This biography examines the life of a most unusual twentieth-century evangelical, Kenneth L. "Ken" Pike (1912-2000), who served with the Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Pike began his missionary career as a Bible translator, but he went on to become a world-class linguist who made his mark on the science of linguistics and the study of indigenous languages around the world. Known among linguists and anthropologists for his theoretical contributions, this volume seeks to bring Pike to a wider audience by illuminating his life as a key evangelical figure, one who often broke with conventional evangelical constraints to pursue the life of the mind as a Christian intellectual and scholar. Here is a story of how one evangelical Christian man served the global church, the scientific community, and the world's indigenous peoples with his entire heart, soul, and mind.

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.

Kenneth Pike's influence spread far and wide during the last half of the twentieth century. The contributors to this volume are just a few of the thousands of scholars whose work was influenced by Pike's teaching and writing. These essays will help younger scholars grasp something of his intellectual influence through his contribution to linguistics, anthropology, and many other disciplines. Long before the concept of "endangered languages" came into vogue in the 1990s, Pike was instilling in his students the importance of recording, preserving, and working to keep alive the thousands of unwritten languages spoken throughout the world. Pike's work with SIL International took him to many parts of the world as a consultant and lecturer. He worked with speakers of hundreds of indigenous languages as well as with SIL field linguists studying those languages. At the same time, he interacted with scholars at international conferences and lectured at universities in many countries. Essays in this volume include papers by authors from at least ten countries and six disciplines. Readers of this volume will find a rich introduction to the life and philosophy of Dr. Pike. They will see how he considered all aspects of life - language, culture, worldview, religion, and ways of thinking and learning - to be a coherent whole. They will also find the authors' own comments as to how Pike influenced and contributed to their lives and work.

In over 2,000 years, Christianity has made 'the' overwhelming impact on the culture of the Western world in particular. But culture has also helped to shape the development and form of Christianity since the interaction of two such powerful phenomena cannot help but change the other. This new book brings together over 1200 citations on Christianity and Culture which are indexed by subject, title and author for easy access.

A biography of linguist Kenneth L. Pike, written by his sister. She describes how scholarship and deep faith in God have been the basis for her brother's many achievements.