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The Irish Protestant Churches in the Twentieth Century . By Alan Megahey. New York: St Martin's, 2000. x + 239 pp. $65.00 cloth.

Thomas Chalmers dominates the landscape of nineteenth-century Scottish church history. Stewart J. Brown's authoritative biography, Thomas Chalmers and the Godly Commonwealth in Scotland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), pays little attention to Chalmers as a missionary theorist and organizer. Roxborogh's book fills this gap, presenting a convincing portrait of Chalmers as an evangelical pragmatist whose attitudes on most of the contested questions of the day—from church establishments to the place of "civilization" in mission—were shaped by the priority of bringing Christ to the people of Scotland and to humanity at large. Part I of the book examines these themes in the context of Chalmers' parochial ministry in Fife and Glasgow. Part II analyzes his crucial part in the rise of Scottish overseas missions, initially through interdenominational voluntary societies, then, from 1824, in support of the Church of Scotland's Foreign Missions Committee, and finally, from 1843, on behalf of the Free Church of Scotland. Part III reflects briefly on Chalmers' theology as a blend of Scottish common-sense philosophy and evangelical zeal.