Abstract
Lesslie Newbigin (1909–98) was doubtless one of the premier missionaries and missiologists of the 20th century. This book of ten essays is a fine tribute to Newbigin and a helpful reflection on his many books, especially on his seminal 1989 work, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (GPS). The ten authors include two women, two Europeans, two Asian-Americans, and the ten also write from a variety of theological perspectives: Catholic, Episcopal, Mennonite, and Pentecostal as well as mainstream evangelical.
The essays in this book elucidate key emphases made by Newbigin through the years, in GPS as well as in many of his other books. For those who do not know Newbigin’s writings well, such elucidation is very helpful. There is, in particular, repeated explanation of Newbigin’s epistemology and his indebtedness to the epistemological thought of Michael Polanyi. Such explanations are particularly valuable in this age in which postmodern thinking is becoming increasingly dominant.
The introductory essay by co-editor Scott W. Sunquist is excellent as is the second chapter, “Newbigin in His Time,” by Wilber R. Shenk. Both of these authors are professors at Fuller Theological Seminary, where most of the essays in the book were first presented at the Missionary Lectures in November 2014.
While the assessment of Newbigin’s life and work is well done and of distinct value, for those fairly well acquainted with Newbigin’s thought there is not enough reassessment, in spite of the subtitle, of how his ideas play today. In that regard, “Evangelism in a Pluralistic Society,” the chapter by Carrie Boren Headington, while perhaps the least “scholarly,” is quite helpful in its presentation of the relevance of Newbigin’s thought for today.
This reviewer also found the essay by Esther L. Meek, who says her mission is “epistemological therapy,” to be especially thought-provoking. She tells how Newbigin maintained that “epistemology is the key to mission in the West” and that he “has offered Christian believers in the West a fresh, movement-starting vision of what it means to be the Christian church in mission” (p. 126).
Some of the essays, such as “Pluralism, Secularism and Pentecost” by co-editor Amos Yong, also of Fuller, are primarily presentations of the writer’s own missiological thought with Newbigin’s work mainly used as a springboard.
Overall, this book, with the recurring references to Newbigin’s emphasis on “public truth,” is of great significance for missionaries and missiologists today. I highly recommend it.