Bible & Treaty: Missionaries Among the Maori-A New Perspective

(Paperback)

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Bible & Treaty: Missionaries among the Maori is a complex and colourful adventure of faith, bravery, perseverance and betrayal that seeks to recover lost connections in the story of modern New Zealand. It brings a fresh perspective to the missionary story, from the lead-up to Samuel Marsden's first sermon on New Zealand soil, and the intervening struggle for survival and understanding, to the dramatic events that unfolded around the Treaty of Waitangi and the disillusionment that led to the Land Wars in the 1860s. While some missionaries clearly failed to live up to their high calling, the majority committed their lives to Maori and were instrumental in spreading Christianity, brokering peace between warring tribes, and promoting literacy - publishing, for instance, the first indigenous-language Bible in the Southern Hemisphere. This highly readable account, from the author of Ratana Revisited: An Unfinished Legacy (2006) and Ratana: The Prophet (2009), shines a new light on the ever-evolving business of New Zealand's early history.

Author Bio

Keith Newman is an award-winning journalist, with over 30 years' experience in mainstream and trade media, including newspapers, magazines and radio. His first book, Ratana Revisited- An Unfinished Legacy, was published in 2006, with the follow-up biography, Ratana- The Prophet, released in 2009. Bible & Treaty- Missionaries Among the Maori was published in 2010, and its companion, Beyond Betrayal- Trouble in the Promised Land - Restoring the Mission to Maori, is forthcoming in 2013. Newman lives with his wife, artist Paula Novak, in the Cape Coast township of Haumoana, Hawke's Bay, where he moved in 2009 after 25 years in Waitakere City, Auckland.