Where does one begin a study of missionary biography? Here are suggestions from the editor of the Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. He also points out the need for further research and writing in certain areas of biographical study. Readers can use this bibliography as a starting point to develop their own list for reading or teaching about the life and work of important figures in the history of missions.
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References
1.
AllenCatherine B.1980The New Lottie Moon Story. Nashville, TN: Broadman. Revered Southern Baptist missionary in China.
2.
AndersonCourtney1956To the Golden Shore: A Life of Adoniram Judson. Boston, MA: Little, Brown. Republished several times. Judson was the pioneer American Baptist missionary to Burma.
3.
BrodrickJames1952St. Francis Xavier, 1506–1552. New York: Wicklow. Spanish Jesuit pioneer missionary in Asia, a formidable figure who died off the coast of China in 1552
4.
CarriganAna1984Salvador Witness: The Life and Calling of Jean Donovan. New York: Simon & Schuster. Catholic lay missioner who was murdered in El Salvador on 2 December 1980, along with Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford and Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel
5.
CroninVincent1959A Pearl to India: The Life of Roberto de Nobili. New York: Dutton. Popular biography of Robert de Nobili, Jesuit missionary in India, who adopted controversial practices of inculturation.
6.
DawsGavan1973 [1984] Holy Man: Father Damien of Molokai. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press. Flemish Catholic missionary to the exiled persons with leprosy in Hawaii; he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1994; a film about his life and work is in preparation.
7.
DicksonMora1980The Powerful Bond: Hannah Kilham, 1774–1832. London, UK: Dobson. English Quaker missionary educator and linguist in West Africa.
8.
DonnellyJoseph P.1975Jean de Brebeuf, 1593–1649. Chicago, IL: Loyola University Press. One of numerous Jesuit missionaries who were martyred in North America
9.
EddyGeorge Sherwood1955Eighty Adventurous Years: An Autobiography. New York: Harper. Colorful American student missionary leader and evangelist with the YMCA in Asia. See also his biography by Rick L. Nutt listed below.
10.
ElliotElisabeth1957Through Gates of Splendor. New York: Harper. Five young American missionaries who lost their lives in the jungles of Ecuador in 1956 when they were speared by the Waorani (Auca) Indians they were trying to reach with the gospel
11.
FittsLeroy1978Lott Carey: First Black Missionary to Africa. Valley Forge, PA: Judson. Baptist leader of the first African-American mission to Africa
12.
FletcherJesse C.1963; reprinted with a new introduction 1996. Bill Wallace of China. Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman. Southern Baptist medical missionary, martyred in China in 1951.
13.
GarrettPaul D.1979St. Innocent, Apostle to America. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary. Nineteenth-century Russian Orthodox missionary to Alaska, later became Metropolitan of Moscow and a founder of the Russian Missionary Society
14.
HanleyMary LaurenceBushnellO. A.1980 [1991] Pilgrimage and Exile: Mother Marianne of Molokai. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press. One of the first Catholic sisters of an American religious foundation to start missionary work outside the United States.
15.
HefleyJamesHefleyMarti1975Uncle Cam. Waco, TX: Word. William Cameron Townsend, cofounder of Wycliffe Bible Translators and Summer Institute of Linguistics.
16.
HopkinsC. Howard1979John R. Mott, 1865–1955. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Missions and ecumenical statesman, Mott presided over the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference in 1910 and chaired the International Missionary Council from 1928 to 1946
17.
Kjaer-HansenKai1995Joseph Rabinowitz and the Messianic Movement. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. A major figure in messianic Jewish missions
18.
LivingstoneW. P.1918Mary Slessor of Calabar. New York: Doran. Pioneer Scottish missionary in eastern Nigeria
19.
LovettRichard1893James Gilmour of Mongolia: His Diaries, Letters, and Reports. London, UK: Religious Tract Society. Scottish missionary to the Mongolians, who persevered for many years before he baptized his first convert
20.
MagnussonSally1981The Flying Scotsman. New York: Quartet. Eric Liddell was the Olympic gold medalist and Scottish missionary to China whose story was told in the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire.
21.
NorthcottCecil1961Robert Moffat: Pioneer in Africa, 1817–1870. London, UK: Lutterworth. Pioneer Scottish missionary and linguist in Africa; his daughter Mary married David Livingstone
22.
NuttRick L.1997The Whole Gospel for the Whole World: Sherwood Eddy and American Protestant Mission. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. Biography of turn-of-the-century American student missionary leader, evangelist, and social activist with the YMCA in Asia. See also Eddy's autobiography listed above
23.
O'ConnorDaniel1974The Testimony of C. F. Andrews. Madras, India: Christian Literature Society. Anglican missionary in India who became a close friend of Gandhi
24.
ParishHelen R.WagnerHenry Raup1967The Life and Writings of Bartolome de Las Casas. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. Celebrated Dominican defender of the Indians in sixteenth-century Spanish America
25.
PollockJohn1955 [1996] The Cambridge Seven. Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity Press. Seven Cambridge students of distinction who greatly sacrificed to go to China to join J. Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission in 1885.
26.
SeaverGeorge1959David Livingstone: His Life and Letters. London, UK: Lutterworth; New York: Harper & Row. Legendary Scottish missionary, explorer, and geographer in Africa
27.
SharpeEric J.1963Not to Destroy but to Fulfil: The Contribution of J. N. Farquhar to Protestant Missionary Thought in India before 1914. Lund, Sweden: Gleerup. Scottish educational missionary in India, notable for his “fulfillment” theory of Christ put forth in his book The Crown of Hinduism (1913).
28.
SpenceJonathan1983The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. New York: Viking Penguin. Pioneer Jesuit missionary in China whose practices led to the Rites Controversy
29.
SwiftCatherine M.1984Gladys Aylward: The Courageous English Missionary. Basingstoke, UK: Marshall Pickering. Aylward's work in China was memoralized in a 1959 film, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman.
30.
WillmannAgnes1972Everywhere People Waiting: The Life of Helene de Chappotin de Neuville, 1839–1904. North Quincy, MA: Christopher. Founder of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
31.
WilsonDorothy Clarke1959Dr. Ida. New York: McGraw-Hill. Dr. Ida Scudder was the pioneering American medical missionary who founded the Medical College and Hospital at Vellore, India.
32.
WilsonDorothy Clarke1968Palace of Healing: The Story of Dr. Clara Swain. New York: McGraw-Hill. The first woman missionary doctor and founder of the first hospital for women in Asia
33.
AndersonGerald H., ed. 1998Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions: New York: Macmillan Reference; paperback edition, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999.
34.
AndersonGerald H., eds. 1994Mission Legacies. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
35.
BeaverR. Pierce1968All Loves Excelling: American Protestant Women in World Mission. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, rev. 1980.
36.
BlissEdwin Munsell1891Encyclopedia of Missions. 2 vols. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 2nd edition, 1904.
37.
BonkJonathan J.1999“The Dictionary of African Christian Biography: A Proposal for Revising Ecclesiastical Maps.”Missiology27(1):71–83.
38.
BowieFiona, eds. 1993Women and Missions: Past and Present Anthropological and Historical Perceptions. Providence, RI; Oxford, UK: Berg.
39.
BurgessStanley M.McGeeGary B.AlexanderPatrick H., eds. 1988Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
40.
ByrneLavinia, ed. 1993The Hidden Journey: Missionary Heroines in Many Lands. London, UK: SPCK.
41.
CameronNigel M. de S., ed. 1993Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology. Edinburgh, Scotland: T & T Clark; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
42.
DriesAngelyn1998The Missionary Movement in American Catholic History. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
43.
EddyGeorge Sherwood1945Pathfinders of the World Missionary Crusade. Nashville, TN: Abingdon.
44.
FarquharJ. N.1913The Crown of Hinduism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
45.
GrimshawPatricia1989Paths of Duty: American Missionary Wives in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
46.
HarperSusan Billington1999In the Shadow of the Mahatma: Bishop V. S. Azariah and the Role of Christianity in British India. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans; London, UK: Curzon.
47.
HillPatricia R.1985The World Their Household: The American Woman's Foreign Mission Movement and Cultural Transformation, 1870–1920. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
48.
HunterJane1984The Gospel of Gentility: American Women Missionaries in Turn-of-the-Century China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
49.
JongeneelJan A. B.1995Philosophy, Science, and Theology of Mission in the 19th and 20th Centuries: A Missiological Encyclopedia, Part I: The Philosophy and Science of Mission. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.
50.
KrummelJohn W., general ed. 1995Biographical Dictionary of Methodist Missionaries to Japan: 1873–1993. Tokyo, Japan: Kyo Bun Kwan.
51.
LernouxPenny1993Hearts on Fire: The Story of the Maryknoll Sisters. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
52.
MoreauA. Scott, ed. 2000Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.
53.
NauSemisi1996The Story of My Life: A Tongan Missionary at Ontong Java in the Solomon Islands, edited by DavidsonAllan K.Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific, Institute of Pacific Studies.
54.
RobertDana L.1996American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
55.
SaaymanWillem A.1996A Man with a Shadow: The Life and Times of Professor Z. K. Matthews. Pretoria, South Africa: University of South Africa Press.
56.
SeamandsJohn T.1967Pioneers of the Younger Churches. Nashville, TN: Abingdon.
57.
ShankDavid A. (abridged by Jocelyn Murray).
58.
ShankDavid A.1994Prophet Harris: The “Black Elijah” of West Africa. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill.
59.
TuckerRuth A.1983From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
60.
TuckerRuth A.1988Guardians of the Great Commission: The Story of Women in Modern Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
61.
World Missionary Conference1910Report of Commission VI: The Home Base of Missions. London, UK: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier; New York: Revell.
62.
ZwiepMary1991Pilgrim Path: The First Company of Women Missionaries to Hawaii. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
