Review of Neill's A History of Christian Missions

One book that has become a staple in Missions History classes in seminaries and bible colleges is Stephen Neill's A History of Christian Missions. Stephen Neill is an ecumenist, so his book has to be understood as a historical account from an ecumenical perspective. It is a part of a trilogy on colonialism in missions. It brings out the historical fact that missions began as an overflow of the church’s activity but then quickly turned into an expansion of ideology across geographic boundaries. Neill’s book highlights those areas of expansion.

            Divided into two parts, the book traces missionary activity from the beginning of the second century AD up until the time of the revolution in Russia. The first part deals with the specific time periods for reaching Romans in AD 100–500, the Dark Ages in AD 500–1000, European missions in AD 1000–1500, the Age of Discovery in AD 1500– 1600, Roman Catholic missions in AD 1600–1787, and reaching out to the New World in AD 1600–1800. The second part deals with the ideologies of European and American discovery in AD 1792–1858, the colonialist spirit that dominated in AD 1858–1914, the expansion of the Orthodox church, the Roman Catholic church and Protestantism in AD 1815–1914, and the conclusions to be drawn since AD 1914. It is only in the very end of the book that any concept of God at work in missions or the fulfillment of Scripture comes into play.

            Perhaps Neill’s greatest contribution to missiology in this book is his highlighting the issues related to colonialist expansion, the compromise associated with political partnership and the underlying attitude of Western superiority. He adequately sums this up in his statement that “whether we like it or not, it is the historic fact that the great expansion of Christianity coincided in time with the world-wide and explosive expansion of Europe that followed on the Renaissance; that the colonizing powers were the Christian powers; that a whole variety of compromising relationships existed between missionaries and governments; and that in the main Christianity was carried forward on the wave of Western prestige and power” (p. 414). For whatever reason Neill makes this assessment, his book deals a painful blow to the missionary activity of the church that must be reconciled today.

            Related to colonialist expansion, it is true that 19^th century missions was largely concerned with extra-biblical requirements for cultures to become civilized prior to or at least concurrent with conversion. This is a blight on the history of missions. However, today missiologists are dealing with this historical blunder by employing a greater use of anthropology and sociology to draw distinctions between biblical and target cultures. They are attempting to place the sending culture in greater juxtaposition to the biblical message.

            In relation to compromise, missions agencies still wrestle with the issue of how much cooperation with national governments helps and how much hurts the endeavor. While too often western missionaries were accused of being agents of western governments because of their close interaction with federal humanitarian agencies, some areas might not have been reached without this partnership. Still, it leaves a big question as to how much is too much interrelation.

            Finally, his assessment that imperial attitudes have no place in missions is warranted. Although, as successfully shown, these attitudes abounded in all branches of Christianity, this should not be. And so much more could have been accomplished with an attitude of servanthood rather than superiority.