Abstract
The authors dedicate this book to “the members of the International Association for Mission Studies in appreciation for much intellectual stimulus and warm friendship.” Both authors have doctorates in mission studies and have been connected with Cliff College, Sheffield, England, which offers graduate degrees in missiology that are validated by the University of Manchester, England.
Timothy Yates is well known for his earlier book Christian Mission in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, 1996), to which the book under review is a companion volume. Stephen Skuce, a former mission partner in Sri Lanka, was academic dean at Cliff College until his appointment in 2014 as director of scholarship and research of the British Methodist Church. His chapter here on the life and work of D. T. Niles is a welcome assessment of this important Asian mission theologian and ecumenical statesman in the mid-twentieth century, who is not widely remembered today.
All the other chapters are by Yates and are equally valuable. Issues addressed include assessments of the Edinburgh 1910 World Mission Conference and the approach to other faiths; the approach to other religions as found in the International Review of Mission, 1912–39; attitudes toward Christian conversion in the work of several influential scholars in the twentieth century; an assessment of Anglican evangelical missiology, 1922–84; mission praxis; and the influence of the CMS newsletters since Max Warren, 1963–85. Additional mission thinkers who are carefully studied by Yates include Stephen Neill, John Taylor, David Bosch, and Lesslie Newbigin.
This book is a small jewel, capturing some of the highlights and high-profile figures who influenced Protestant missiology in the twentieth century.
Sadly, Tim Yates died on January 16, 2016.