Ten Who Changed the World serves as an arrangement of biography, theology, and missiology topics through the lives of ten missionaries ranging from famous names like Jim Elliot to lesser-known names like George Liele. Through the stories of these missionaries, Akin seeks to expound upon theological topics such as The Great Commission, the nations bringing glory to God, and the biblical pattern of a missionary’s life, among other issues. These topics are demonstrated or highlighted in the life of the missionary Akin is writing about in that chapter. Of course, the theological themes build upon each other, as, for example, the first chapter on The Great Commission is related to all the covered missionaries in later chapters. The portion of each chapter dedicated to a traditional biography form ranges from chapter to chapter. Some chapters are almost entirely devoted to the narrative of the missionary’s life, while others are more devoted to the theological topic that Akin outlined in the chapter title. Given what Akin expresses as his purpose for this book in the acknowledgments section, Akin is seeking to take important theological ideas and illustrate them through the lives of missionaries.
According to the acknowledgments section, this book was the product of chapel messages Akin preached at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Unfortunately, this origin shows in the book as Akin struggles to keep each chapter on course towards any rhetorical goal. Each chapter leaves the impression that it is a collection of research notes, sermon illustration ideas, and theological ideas patched together into a book chapter. Large portions of some chapters are entirely just collections of Scripture references, quotes from other authors, or journal entries from the missionary under consideration. Indeed, all of these are perfectly valid to include in books and should be included, but there comes the point when there is too much of these and not enough of the author’s material to justify publication. For example, chapter 5 is 16 pages long. In those 16 pages, there are (on my count) four extensive block Scripture quotes, six quotes from other authors, two loosely explained Scripture cross-references, twelve quotes from Jim Elliot, and 12 extensive block excerpts from Jim Elliot’s journal. Of the 55 full paragraphs in the chapter, only 16 contain any original thoughts of material from Akin himself. Of course, this book is intentionally a biography. It would be expected there would be substantial references and quotes from the missionary under the spotlight but reading this book leaves the striking impression that you are shuffling through an organized file folder of research. Other biographies of these missionaries are written with far more eloquence, and those should be read, and this should not.
This impacts the book by not taking away from the value of the incredible stories of the missionaries but, rather, the very purpose of publishing the book. Akin included what is necessary to astonish and entice the reader about these incredible people who did indeed change the world. Still, this material can be easily found in other places. Akin himself needed to spend more time explaining how these people changed the world instead of relying on quotes to do this. In fairness, when Akin does not quote others’ material, he tries, but it is too rare and gets lost in the sea of block quotes. Readers will be left amazed at the missionaries. Readers will gather for themselves how these missionaries changed the world. Readers will be entirely left to do the work to understand how they too might be like these missionaries and change the world. Akin should have written biographies or written about missiological ideas. He should not have done them together.
Akin, Daniel L. 10 Who Changed the World. B & H Publishing Group, 2012.
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