Ken Stewart on Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe: Fictional Missionary in Britain's Pre-Missionary Age

The following article is now available on-line in PDF by permission of the author:

Ken Stewart, "Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe: Fictional Missionary in Britain's Pre-Missionary Age," Haddington House Journal 14 (2012), 173-188.

Click here to read this unusual article.

Changing Lives and Communities for Christ – Victorian Style.

From: “Far and Near: Notes of the Month,”.Sunday At Home 1902-1903 pages 137-138

Casting Out Devils In Birmingham

[p.137] ST. LAURENCE PARISH, Birmingham, is not an attractive spot; a death-rate of forty per thousand, and a reputation for ruffianism and rowdyism, have given it a character unenviable. It is here that policemen go two and two on their beats, that the vans from the fever hospitals and the workhouse infirmary are constantly flitting to and fro. Deaths from starvation, back to back houses without thorough ventilation. Courts congested and over-crowded are features of the area, and yet it was to this place that the Rev. T. J. Bass felt he had a call, from the delightful suburban vicarage of Penn Fields, near Wolverhampton. 

He lives in the midst of his parish in a disused coffee house, the surroundings of which are of the most unsavoury kind. The light of heaven is blackened by the smoke which curls aloft in thick clouds; the air is vitiated with the odours of a gas works and a mephetic canal, whilst breathing is difficult at times because of the throttling vapours of an acid works.

The people earn their living by precarious methods. Some of the people have been described as "hawkers, labourers, rag and bone collectors, wood choppers, pigeon flyers, dog racers, prize fighters and gamblers, convicts and loafers." There are, however, not a few respectable people who have come down in the world and are in extreme poverty. Waste paper sorters, meat tin collectors, button stitchers, card-box makers, hawkers of fish and salt, orange sellers, paper fire ornament makers, sand-stone sellers, and persons of other occupations.

Women who live by button sewing find their own cotton, and sew twenty gross, 2,880 buttons, on a card, do eight hours' work, and get from 8d. [8 pence] to 1s. [12 pence]

The rate of payment for those who stitch hooks and eyes on cards is 9d. a pack: one pack consists of twenty-four gross; a reel of cotton is provided, but l 1/4d. deducted for the same; the cards have to go three times through the workers' hands-first, stitch on hooks, second, link hooks to eyes, third, stitch on eyes. Clever workers can earn 2s. 6d. per week.

 [p.138]

Salt Sellers.- Rate of payment, 2d. a lump off a canal barge. Each lump cuts into four pieces, and is sold at 1d. per piece. Very many are engaged in this occupation, and if three lumps are sold in a day, a man thinks he has done well.

Box Making.- The people have to find their own glue, make 144 boxes, and glue 144 labels on the box; rate of remuneration, 4d. to 1s. 6d., according to size.

Waste Paper Sorters.- Rate of payment,  2s. per cwt. for good white paper clean, 4d. per cwt. for brown or dirty paper. Many miles have to be tramped to get one cwt. of mixed paper; then it has to be taken home and sorted, and after paying for the hire of a barrow, 1s. a day can be earned.

Refuse Meat Tin Collectors.- Some are collected from dust heaps or from private houses, or bought from grocers at 5s. for a large load. The tins are melted down, cleaned, and sold to small tin toymakers. Three men can turn the load referred to into about 15s. a week; it may be noted that 1d. saucepans are often made out of this tin.

Wood Chopping.- Old orange and bacon boxes are bought, which cost 4d. and will make 6d. worth of wood. Our readers can imagine the time it takes to chop a box and sell the wood.

The Children.- The neighbourhood teems with children, a large proportion of whom are only halfclad. It is a common thing in the day schools to be obliged to clothe the naked. The faces of the children are frequently pinched and worn; they have gone to bed supperless the night before and have come to school without breakfast. It is a marvel that any results are obtained by day school teachers. There is a very large percentage of lads and young girls, many of whom are allowed to drift, and they go to make up the criminal class. A melancholy interest attaches itself to the fact that one third of ALL THE CRIME of Birmingham comes from the police division of which this parish is a part; a great number of the offenders are under twenty-one years of age.

The vicar has set about reforming the parish. Six public houses have been closed, one horse-slaughtering place purified; there has been increased lighting, the sewers have been overhauled, fifteen acres of the parish have been condemned and are being dealt with by the sanitary authorities. The police force has been increased. By the action of the Local Government Board, Corporation Street is to be extended and a number of the slums swept away. The death-rate is gradually declining. Mr. Bass has encountered enormous opposition, and the slum property owners are trying to starve him out. He is ably assisted by two nurses, and in the last epidemic of typhoid fever their services were invaluable. The church has been restored. On the parish funds there is a debt of about 400 l. [£], and it is earnestly hoped that those who believe in alleviating the condition of the poorest will sustain Mr. Bass in his heroic effort to lead what some would have thought to have been a forlorn hope.

Dr Barnardo's Pub Ministry

How a notorious Gin-Palace became a Mission Hall and Community Centre as a result of the work of Dr Barnardo. A fascinating contemporary account.

Anonymous “The Story of a Coffee Palace,” Sunday at Home 990 (April 19, 1873): 262-264.

New Book on Paul as Missionary

The following book is due to be published shortly:

Trevor J. Burke & Brian S. Rosner, eds., Paul as Missionary: Identity, Activity, Theology, and Practice. Edinburgh: T & T Clark International, 2011. Hbk. ISBN: 9780567604750. pp.420.

Description
Paul as Missionary: Identity, Activity, Theology and Practice takes the view that before anything else Paul must first and foremost be identified as a ‘missionary’. Using the entire Pauline corpus the contributors to this volume assess what Paul’s correspondence can tell us about how he perceived his role and identity. The work comprises four parts: in section one, Paul’s identity as priest, eschatological herald, and missionary-pastor are explored while in part two topics such as the apostle’s activity among pagans, his suffering, and Paul’s ‘missionary message’ to the church at Rome are considered. Section three comprises essays on the Spirit as the governing dynamic, the glory of God as the apostle’s missionary goal, and the importance of Paul’s Christology in shaping his mission to the Gentiles. Finally, part four addresses Paul’s missionary praxis, including his support of his missionary enterprise.

Table of Contents


Abbreviations
List of Contributors
Introduction

Part One - Paul's Identity
Paul as an Eschatological Herald Seyoon Kim
Paul as Missionary-Pastor James W. Thompson
Paul and His Ethnicity: Reframing the Cathegories James C. Miller
Paul - An Israelite Priest who offers the Gentiles as a Sacrifice to God Richard Gibson

Part Two - Paul's Activity
The Mission of God in Paul's Letter to the Romans Beverly Roberts Gaventa
Paul and the Multi-Ethnic First Century World: Ethnicity and Christian Identity J. Daniel Hays
The Sacrifical-Missiological Function of Paul's Sufferings in the Context of 2 Corinthians J. Ayodeji Adewuya
Was Paul's Grace-based Gospel True to Jesus? Paul W. Barnett

Part Three - Paul's Missionary Theology
Paul's Christology and his Mission to the Gentiles Arland J. Hultgren
A Missionary Strategy in 1 Cor. 9.-19-23 Karl O. Sandnes
The Spirit as the Controlling Dynamic in Paul's Role as Missionary to the Thessalonians Trevor J. Burke
The Glory of God in Paul's Missionary Theology and Practice Brian S. Rosner
Reconciliation as the Heart of Paul's Missionary Theology Stanley E. Porter
Paul's Theology of the Gospel Roy E. Ciampa

Part Four - Paul's Missionary Practice
Universality and Particularity of Paul's Understanding and Strategy of Mission William S. Campbell
'The World of Life': Resurrection and Mission in Philippians James Ware
Paul, patronage and pay: what do we know about the apostle's financial support? Steve Walton
Pauline Mission as Salvific Intentionality: Fostering a Missional Consciousness in 1 Corinthians 9.19-23 and 10.31-11.1 Michael Barram
(Mis)Reading Paul's Letters Through Modern Eyes E. Randolph Richards

Index of Scripture
Index of Modern Authors

Author(s)
Trevor J. Burke,
Trevor J. Burke teaches New Testament in the Bible department of the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, USA. Prior to this, he has taught New Testament in seminaries in Nigeria and Fiji.

Brian S. Rosner,
Brian S. Rosner took his PhD from Cambridge University, UK, and is Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Ethics in Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia.

Visit publishers's Website

Dr John Apeh's book on Social Structure and Church Planting on-line

Dr. John Apeh recently contacted me and asked if I would be willing to digitise the 1st edition of his book on Social Structure and Church Planting. Naturally I was happy to do so and it is now available here:

John E. Apeh, Social Structure & Church Planting. Shippensburg, PA: Companion Press, 1989. Pbk. ISBN: 0914903853. pp.139.

Dr Apeh is currently working on the 2nd edition.

Mission to Seafarers archive to be held at the University of Hull

The University of Hull has announced that the Mission to Seafarers (founded in 1856 as the Mission to Seamen) is depositing its archive with the Hull History Centre, a joint facility for the University and Hull City Archives. The University’s press release about the deposit will be found here. 

HT: Dr Clive Field 

Mission and Meaning: Essays in Honour of Peter Cotterell now Online

The following book is now online in PDF:

Antony Billington, Tony Lane & Max Turner, editors. Mission and Meaning. Essays Presented to Peter Cotterell. Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1995. Pbk. ISBN: 0853646767.

Preface

Main Publications of Peter Cotterell

Contributors

Abbreviations

I. Biblical Perspectives
1. The Meaning of Mis David F. Paynesion in Isaiah 40-55

2. Nebuchadnezzar's Theology and Ours Deryck C.T. Sheriffs

3. The Prophethood of all Believers Mary J. Evans

4. The Concept of Jubilee and Luke 4:18-30 Robert Willoughby

5. Mission and Misunderstanding:Paul and Barnabas in Lystra (Acts 14:8-20) Conrad Gempf

6. Jesus and the Marginalised in the Fourth Gospel Stephen Motyer

7. The Parac1ete and Mission in the Fourth Gospel Antony Billington

8. Paul's Apostolic Self-Awarenessand the Occasion and Purpose of Romans Daniel J.-S. Chae

9. Mission and Meaning in Terms of 'Unity' in Ephesians Max Turner

II. Historical and Theological Perspective
10. A Model Missionary to Muslims:Thomas Valpy French (1825-1891) Michael Griffiths

11. Ten Theses on Justification and Sanctification Tony Lane

12. Edward Irving and Uniqueness of Christ Graham W.P. McFarlane

13. Soundly Converted? Meic Pearse

III. Philosophical and Contextual Perspectives
14. All One Body? A Missiological Appreciationof the Struggles of an Ethnic Church in Indonesia Ailish F. Eves

15. Sickness and Syncretism in the African Context Keith Ferdinando

16. Capital Gains or Christians are not Working Mark Greene

17. Meaning, Mission and Truth Peter Hicks

18. Postmodernity and Rationality:the Final Credits or just a Commercial Break? Nick Mercer

19. The Concept of 'Living By Faith' Harold H. Rowdon

20. The Scandal of the Church in the Mission of God's People Derek Tidball

My thanks to Anthony Billington and Paternoster Press for their assistance in allowing these essays to be republished. Note that until the main missiology site goes live next year this will be the only means of accessing these articles.

September Website News

With new academic year due to begin in the next few weeks I thought it would be good to update my visitors on recent and forthcoming developments across the “Theology on the Web” websites.

File Formats for Articles

Over the last few months I’ve been experimenting with different formats for the articles I upload. Since I began in 2001 I’ve scanned, OCR’d and then proof-read all the articles that I’ve placed online. This produces very clear text and very small file sizes, but it does have the disadvantage of being very time consuming as well as introducing typos.

The situation is at present that I have a full-time job in a Christian charity, a wife and three little boys, so website work must be confined to my lunch hour or late evenings. Although I received over a million visitors each year only 4 of these support the work regularly on a monthly basis. The two advertisers who paid for space on the websites have decided not to renew this year. All this means is that while I still hope to do this work full-time on the sites at some point there is no prospect of this in the near future on the basis of current funding levels. If you would like to support the development of the sites I suggest a number of ways of doing so here.

This has led me to change the format of the articles I upload to scanned PDF’s with OCR’d text. These retain the original layout, can be searched, cut and pasted and appear in search engines. They can be produced very quickly (I could scan and place online an entire book in a few hours) but the file size is around 15-20 times larger a word-processed version. A few people have complained about this change, but I would rather have the material available now rather in several years time (if ever) even if the format does not please everyone.

New (old!) Journals Online

I have recently completed the entire 11 volumes of the Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society and will be integrating the articles into my site in the next few weeks. Vox Evangelica (which I began working on in 2006) should be complete by the end of next week. I have recently completed a table of contents for the Theological Students Fellowship (TSF) Bulletin (UK) and a number of these articles are now online. Anvil journal recently allowed me to publish around 27 of its articles and these are appearing as permissions from the authors are received. I am now working on a table of contents for Themelios (1962-1974) when it was published by IFES. I hope to be able to place many of these articles online as well in due course in partnership with Tyndale House and the Gospel Coalition.

Missiology Website

Due to my present workload the launch of this site has been put back until sometime next year.

That’s all for now. Remember to subscribe to the site feeds to received the latest news. Thanks for visiting!

Martin Goldsmith on the Genius of Roland Allen

The following article is now on-line in iPaper and PDF:

Martin Goldsmith, “The Genius of Roland Allen,” Evangel 7.3 (Autumn 1989): 11-13.

Roland Allen's writings on mission are still influential today. This short article gives a helpful overview of his life and work.

C. Peter Williams on the Necessity of a Native Clergy

The following article is now available in PDF:

C. Peter Williams, "The Necessity of a Native Clergy: The Failure of Victorian Missions to Develop Indigenous Leadership (The Laing Lecture for 1990)," Vox Evangelica 21 (1991): 33-52

This is an important article for anyone studying the history of Christian missions in the Victorian period.

Colin Chapman on the Various Evangelical Responses to Islam

The following article is now on-line in PDF:

Colin Chapman, "Going Soft on Islam?" Vox Evangelica 19 (1989): 7-32.

Colin Chapman provides an insightful overview of various evangelical responses to Islam.

Theology on the Web Hub launched

I have today launched a "hub site" called "Theology on the Web" which contains some of the material that has previously been duplicated on several sites. Having a central hub will help me to be able to keep the shared material updated and help visitors to understand better the vision that underlies the development of the other four - soon to be five - sites.

New Missiology Gateway Under Development

Developed in cooperation with UK Bible Colleges it is hoped that a new gateway for the study of Christian Missions - Missiology.org.uk - will be ready to launch by the beginning of September 2009.