The format of both this and the first edition (2006) is a straightforward dictionary arrangement of topical, biographical, geographical, institutional, organizational, political, social, and doctrinal articles from a paragraph to several pages in length, written by about 200 contributors, most Salvation Army (SA) personnel. The reviewer of the first edition in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History (v. 58, no.4, Oct. 2007, pp. 795-96), while impressed with the description and facts presented, felt the activities of the SA and its personalities in its Third World locations deserved fuller treatment. So, one must ask of this new edition, what has changed? There is a new coeditor, Allen Satterlee, the USA national editor in chief and author of 10 books about the SA, who has worked for the organization in the US, Jamaica, Singapore, and Papua New Guinea. There are 19 new contributors of articles, five from outside the US. Satterlee wrote a new introduction, an informative history of the SA, and has updated the chronology, extending it to January 2015
Texts of most of the articles remain the same, although information about happenings since 2007 has been appended at the ends of many of the articles about the SA's activities and entities, particularly in the Third World. New entries include Angola Command; Kenya East (and West) Territories; Mali Region; Mozambique; Appointment System; Bleick, Hildegard; Bond, Linda; Booth University College; Cabinet System; Cadman, Elijah; Democratic Republic of Congo; Ecclesiology, and Salvationist. There is a comprehensive, unannotated bibliography of 62 pages.... The amount of detail is staggering. There are no other competing works. Libraries emphasizing the history of Christianity and mission work around the world should have one edition or the other. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All public and academic libraries. * CHOICE * First published in 2006 and reissued under a slightly different title in 2009, this edition is now updated and slightly reworked, with the removal of several no longer relevant entries, as well as the sixteen pages of plates and illustrations found in the first edition. There is clearly a great deal of information about the development and evolution of this organization/denomination/evangelical movement, from its founding by William Booth (1829-1912) in England in 1865 to the present. Topic areas include important figures in the history of the Salvation Army, the hierarchy of leadership, and the group's activities in its numerous 'territories': Eastern Europe, Sri Lanka, Spain and Portugal, and South Africa to name a few. Numerous appendixes providing basic tenets of the Army, lists of leaders, a sixty-five-page bibliography divided into twenty-five sections, and other information. An eleven-page chronology, now covering events through 2015, also assists readers to understand the steady growth and dispersion of the group. The text is clearly written by dedicated, committed members of the Salvation Army. For instance, in the chronology, Booth's death is described thus: 'General William Booth promoted to Glory.' This volume will be most useful in libraries serving readers with a serious interest in religious topics, such as seminary schools. Other academic libraries might consider it for history programs. * American Reference Books Annual *