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A. SCOTT MOREAU, ED. Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books. 2000. Pp. 1,068, indices, preface, index. $60.00.
Part of Baker Reference Library, this dictionary is edited by A. Scott Moreau, associate professor of missions and international studies at Wheaton Graduate School, Wheaton, Illinois. Associate editors include Harold Netland, associate professor of philosophy of religion and mission, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, and Charles Van Engen, a professor of biblical theology of mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.
The volume contains some 1,400 entries, of which about 700 are "content articles," that is, they cover topics and themes dealing with the practice of missions. Of the 330 contributors, the great bulk stem from evangelical institutions or missionary organizations.
The book contains much material of value to any serious student. It includes some 483 biographical entries, including those on such major Anglican figures as Gilbert A. Cragg, interpreter of Islam; Albert R. Tucker, missionary to Uganda; Lucian Lee Kinsolving, who was sent to Brazil; and Samuel Schereschewsky, the Russian-Jewish bishop and translator in China. It describes a host of organizations and movements as well, including such Anglican ones as the Church Missionary Society and the Claphani sect. There is hardly a nation in the world that does not have its own separate article, be it as tiny as Andorra or San Marino or as new as Belarus or Ukraine. There are other strong features, such as a wide range of theological concepts (e.g., sin, holiness) and current modes of analysis (e.g., ethnologies, missiological anthropology).
The editors are quick to affirm that the volume is...