The Gospel Coalition announced the winners of The Gospel Coalition’s 2023 Book Awards, and an Eerdmans title was featured. We are very happy to share that The Missionary Movement from the West by Andrew F. Walls won in the Missions & the Global Church category!
View the Full Gospel Coalition’s 2023 Book Awards
Missions & the Global Church Winner!
“Everywhere you turn, Western evangelicals are talking about post-Christianity. Some lament; others foment. In such a time as this, we stand to benefit from a global and historical perspective. Though not written to directly address these contemporary concerns, The Missionary Movement from the West by Andrew Walls offers just that, helping us see beyond our short-sighted fears.
As Walls demonstrates, long before the West was won, Christianity “spread across much of Asia and a substantial part of East Africa.” Later, through the influence of the modern missions movement, the Western church contributed significantly to what we now know as “global Christianity.” This latter reality is the focus of his posthumously published work, edited by Brian Stanley. It’s a collection of Walls’s essays and lectures on the history of Western missions.
Following the metaphor of a life cycle, Walls traces the complex development of this movement, including discoveries of uncharted lands, troubling colonialism, vast migrations of people, and the unprecedented advance of Christianity in the non-Western world. Missions history should give the post-Christian West reason for hope. And it should help us as we seek to learn from and partner with our brothers and sisters around the world.”
— The Gospel Coalition
Andrew F. Walls (1928–2021) was an influential and beloved historian of Christian missions ending with the new era of the globalized church. He was a devoted participant-observer and learner in the work of world evangelization, and he was teacher and mentor to many current missiologists. Before his death he invited trusted students and colleagues to edit his renowned lectures into this book.