Newbigin on Cross Cultural Transmission of the Gospel
I’ve been reading Leslie Newbigin’s writings. If you are not acquainted with his thinking, you should become acquainted. Newbigin, an English missionary, served in India for forty years. When he returned to his native land, he was astonished by the vast changes in the landscape of England. The Gospel was in decline. Newbigin recognized the crucial need for the re-evangelization of the West. His books are a guide for those who are called to his mission.
I want to reflect on a quotation from his text Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture
1) The communication has to be in the language of the receptor culture. It has to be such that it accepts, at least provisionally, the way of understanding things that is embodied in that language; if it does not do so, it will simply be an unmeaning sound that cannot change anything. 2) However, if it is truly the communication of the gospel, it will call radically into question that way of understanding embodied in the language it uses. If it is truly revelation, it will involve contradiction, and call for conversion, for a radical metanoia, a U-turn of the mind. 3) Finally, this radical conversion can never be the achievement of any human persuasion, however, eloquent. It can only be the work of God. True conversion, there, which is the proper end toward which the communication of the gospel looks, can only be a work of God, a kind of miracle—not natural but supernatural.
What are the implications of Newbigin’s thinking here for our interests in the missional church?
1) If we desire to rewin the west, we as Christ followers need to learn to speak human again. Jesus came to make us human again. If we are close to Jesus the Ultimate Human, we ought to be the most winsome and relevant humans on earth.
What habits and practices do I need to embody in order to better understand and engage the culture in which I live?
Am I able to speak human?
2) Newbigin affirms a conclusion that I have reached regarding the goal of biblical interpretation. I have argued that this goal is simple: conversion. Followers of Christ are called to (re)align themselves with God’s mission; preChristians are called to align themselves with God’s mission.
3) Conversion is the result of God’s grace.
© 2007 Brian D. Russell