Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia: The History and Transformation of a Free Church Tradition

Malkhaz Songulashvili is Associate Professor of Comparative Theology at Ilia State University and Metropolitan Bishop of Tbilisi for the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia. Dr. Songulashvili received the 2015 Shahbaz Bhatti Freedom Award, given to a person for his or her outstanding work in promoting religious and minority rights around the globe. He resides in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

This is by far the finest book on the evangelical movement in the former Soviet Unionthat I have ever read... In this formidable work, Songulashvili offers the most comprehensive study of the evangelical movement in Georgia yet to have appeared in the English language.

-- Studies in World Christianity

This remarkable history of Baptist witness in the Republic of Georgia is a superb work of scholarship that utilises key primary sources in Georgian, Russian, German and English in telling the story of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia from the beginning of its witness in 1867 to the present day.

-- Baptist Union of Scotland

This remarkable history of Baptist witness in the Republic of Georgia is a superb work of scholarship that utilises key primary sources in Georgian, Russian, German and English in telling the story of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia from the beginning of its witness in 1867 to the present day.

-- Evangelical Quarterly

This book is essential reading for Western Christians.

-- Church Times

A significant addition to the field of Eastern European evangelical research.

-- Baptistic Theologies

More than an ethnographic or even a historical report, Songulashvili's vivid historical narrative highlights the centrality of God's mission in an indigenous culture, demonstrating how the triangle of church, mission, and culture have interacted to energize non-Western missionaries to 'go and make disciples of all nations.

-- Fides Et Historia

This story keeps surprising. In a rather open and humble style, Songulashvili describes how he and fellow leaders discovered to what contextualizing the gospel calls serious Christians, and what it can cost. Above all, this book presents a probing evangelical Protestant missiology that demands serious reading by western Catholic, Orthodox, and Evangelical missiologists…Songulashvili’s book needs to be on a list of absolutely necessary reading in preparation for the dialogues that must come.

-- Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

An impressive source not only for understanding Baptist history, but for any reader who might be interested in ongoing ecclesiological issues regarding the indigeniza­tion of faith.

-- American Baptist Quarterly

Malkhaz Songulashvili’s study of Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptists history and analysis of their attempts to change their mission paradigm, accommodating it more deeply to local Georgian culture, is a timely and helpful addition to the field. This pioneering analysis will no doubt be referred to for many years to come whether future authors agree or disagree with Songulashvili.

-- Journal of Ecclesiastical History

Songulashvili’s book -- with copious notes and appendices of documents -- will be of interest to those studying Baptist history, the history of Georgia, religious communities in the region and the troubled independence period.

-- SLAVONIC & EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW