Overview

Exploration, trade and conquest expanded and upset traditional worldviews of early modern Europeans. Christians saw themselves confronted with a largely heathen world. In the wake of Iberian colonization, Jesuits successfully christianized heathen populations overseas. In his De conversione Indorum et gentilium, Johannes Hoornbeeck presents a systematic overview of every aspect of the missionary imperative from a Reformed Protestant perspective. The most attractive part of his book may be the global survey it offers of the various types of heathens, an early example of comparative religion. Of equal interest, however, is his critical approach to mission. Hoornbeeck rejects ecclesiastical hierarchy and top-down imposition of Christianity. In this he is perfectly orthodox, and at the same time startlingly original and a harbinger of modern missions. His practical recommendations offer a flexible framework for missionaries, to fit a wide variety of circumstances.

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Reviews

This is a welcome critical translation of an important work that reflected the desire of many within the Reformed camp to spread the Christian message throughout the world. Each chapter contains a helpful summary by the editors. Impressive notes and an index make the volume more accessible. Martin I. Klauber, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Summer 2021), pp. 669-670.

In all respects, this is an excellent academic book that lives up to standards and expectations carried by Brill's Studies in intellectual history. Dolf Britz, University of the Free State. In: Acta Theologica, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 218-221. This is a welcome critical translation of an important work that reflected the desire of many within the Reformed camp to spread the Christian message throughout the world. Each chapter contains a helpful summary by the editors. Impressive notes and an index make the volume more accessible. Martin I. Klauber, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Summer 2021), pp. 669-670. The many footnotes containing explicative material and clear references to the sources to which Hoornbeeck refers and a similar bibliography and index increase the importance of this very well-kept and valuable edition. (translated from Dutch) Jaap Geraerts, Leibniz-Institut fur Europaische Geschichte (IEG). In: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, Vol. 132, No. 3 (2019), pp. 515-517. De vele voetnoten met daarin zowel explicatief materiaal als duidelijke verwijzingen naar de bronnen waaraan Hoornbeeck refereert en een de-gelijke bibliografie en index vergroten het wetenschappelijke belang van deze zeer verzorgde en waardevolle editie. Jaap Geraerts, Leibniz-Institut fur Europaische Geschichte (IEG). In: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, Vol. 132, No. 3 (2019), pp. 515-517.

Author Information

Ineke Loots, Ph.D (VU University, Amsterdam, 1985), after a career in child psychology, turned to Neo-Latin and seventeenth-century intellectual history. She now publishes on topics ranging from early modern ethnography to early modern views on emotion. Joke Spaans, Ph.D. 1989, Leiden University, is Associate Professor in the History of Christianity at Utrecht University. She has published extensively on early modern Dutch religious history.

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