This splendid work, linking together religious, political, and imperial topics, shows how evangelical Dissenters, and especially the London Missionary Society, influenced not only Great Britain but also the wider British Empire.
James J. Sack, University of Illinois at Chicago While it has long been a commonplace to emphasize how missionaries were agents of imperial exploitation, The ... Read moreBritish Zion compellingly reveals the remarkable extent to which Congregationalists championed the rights of Africans and Jamaicans in direct defiance of the interests of British colonists. Rutz has brilliantly teased out the connections between the theological and political concerns of evangelical Dissenters in Britain and their missionary efforts abroad.
Timothy Larsen, McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College The British Congregationalists in South Africa in the first half of the nineteenth century provide a shining example of missionary beneficence. They not only preached brotherhood, they practiced it: that they fought and won the franchise for black Africans is proof enough.
Richard Davis, Professor of History, Washington University in St. Louis This book is critical for students and general readers interested in the work and development of world missions and Protestantism in British history. It is also important for anyone wishing to study the relationship between missionaries and colonial imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. I commend it to each and every potential reader.
Mike Jones, United Church of Canada
Theological Book Review The British Zion exhibits Rutz's thorough work in the primary sources and his skill in drawing connections between issues common to both the metropole and colonies, and it provides a solid contribution to the literature of mission studies and colonial history.
Kyle Welty
Journal of Church and State (2012, 54:4) Show Less