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Reviewed by:
  • The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910
  • Charles J. Fensham
Brian Stanley . The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009. Pp. xxii + 352. Paper $45.00. ISBN 978-0-8028-6360-7.

Brian Stanley is professor of world Christianity and director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World at the University of Edinburgh. The present book arises out of his rich publication history, which includes another six books and multiple journal publication too numerous to note here. He has been intimately involved in the arrangements for the centennial celebration of the 1910 conference that was celebrated in Edinburgh in June 2010, and his research and publication of this book provided a vital part of these arrangements.

The Edinburgh Missionary Conference, though smaller in scope than the preceding conference in 1900 in New York City, has gained renown as a watershed moment in the development of twentieth-century ecumenism as well as twentieth-century mission studies. For this reason Brian Stanley's definitive book on this conference is of prime importance for anyone who wishes to understand the unfolding story of ecumenism and mission, and the shift of the centre of the Church from Europe and North America to Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

The Edinburgh 1910 conference produced voluminous material. It has often been assessed as a moment of Christian triumphalism before the dramatic self-examination of Christian Churches that followed the first and second world wars. The conference also parallels strong movements toward uniting Protestant Churches that arise partly out of a new sense of common purpose in mission and the work of the Faith and Order movement, formally established in 1920, that Churches participated in during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, culminating in the formation of the World Council of Churches.

Stanley approaches the conference with systematic clarity by outlining the purpose, historical context, and work of the different commissions of the conference in eleven chapters, each prodding deeply into the literature and its historical background. These [End Page 303] sections include a description of the contextual and social conditions that led to the conference; a discussion of the major proponents and the preparation for the conference; the debates on the politics of defining the scope of the conference; the logistics; opening; conduct and spiritual atmosphere; the voice of the "younger" Churches—particularly from China and India; the role of the Three-Self Movement; mission education; the relationship of Christianity and world faiths; mission and empire; missionary cooperation (and lack thereof); and the legacy of the conference. In the process he explodes several myths, including the frequent claim that this conference was the birth of the ecumenical movement. He shows that much ecumenical co-operation preceded the conference and that the conference itself did not understand its role in terms of such a large mandate.

Stanley undertakes the task of mediating the intimidating volume of material available on this conference with an engaging writing style that kept this reader riveted. In the midst of his engaging descriptions he manages to humanize the participants and to expose the cultural fabric of their actions by sharing the background story from the rich correspondence that accompanied the conference.

Teachers of mission history, students of the ecumenical movement and mission studies, and those interested in exploring the trajectory of mission and ecumenism through the twentieth century will find this book essential to their research. It is worth owning.

Charles J. Fensham
Knox College, Toronto School of Theology
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