The Kingdom of Character

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The Kingdom of Character

The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1886–1926

Michael Parker

The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions was a Protestant missionary recruiting organization. Launched in the late nineteenth century, it played an indispensable role in the creation of the modern missionary movement. While it was influenced by the optimism and expansiveness that characterized Americans at the turn of the century, it also mirrored the period's provincialism and ethnocentrism.

The Kingdom of Character provides a thorough history of the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM), exposing both its strengths and weaknesses. Parker highlights how these student leaders addressed issues such as gender roles, the social impact of World War I, and various internal controversies, while emphasizing an American middle-class worldview that stressed the Victorian idea of character in their hope to spread the gospel around the world.

The Kingdom of Character is a great read for those interested in the creation of the modern missionary movement.

Endorsements

Parker's thematic coverage is thorough and insightful, with balanced attention paid to the spiritual grounding of the movement, women and minorities, the ephemeral records, ...and analysis of the SVM quadrennial conventions. (IBMR)

Dana L. RobertCo-founder, Center for Global Christianity and Missions
This is a book that at the minimum belongs in every seminary library and on the shelf of everyone teaching mission history and theology.

James J. StamoolisDThel, Author, Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism
This is an indispensable resource for understanding an important part of the modern missions movement.

Wilbert R. Shenk, PhDFormer Professor, School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary