Gallagher and Smither, editors of this collection of essays, offer the reader insightful historical and theological essays with the purpose of illustrating theologies and practices of mission during a historical period too focus on ecclesiological and theological debates in Europe. The authors broaden the sixteenth-century missiological outlook by taking specific historical figures and their mission theologies in different contexts. The essays provide an exploration—the term used by the editors in the title—of active theological activity in the communication of the gospel in different regions of the world—including today's global south. The book's accessible reading is a primer for undergraduate and graduate students who need to re-discover mission thought and practice by way of social justice, translations, inter-cultural and inter-religious encounters, intra-Christian theological debates, and the internal complexities of Christian colonial systems.
The authors’ work illustrates the rich variety of mission practices and theologies. Divided in two parts, one on emerging Protestant theologies and the other on Roman Catholic mission, the theologically educated reader will discover the relationship between theology, missional practices (mysticism, spiritual disciplines, etc.), and contexts. For the non-scholarly readership, the essays provide missional examples that discredit popular assumptions about Christian mission work, namely, for example, Alfonso in the Kingdom of Congo, the Reformed mission in Brazil, and the sophisticated missional thought and structure Catholics haves during this period.
The book is slightly thin when compared with more current historical and theological work regarding mission in the sixteenth century. For example, Cecil Fromont's The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of the Kongo (University of North Carolina Press, 2017), Mark Z. Christensen's Translated Christianities (Penn State University Press, 2014), and Charles H. Parker's Global Calvinism: Conversion and Commerce in the Dutch Empire, 1600–1800 (Yale University Press, 2022) provide theoretical, historical, and theological depth that is insightful and provocative for the scholar of mission studies. Yet, these colleagues provide an important source for the student of mission history who will be challenged to re-think the relationship between theology, mission practice, and context.
