A new biography of Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson (1788 - 1850), written to honor the 200th anniversary of his first mission trip from the U.S. to the Far East that would in turn mark the start of Americans joining the modern missions movement.

Letters to Young Scholars is designed primarily for college students, advanced high school students, and church and parachurch study groups on spiritual development. As a college text, the book introduces beginning students to the general education (or liberal arts) portion of a Christian college education. It gives major emphasis to the humanities and social science disciplines, the integration of the Christian faith with those disciplines, and the application of Christian thought to daily living (applied Christianity). It seeks to challenge the students to become broader in perspective and appreciation, more compassionate toward all of God’s creatures, and more confident and committed as they develop their worldviews and personal values.

David Bosch (1929-1992) was one of the foremost mission theologians of the twentieth century; a prolific scholar, committed church leader and active participant in the global conciliar and evangelical mission movements. His distinctive role in the South African church's struggle against apartheid is less well known, however. After reviewing Bosch's background and exploring key themes in his understanding of mission and evangelism, Livingston explores Bosch's legacy from the perspective of the missionary nature of the church. The church is God's kingdom community, acting as a witness to and instrument of the coming reign of God. The church is God's alternative community, simultaneously set apart from the world but also existing for the sake of the world, exemplifying the radical implications of Christ's new community. It is also God's reconciled and reconciling community, serving as a sign and embodiment of God's love in Christ. For those acquainted with Bosch only as the author of his magisterial Transforming Mission, A Missiology of the Road shows how Bosch integrated his theology and practice in a faithful, contextually relevant way within South Africa and the global church.

In 2010, nearly 30 percent of South Koreans—a country with a Confucian tradition over 1000 years old—identify as Christian, the largest percentage of Christians in an Asian nation, aside from the Philippines. Korea also boasts of having the largest church in the world; it also has the largest Presbyterian, Methodist, and Pentecostal churches in the world. Its vibrant spirituality, devout church life, and missionary zeal are well known around the world; its number of missionaries—nearly 20,000—is second only to US churches. How can we explain this religious revolution in modern Korea? Many people look to the 1970s and 1980s to find the cause of the rapid growth of Christianity in Korea. But to understand the real story behind the growth of the Korean church, we need to rediscover the story of the American missionary enterprises of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There, we will learn how the story of the “American Christ” came to Korea and gradually became a part of the Korean people’s story. After the missions, he is no longer the American Christ, but Jesus of Korea.

Informed take on the amazing growth of a very unusual missionary organization The two-sided mission organization comprising Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics is a paradox that begs for an explanation. The Summer Institute has long been doing laudable linguistic, humanitarian work in many countries, while Wycliffe has been one of the largest, fastest growing, and most controversial Christian missionary enterprises in the world. In this wide-ranging study Boone Aldridge—a religious historian and twenty-year insider at WBT-SIL—looks back at the organization’s early years, from its inception in the 1930s to the death of its visionary founder, William Cameron Townsend, in 1982. He situates the iconic institution within the evolving landscape of mid-twentieth-century evangelicalism, examines its complex and occasionally confusing policies, and investigates the factors that led, despite persistent criticism from many sides, to its remarkable rise to prominence.

Durante los pasados cincuenta años, el énfasis sobre la práctica y estrategia de la obra misionera ha menoscabado el valor de la importancia de la teología de la misión. Sin embargo, en las últimas décadas teólogos y misiólogos de todas las tradiciones cristianas han comenzado a reexaminar y repensar las suposiciones teológicas que fundamentan la obra misionera. En Misión en el Camino Charles Van Engen articula con claridad muchos de los conceptos fundamentales de la teología de la misión. Charles Van Engen, en este volumen, aborda numerosos temas misiológicos centrales. Examina la cuestión de construir teologías en contextos específicos, tales como en la ciudad. También nos muestra tanto los beneficios como las preocupaciones que experimentamos cuando alentamos a los creyentes a teologizar dentro de su propio entorno, cuando tomamos con seriedad el sacerdocio de todos los creyentes. Hace un delineamiento de los debates actuales sobre asuntos levantados por el pluralismo religioso, y batalla con la manera en que podemos proclamar el carácter único de Cristo, sin ser arrogantes y triunfalistas. Echa una mirada al impacto que la modernidad y la posmodernidad están teniendo sobre el movimiento misionero en Occidente, y hace un llamado a la renovación de nuestro compromiso como seguidores de Jesucristo en los duros ambientes culturales de nuestros días. Explora los roles cambiantes de misioneros y ministros en iglesias jóvenes, y levanta preguntas difíciles relacionadas con la unidad de la iglesia en medio de su proliferación, diversidad y fragmentación de carácter global. Son de excepcional valor, la manera en que Van Engen traza la historia de la discusión reciente sobre cada uno de estos asuntos y la riqueza de fuentes bibliográficas que nos presenta para más estudio. Igualmente, importantes son las repuestas que él ofrece a estas cuestiones, respuestas que nos ayudan a movernos más allá de los caminos sin salida que tanto caracterizan nuestro pensamiento actual. (Tomado del Prólogo escrito por Pablo Hiebert.)

"Mission is handicapped without a sound biblical theology of mission and an understanding of the history of mission leading up to our current context. Constants in Context offers both of these elements. It is mission theology in historical perspective and/or a history of mission that is grounded theologically. The authors describe it as a systematic theology with mission at its core, and a church history shaped by the constant but always contextual Christian traditions. Furthermore it is a constructive contribution to how mission theology needs to be practical and lived out through today's church and in our world. Written collaboratively by Roman Catholic writers Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder, both Missionaries of the Divine Word (SVDs). It is a particularly insightful in regard to the history and the various streams of Catholic mission but it also addresses and learns from the other traditions of the church. In fact, one of the book's strengths is its attention to neglected aspects and hidden stories of church and mission history. As a result it is gratifying to be inspired by non-European mission, women in mission and various forgotten or often ignored branches of the church. The book is in three sections: first, there is a framework for cultural contexts and theological constants; second, an in-depth exploration of historical stages and different models for mission; and third, a presentation of theological frameworks for mission. The third section concludes with a case for 'mission as prophetic dialogue' being the most appropriate model for 21st century mission." -- Amazon.com.

This book investigates the Mission of the Reformed Church in America sent to Arabia in 1889 to preach the Gospel, and which operated in the Persian Gulf until 1973. It also explores the various cultural encounters between missionaries and Muslims, and discusses conversion and the place of Islam in the Protestant eschatology. It maintains that John G. Lansing from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, New Jersey, who founded the Arabian Mission, deliberately dedicated the Mission to “direct Muslim evangelism”. In terms of premillennialism, Lansing “moved” Islam into the very centre of the theological discourse, and presented the evangelization of Muslims as critical for Christ’s Second Coming. This made the Arabian Mission unique among the American Protestant Missions, and placed the Church and missionaries between religious pluralism and the obligations of the Great Commission.

Legendary Southern Baptist missionary Charlotte "Lottie" Moon played a pivotal role in revolutionizing southern civil society. Her involvement in the establishment of the Women's Missionary Union provided white Baptist women with an alternate means of gaining and asserting power within the denomination's organizational structure and changed it forever. In Lottie Moon: A Southern Baptist Missionary to China in History and Legend Regina Sullivan provides the first comprehensive portrait of "Lottie," who not only empowered women but also inspired the formation of one of the most influential religious organizations in the United States. Despite being the daughter of slaveholders in antebellum Virginia, Moon never lived the life of a typical southern belle. Highly educated and influenced by models of independent womanhood, including an older sister who was a woman's rights advocate, an open opponent of slavery, and the first Virginian female to earn a medical degree, Moon followed her sister's lead and utilized her extensive education to successfully combine the language of woman's rights with the egalitarian impulse of evangelical Protestantism. In 1873 Moon found her true calling, however, in missionary work in China. During her tenure there she recommended that the week before Christmas be designated as a time of giving to foreign missions. In response to her vision, thousands of Southern Baptist women organized local missionary societies to collect funds, and in 1888, the Woman's Missionary Union was founded as the Southern Baptist Convention's female auxiliary for missionary work. Sullivan credits Moon's role in the establishment of the Woman's Missionary Union as having a significant impact on the erosion of patriarchal power and women's new engagement with the public sphere. Since her initial plea in 1888, the Missionary Union's annual "Lottie Moon Christmas Offering" has raised over a billion dollars to support missionary work. Lottie Moon captures the influence and culminating effect of one woman's personal, spiritual, and civic calling.