by Maurice T. Price, Ph. D. Shanghai.
This is a study in the contact of cultures. It investigates the reactions of non. Christian peoples to Protestant Missions from the standpoint of individual and group behaviour. It expresses no opinions as to the value of missionary enterprizes. The personnel of the propaganda, its churches, schools, hospitals, and printing presses are studied as examples of the impact of one culture upon another. Christianity is the church's version of Occidental culture and missionaries form a particular group. What are the reactions of those to whom this group carries this culture ? This is the general theme of Mr. Price's fascinatingly interesting book, and it is all the more absorbing for the reason that it is the first attempt which has ever been made to study the whole field of missions with the cold blood of a laboratory investigator. Warneck, Kato, Annett, Webster and Farqubar have studied particular fields but Mr. Price makes the first attempt to cover the world aspects of missionary activity.
The Table of Contents gives an excellent summary of this book.
(1) How non.Christians react to Missions;
(2) The influence of the native group;
(3) First impulsive reactions and more permanent responses;
(4) Deciding for group candidacy,
(5) The propagandic impact as a whole.
The material is selected from a large number of biographies of missionaries and converts, of reports from Government Boards and private individuals and from periodicals.
This book will come as a shock to some who consider Christian missions solely from the point of view of one individual carrying his joyful message to another in some remote part of the world. To such the relationship is too intimate and sacred to afford a field for study. But such must remember that the Protestant missionary force scattered through various countries of the world numbers thirty or forty thousand persons, that it is supported by millions of church members who liave organized missionary societies, that these societies have organized national commissions and international hoards and that not infrequently the organized missionary group expresses itself concerning international problems of statecraft.
Missionary propaganda is a huge organization supported by more people with more money than the Crusades of the Middle Ages. The present missionary army for the conquest of the world to its conception of Christ's teaching is as large as the 'remnant of the first Crusaders who captured Jerusalem in lO~9 and elected their King. The Crusades changed the whole current of European history and already a new world is coming into being as a result of the impact of western civilization upon outside countries brought about by missionary effort.
Missions must be studied from the detached basis of the laboratory. Apart from one's traditional belief or disbelief in missions as an institution beneficial to the spiritual life of man- kind no one can be blind to the patent fact that they are one of the greatest influences at work to-day among the people who do not belong to the group of western powers. They cannot be suppressed and no one who wishes to estimate correctly the effect of the cross-currents of modern international life can disregard them. Mr. Price's book presents no programme: it is only a study of such facts as are already available. It points the way to an understanding of the implications of the progress of modern missions and is therefore highly to be commended. J.C.F.
unless otherwise indicated