Alan R. TIPPETT

TIPPETT, ALAN R (b. St Arnaud, Vic, 9 Nov 1911, d. Canberra, ACT, 16 Sept 1988). Pastor, missionary, missiologist, teacher.

Alan Tippett was born into a family sired by a great grandfather who was a Cornish immigrant miner with a strong Wesleyan tradition. Alan's father, William Tippett, became a Methodist pastor who served parishes in several Victorian mining towns, plus Melbourne and Geelong. In that rough and tumble world, Alan became strongly motivated both to excel and to defend himself, whether as a Wesleyan, in academics, in football and cricket or in stamp collecting.

He struggled during depression years through college (while working for a shipping firm). At this time he came into contact with CE and experienced what he described as 'a series of dramatic spiritual confrontations, which shaped my religious commitments and ... gave me the directives which led me into what turned out to be my life vocation'. The resulting decisions culminated in his entering Queen's College (Melbourne) to study theology in preparation for foreign missionary service. After serving a series of short probationary pastorates, he was ordained in the Methodist Church in 1938. That same year he married Edna Deckert. Two short pastorates and one child later, they embarked for Fiji in April 1941, spending the next 20 years there carrying out pastoral and institutional responsibilities.

In Fiji, Tippett played a major role in moving the Fijian Methodist Church out from under colonialist policies into independence. He and Edna also added two more girls to their family. During this time Alan Tippett began to exercise his research and writing abilities. These won for him a grant to study history and anthropology at American University, Washington, DC in 1955-6 (MA—history). After another term in Fiji, heading a theological college, he was invited in 1961 by Donald McGavran to study and teach at the newly formed Institute of Church Growth in Eugene, Oregon. This association lasted until his retirement in 1977, first in Eugene, then in Pasadena, California after the Institute moved in 1965 to become the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary. Before leaving Eugene (1964) he completed a PhD in anthropology at the University of Oregon.

During his career at Fuller, Alan was known for his keen mind, creative approach to missiology, thoroughness in the way he researched and taught, and an endearing personableness. He is considered by most missiologists one of the two or three best in our generation in terms of his ability to comprehend and articulate (especially in writing) the intricate relationships between biblical, cultural, personal and strategic aspects of the Christian mission. He was founding editor of the journal Missiology (1973-76). Several of his books and articles are still considered classics.

Alan retired in 1977, settling in Canberra where St Mark's Library provided him space for his 16 000 volume library. That library continues there as a special collection and ranks as one of the best missiological collections extant, especially with respect to its Pacific holdings. A bibliography of his writings in missiology, anthropology, ethnohistory philately, etc. plus bound volumes of most of his unpublished and published writings are at St Mark's, Fuller Seminary, Biola University (California), and Asbury Seminary (Kentucky). A shorter bibliography is listed below. Shortly before his death, Alan presented Edna with a 550+ page unpublished autobiography.

L W Caldwell, 'Selected Missiological Works of Alan R Tippett', Missiology 17 (1989), 283-92; C H Kraft, and D D Priest, 'Who Was This Man? A Tribute to Alan R Tippett', Missiology 17 (1989), 269-81

SELECT WRITINGS: Solomon Islands Christianity (London, 1967); People Movements in Southern Polynesia (Chicago, 1971); Introduction to Missiology (Pasadena, 1987)

CHARLES H KRAFT