Baptist Missions Worldwide. History, Music, and Theopolitics - João B. Chaves;T. Laine Scales

Baptist Missions Worldwide reappraises Baptist missions by challenging narratives that center Western missionaries as the primary agents of Christian expansion. Bringing together scholars from the Américas, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Europe, this interdisciplinary volume highlights the decisive roles of migrants, local Christians, Indigenous communities, and women in shaping Baptist life worldwide.

Through historically grounded and theologically informed case studies, the book reintroduces Baptist missions as a multidirectional, border-crossing process deeply entangled with empire, colonialism, and coloniality, even if not entirely defined by such entanglements. Contributors analyze case studies ranging from Baptist women missionaries in Asia to religious resistance in Catholic-majority Latin America to the role of hymnody in Africa to theological reflections from Europe and the Caribbean, aiming to reframe how we think about missionary enterprises. Across diverse contexts, chapters highlight how Baptists negotiated power, race, gender, nationalism, migration, and local agency, often adapting--and reshaping--Christian practices in ways that exceeded the intentions, roles, and functions of foreign missionary organizations.

Methodologically, the volume reflects recent currents in World Christianity by foregrounding multilingual sources and polycentric Christian developments. Rather than dismissing Western missionary enterprises and legacies, however, Baptist Missions Worldwide critically situates them within broader networks of exchange, reception, and transformation. Theologically oriented chapters further invite readers to rethink mission through discipleship, justice, hospitality, and lived embodiment.

Baptist Missions Worldwide demonstrates how Baptist missions have never moved in a single direction. By illuminating neglected voices and contexts, the book not only provides new information about the history of Baptist missions but models new ways of studying missions that are historically grounded, globally attentive, and theologically reflective--offering fresh insights for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in the past, present, and future of Baptist life worldwide.