Is the Missions Textbook Doomed?

The Use of Missions Related Texts in Spring 2024

Abstract

Concerns about the costs of textbooks, and the neglect of their use, are driving university leaders to consider alternatives to traditional publishers. This study examined 315 coursebook requirements, representing 249 unique titles in 112 courses from 35 institutions. I compared the frequency of authors, titles and publishers to the available missiological books that have been published by nine major publishers. This comparison reveals which concepts are represented in the courses, and which concepts are not covered. The study also looks at the mean cost of textbooks per course and the mean age of texts, as well as the percentage of textbooks that are authored by the professor of the course, and the percentage authored by women, a person of color from the USA, or someone from a non-western country. The findings of this study are that the use of missiological textbooks remains strong. A broad scope of the available missiological literature was selected as required reading for courses in spring 2024, meaning there were no widely used texts or “celebrity authors.” Despite the broad selection of readings, some themes of missiology—whether longstanding or emerging—were absent from the required reading.