Kirjahaku

The mission of the church is an open secret. This text offers a statement of the nature, authority and goal of Christian mission. The author highlights the vital importance of combining a biblically-based faith and trinitarian theology with a culturally-sensitive approach to mission.

The Bible, Newbigin says, is not a book of religion. It is a unique history of creation and the human race, with God as the central character. It is not a book which encourages us to turn away from life, but to embrace it and find God in the middle of it. An easy introduction to the Bible, this book was originally recorded as eight 15-minute programmes for radio. It contains all the highlights of how we have come to know God in the past, which will help us to find him now. An excellent Christmas or confirmation gift for a teenager, this book contains a message to remember.

How does the gospel relate to a pluralist society? What is the Christian message in a society marked by religious pluralism, ethnic diversity and cultural relativism? Should Christians concentrate on evangelism or dialogue? The Gospel in a Pluralist Society addresses these kinds of questions - providing an excellent analysis of contemporary culture and suggests how Christians can more confidently affirm their faith in such a context. While drawing on scholars such as Michael Polanyi, Alasdair MacIntyre, Hendrikus Berkof, Walter Wink and Robert Wuthnow, this heartfelt work by a missionary pastor and preacher is not only suited to an academic readership; it also offers to Christian leaders and lay people many thoughtful, helpful and provocative reflections. When Lesslie Newbigin died in 1998, The Times' obituary writer described him as 'one of the foremost missionary statesmen of his generation', and amongst 'the outstanding figures on the world Christian stage of the second half of the century'. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society has been widely influential and deserves to be reissued as an SPCK Classic.

This collection of seventeen previously unpublished essays, sermons, and addresses by Lesslie Newbigin puts forth his developing view of the agenda for Christian missions. Considered "the quintessence of Newbigin's thought" by editor Eleanor Jackson, these papers record the dynamics of Newbigin's ideas about mission as he confronted new issues in the church and society from 1960 to 1992.

Looking to end the divisive conflict that has raged between Christians who attack each other either as -liberals- or as -fundamentalists, - Newbigin here gives a historical account of the roots of this conflict in order to begin laying the foundation for a middle ground that will benefit the Christian faith as a whole. What results is a perspective that allows Christians to confidently affirm the gospel as public truth in our pluralistic world.

The late Lesslie Newbigin was widely regarded as one of this generation's most significant voices on Christianity in relation to modern society. Now that he is gone, there is a call for his unpublished writings to be made available. To that end "Signs amid the Rubble" gathers some of Newbigin's finest statements on issues of continuing relevance. The first set of chapters consists of the 1941 Bangalore Lectures, in which Newbigin speaks powerfully of the kingdom of God in relation to the modern - severely deficient - idea of "progress." The second group of writings, the Henry Martyn Lectures of 1986, deals mainly with the importance of Christian mission. In the last piece, his address to the World Council of Churches conference on mission and evangelism in Brazil in 1996 - which editor Geoffrey Wainwright calls his "swan song on the ecumenical stage" - Newbigin wonders aloud how future generations will judge today's practice of abortion.

Trinitarian Doctrine for Today's Mission This stimulating little book introduces some of the issues involved in mission in the twentieth century. Newbigin discusses missions from an ecumenical perspective before considering the limits of ecumenicity and the need for truth. He considers that the present situation of the missionary movement has brought the question of the uniqueness and finality of Christ into sharp focus. This question, he argues, and the question of the relation of what God is doing in the mission of the Church and in the secular events of history will only be answered correctly in the framework of a fully and explicitly trinitarian doctrine of God. With and introduction by Eleanor Jackson.

This book discusses the question that the author regards as central in the present ecumenical debate: the nature of the Church itself. He thus describes the plan of the book: The First chapter sketches the present context of the discussion and touches on the Biblical meaning of the word ""Church."" The next three chapters examine the three answers to the central question, which may be roughly categorized as Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal. The last two chapters argue that the Church is only to be understood in a perspective that is at once eschatological and missionary, the perspective of the ends of the earth. Bishop Newbigin's evaluations are provacative, scholarly, and filled with profound passion and insight. He is concerned with the searching questions men today are asking: Is there in truth a family of God on earth to which I can belong, a place where all men can be truly at home? If so, where is it to be found and how is it that those who claim to be spokesmen of that holy fellowship are themselves at war with one another as to the fundamentals of its nature? I think there is no more urgent theological task than to try to give plain and simple answers. This he does, drawing deeply upon biblical sources. Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998) spent many years in India as missionary and bishop before returning to the UK where he became Moderator of the United Reformed Church. He wrote numerous books including Foolishness to the Greeks and The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.

Destinado a llevar las preocupaciones centrales de la teolog a misional al p blico general, este volumen fluye de la experiencia de Lesslie Newbigin en el campo misionero y de sus discursos dise ados a formar hombres y mujeres misioneros. Newbigin describe la misi n cristiana como un secreto abierto - abierto en su proclamaci n mundial y secreta en su manifestaci n singular a los ojos de fe. El resultado es un intento eminentemente b blico de gu ar a la iglesia a aceptar el mandamiento de Cristo de presentar el evangelio en un mundo complejo.

Aimed at bringing contemporary concerns in mission theology to a wide-reading public, this volume flows from Newbigin's extensive experience in the mission field and from lectures developed especially to prepare men and women for missionary service. Newbigin describes the Christian mission as the declaration of an open secret--open in that it is preached to all nations, secret in that it is manifest only to the eyes of faith. The result is a thoroughly biblical attempt to lead the church to embrace its Christ-given task of presenting the gospel in our complex modern world. This revised edition includes a helpful index and a new preface.