WILLIAM LAWRENCE SVELMOE. A New Vision for Missions: William Cameron Townsend, the Wycliffe Bible Translators, and the Culture of Early Evangelical Faith Missions, 1896-1945. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 2008. Pp. xi, 369. $46.00

William Cameron Townsend was one of the most influential leaders in the Christian mission movement in the twentieth century. This critical biographical study, based on copious primary source materials, covers approximately the first half of Townsend's life. In eight chapters plus an epilogue William Lawrence Svelmoe studies the major decisions that shaped Townsend's career. During the spring semester of his junior year at Occidental College in 1917, Townsend heard the famed John R. Mott of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and Student Volunteer Movement speak. A few weeks later Townsend and a friend accepted a one-year assignment as colporteurs in Guatemala. Townsend came from a conventional conservative background, but almost immediately upon arrival in Guatemala as a twenty-year old he began challenging the operating policies of his sponsors. He never lost this iconoclast streak. A visionary maverick of irrepressible energy, Townsend soon discovered his life-long passion. Incensed at the...