The Challenge of Missions (edició 1983)

Oswald Smith's passion for mission shines through every page. This book was originally published in 1959. Some of the eighteen chapters remain very relevant for today, some less so, and methodology has changed today. Alot of the language has changed too. ( )

This book, written by a Canadian pastor in 1959, is an attempt to encourage Christians to evangelism, and particularly missionary work amongst the unreached countries of the world. The author is passionate about his calling to speak and write, to enthuse people to go, even though he himself was in poor health - although he apparently lived into his nineties.

Inevitably the book is very dated, with rather a lot of words we would consider politically incorrect these days, such as 'savages', 'natives', and so on. There's also quite an attitude of western superiority, from this vantage point, and the author's motivation for evangelism seems to be less about caring for unreached people and more about hastening the return of Jesus. But perhaps that's unfair; inevitably a writer uses the language of his contemporaries and will seem dated in many respects over fifty years later.

I wasn't particularly happy with some of the emphases on fundamentalist theology, or the insistence on people wanting to suffer; perhaps the church today has gone too far in the other direction, but it felt unbalanced in places.

Nevertheless, Oswald J Smith's fervour for evangelism and mission work was clear in many places, and was at times inspiring. I wouldn't particularly recommend this; there are better, more modern books on the topic. But it was interesting to read such strong viewpoints from his era. ( )