Festschrift receives acclaim

Wilbert Shenk Festschrift named one of best books on mission

A book on Anabaptist missiology written in honor of Wilbert R. Shenk has been named one of fifteen outstanding books for 2006 for mission studies by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research.

Evangelical, Ecumenical and Anabaptist Missiologies in Conversation was published by Orbis Books in early 2006. James R. Krabill of Mennonite Mission Network, Walter Sawatsky of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Charles E. Van Engen of Fuller Theological Seminary are the editors.

The honor was announced in the January 2007 issue of IBMR, published by the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Conn. In the same issue of the journal, a review by Timothy C. Tennent, professor of world missions and Indian studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, concludes, “This is the best collection of missiological essays to appear in recent years. It should be read widely.”

Among the essayists who contributed to the book are Willard M. Swartley, John A. Lapp, David A. Shank, Alan Kreider, Neil Blough, Arthur McPhee, Lois Y. Barrett, Lawrence M. Yoder and James Brenneman, all prominent in the field of mission research and practice in the Mennonite Church. In all, 27 writers in the volume represent a variety Christian traditions and institutions where mission teaching is featured, such as the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), Fuller Theological Seminary and Asbury Theological Seminary.

The book was initiated as a Festschrift to honor Shenk, who was a missionary to Indonesia, an administrator with Mennonite Board of Missions, and a professor at both AMBS and Fuller. The project was announced and Shenk was honored in November 2005 at a gathering of the Association of Anabaptist-Mennonite Missiologists (AAM) at AMBS.