Worldly Christian
The Life and Times of Stephen Neill
This item will be dispatched within 10 working days.
Paperback / softback
£27.50
QTY
Publisher: James Clarke & Co Ltd
ISBN: 9780718895853
Number of Pages: 411
Published: 27/01/2022
Stephen Neill (1900-1984) was a towering figure of twentieth-century
global Christianity, but was in many ways a broken man who faced profound and
crippling struggles. A Worldly Christian charts the extraordinary but
often tragic life of a global Christian pioneer par excellence in a church that
diversified dramatically during his lifetime.
Privileged to live in radically different cultural
contexts over the course of his life, Neill excelled by turns as a missionary
and bishop in India, an ecumenist in Geneva, a professor in Hamburg and
Nairobi, and a prolific author of some seventy books and hundreds of articles
upon his retirement to the UK. Throughout this varied career, he shared his
tremendous knowledge of the world Christian movement with scholars, clergy and
laypersons alike. Many will find his story compelling, from Christian scholars
to all those who have cherished his influential body of work and benefit from
his legacy.
Professor Dyron Daughrity portrays Stephen Neill, the well-known
historian of World Christianity, within the fast-changing colonial,
intellectual and religious contexts of his time, especially in Ireland,
Britain, India, Germany, Switzerland and Kenya. By resurrecting Neill anew,
Daughrity presents him so vividly that readers meet him as a multi-faceted
human being with all dignities and frailties; now Neill's thoughts and
accomplishments emerge more alive and meaningful than ever before.
The Reverend Canon Daniel Jeyaraj, Professor of World Christianity,
Liverpool Hope University
Bishop Stephen Neill was at once a devoted pastor, an ecumenical
pioneer, a missionary statesman, a brilliant professor, a prolific author and a
compelling evangelist. As this book makes clear, however, Neill was also a
tormented soul and a tormenter of others. The author does not flinch at
revealing the destructive side of Stephen Neill, even while recounting his many
achievements. Yet he leaves it to the reader to reconcile these contradictions.
At a time when abuse in the church has come to light as seldom before, this
book is destined to become a major case study.
Joel A. Carpenter, Senior Research Fellow, Nagel Institute, Calvin
University
This life of Bishop Stephen Neill offers valuable and surprising
insights on so many topics - on the Anglican church and its missions, on the
growth of Christianity in India, and on the origins of the ecumenical movement.
However, its greatest appeal lies in Neill himself, a brilliant and many-sided
figure. Dyron Daughrity has created an excellent piece of scholarship that is
fascinating on many levels.
Philip Jenkins, Baylor University
Daughrity has written a warts-and-all biography, drawing on a very
wide range of sources. He has left no potential source unexamined, it seems. A
professor of religion at Pepperdine University, he has been researching Neill's
career for many years, and has produced what will surely be the definitive life
for many years to come. An expert in world Christianity, Daughrity is well
placed to appreciate the polyvalent character of Neill's literary output...All
the same, this is an authoritative treatment of a very complicated human being.
Revd Dr Jeremy Morris, Church Times, 8 April 2022