In recent years, a number of volumes have broadened the scope of research in Eastern European Baptist history and identity. Gregory Nichols's inspiring attempt to explore Russian Evangelical spirituality through the biographical lens of Ivan Kargel (Eugene, Or 2011), or Constantine Prokhorov's book on the Orthodox impact on Russian Baptists, 1960–90 (Carlisle 2013), are excellent, though randomly chosen, examples of this trend in research. 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.

The book helps to answer some questions, such as issues related to Russian-Georgian Baptist relationships. Songulashvili argues that from an indigenous and contextualised mission perspective Georgian Baptists’ distancing of their patterns of liturgy and mission from Slavic forms was both necessary and justified. The volume also raises new questions, for example, how to interpret the move by Georgian Baptists towards closer understanding with the historical Georgian Orthodox Church (at the turn of the millennium) and then – more recently – the relationships growing increasingly detached again. However, the book inspires a researcher who is working with the Eastern European Baptist – or Evangelical, if one prefers a wider term – story. There are at least three benefits that one can achieve from reading this book if time is given to reflect upon themes initiated by the author.

Firstly, Songulashvili's research throws new light on the early development of Slavic Baptists, for the first group of Baptists in Tiflis were Russian-speaking. The author has made excellent use of primary documents, which so far have not been widely known to an English-speaking audience. Some key documents have been translated into English, and published in this volume for the first time. This makes the seventeen appendices (of ninety pages) a valuable resource for scholars who may not be fluent in Russian or Georgian. British and Foreign Bible Society minutes have also been used, to throw light on Georgian Baptist international contacts. The author has greatly expanded the primary source basis for this research, and he has clearly exceeded in quality some classical historical treatises on Eastern European Baptists, such as the History of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the USSR, published in Russian (Moscow 1989).

Secondly, methodologically Songulashvili makes a clear difference between the Russian-speaking and Georgian-speaking movements, pressing one of his main arguments: in the first half of the twentieth century, Georgian Baptists were already more open to local expressions of Christianity, such as liturgical and sacramental practices in worship, than were Russian-speaking groups who looked to Moscow for instruction. Songulashvili backs up his argument with examples from history, such as emphasising the role of Ilia Kandelaki, one of the Georgian Baptist leaders in the 1920s, who was arguing for a Bible translation in modern literary Georgian as a crucial focal point for the liturgical life of believers’ communities in this region in the Caucasus. No less important was his and his contemporaries’ attempt to systematically introduce local Georgian music into Baptist life. However, these developments towards more culturally-rooted – Georgian – forms of Baptist life ground to a halt when the Soviet government began to apply its measures of atheistic pressure, both in the 1930s as well as immediately after World War II. Nevertheless, during Communist times the Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptists churches focused on the participation of its members in the mission of the Church, the revival of its musical life and revived activism amongst the younger generation. The roots of Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptist and Orthodox dialogue go back to 1970s. The author is rather optimistic about this process of seeking ‘the religious unity of the Georgian people’ (p. 211). What could at least be asked is whether there was any sign of Soviet government orchestration of these ecumenical conversations, as was the case in the wider Soviet Union where the Communist rulers used ecumenical relations as an instrument for achieving their own ideological goals.

Thirdly, the study offers an engaging discourse on Georgian Baptists reclaiming again their national and cultural forms of worship from the 1990s onwards: the use of vestments, candles and icons, practices which radically differ from Baptist practices in most parts of the world. The developed Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptist approach to evangelism and mission moved away from ‘personal witness’: ‘Very much like that of the Orthodox Church, they considered the liturgy the main means of evangelism’ (p. 238). A reader, however, may wonder about the internal – Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptist – struggles in the midst of these changes. Was the course of change accepted simply as returning to the Church's cultural roots, or did the interim history make some believers resistant to such contextualisation? The book, indeed, refers to certain criticisms directed towards the ‘Georgian missiological experiment’ from the Slavic Baptists. Perhaps additional research could take this question further and, integrating the material found in Songulashvili's study, explore to what extent the existing Evangelical Christian Baptist body embraced or processed the changes, what kind of discussions took place in local churches and how the Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptist national-cultural concept of mission serves the faith communities and Georgian people over a period of ten or fifteen years. Georgian Evangelical Christian Baptists and Georgian Orthodox relations, well presented in the present volume, deserve continuous attention over a longer time scale.

This volume is a significant and ground-breaking analysis which brings new knowledge into the field of Eastern European religious studies. Besides the focus on Georgian Baptists, this study throws fresh light on Slavic Baptist beginnings, as Tiflis has been considered the cradle of the Russian and Ukrainian Baptist story. This story, nevertheless, has an important and distinctive Georgian emphasis. In addition, this book enhances discussion both regarding Georgian Baptist history and identity as well as strategies for contextual mission. Readers interested in links between cultural and religious identities will find this book fascinating and rewarding.