The Integrating Gospel and The Christian:

Book excerpt: Alan Tippett’s publications played a significant role in the development of missiology. The volumes in this series augment his distinguished reputation by bringing to light his many unpublished materials and hard-to-locate printed articles. These books—encompassing theology, anthropology, history, area studies, religion, and ethnohistory—broaden the contours of the discipline. This volume contains two manuscripts. The first, The Integrating Gospel, combines a historical ethnolinguistic study of Fijian language, an examination of Fijian culture patterns in interaction with the church, and Tippett’s own firsthand experience as a communicator of the gospel to specific receptors at a specific place and point in time. From this, Tippett is able to extrapolate broader ideas on contextualization and methods of gospel transmission. In The Christian: Fiji 1835–67, Tippett addresses the establishment of the Christian church and the spread of Christianity in Fiji, with special attention to Ratu Cakobau. In this brief but in-depth study, Tippett presents a strong case against the understanding that Fijian conversions to Christianity were primarily political, as he offers evidence of the genuine religious and spiritual experiences behind these conversions.