With this study on the history of the Church of Scotland's mission to the Jews in Budapest, carefully researched against the complexities of the nineteenth-century context of Hungary, the author sheds new light on issues like nationalism, and Magyarisation in relation to the Reformed Church in Hungary, often still considered taboo. A detailed treatment is given of the two-fold purpose of the Scottish Mission in Budapest: mission to the Jews and the renewal of the Reformed Church in Hungary. The influence of bursars turns out to be the strongest on the home and foreign mission movement, which sprang up at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, rather than on the mission to the Jews, and through this movement impacts the Reformed Church in Hungary.

The Scottish missionaries appeared in the middle of the nineteenth century at an ‘extraordinary favourable stage’ (p. 27), in a ‘favourable arena’ (p. 43). Nationalism played a ‘crucial role in the identity of all Hungarian Protestants, . . . especially [of] the great majority that belonged to the Reformed tradition’ (p. 41). Calvinism was regarded as the ‘national’ religion. Theological or religious liberalism went hand-in-hand with the political liberalism of the nationalist movement. The Hungarian Jews shifted their allegiance from German culture and language towards identification with the Hungarian nation in their desire for emancipation and demand for full legal equality. Magyarisation, nationalism and the struggle for religious and civic freedom thus created the common ground for Hungarian Protestants and Hungarian Jews (p. 42). This process took place in the context of the Habsburg government seeking to ‘Germanise’ the Hungarian kingdom – supported by the Roman Catholic Church. The British, including the Scots, were welcomed in Hungary by the ‘Reformists’ on the basis of their Protestantism and their being non-Catholic. ‘Theological considerations were quite secondary’ (p. 43). The motivation of the (Free) Church of Scotland, however, was much more based on theological premises (p. 43). Kovács rightly concludes ‘that the theological expectations on which the Scottish Mission was created were at odds with the rationalist thinking of most Hungarian Reformed Christians and Jews themselves’ (p. 43). In this context the Protestant Unity efforts in the first stages of the Scottish Mission should be interpreted as a unity under pressure over and against the Germanising tendencies of Habsburgs supported by the Roman Catholic Church. When the pressure was released differences came to the surface (p. 130).

In the early stages of the Scottish Mission a few key Jews were converted, however, the number of converts throughout the period under research was relatively small. It is well documented that bursars were more interested in the revival of the Reformed Church rather than in Jewish Mission (p. 270). The author reveals the weaknesses of the Scottish Mission in that the leadership was in the hands of too few people; he also points out the importance of networking.

The strength of the study undoubtedly lies in the choice and treatment of the topic under research. It deals with issues considered by many as taboo in Hungarian churches and society: nationalism, Magyarisation, Jewish–Christian relations. It contributes to a better understanding of these issues in the context of nineteenth-century Hungary. The study is well documented, carefully researched and clearly structured.

It is not clear in the study to what extent the Scots really viewed mission as a responsibility of the church. First, ‘Scots were quick to follow the pattern of non-denominational societies as well’ (p. 29), but two pages later it is stated that ‘a comparison of Scottish Missions with the English development reveals a salient feature of the former, that is, mission was the task of the Church and not that of voluntary societies’ (p. 31). This study reveals that, in practice, the Scottish Mission in Budapest preferred to work along the lines of non-denominational societies, and only in an indirect way did it succeed ‘in implanting an evangelical and interdenominational concept of mission in the Reformed Church of Hungary that gained prominence over the nationalist and confessional understandings of mission that had previously prevailed’ (p. 397). The author rightly states that ‘by the early twenty century . . . the evangelical approach of the Scottish Mission became the dominant mode of missionary thinking within the Reformed Church of Hungary’ (p. 397), but this impact came through ‘its influence in initiating the growth of home mission agencies in the Reformed Church in Hungary’ and ‘by sowing the seeds of an interdenominational approach to mission’ (p. 398). The institutional expression of the integral link between evangelisation of Jews and Gentiles only took place in the aftermath of the First World War.

The terminology used remains at times unclear. Concepts like Evangelical, Calvinist, Pietist, Liberal, ‘evangelical-pietist’, Reformed Pietists, etc. are used differently in different sources. Insufficient attention is given to a critical analysis of these terms in their respective contexts. Also terms like nationalism and patriotism lack clarification. In the next edition some editorial work needs to be done in tidying up (formal) inconsistencies to improve readability.

Finally, this study is an interesting case study of church planting and church renewal in Hungary and an example of a process of contextualisation and indigenisation of expatriate mission initiative. ‘If the Scottish Mission provided the bones of the movement, it was the Hungarian leaders and teachers who added the flesh’ (p. 333). This study is invaluable reading for all those interested in understanding the complexities of church planting and church renewal in the Reformed Church in Hungary.