The Missionary Movement from the West (Andrew Walls) - Review

  

THE MISSIONARY MOVEMENT FROM THE WEST: A Biography fromBirth to Old Age. (Studies in the History of Christian Missions). By Andrew F. Walls. Foreword by Gillian Mary Bediako. Edited by Brian Stanley. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2023. Xxi + 271 pages.

The history of Christian missions is complicated. Christianity spread across the globe over two millennia, becoming the largest religious tradition on earth. Over time it has ebbed and flowed. For several centuries its center was found in Europe. Today, Christianity is on the decline in Europe and even North America. Yet, it is thriving in Asia, Africa, and South and Central America. Not so long ago, Korea was a missionary destination. Today South Korea is a mission-sending nation. There is good and there is bad when it comes to the story of Christian missions, especially the missionary movements that originated in the West, which includes Europe and North America.

Although I was never a missionary, nor had any inkling to be one, my missions professor in college planted a seed of interest in the history of Christian missions. That seed was especially nurtured when I took his History of Christian Missions class. While I took the class in large part because it offered me another history class, I found the story of Christian missions fascinating. I even published my first article, a book review, due to the class. My interest in the missionary movements of the Christian faith continues to this day, especially in light of my interfaith engagements. Understanding the history of Christian missions is helpful in understanding Christian encounters with Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish faiths.

Andrew Walls's The Missionary Movement from the West: A Biography from Birth to Old Age offers a valuable historical overview of the complex nature of the missionary movement as it originated in Europe and spread across the globe. The book itself is part of the Studies in the History of Christian Missions series published by Eerdmans. Although the author, Andrew Walls, passed away in 2021, he was one of the leading historians of the Christian missionary movements. He studied mission history as both a participant in mission and as an observer. As such he had a good understanding of the complex nature of the missionary movements. This volume is based on lectures given in several locations, including the Overseas Ministries Study Center located in New Haven, Connecticut, between 2005-2008. They were given orally from handwritten notes, which were then transcribed from recordings and edited by Brian Stanley to create this volume after his death.

As Brian Stanley, the editor of the book, notes, except for the first chapter of the book, Walls says little about Catholic missions and less about Orthodox missions. Thus, it is a largely Protestant narrative that focuses on mission efforts that extended from Europe, especially the United Kingdom, and North America (especially the United States). He attributes much of the expansion of missional activities after the Reformation to European migration. This is true of both Catholic and Protestant missions. Since the book is based on lectures delivered over fifteen years ago, Stanly acknowledges that there have been changes in perspective on the history of missionary expansion from the West since the lectures were presented. With that in mind, he places any qualifications to Walls’s perspective in the footnotes.

Walls lays out his history of the Western missionary movements in four parts. He begins in Part One with the "Birth and Early Years." The chapters in this section focus on the origins of Western missionary efforts, starting with Catholic missions and the extension of Christendom through the "Great European Migration" that begins in the fifteenth century and reaches its peak in the twentieth century, after which migration begins to recede. He points out later in the book that as the migration from Europe came to an end, migration into Europe and North America began to take place. This migration into Europe and North America has become a staple of the news in both regions. After setting the foundations in Chapter 1, Walls quickly moves forward in time to the Puritan and Pietist origins of Protestant missions in the eighteenth century. He includes in this discussion Jonathan Edwards's engagement in missionary efforts among Native Americans (Chapter 2). From there we move to "A History and Geography of Christian Obedience" in Chapter 3. In this chapter, we see how the early strands of missions began to take hold as Protestant mission efforts got underway, largely as a response to a rediscovery of the Great Commission. The focus is on European and American efforts, especially in Africa. This chapter includes discussions of a variety of mission efforts, some denominational and others voluntary, such that more nondenominational efforts emerge. The next chapter (4) focuses on the importance of the abolitionist movement to missions and the addition of other humanitarian efforts. This move expressed a commitment to “Real Christianity” that centered on the fruit of conversion, not just conversion.

After laying out the foundations of Western mission efforts in Part One, we move in Part Two to "Middle Age," with a focus on the nineteenth century. The chapters in this section include discussions of the interpretation of biblical prophecy as it relates to Protestant missions (chapter 5). There is a chapter titled Jerusalem and Antioch that explores the relationship between missions and non-western churches, recognizing the connection between colonialism and mission efforts Part of this recognition of the need for mission churches to take ownership of their churches led to the development of what came to be known as the "Three-Self Principle," which envisioned these churches becoming self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. While there was interest in pursuing this path, it was not an easy one as some mission efforts attempted to create churches with indigenous leadership while others restricted leadership to Western missionaries. Chapter 7 is titled "Made of One Blood," a chapter that explores the role that race, culture, and society play in Western missionary efforts. One of the issues that emerged in the nineteenth century was the expansion of European colonialism late in the century, such that missionaries found themselves more often dealing with Western governments rather than local leaders, especially in Africa. This led to a reduction of indigenous leadership as colonial governments sought to control the missionary efforts. Following this discussion, Walls focuses on the missionary efforts in China, which was largely resistant to Christianity until Western powers began to make colonial inroads into China. While this led to greater missionary access to China it also led to significant complications (Chapter 8).

Part 3 is titled "Midlife Crises: Western Missions in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries." Here Walls discusses the maturing nature of Protestant missions with its attendant challenges (chapter 9), leading to a discussion of the "The World Missionary Conference" of 1910, which was a major ecumenical effort that led to other ecumenical efforts. The important thing to note here is that while it was an important milestone in mission history, as missionaries from across the Protestant world gathered, it was largely a European and North American gathering, with few leaders from outside the West present. Not long after that, World War I began complicating these efforts. It also began to set the stage for future independence movements. Chapter 11 introduces the beginnings of missionary specialization, especially medical missions. Interestingly, it was medical missions that enabled missionaries, who once focused solely on evangelism, to gain entrance to places like China. Chapter 12 signals the beginnings of a movement into what Walls calls "Old Age." The setting for this conversation is the Tambaram International Mission Conference that took place in Madras India in 1938. It is here that more non-Western leaders made their presence known and Western missions began to enter their twilight years. It is worth noting that this conference took place shortly before the dawn of World War II, which led to India’s independence from British rule shortly after the war's end. The end of the war signaled the decline of the British Empire and a long period of decolonization, a process that included the decolonization of the church, a process that continues to the present day. Walls writes that with the end of the European migration and the beginnings of decolonization, as Christianity returned "to being a non-Western religion, Christianity has reverted to type" (p. 191). Indeed!

The final section, titled "Old Age," focuses on the period running from World War II to the present, examining the impact of cultural, social, and political changes on the Western missionary movement. He begins in Chapter 13 using the depiction of the rise and fall of empires found in Daniel 7 to explore the legacy of World War II, which planted the seeds of the demise of empire and the birth of the Indian nation. This is an important chapter that helps us understand the impact of British imperialism in India and its demise on the church in India. This discussion is followed in Chapter 14 with a look at missions in China. Here Walls takes note of the hopes and dreams of the mission efforts underway in the twentieth century. These hopes and dreams centered on Chiang Kai-Sheck, the early Nationalist leader in China, who was a professing Christian. These dreams were shattered with the fall of the Nationalist Party’s control over China and the emergence of Communist rule that led to the expulsion of Western missionaries. After examining the impact on missions of the independence movement in India, and the fall of the Nationalist government in China, Walls moves in Chapter 15 to an examination of African Christianity as independence movements took shape. He explores the role missions and Christianity played in the emergence of these newly independent nations as they broke free from colonialist rule. The final chapter invites us to consider the theological questions raised by these changes to World Christianity. One of the important insights made in Chapter 16 is that Western theological concepts don't fit the new reality. Thus, there is a need for theological contributions from these emerging non-Western churches to broaden our theological perspectives. He also sees, hopefully, a transformation of the nature of the ecumenical movement, such that with the return to a truly global church, we have the possibility of "realizing a single world Christian community" where all the parties are equal elements of that church. He writes, "Perhaps the great ecumenical test, the litmus test of the church in this century, will bless the relations of what we call churches than the ability of African and Indian and Chinese and Korean and North and South America and east and west European Christians to work, to share meaningfully, within the body of Christ." (p. 246).

Mainline Protestant churches have largely abandoned attempts to create new missionary work. Instead, they have sought to partner with indigenous churches. This has led in some ways to a loss of connection between European and North American churches with the churches in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Reading a book of mission history, such as Walls' The Missionary Movement from the West, can help us better understand the global reach of Christianity. As Walls points out European and North American theologians will benefit from conversations with theologians in the places where Christianity is on the rise. Walls helps us understand the positives and the negatives that go with the expansion of Christianity across the globe. Missionary movements often made bad choices, often in partnership with colonial governments together with the migration of Europeans across the globe. Nevertheless, we now live within an emerging global Christian context that spans the globe. The question for now is what this might look like. What will this new reality require of us as the body of Christ? To fully understand where we are as we move forward, we need to understand how we got here. As a participant and an observer, Andrew Walls provides that needed context, making this a must-read for Western church leaders.