Gerald H. Anderson, editor. MacMillan Reference,1998, 845 pp. $100. Review by Richard Showalter, in the January 1999 Evangelical Mission Quarterly. There is a breathtaking quality in the scope of Christian missions since Pentecost, a scope which is richly reflected in this selection of 2,400 biographical sketches, most of them cross-cultural missionary witnesses. >From Justin Martyr to Billy Graham, from the Venerable Bede to Chief Pomare of Tahiti--academicians, intrepid pioneers, ecclesiastical architects, giants of promise with feet of clay, and simple brothers and sisters with hearts aflame-they're all here.

A sanctified eclecticism, this, in the choices made from the estimated 10 million Christian missionaries or mission advocates of the past 2,000 years. They are Nestorian, Armenian, Celtic, Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, free church, evangelical, pentecostal, and more. They are men and women, ancient and modern, educated and illiterate, rich and poor, well-known and obscure. Inevitably, the choices will be challenged. If Pope Urban VIII is included, why not Urban II? If Constantine the Great and Pomare II are registered, why not Abgar of Osrhoene or Haile Selassie of Ethiopia? If George Whitefield and Hans Hut make the list, why not Charles Finney and Michael Sattler? There will no doubt be better questions than these, but they serve to make a point. The selection is vulnerable in a thousand details; consistency is impossible. Yet after the raised eyebrow comes a sigh of satisfaction. Here is a veritable treasure trove of missions history, thrusting aside the Christian provincialisms which have so limited much of the 20th century grasp of the global and ecumenical range of missions in its multiple historical expressions. The contributors are carefully selected and richly representative of the variety of people and traditions they depict. Such might even rarely appear, as in the case of Samuel Hugh Moffett, as a biographical entry as well.

A perusal of the section on "Biographies by Time Period" is a sobering reminder of how little documentation exists for Christian missions prior to 1500. All the names of biographical entries born up till 1500 take only one page. In contrast, it takes 12 pages to list those born in the past 450-odd years. At best, then, from what must be God's perspective, it remains hopelessly lopsided despite its admirable breadth. This, of course, is simply a tribute to human limitations. Every library in the English-speaking world with a credible claim to offering general facilities for historical research really ought to have this volume. And for any school or scholar with some interest in Christian missions-well, it would seem quite unthinkable not to acquire it post haste. It has set a new standard.