This book is written from the perspective of a member of the Christian Church/Church of Christ stream of the Stone-Campbell heritage. The author describes the issues which lead to the creation and development of direct-support missions, which boils down primarily to theological liberalism among some leaders in the Disciples of Christ stream and its impact on missions.

Although the book is now 25+ years old, it is valuable to persons who wish to understand the background of missions in the Stone-Campbell heritage and especially within the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ stream.

Part II of the book (pp. 109-172), "A New Missionary Dynamic (1890-1926)" is of particular interest to me, as there is discussion of early "independent" missionaries, i.e., not connected to the missionary societies (ACMS, CWMS, or FCMS) of the Disciples of Christ. One of these early independent missionaries was Miss Alice Miller (1853-1928) who is "shirttail" relation (second cousin, once removed) to Ben C. Herr, who was at one time a member of First Christian Church in Bloomington, Illinois.

Miss Miller was a native of Earlington, Kentucky who went with W. K. Azbill to Tokyo, Japan as an independent missionary, in 1895. She served as a teacher at the Yotsuya Mission, a school for poor boys and girls until her death in Japan, where she is buried.

The book has many footnotes but there is no index. ( )