When a thousand leading members of the Nyasaland African Congress were detained under the emergency regulations imposed by the Federation government in 1959, the Presbyterian chaplains who ministered to them at Kanchedza Camp in Limbe were the late Rev Jonathan Sangaya and Rev Andrew C. Ross. They soon discovered that around 700 of the thousand men were members of the Church of Central African Presbyterian. This raised a question in the mind of the recently arrived Scottish missionary: how may we account historically for the fact that so many national leaders were Presbyterians? The quest to answer that question led him to produce the thorough examination of the foundation and early history of the Blantyre Mission of the Church of Scotland which is found in this book. Written in the mid-1960s, it remains today an indispensable work of reference for understanding the history of both church and nation in Malawi.

When a thousand leading members of the Nyasaland African Congress were detained under the emergency regulations imposed by the Federation government in 1959, the Presbyterian chaplains who ministered to them at Kanchedza Camp in Limbe were the late Rev Jonathan Sangaya and Rev Andrew C. Ross. They soon discovered that around 700 of the thousand men were members of the Church of Central African Presbyterian. This raised a question in the mind of the recently arrived Scottish missionary: how may we account historically for the fact that so many national leaders were Presbyterians? The quest to answer that question led him to produce the thorough examination of the foundation and early history of the Blantyre Mission of the Church of Scotland which is found in this book. Written in the mid-1960s, it remains today an indispensable work of reference for understanding the history of both church and nation in Malawi.

The late Andrew C. Ross was a Scottish missionary in Malawi between 1958 and 1965 and one of the founding members of the Malawi Congress Party. Like many other Scottish missionaries of the period, he deeply opposed the Central African Federation, and was a strong supporter of the emerging Malawian nationalist movement. When, following the declaration of a State of Emergency in March 1959, many of the political leaders of the Nyasaland African Congress were detained, Andrew regularly visited those held at Kanjedza near Limbe - visits which helped to deepen both his friendship with them, and his commitment to their cause. Thus, when Orton Chirwa was released from detention later in 1959, and persuaded to become the temporary leader of the newly formed Malawi Congress Party, Andrew Ross was one of the first to join, becoming the proud holder of MCP card number six. This book covers the period 1875-1965 and includes a Foreword by Professor George Shepperson.

When he was ordained in 1911, the Reverend Harry Kambwiri Matecheta became the first Malawian Presbyterian minister. Forty years later when he published Blantyre Mission: Nkhani za Chiyambi Chake (Hetherwick Press, 1951), he became Malawi's first church historian. Going beyond recounting facts, he offered his own distinctive analysis, which remains highly relevant to church and nation today. Thokozani Chilembwe and Todd Statham's beautifully prepared new edition makes this seminal text available to all who wish to expand their understanding of Malawi's history.

The volume constitutes Klaus Fiedlers crowning contribution to scholarship. Essays in the first half of the book focus on Malawian Christianity and how contrasting Powers, Gospel and Secular, engage each other, creating social, political and cultural conflict in the process. In the second half, Fiedler examines general missiological themes. These essays provide a broader missiological background, offering a theoretical framework necessary for appreciating the essays in the first half. He concludes with a chapter that reviews selected seminal books on themes under study. Throughout the volume Fiedler applies the restorationist revival theory he constructed in The Story of Faith Missions, an earlier 1994 work putting emphasis on non classical missions and churches, not systematically covered in earlier scholarship. This volume, the first of its kind on Malawian Christianity, will long remain an indispensable text for those interested in Missiology and Malawian Christianity.

In this remarkable volume covering diverse subjects, in a span of three decades, Kenneth R. Ross articulates his views on the meaning and practice of Christian mission and challenges the binary view of mission that prevailed before the 1950s. He further reflects on Scotlands experiences in the world-wide Christian mission and demonstrates the centrality of Africa in any discourse on Christianity. This volume is invaluable in its argument for a rethinking of Christian mission especially in relation to the West, which is now a new frontier for Christian mission. The book will be immensely beneficial to students of missiology and general readers who are interested in the subject of Christian Mission.

This is the first attempt to comprehend the whole of Malawi's church history in a single volume. The focus of this book is about documenting the religious experience which was at the centre of founding the new nation of Malawi as we have come to know it. The book strikes a balance in covering issues pertaining to both mission activities and African agency. In many instances interesting pieces of evidence have been marshalled to corroborate or emphasize some of the conclusions reached.