The Essential J. Philip Hogan
Posted by ifphc on January 30, 2007
The Essential J. Philip Hogan, edited by Byron D. Klaus and Douglas P. Petersen. Springfield, MO: Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, 2006.
Few missions leaders during the latter half of the twentieth century made a greater impact on the worldwide spread of Pentecostalism than did J. Philip Hogan. Indeed, European Pentecostal leader Peter Kuzmic has deemed Hogan to be “a Churchill in the arena of the post-World War II history of missions” (Wilson, Strategy of the Spirit, p. x). The extent of Hogan’s contributions to Pentecostalism — and by extension, to the broader Christian movement — is only now beginning to be recognized by the scholarly community. Under his leadership as Director of the Division of Foreign Missions (1960-1989), the Assemblies of God grew to be one of the world’s largest associations of national indigenous churches. It is precisely this success that now causes scholars and church leaders to take another look at J. Philip Hogan and to ask how it all happened.
The Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, located in Springfield, Missouri, dedicated the J. Philip Hogan Chair of World Missions in 2006. At the same time, AGTS launched the J. Philip Hogan World Missions Series, a book series intended to publish “fresh missiological thinking in the Pentecostal tradition.” It is fitting that the first in this series is a compilation of Hogan’s writings. In The Essential J. Philip Hogan, readers have easy access, for the first time, to his core works.
The Essential J. Philip Hogan begins with a twenty-page biographical sketch, followed by 109 pages of Hogan at his best. His writings are divided into four categories: Missionary Statesman, Missions Strategist, Missions Executive, and Missionary. This volume is a valuable addition to the literature on missiology and could be considered a primary source companion volume to Everett Wilson’s Strategy of the Spirit: J. Philip Hogan and the Growth of the Assemblies of God Worldwide, 1960-1990 (Regnum; Paternoster, 1997).
Reviewed by Darrin Rodgers.
Paperback, 148 pages, illustrated. $5.00 plus postage. Order from: Assemblies of God Theological Seminary Bookstore, 1435 N. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, MO 65802. Ph. 417-268-1055.
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Biography, Theology, Missions, Assemblies of God, indigenous church, Historical, Pentecostal
