Kenneth L. Pike: An Evangelical Mind
This biography examines the life of a most unusual twentieth-century evangelical, Kenneth L. "Ken" Pike (1912-2000), who served with the Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Pike began his missionary career as a Bible translator, but he went on to become a world-class linguist who made his mark on the science of linguistics and the study of indigenous languages around the world. Known among linguists and anthropologists for his theoretical contributions, this volume seeks to bring Pike to a wider audience by illuminating his life as a key evangelical figure, one who often broke with conventional evangelical constraints to pursue the life of the mind as a Christian intellectual and scholar. Here is a story of how one evangelical Christian man served the global church, the scientific community, and the world's indigenous peoples with his entire heart, soul, and mind.
“Boone Aldridge’s biography of Kenneth Pike tells the
astonishing story of an evangelical Christian mind that became
truly innovative. How many anthropologists, scholars of religion,
or linguists know that one of the basic tools of their intellectual
analysis, the distinction between etic and emic views of cultural
systems, owes its origins to an American missionary reared in
fundamentalist circles? This book will explode preconceptions,
widen horizons, and inspire deep reflection.”
—Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of
Edinburgh
“We have needed an intellectual biography of Kenneth Pike, and now
we have one, carefully researched and engagingly written. I am
pleased to recommend this work, especially in the way that it
provides further insights into the life and thought of a great and
unusual Christian pioneer.”
—Vern S. Poythress, Distinguished Professor of New Testament,
Biblical Interpretation, and Systematic Theology, Westminster
Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
“Kenneth Pike occupied multiple worlds: he was a man of deeply held
evangelical faith, and also a gifted intellectual and scholar in
the field of linguistics. Along the way, Aldridge broadens our
understanding of twentieth-century evangelicalism, and adds a
gentle hero to its pantheon of stars.”
—John A. D’Elia, president of The New Theological Seminary of the
West and author of A Place at the Table: George Eldon Ladd and
the Rehabilitation of Evangelical Scholarship in America
“Aldridge tells the compelling story of a young Ken Pike, gifted by
God with an ear and a mind for phonetics, discovering the wonderful
world of Mixtec languages in Mexico, and using those gifts to
become one of a handful of world-renowned linguistic
scholar-philosophers in the twentieth century. . . . Pike mentored
and influenced hundreds of young men and women to careers of
academic scholarship for the kingdom of God. I was one among so
many that responded to God’s invitation through Ken Pike.”
—Sherwood Lingenfelter, Senior Professor of Anthropology, Fuller
Theological Seminary
“Boone Aldridge’s biography of Kenneth Pike tells the
astonishing story of an evangelical Christian mind that became
truly innovative. How many anthropologists, scholars of religion,
or linguists know that one of the basic tools of their intellectual
analysis, the distinction between etic and emic views of cultural
systems, owes its origins to an American missionary reared in
fundamentalist circles? This book will explode preconceptions,
widen horizons, and inspire deep reflection.”
—Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of
Edinburgh
“We have needed an intellectual biography of Kenneth Pike, and now
we have one, carefully researched and engagingly written. I am
pleased to recommend this work, especially in the way that it
provides further insights into the life and thought of a great and
unusual Christian pioneer.”
—Vern S. Poythress, Distinguished Professor of New Testament,
Biblical Interpretation, and Systematic Theology, Westminster
Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
“Kenneth Pike occupied multiple worlds: he was a man of deeply held
evangelical faith, and also a gifted intellectual and scholar in
the field of linguistics. Along the way, Aldridge broadens our
understanding of twentieth-century evangelicalism, and adds a
gentle hero to its pantheon of stars.”
—John A. D’Elia, president of The New Theological Seminary of the
West and author of A Place at the Table: George Eldon Ladd and
the Rehabilitation of Evangelical Scholarship in America
“Aldridge tells the compelling story of a young Ken Pike, gifted by
God with an ear and a mind for phonetics, discovering the wonderful
world of Mixtec languages in Mexico, and using those gifts to
become one of a handful of world-renowned linguistic
scholar-philosophers in the twentieth century. . . . Pike mentored
and influenced hundreds of young men and women to careers of
academic scholarship for the kingdom of God. I was one among so
many that responded to God’s invitation through Ken Pike.”
—Sherwood Lingenfelter, Senior Professor of Anthropology, Fuller
Theological Seminary
- Title: Kenneth L. Pike: An Evangelical Mind
- Author: Boone Aldridge
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725293762, 9781725293748, 9781725293755, 1725293765, 1725293749, 1725293757
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725293762
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T20:29:43Z
Boone Aldridge has served with the Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL International in both Africa and the United States since 1996. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Stirling in Scotland and is the author of For the Gospel’s Sake: The Rise of the Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (2018).