Overview

Malkhaz Songulashvili, former Archbishop of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia (EBCG), provides a pioneering, exacting, and sweeping history of Georgian Baptists. Utilizing archival sources in Georgian, Russian, German, and English - translating many of these crucial documents for the first time into English - he recounts the history of the EBCG from its formation in 1867 to the present. While the particular story of Georgian Baptists merits telling in its own right, and not simply as a feature of Russian religious life, Songulashvili employs Georgian Baptists as a sustained case study on the convergence of religion and culture. The interaction of Eastern Orthodox, Western Protestant, and Russian dissenting religious traditions - mixed into the political cauldron of Russian occupation of a formerly distinct eastern European culture - led to a remarkable experiment in Christian free-church identity. Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia allows readers to peer through the lens of intercultural studies to see the powerful relationships among politics, religion, and culture in the formation of Georgian Baptists, and their blending of Orthodox tradition into Baptist life to craft a unique ecclesiology, liturgy, and aesthetics.

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9781481301107

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Reviews

This remarkable history of Baptist witness in the Republic of Georgia is a superb work of scholarship that utilises key primary sources in Georgian, Russian, German and English in telling the story of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia from the beginning of its witness in 1867 to the present day.--Brian Talbot Baptist Union of Scotland Songulashvili's book -- with copious notes and appendices of documents -- will be of interest to those studying Baptist history, the history of Georgia, religious communities in the region and the troubled independence period.--Felix Corley SLAVONIC & EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW Malkhaz Songulashvili's study of Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptists history and analysis of their attempts to change their mission paradigm, accommodating it more deeply to local Georgian culture, is a timely and helpful addition to the field. This pioneering analysis will no doubt be referred to for many years to come whether future authors agree or disagree with Songulashvili.--Toivo Pilli Journal of Ecclesiastical History An impressive source not only for understanding Baptist history, but for any reader who might be interested in ongoing ecclesiological issues regarding the indigeniza-tion of faith.--Paul Doerksen American Baptist Quarterly This story keeps surprising. In a rather open and humble style, Songulashvili describes how he and fellow leaders discovered to what contextualizing the gospel calls serious Christians, and what it can cost. Above all, this book presents a probing evangelical Protestant missiology that demands serious reading by western Catholic, Orthodox, and Evangelical missiologists...Songulashvili's book needs to be on a list of absolutely necessary reading in preparation for the dialogues that must come.--Walter Sawatsky Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe More than an ethnographic or even a historical report, Songulashvili's vivid historical narrative highlights the centrality of God's mission in an indigenous culture, demonstrating how the triangle of church, mission, and culture have interacted to energize non-Western missionaries to 'go and make disciples of all nations.--Ashti Mamash Fides Et Historia A significant addition to the field of Eastern European evangelical research.--Toivo Pilli Baptistic Theologies This book is essential reading for Western Christians.--Stephen Platten Church Times This is by far the finest book on the evangelical movement in the former Soviet Unionthat I have ever read... In this formidable work, Songulashvili offers the most comprehensive study of the evangelical movement in Georgia yet to have appeared in the English language.--Joshua T. Searle Studies in World Christianity

This is by far the finest book on the evangelical movement in the former Soviet Union that I have ever read... In this formidable work, Songulashvili offers the most comprehensive study of the evangelical movement in Georgia yet to have appeared in the English language. -- Joshua T. Searle -- Studies in World Christianity This book is essential reading for Western Christians. -- Stephen Platten -- Church Times A significant addition to the field of Eastern European evangelical research. -- Toivo Pilli -- Baptistic Theologies More than an ethnographic or even a historical report, Songulashvili's vivid historical narrative highlights the centrality of God's mission in an indigenous culture, demonstrating how the triangle of church, mission, and culture have interacted to energize non-Western missionaries to 'go and make disciples of all nations.' -- Ashti Mamash -- Fides Et Historia Songulashvilias book a with copious notes and appendices of documents a will be of interest to those studying Baptist history, the history of Georgia, religious communities in the region and the troubled independence period. -- Felix Corley -- SLAVONIC & EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW Malkhaz Songulashvilias study of Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptists history and analysis of their attempts to change their mission paradigm, accommodating it more deeply to local Georgian culture, is a timely and helpful addition to the field. This pioneering analysis will no doubt be referred to for many years to come whether future authors agree or disagree with Songulashvili. -- Toivo Pilli -- Journal of Ecclesiastical History This remarkable history of Baptist witness in the Republic of Georgia is a superb work of scholarship that utilises key primary sources in Georgian, Russian, German and English in telling the story of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia from the beginning of its witness in 1867 to the present day. -- Brian Talbot -- Baptist Union of Scotland

Author Information

Malkhaz Songulashvili is Associate Professor of Comparative Theology at Ilia State University and Metropolitan Bishop of Tbilisi for the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia. Dr. Songulashvili received the 2015 Shahbaz Bhatti Freedom Award, given to a person for his or her outstanding work in promoting religious and minority rights around the globe. He resides in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

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