North American Foreign Missions, 1810-1914: Theology, Theory, and Policy (review)

This collection of papers and essays joins an impressive array of volumes that make up Eerdmans's "Studies in the History of Missions," a series that aptly epitomizes the historiographical renaissance that has flowered around the subject of missions in recent decades. North American Foreign Missions, like some of the other books in the series, emerged out of the North Atlantic Missiology Project; it incorporates material that was delivered at NAMP consultations in 1997 (University of Wisconsin) and 1998 (Fuller Theological Seminary), as well as additional chapters solicited by the editor. The title of this compilation is misleading—the main themes are limited entirely to Protestant missionary endeavor. Roman Catholic missions are virtually ignored.

Reflecting the two distinct consultations, the volume is divided into major sections that cover two historical periods: 1810-1865 and 1865-1914. Part I focuses primarily on the Congregationalist missionary enterprise, which was initially driven by the Haystack Prayer Meeting of 1806 and the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1810. David Kling of the University of Miami, Florida, sets an appropriate tone for the book by demonstrating the profound impact of New Divinity theology on the ABCFM, which ultimately points to the largely unexplored missionary legacy of Jonathan Edwards. In one of the most insightful papers, Paul Harris of Moorhead State offers a nuanced analysis of nineteenth-century missiologist Rufus Anderson; he convincingly argues that the Andersonian model for stimulating indigenous churches overseas was marked by significant cultural insensitivity. Another essay, by Dana Robert of Boston University, provides a provocative overview of the role conflicts that were experienced by the wives of Baptist missionaries in Burma and their Congregationalist counterparts in Hawaii. Other contributors in this section examine the influence of millennialism on Protestant missions (Richard Lee Rogers), the effects of the slavery debate on missions (Charles Maxfield III), and the impact of racial issues on Presbyterian efforts in Liberia (Susan Wilds McArver).

Part II likewise contains three pieces that merit special citation. First, Wendy Deichmann Edwards (United Theological Seminary) effectively connects home and foreign missions in her masterful assessment of Josiah Strong, the Congregationalist social gospeler who helped to bring a Manifest Destiny impulse to Protestant missionary endeavor. Second, Samford University's Carol Ann Vaughn astutely portrays the cultural transformation that was wrought in the career of Martha Foster Crawford, a long-term Southern Baptist missionary in China who struggled to transcend some of the limitations of her rural Alabama roots and marriage to a controversial Landmarker. Third, Canadian scholar Alvyn Austin, whose parents labored with the China Inland Mission, traces the historical and institutional development of this important faith mission in both its British and North American contexts. Additional authors cover Canadian Presbyterian women missionaries in India (Ruth Compton Brouwer), the social gospel's relationship to foreign missions (Janet Fishburn), and the mission ideology of Presbyterian missionary leader Robert Speer (John Piper, Jr.).

This important collection serves to highlight some key issues relating to missions history, including the impact of theological ideas on the missionary movement, the strategic role of individuals and institutions on the home front, and the place of women in overseas mission work. Catholic historians may well benefit from reading about the experiences of a limited circle of North American Protestant missionaries and mission promoters. At the same time, this book needs a sharper comparative perspective that would allow its valuable findings and conclusions to have wider applications.