While old tales of God's harvest workers have their place, it is time for a new generation of Christians to be awestruck by a new "great" in the missionary hall of fame--and as the most influential Bible translator in church history and the mother of modern missions, Katharine Barnwell is just the woman for the job.
What if Mother Teresa or Billy Graham lived and worked -- and nobody knew their names? What if one of the church's most influential missionaries went almost unnoticed?
Meet Katharine (Katy) Barnwell. Within Bible translation, she's a legend. Outside of Bible translation, few have heard of her. But not even Billy Graham holds a candle to what God did through Katy.
From hiding as a child from Nazi bombing raids, fleeing civil wars, and remaining calm under terrorist attacks and armed gunmen, to utterly revolutionizing every field she touched, Barnwell's life proves there is no need to treat the missionary hall of fame as if its ranks are closed. On the contrary, her kingdom labor reveals that God is still in the business of raising up contemporary "greats" who are willing to face danger, go the distance, lift up God's Word in unprecedented ways, and see the lost turn to Christ in droves.
In fact, there may be no "great" in all of church history who matches Barnwell's level of influence.
All around the world, hundreds of millions of new believers read and hear Scripture in their own language because of Barnwell's work, books, and language training. By some estimates, about 3,000 completed or in-process Bible translations swim directly downstream of her work. Since she rebuilt The Jesus Film Project's methods, more than 300 million viewers around the world have become followers of Jesus.
Given such accomplishments, one might expect Barnwell to be arrogant or aloof, and yet those who know her best report sweet surprise at how warm, endearing, patient, and feisty she is.
Her African colleagues call her Mama Katy, and such a name is fitting.
She is truly the mother of modern Bible translation and the mother of twenty-first-century missions.
"With this deeply researched and dramatic portrait, Monson introduces a woman whose life marks both the end of an era and the dawning of a new one. There may never be another Katharine Barnwell, precisely because her legacy has created a world that thrives not on a single, larger-than-life hero, but on a thousand ordinary servants."
--Andy Olsen
Senior Writer and Editor, Christianity Today
"An integral part of the remarkable twentieth century global expansion of Christianity is the role played by the many unheralded Bible translators. Few people have exerted as great an influence on Bible translation worldwide or empowered Majority World Christians as effectively as Katherine Barnwell. In this engaging and informative book, Jordan Monson tells the captivating story of this truly extraordinary woman. Read it, and be challenged and encouraged!"
-- Harold Netland
Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Intercultural Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"Katharine Barnwell is one of the greatest Christian biographies written in the twenty-first century. Never heard of her? After you read Jordan K. Monson's beautifully crafted account, you will add Mama Katy to your top ten list of truly admirable and important modern heroes. I can't remember the last time I read a new book that was this inspiring."
-- Timothy Larsen
McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College
"Katherine Barnwell is an extraordinary Christian you need to meet, and you can trust master story-teller Jordan Monson to introduce you. Prepare to be inspired by this crisp and inviting account of Barnwell's remarkable life and ground-breaking career in Bible translation. Because the Chrisitan life is irreducibly social--never just me and Jesus, but us together on the Jesus way--getting to know Barnwell through Monson's able pen is a gift."
-- Kent Eilers
PhD, Professor of Theology (Huntington University); author of Reading Theology Wisely (Eerdmans 2022) among other books
"Jordan Monson writes, 'The equality of all people, the charge to help the least fortunate as a service unto Jesus himself, is a distinctly Christian idea.' Few people have embodied this idea as powerfully in the 20th and 21st centuries as Katy Barnwell.' Many of the foundations of the modern Bible translation movement--from training programs and exegetical resources to the recognition that local believers, rather than expatriate missionaries, should be in the driving seat of translation work--can be traced back to Katy Barnwell. When you read this excellent biography, you'll realize why Katy Barnwell is known as the mother of modern Bible translation, and even of 21st century missions."
-- Steve Nicolle
Senior Linguistics Consultant at SIL Global and Professor of Linguistics at Canada Institute of Linguistics and Trinity Western University
"Pike, Longacre, Levinsohn, Nida, Newman, Gutt ... the list goes on, but how many women appear among the renowned pioneers of modern Bible translation theory and practice in the latter 20th century? Professor Jordan Monson expertly fills the gap in this captivating, fact-filled biography of Dr. Katharine (Katy) Barnwell, who, in addition to teaching, training, mentoring, and motivating translation personnel in Africa and worldwide for over half a century, authored one of the discipline's most widely used tutoring textbooks, Bible Translation (4th ed., 2020). Having had the inspirational privilege of knowing, learning from, and working with Katy for much of this time, I am grateful to Monson for bringing her multifaceted legacy to light in such an illuminating manner. She is verily the 'Mother of Bible Translation.'"
-- Ernst R. Wendland
Dept. of Ancient Studies, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Jordan K. Monson is the professor of Missions and Old Testament at Huntington University. He's a feature writer at Christianity Today, regularly contributing print features and cover stories. Jordan, his wife Aubrey, and their three sons hail from St. Paul, Minnesota.
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