I recently had someone ask me about books that could read to better understand missions in Mongolia.
First, get some perspective on missions. Read From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya which is a great overview of the missions effort.
Get some history about Mongolia. See if you can find The Secret History of the Mongols. There's a book put out by the Library of Congress called Mongolia: A Country Study. I have the 1991 issue. It's actually a decent and concise source for 20th century history. If you just like history you should try to borrow Weatherford's book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. But that's all ancient history to the Mongols of today.
Get some missions background. There's an invaluable book Steppe by Step. It presents all religious work, Catholic, etc, in the same light; but it's a helpful book. Just skip the chapters on Catholic missions. But don't skip the chapters on the Nestorians! Bonus reading: find out about the Nestorian controversy. It won't help you in Mongolia, but it may be interesting to you. Also find anything you can by James Gilmour. Among the Mongols is one of his more well-known works. He was a missionary with the London Missionary Society in the late 19th century before communism came here. If you can find anything about missionaries Stallybrass and Swan who worked on a Mongolian Bible translation 150 years ago that may be interesting.
Get some background on Tibetan Buddhism (also called Lamaistic Buddhism). The ultimate book for this (in my opinion) is Sharing Christ in the Tibetan Buddhist World by Marku Tsering. I've attached a picture of the cover. It's hard to find and expensive when you do. But if you could borrow a copy, do it!
There's a book by a journalist called The Lost Country by Jasper Becker. It gives a secular approach to the country, its traditions and history. But it's an interesting read and even talks a little about missions from a non-Christian perspective.
You don't have to read about Mongolia but get some good reading material for 2011. "Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine"
2 comments:
While googling 'Sharing Christ in the Tibetan Buddhist World,' I surprised to see that it was the first suggestion in the google search after typing the word 'sharing.' Easy! Right there on Amazon. AGGGHHH. Used: $94 plus $4 from the UK from a seller that specializes in rare and out of print books. =/
Yes, I know some of these books are expensive. I don't even have a personal copy of Sharing Christ in the Tibetan Buddhist World. Still, if you can find a copy to borrow, it's a great read!
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