"Dear Bishop, . . . Suddenly I feel the urgent need to cast aside all theories and discussions, all efforts at strategy and simply go to these people and do the work among them for which I came to Africa. I would propose cutting myself off from the schools and the hospital and just go and talk to them about God and the Christian message. Outside of this, I have no theory, no plan, no strategy, no gimmick, no idea of what will come. I feel rather naked. I will begin as soon as possible. . . ."
What happens when an American missionary priest leaves behind all his old familiar structures to enter the world of the nomadic Masai people of Tanzania? That is the subject of Vincent J. Donovan's beloved classic, Christianity Rediscovered. Donovan learned what the gospel looked like, shorn of its Western packaging. In the process he discovered the creativity and humanity of the Masai people. But he also "rediscovered" the meaning of the gospel in all its radical power: a message just as relevant and urgent for Western Christians today.
This twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Donovan's "epistle from the Masai" includes essays by Lamin Sanneh (Translating the Message) and Eugene Hillman (Many Paths: A Catholic Approach to Religious Pluralism) who help place the Masai people and Donovan's story in a broader historical and religious context. A moving personal reflection by Donovan's sister reveals the heart of the man himself.
