Journal: Puritan Reformed Journal
Volume: PRJ 02:2 (Jul 2010)
Article: “Surely It Is Worth While”: William Carey’s Personal Application Of His "Enquiry"
Author: Nathan A. Finn

PRJ 2:2 (July 2010) p. 284

“Surely It Is Worth While”: William Carey’s Personal Application Of His Enquiry

Nathan A. Finn

For much of the eighteenth century, most English Particular Baptists were committed to High Calvinism and thus largely uninterested in foreign mission. But throughout the latter half of the century, younger ministers increasingly embraced an evangelical form of Calvinism that was compatible with pressing the claims of Christ upon all men. One such young evangelical was William Carey, whose 1792 booklet An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens is considered by many to be a major catalyst in the birth of the so-called modern missions movement.1 That same year, Carey became the primary influence in establishing the Particular Baptist Missionary Society (BMS), which scholars note served as the archetype for evangelical voluntary missionary societies.2 Though Andrew Fuller, John Sutcliffe, Robert Hall Sr., and other evangelical Calvinists played crucial roles in founding the BMS, it was Carey’s Enquiry that resulted directly in the society’s birth and provided a missiological model for BMS missionaries.

Most of the literature dealing with this period understandably focuses on the role of the Enquiry as a clarion call to engage in foreign

PRJ 2:2 (July 2010) p. 285

mission. This essay argues that the Enquiry was not merely an apology for mission, but also a work of practical theology which Carey himself applied in his own missionary efforts. This will be demonstrated by summarizing the contents of the booklet and noting how Carey appropriated his own missiology on the field. The Enquiry was a multi-faceted work which argued for the divine mandate to engage in mission, rehearsed the history of mission, statistically described the need for mission, and suggested a strategy for engaging in mission. When Carey and John Thomas were sent to India as the first BMS missionaries in 1792, the booklet provided the context for both their appointment and their missionary strategy. Carey’s personal application of his Enquiry impacted his own missiology, his personal piety, and the Baptist Missionary Society’s corporate missionary efforts.

The Enquiry And The Great Commission

Carey’s Enquiry is divided into five sections, the first an extended discussion of the so-called Great Commission, a text which stood at the center of Carey’s theology. The Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:19-20, reads, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in...