God's Interpreters

This study of the pioneer mission to the Zulu people differs from others in South African mission studies by offering a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between mission and church during the formatives stages in the making of an African Christian community, both in America and in British Natal. Critical scholars continue to view the Western mission enterprise as an adjunct if not a tool of colonialism or at best a clash of cultures between white mission powerbrokers and powerless black Christian acolytes. The author argues that they were partners from the beginning, and in this endeavor the Christian identities of the missionaries as well as the Zulu were changed forever.