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Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia. The history and transformation of a Free Church tradition . By Malkhaz Songulashvili . (Studies in World Christianity.) Pp. xxviii + 508 incl. 7 black-and-white ills and 3 tables. Waco : Baylor University Press , 2015. $79.95. 978 1 4813 0110 7
Reviews
In recent years, a number of volumes have broadened the scope of research in Eastern European Baptist history and identity. Gregory Nichols's inspiring attempt to explore Russian Evangelical spirituality through the biographical lens of Ivan Kargel (Eugene, Or 2011), or Constantine Prokhorov's book on the Orthodox impact on Russian Baptists, 1960-90 (Carlisle 2013), are excellent, though randomly chosen, examples of this trend in research. Malkhaz Songulashvili's study of Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptists history and analysis of their attempts to change their mission paradigm, accommodating it more deeply to local Georgian culture, is a timely and helpful addition to the field. This pioneering analysis will no doubt be referred to for many years to come whether future authors agree or disagree with Songulashvili.
The book helps to answer some questions, such as issues related to Russian-Georgian Baptist relationships. Songulashvili argues that from an indigenous and contextualised mission perspective Georgian Baptists' distancing of their patterns of liturgy and mission from Slavic forms was both necessary and justified. The volume also raises new questions, for example, how to interpret the move by Georgian Baptists towards closer understanding with the historical Georgian Orthodox Church (at the turn of the millennium) and then - more recently - the relationships growing increasingly detached again. However, the book inspires a researcher who is working...