Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions

Baptist History and Heritage, Wntr-Spring, 2001 by Albert W. Wardin, Jr.

By Gerald H. Anderson, editor. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999. 845 pages.

This work of 2,400 biographies is a most valuable addition for any mission collection. The denominational spread is broad; it includes missionaries and mission supporters from mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, indigenous, and independent church traditions. The writers are experts in their field. Each article includes a bibliography. Appendixes list the biographies by period, region of service, major agencies/religious traditions, and type of work as well as list biographies of women, martyrs, and non-Westerners.

Almost 160 Baptists are listed, which include, of course, the great Baptist heroes, such as Carey, Judson, and Moon. Although the book includes the major Baptist missions and a good selection of Baptist missionaries from each continent, Southern Baptists, on the other hand, are underrepresented. Although Matthew T. Yates makes the list, where, for instance, is a biography of Roswell H. Graves, who also had a notable career in China and served fifty-seven years? This is probably due to the selection of writers. Although writers from several Baptist groups provided articles on both Baptists and non-Baptists, contributions from convention-related Southern Baptist seminaries and colleges are notably lacking. For Russian missions, there is an article on Peter Deyneka and the Slavic Gospel Association, but where is one on William Fetler, a Baptist and progenitor of independent Russian missions from America?

In spite of these minor criticisms, the work is well done and contains a wealth of information on Christian missions around the world--Reviewed by Albert W. Wardin Jr., Retired Professor of History, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee.