their But for David, this ministry is simply about making students and their families feel comfortable and welcomed at Asbury. And what better welcome worldviews, religious traditions, and is there than a made bed and a filled refrigerator? cultures for the resources needed for a new theology. The indigenous knowledge Asbury Seminary: home to ordinary people, embedded in myths, proverbs, and doing extraordinary things. cultures of Africa could make Christ meaningful and empowering amid the With campuses in Kentucky, Florida, and on the Internet, Asbury enlargement of the religious market, Seminary is preparing leaders seeking to transform the world. For powerlessness in the global context, and more information on the degrees offered at Asbury Seminary, vast social and moral challenges. Bediako contact the admissions department. refers back to the African world of early Christianity, where the Gospel functioned

48 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 in a terrain similarly suffused with primal thesis is that party ideology controls policy leaders. While there is only one reference religions. Mana argues that our theology and content. She traces the origin of the to religious organizations and nonprofit must recover the creative vitality of ancient foreign affairs (Wai Shi) system to the organizations (p. 229), the last two chapters Egypt and African traditions. Christology CCP’s direct adaptation in the 1920s of the on how the current system is in flux are becomes the dialogue or fruitful cross- Soviet model, which limited foreign very relevant for foreigners working on fertilization between Jesus Christ, as he influence while taking advantage of behalf of the church in their various comes into the “groves of our initiation,” foreign sympathizers. She describes the institutions. and the sacred traditions that have twists and turns of the policy from the As China changes, the paradigm for sustained African communities. He special treatment in the 1950s and 1960s interaction with foreigners is gradually reinterprets some myths that illustrate this afforded Western sympathizers like Edgar changing. To quote Brady, “Breaking process. Oduyoye reinterprets them for Snow, Anna Louise Strong, and the New through such a paradigm to establish the liberation of women and hearing the Zealander Rewi Alley to the current effort genuine interaction . . . is one of the speech of God afresh. Bediako builds on to curry favor with Western business challenges for the future” (p. 251). Vansina’s Paths in the Rainforests (1990) to emphasize the crucial role of language and the recovery of the story behind words. His students are required to read the Bible and to write their dissertations in the vernacular so as to grasp the full measure of the challenges of the Gospel to Africans. learn while you lead This approach is lived Christianity, with the potential for mature growth. According to Bediako, the vernacular with Fuller Online mediates Christ unobtrusively into African spirituality, reconfigures the gender Earn a Fuller Degree ideology, provides a new way of doing hermeneutics, and recovers the resonance MA in Global Leadership [Without Leaving the Field ] between African and biblical worldviews. I concur. —Ogbu U. Kalu

Ogbu U. Kalu is the Henry Winters Luce Professor of World Christianity and Missions, McCormick The MA in Global Leadership Theological Seminary, Chicago. He is President of the Midwest Association of Professors of Mission. allows you to study online wherever you are!

■ Complete the fully-accredited Master of Arts in Global Leadership degree Making the Foreign Serve China: while remaining in your mission or Managing Foreigners in the People’s Republic of China. ministry

By Anne-Marie Brady. Lanham, Md.: “The MAGL enables me ■ Learn from highly respected Fuller Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Pp. xvi, 312. award-winning Paperback $24.95. to learn about leadership, faculty in Distance mission, and the Bible Learning courses Anyone who has lived and worked in without leaving my China is familiar with the foreign affairs ministry. Peer interaction ■ Establish meaningful relationships officer, or Wai Ban, who is responsible for with other Christian managing foreigners’ contacts and with leaders around the world as you relations with the local community. Most leaders from all over the study together in a cohort group are courteous and helpful, but they are world makes this program online and face-to-face during two, part of a larger government system a motivating cross- two-week seminars designed to monitor and control foreigners cultural experience.” in China and to promote the official image of China to the world. Anne-Marie Brady’s RENSKE AERTS ■ Explore the theories, practices, book is a documented history of this Board member, Soul Survivor, and global contexts of system, how and why it came to be, and working with youth in the missional leadership how it has changed over the eighty years Netherlands of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule. Two audiences are served by this book: historians of modern China, particularly those focused on pre-Reform Master of Arts in Global Leadership China; and foreigners working in China www.fuller.edu/magl today or planning to visit for specific 1-800-999-9578 or 626-584-5266 purposes. Although Brady acknowledges the influence of traditional culture, her

January 2005 49 The book offers an extensive The History of the Relations bibliography, comprehensive footnotes, Between the Low Countries and and the added bonus of an excellent eight- China in the Qing Era (1644–1911). page Chinese-Pinyin glossary of important terms. Edited by W. F. Vande Walle and Noël Golvers. —Doug Lovejoy Leuven: Leuven Univ. Press, 2003. Pp. 508. €49.50. Doug Lovejoy, Executive Director of the U.S. Catholic China Bureau, holds a Ph.D. in This collection of papers, presented in 1995 the West’s remarkable encounter with international relations from the Catholic University at an international conference sponsored modern China. The book’s contributors, of America, Washington, D.C. He has taught courses by the Ferdinand Verbiest Foundation, top scholars in their respective fields, weave in Chinese politics and international relations at reminds us that small countries like Belgium a tapestry that covers the impact of the Low Princeton University. and Holland played an important role in Countries’ evangelism, commerce, and cultural contact on China’s search for “wealth and strength” amid dynastic decline and the so-called unequal treaty system (1842–1943) imposed by Europe’s It’s like “Great Powers.” Before becoming sovereign nations, Belgium and Holland contributed such notable Jesuits as Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–88) and Antoine Thomas (1644– 1709) to the campaign in Catholic Europe to Christianize and exchange scientific Subscribe today! knowledge with China. Their letters home, portraying an ethically governed Middle 4 cutting-edge issues-only $15 Kingdom devoid of the religious strife devastating Europe, made China the Contact IJFM at: most-admired land in Asia. Two centuries (626)-398-2281 later, the Dutch supported the German Catholic missionaries in Shandong. [email protected] Although the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) 1539 East Howard Street revoked the emperor’s 1724 ban against Christianity, Belgian Catholics sought to Pasadena CA, 91104 become independent of Great Power imperialism. They founded the Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae to promote missions in Mongolia. And in the Manchus’ twilight years they sponsored hundreds of Chinese students at Belgian universities, where many trained to For a list of back issues browse our archives on the web. manage the railroads that King Leopold II was building to open China to global commerce and new ideas. Meanwhile, the Netherlands Missionary Society had sent the German- born Pietist Karl Gützlaff (1803–51) to pioneer Protestant evangelism in China. Dutch merchants expanded Sino- European trade and contributed to a widely read literature of praise for the nobility of the Chinese masses. Amid the turbulence of warlord fragmentation after China’s 1911 revolution, the sympathetic Belgians did what they thought was best for the Chinese students in their midst: Christianize and Westernize them so they would transform China into a democratic republic. Back home the tide was already turning, as anticolonialism, with its attendant rejection of Christianity, began pushing China into Communism’s embrace. —P. Richard Bohr

P. Richard Bohr is Professor of History and Director of Asian Studies at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, St. Joseph and Collegeville, Minnesota.

50 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 The Unexpected Way: On An Introduction to the Theology of Converting from Buddhism to Religions: Biblical, Historical, and Catholicism. Contemporary Perspectives.

By Paul Williams. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, By Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen. Downers Grove, 2002. Pp. xx, 240. Paperback $22.95. Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003. Pp. 372. Paperback $29. At a time when Buddhism continues to which he otherwise so movingly appeal to European and American seekers, celebrates. As the title suggests, the author of this when significant dialogue continues to —Brian Edward Brown book first gives a brief overview of the occur between the Buddhist and Christian biblical testimony regarding the meaning traditions, Paul Williams’s account of his Brian E. Brown is Associate Professor of Religious and value of other religions, then helpfully conversion to Catholicism after more than Studies at Iona College, New Rochelle, New York. highlights some examples of various twenty years as a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner is an exceptional contribution. University of Bristol professor of Indian and Tibetan philosophy, head of the Department of Theology and Religious FROM EERDMANS Studies, and codirector of the Centre for Buddhist Studies, Williams has authored four books on Buddhist thought. All the EVANGELISM IN THE more, then, does his highly informed EARLY CHURCH understanding of Buddhist belief and practice and his rejection of it to embrace Revised Edition Catholicism make compelling reading. MICHAEL GREEN Williams expresses his position through some thirty-eight “analytic “Michael Green has made an immense meditations” (p. 15), which are grouped contribution to our knowledge of under three major topics: (1) God, evangelism. . . . It has given me great Buddhism, and morality; (2) the personal encouragement.” resurrection; and (3) Catholicism. — Billy Graham Contending that from very fundamental perspectives, Buddhism and Christianity “This fascinating book will be read are “exactly opposite” (p. 79), Williams with profit all around the world. . . . probes each distinction with a scholastic It should be on every preacher’s desk inquiry into which position is more and go abroad with every missionary. rational, preferable, and obvious. ISBN 0-8028-2768-3 It will furnish abundant illustrations The central opposition, in which for sermons and give biblical and Williams finds Buddhism ultimately 474 pages • paperback • $25.00 inadequate, is its practical denial of the theoretical depth to the greatly needed relevance of God. Williams bluntly states and currently spreading stress on that “from a Christian point of view RECENT BOOKS evangelism and church growth.” Buddhism is clearly a form of atheism” (p. — Christianity Today 26). He argues the persuasiveness of a necessary being over against the Buddhist assertion that things simply exist in causal NORTH AMERICAN dependence without explaining why they FOREIGN MISSIONS, are so ordered. Williams is likewise critical of Buddhism for effectively denying the 1810–1914 survival of one’s person, even while holding to a notion of reincarnation. The Theology, Theory, and Policy pessimism this view induces and the Edited by WILBERT R. SHENK weakening of moral and ethical foundations implicated in this devaluation Studies in the History of of the person poses a sharp contrast with Christian Missions Williams’s newfound Christian hope. “This excellent collection will command In my view, the author’s dismissal of widespread attention not only for its Buddhism as merely an array of strategies display of scholarly expertise but for the for mind transformation and private, fresh and revealing light it throws on personal experiences is unwarranted and the principal landmarks and major far too simplistic. At the same time, it raises certain questions about the themes in the history of missionary expansion overseas.” ISBN 0-8028-2485-4 Catholicism that Williams embraces. His 363 pages • paperback • $45.00 emphasis on communal sacramentalism — Andrew Porter and on moral behavior as taught by a “theocratic” church authority (pp. 142, At your bookstore, 146, 152) diminishes the significance of 4527 or call 800-253-7521 the rich meditative prayer traditions that www.eerdmans.com grace the essence of the Mystical Body,

January 2005 51 opinions on the theology of religions in In his discussion of some recent Eastern Orthodox Christianity: church history. But the heart of the book developments in Catholic thinking, the A Western Perspective. offers “a detailed survey of major author unfortunately misunderstands and confessional movements and theologians’ therefore misinterprets the so-called By Daniel B. Clendenin. Grand Rapids: Baker, opinions with regard to the current state Venice Statement of 1977, which he says 2003. 2d ed. Pp. 192. Paperback $16.99. of the theology of religions” (p. 27). His rejects evangelization of Jews (p. 119). treatment of twenty-one “current” What the statement actually rejects is Eastern Orthodox Theology: theologians ranges from Barth and proselytism of Jews, which it defines as A Contemporary Reader. Kraemer to Rahner and Dupuis, Newbigin “any sort of witness and preaching which and Pinnock, Hick, Samartha, and Knitter. in any way constitutes a physical, moral, Edited by Daniel B. Clendenin. Grand Rapids: The author, a Finnish theologian at psychological or cultural constraint on Baker, 2003. 2d ed. Pp. 224. Paperback $19.99. Fuller Seminary, says he is not advocating the Jews . . . by offering more or less overt any particular view of theology of protection, legal, material, cultural, With an added epilogue on Orthodox- religions; rather, “this is meant to be a political and other advantages, using evangelical exchange, the revised edition ‘neutral’ introduction to the topic” (p. 27) educational, social or other pretexts.” of Clendenin’s presentation of Eastern for use as a seminary textbook. The Nowhere does it reject authentic mission Orthodox Christianity continues to serve bibliography and indexes of persons and and witness to the Jews! its original purpose: to introduce aspects subjects enhance its usefulness. There has never been published in of Orthodox history and theology to The most common typology in any language a comprehensive study of evangelical Christians. This perspective treatments of theology of religions uses Christian theology of religions throughout shows in the concentration on Orthodox exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. church history. This book could be a stage approaches to theology and truth claims The author, however, prefers a typology toward such a larger and more thorough about God and in the book’s emphasis on similar to that proposed by Jacques Dupuis work that would be a major reference tool. Orthodox understanding of Scripture, the in his Toward a Christian Theology of Until we have such a larger study, believer’s growth in holiness, and the piety Religious Pluralism (1997): ecclesiocentrism, Kärkkäinen’s work will serve very well as connected with seeing the divine in the Christocentrism, theocentrism, and an introduction to the subject. icons. Ecclesiology, the sacraments, reality-centrism. “The shape and content —Gerald H. Anderson liturgy, and the role of Mary and the saints of this [last] option,” as represented by receive scant attention. Clendenin some extreme pluralists such as John Hick, Gerald H. Anderson, a senior contributing editor, is provides much useful information on the says Kärkkäinen, “are still quite vague Director Emeritus of the Overseas Ministries Study history of the early and Byzantine church, and undefined” (p. 25). Center, New Haven, Connecticut. and he helps readers understand the

CIRCULATION STATEMENT Mission scholars and their Statement required by the act of August 12, 1970, section 3685. Title 39, United States Code, showing ownership, families are welcome to management, and circulation of INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH. Published 4 times per year at 490 apply for a short-term Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511. summer residency at OMSC Publisher: Jonathan J. Bonk, Overseas Ministries Study Center, 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511. (minimum of two weeks) Editor: Jonathan J. Bonk, Overseas Ministries Study Center, 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511. Associate Editor, Dwight P. Baker; Managing Editor, Daniel J. Nicholas; Overseas Ministries Study Center, 490 Prospect Invest your Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06511. The owner is Overseas Ministries Study Center, 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511. The known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security SUMMER holders owning or holding one percent or more of total amounts of bonds, mortgages or other securities are: None. in research and Average no. Actual no. of of copies copies of each issue single issue writing during pre- published ceding 12 nearest to months filing date Conveniently located across from Yale Divinity School and its Total no. copies printed 6,888 6,680 renowned Day Missions Library, OMSC provides comfortable Paid circulation: sales through dealers, carriers, accommodations from efficiencies to three-bedroom apartments. street vendors, and counter sales 0 0 Mail subscriptions 4,789 4,373 • Efficiency $200 per week Total paid circulation 4,789 4,373 • 1 Bedroom $235 per week Free distribution 650 700 • 2 Bedroom $260 per week Total distribution 5,439 5,073 Copies not distributed: 1,449 1,607 • 3 Bedroom $295 per week office use, left over, Discount of $25 per week for members of unaccounted, spoiled Overseas Ministries after printing American Society of Missiology (ASM), Returns from news agents 0 0 Association of Professors of Mission Study Center Total 6,888 6,680 (APM), International Association for Percent Paid and/or 490 Prospect Street Requested Circulation 88% 86% Mission Studies (IAMS), and the New Haven, Connecticut 06511 International Association of Catholic I certify that the statements made by me above are correct Missiologists (IACM). and complete. Details online at www.OMSC.org (signed) Jonathan J. Bonk Editor

52 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 alienation between the Eastern Orthodox and who look to the evangelizing of post- Charismatic, indigenous, and non- and the Latin church. To its great credit, Soviet Russia as a part of their Great Western forms. All these perspectives are the book relies heavily on the giants of Commission. Christians with that agenda admirably respected in this resource. modern Orthodox scholarship (Lossky, can do nothing better than, with The six editors (Nicholas Lossky, José Schmemann, Meyendorff, and Kallistos Clendenin, adopt a hermeneutics of love Míguez Bonino, John Pobee, Tom F. Ware). The writing is colored by the and policies of respect. Stransky, Geoffrey Wainwright, and author’s own experiences of a —Anna Marie Aagaard Pauline Webb), who are themselves a “hermeneutics of love” and is aimed at guarantor of the quality and balance of the fostering mutual respect and overcoming Anna Marie Aagaard is Professor Emeritus, Faculty work, provide an accessible, well- mistrust and facile stereotyping. The of Theology, University of Aarhus, Denmark. organized, lucidly written, and accompanying volume—Eastern Orthodox remarkably comprehensive tool with this Theology: A Contemporary Reader—is a Dictionary; they added over forty articles wonderful supplement, presenting basic to the first-edition collection and carried texts that have become classics. their coverage forward to 2002 (in at least The Orthodox emphasis on the some articles). The contributors represent ecclesial mediation of faith and salvation Dictionary of the Ecumenical a Who’s Who of ecumenical experience is acknowledged, but Orthodox Christians Movement. and erudition. The brief bibliographies may have a hard time with the author’s after each article guide the reader into the very Protestant discussion of sola Scriptura Edited by Nicholas Lossky et al. Geneva: WCC necessary literature. The alphabetical list versus “Scripture within the church.” The Publications, 2002. 2d ed. Pp. xxvii, 1,296. of articles at the beginning helps in many descriptions of the Protestant West SFr 125 / $77.50 / £58 / €79. designing one’s search; there is an index cannot convince this Scandinavian, of names at the end and a very useful Lutheran reviewer that Clendenin is not The issuing of the second edition of this glossary of abbreviations to help one grinding the axes of evangelical opposition already indispensable dictionary is through the “alphabet soup” of modern to Reformation churches that root doctrine evidence of the dramatic and rapid acronyms. and interpretation of the Bible in liturgical changes that characterize the ecumenical Major articles are often masterful (e.g., worship. But by Clendenin’s own movement. Today’s survey of the “Jesus Christ,” by Rowan Williams; admission, the implied readers are not ecumenical movement must, after a scant “Mission,” by Philip Potter and Jacques High Church Scandinavian Lutherans but hundred years’ development, engage Matthey), and the overviews of major American evangelicals who expect the ecumenism in its Protestant, Roman meetings, consultations, and documents Christian faith to be more than a head trip Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal/ are useful. Both beginning student and mission insurance. nothing else.

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January 2005 53 established scholar will use this resource is essential for libraries and well worth its with profit. Wishes for the third edition: price for the serious student. the inclusion of missiologists as part of the —Darrell Guder ecumenical story (e.g., Bosch, Verkuyl, Walls, Warneck), attention to the issues of Darrell L. Guder is Professor of Missional and the church and the parachurch, and Ecumenical Theology at Princeton Theological recognition of the missional significance Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, and author of of Karl Barth, especially in the emergence The Continuing Conversion of the Church (2000) of the missio Dei theology. The Dictionary and Missional Church: The People of God (1998).

Dissertation Notices

Antonisamy, Maria Francis. Mubiru, B. Patrick. “Christian Kenotic Spirituality and “Mission and Healing Ministry: Hindu Sannyasa Spirituality: A Missiological Approach to the A Reflection on Missionary Spirituality Christian Healing Ministry in Africa.” in the Indian Context.” Ph.D. Rome: Pontifical Urban Univ., 2003. Ph.D. Rome: Pontifical Urban Univ., 2004. Muir, R. David. Blair, David C. “Black Theology, Pentecostalism, and “An Analysis of the Church of God Racial Struggles in the Church of Theological Seminary’s Role in God.” Developing Leaders for the Church Ph.D. London: Univ. of London, King’s of God, Cleveland, Tennessee.” College, 2003. D.Min. Columbia, S.C.: Columbia Biblical Seminary and School of Missions, 2003. Mukawa, Nzuzi. “Relationship Between the Mennonite Dunlap, Ruby Kathryn. Brethren Mission Services “Common Minds: A Study of International and the Mennonite Metaphors of Good and Evil Across Brethren Churches of the Congo (1943– Selected Language Groups [Ethiopia 2002).” and Somalia].” Ph.D. Deerfield, Ill.: Trinity Evangelical Ed.D. Nashville: Tennessee State Univ., Divinity School, 2003. 2002. Sherrill, Michael John. Feay, Troy Ernest. “Church Vitality in Japan.” “Mission to Moralize: Slaves, Africans, Ph.D. Pasadena, Calif.: Fuller Theological and Missionaries in the French Seminary, 2002. Colonies, 1815–1852.” Ph.D. Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Strang, Fred Foy. Dame, 2003. “Meisisi Enkai! Claiming Cultural Identity in Maasai Christian Worship Fussner, Jeffrey Allen. in the Presbyterian Church of East “Bridging Two Worlds: Leaders of the Africa.” Wesleyan Church of Indonesia and Ph.D. Edinburgh: Univ. of Edinburgh, Their Role of Administering Financial 2003. Assistance from North American Wesleyan Churches.” Wiking, Göran. Ph.D. Deerfield, Ill.: Trinity Evangelical “Breaking the Pot: Contextual Divinity School, 2004. Responses to Survival Issues in Malaysian Churches.” Kim, Ig-Jin. Ph.D. Lund: Lund Univ., 2004. “History and Theology of Korean Pentecostalism: Sumbogeum (Pure Woodberry, Robert D. Gospel) Pentecostalism.” “The Shadow of Empire: Christian Th.D. Utrecht: Utrecht Univ., 2003. Missions, Colonial Policy, and Democracy in Postcolonial Societies.” Magumba, John. Ph.D. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina, “The Development of Authentic 2004. African Models of Pastoral Care: A Study of Christian Ministry Among Yang Hae, Ryong. the Basoga People of Uganda.” “Missione e globalizzazione: Sfida Ph.D. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Mission all’Unità nell’Asia Pacifico.” Studies / Univ. of Leeds, 2003. Ph.D. Rome: Pontifical Urban Univ., 2004.

54 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 29, No. 1 WITNESSES TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

in Intercultural Studies and vice-president of the American “The Whole Gospel for a Whole World” Society of Missiology East, draw on two decades of living, 2005 Student Seminars on World Mission ministering, raising a family, and running an NGO in a North African country to offer both theoretical and practical insight. January 3–14 at Mercy Center: Fourteen mission Eight sessions. $145 professors and leaders in two weeks, plus April 11–15 January 17–21 at OMSC: Dr. Darrell L. Whiteman, Missionary Identity: A Dialogical Process. Professor Frans Asbury Theological Seminary, Culture, Values, and J. Verstraelen, OMSC Senior Mission Scholar in Residence Worldview: Anthropology for Mission Practice. and formerly at the University of Zimbabwe, explores Christian January 24–28 at OMSC: Dr. Tite Tiénou, Trinity and ecclesial mission in different contexts as dynamic Evangelical Divinity School, Ethnicity as Gift and Barrier: development based on mutual assistance and reciprocal correc- Human Identity and Christian Mission. tion and enrichment. Eight sessions. $145 Visit www.OMSC.org for a brochure and schedule. April 18–22 Jeremiah: Prophet for Our Times. Dr. Christopher J. H. February 28–March 4, 2005 Wright, Langham Partnership International, London, interprets Church Growth for a New Generation. Dr. George G. Hunter the text of Jeremiah missiologically, showing Jeremiah to be III, former dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mis- a prophet to the nations with perennial relevance to the inter- sion, Asbury Theological Seminary, offers strategic thinking national scene. Cosponsored by Trinity Baptist Church (New for churches, especially in outreach, evangelism, cross- Haven). Eight sessions. $145 cultural mission, and social reform. Eight sessions. $145 May 2–6 March 7–11 Personal Renewal in the Missionary Community. Rev. Exploring God’s Creation: New Insights, New Response. Stanley W. Green, Mennonite Mission Network, and Mrs. Miriam Therese MacGillis, O.P., cofounder of Genesis Farm, Christine Aroney Sine, Mustard Seed Associates, blend focuses on the interface between our Christian tradition and classroom instruction and one-on-one sessions to offer a time the new insights offered by contemporary science and ecologi- of personal renewal, counsel, and direction for Christian cal awareness to aid participants in their search for more au- workers. Cosponsored by Mennonite Mission Network. Eight thentic ways to live in harmony with the natural world and sessions. $145 each other. Cosponsored by Maryknoll Mission Institute and held at Maryknoll, New York. Eight sessions. $140 STUDY WITH OMSC SENIOR MISSION March 14–18 SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE: SPRING 2005 Culture, Interpersonal Conflict, and Christian Mission. Dr. Duane H. Elmer and Dr. Muriel I. Elmer, Trinity DR. FRANS J. VERSTRAELEN Evangelical Divinity School, help Christian workers strengthen Former general secretary of the interpersonal skills and resolve conflicts among colleagues, International Association for Mission including host-country peoples. Cosponsored by Africa Inland Studies, retired in 1998 as professor Mission International and Moravian Church Board of World of religious studies, University of Mission. Eight sessions. $145 Zimbabwe.

April 4–8 Ministry in Islamic Contexts. Rev. Joseph Cumming, Ph.D. candidate, Yale University, and Mrs. Michele Cumming, M.A. Overseas Ministries Study Center 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511 USA (203) 624-6672, Ext. 315 [email protected] Register online at www.OMSC.org Book Notes In Coming Gelber, Harry G. Opium, Soldiers, and Evangelicals: England’s 1840–42 War with China and Its Issues Aftermath. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Eng.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Pp. x, 252. £35 / $65. The Congregational Leadership Crisis Facing the Japanese Church Haumann, Mathew. Thomas J. Hastings and Mark R. Travelling with Soldiers and Bishops: Stories of Struggling People in Sudan. Mullins Nairobi: Paulines Publications, 2004. Pp. 166. Paperback KSh 600 / $8. The Church in North Korea: Hayes, Michael, ed. Retrospect and Prospect Mission and Evangelisation. Hyun-Sik Kim London: Burns & Oates, 2004. Pp. xix, 135. Paperback £12.99. Catholic Missionaries and Civil Power in Africa, 1878–1914 Heslam, Peter, ed. Aylward Shorter, M.Afr. Globalization and the Good. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004. Pp. xxi, 137. Paperback $20. Beyond Bosch: The Early Church and the Christendom Shift Hirsch, Bertrand, and Manfred Kropp, eds. Alan Kreider Saints, Biographies, and History in Africa / Saints, biographies et histoire en The Religious Worldview of the Afrique / Heilige, Biographien und Geschichte in Afrika. Indigenous Population of the Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2003. Pp. x, 355. Paperback SFr 82 / €52.80 / £37 / $62.95. Northern Ob’ as Understood by Jeyaraj, Daniel. Christian Missionaries Genealogy of the South Indian Deities: An English Translation of Anatolii M. Ablazhei Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg’s Original German Manuscript, with a Textual John Howard Yoder as Mission Analysis and Glossary. Theologian London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. Pp. xii, 368. £55 / $97. Joon-Sik Park Pre-Revolution Russian Mission to Langmead, Ross. Central Asia: A Contextualized The Word Made Flesh: Towards an Incarnational Missiology. Legacy Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press of America, 2004. Pp. xi, 353. $69; paperback $40. David M. Johnstone Magesa, Laurenti. Anatomy of Inculturation: Transforming the Church in Africa. In our Series on the Legacy of Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2004. Pp. x, 286. Paperback $28. Outstanding Missionary Figures of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Mortensen, Viggo, ed. Centuries, articles about Theology and the Religions: A Dialogue. Norman Anderson Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. Pp. xiv, 481. Paperback $35. Thomas Barclay George Bowen Nissen, Johannes. Hélène de Chappotin New Testament and Mission: Historical and Hermeneutical Perspectives. François E. Daubanton Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2004. 3d ed. Pp. 196. Paperback SFr 49 / €31 / £22 / $36.95. John Duncan Pa Yohanna Gowon Phan, Peter C. Carl Fredrik Hallencreutz Christianity with an Asian Face: Asian American Theology in the Making. Hannah Kilham Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2003. Pp. xvii, 253. Paperback $30. Rudolf Lechler George Leslie Mackay Phan, Peter C. Lesslie Newbigin In Our Own Tongue: Perspectives from Asia on Mission and Inculturation. Peter Parker Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2003. Pp. xv, 220. Paperback $30. James Howell Pyke Pickens, George F. Pandita Ramabai African Christian God-Talk: Matthew Ajuoga’s Johera Narrative. Elizabeth Russell Lanham, Md.: Univ. Press of America, 2004. Pp. ix, 345. $68; paperback $40. Bakht Singh James Stephen Sandos, James A. Philip B. Sullivan Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the Missions. John V. Taylor New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2004. Pp. xix, 251. $35. James M. Thoburn M. M. Thomas Zdero, Rad. Harold W. Turner The Global House Church Movement. Johannes Verkuyl Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 2004. Pp. xiv, 141. Paperback $12.99. William Vories