The Road to Bau and The Autobiography of Joeli Bulu

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 The volumes in this series augment his distinguished reputation by bringing to light his many unpublished materials and hard-to-locate printed articles.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. English missionary John Hunt and Tongan missionary Joeli Bulu served in the Fiji islands in the 1840s. Their lives were intertwined as they faced the social issues of island warfare, cannibalism, and the ills brought to the Pacific by traders and those involved in the labor trade. In this fascinating two-volume book Alan Tippett first provides the biography of Hunt, then together with Tomasi Kanailagi gives us the thoroughly researched and annotated autobiography of Joeli Bulu. Twenty years as a missionary in Fiji, following pastoral ministry in Australia and graduate degrees in history and anthropology, provide the rich database that made Alan R. Tippett a leading missiologist of the twentieth century. Tippett served as Professor of Anthropology and Oceanic Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary.