Editor's Introduction
Editor's Introduction
he genesis of this book is rather unusual and so needs to be
explained, if only to account for the fact that someone who is a
church historian and former archivist is called upon to edit a book of
which the major theme is mission. Normally collections like this
appear when someone is dead, and not only is Bishop Lesslie Newbigin (at 84) very much alive, but his ideas have moved even further
along the road he is traveling since the "canon" of this volume was
closed. Indeed, it was with great reluctance that I had to say that the
latest paper he has given ("Religious Pluralism, a Missiological Approach," in Studia Missionalia, vol. 42, 1993) could not be included,
even though the final four pages are a magnificent "Credo." Many
other significant pieces also had to be rejected in order to focus on
the theme of mission.
Following the success of Bishop Newbigin's previous publications, Mr. William Eerdmans wrote to him to ask if he had anything unpublished that ought to be published, or any project in hand. This was just as Bishop Newbigin was preparing to leave Selly Oak in August 1992. He had unearthed five folders of talks, lectures, and articles either unpublished or published previously only in German or Dutch. I first got to know Bishop Newbigin in 1975 when I was pursuing my research into the life of Dr. William Paton and was setting up an ecumenical archives center in the Selly Oak Colleges. Bishop Newbigin decided to deposit his papers in that center and to allow me to extract a selection for publication. The papers span the period 1960-1992, but papers directly linked to the Gospel as Public Truth project were omitted, for obvious reasons.
These chapters include formal sermons, lectures, articles composed for publication in another language, and transcripts of more informal taped conversation. As with the second edition of Unfinished Agenda, care has been taken not to alter basic speech patterns unless the transcription has produced something ungrammatical or incomprehensible. It is hoped that those who have heard Bishop Newbigin talk or deliver a paper will have no difficulty hearing those distinctive tones again. It seems important to do this for one who is so aware of language constricting meaning or molding philosophy. Although the papers are addressed to widely diverse audiences in America and Europe, ranging across the whole spectrum of "liberals," "evangelicals," and "pietists" to the subscribers of the Ecumenical Review, the Expository Times, the International Bulletin of Missions, and Kerk en Theologie, they show a remarkable consistency. While the proponents of Thatcherism may not appreciate this (privatization is a dirty word in this book), Bishop Newbigin has a remarkably broad appeal. This is so rare in these times of the polarization and fragmentation of church and society that for that reason alone it would be worth publishing these papers.
Meanwhile I had moved to Lancaster to take up a post at St. Martin's College, where I found that The Other Side of 1984 was a prescribed text for the course on Christian doctrine and that other Newbigin writings formed an invaluable part of the "Dialogue and Mission" course. In other institutions also Bishop Newbigin's books form an essential part of a variety of courses. This provides a second reason for producing this book. Also for this reason the book has been provided with copious footnotes. The plain fact of the matter is that despite the efforts of ecumenical historians like myself, many of the people mentioned by Bishop Newbigin have been forgotten, or never had a very high public profile. The most obvious example is J. H. Oldham, with whom Newbigin shares more than a Scottish connection. Myths need to be laid to rest-for example, what the "great new fact of our time" (in 1942) really is. But more important, it is earnestly to be hoped that the student or layperson reading this book, or even just dipping into one article, will want to go further and read either Newbigin's sources or his own further writings on the subject. For this purpose a bibliography has also been provided. Since Newbigin's theology is highly contextual, arising from his yearning to address a word from his context to that of his audience, it is most opportune that a second edition of his fascinating autobiography, Unfinished Agenda, with a provocative new final chapter, has just appeared (St. Andrew Press, 1993). There is more than a little autobiographical material in this present volume as well. Finally, it should be noted that because much of this book was originally spoken rather than written, it is more accessible than some of his books. Given the high quality of Eerdmans' covers, one may confidently say that it can be read in the bath as well as the study.
However, this book is not published simply to provide a handy work of reference or a help to students. While it could have been called "Newbigin in a nutshell" because it represents the quintessence of his thought, it is primarily a statement of a message he still feels bound to proclaim. "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own ... forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:12-14). This book is an invitation to share that quest.
Inevitably in a work of this kind, there is much repetition of material both within the work and overlapping with works already published. General Simatoupong's appearances have been kept to a minimum, but his question "Can the West be converted?" will not go away and its repetition in this book demonstrates its importance. In fact, the book is to be seen in a similar way to Brahms' Variations on the Saint Antony Chorale. The theme is always there as an undercurrent in the rhapsody as the pilgrims press on to their goal, singing. So it is with Newbigin here, and the equally compelling theme is mission.
This book begins with a sermon preached at the Riverside Church in New York when Bishop Newbigin was traveling in America to explain the principles behind the integration of the International Missionary Council (IMC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC). It provides a baseline of the principles that inspire unity in mission. This is expanded in two further talks in the series given at the time to explain the changes in the structure and pattern of the missionary enterprise and- the changes appearing in the theology of mission. Unfortunately, the middle lecture in the series, on mission in relation to the demand for social justice, has been lost. In attacking the paternalism and dependency relationships of modern mission structures, by harking back to Roland Allen's ideas (c. 1904), Newbigin not only makes many practical suggestions that have since been realized, but points the way forward to a new ecclesiology based on the "all in each place" formula. It is a question of doing things not so much in the right spirit as in the Spirit, and trusting to the power of the Spirit. One realizes that if these talks are interesting because so much has changed since 1960, they are also a challenge because so much has not changed.
The next three articles address specific "front-line" situations: mission in a modern city, which is Madras in 1974, though the questions raised have a wider relevance; the pastor's role in the inner city (Winson Green, Birmingham); and the future of the parish church. In all three articles there is a wide vision of mission as the work of the whole Christian community, and strong criticism of any whiff of clerical monopolies or denominationalism.
Bishop Newbigin then moves to the more difficult frontier created by the resistance of modern society to the gospel and addresses the problems of evangelism that face us when we are so conditioned by our culture that we mistake customs and conventions of modern philosophy for eternal truth. In the manner of Luther describing the "Babylonian Captivity of the Church," Newbigin describes the cultural captivity of the Church (in Stuttgart, 1984). His diagnosis of the wrong turns taken in Western thought since 1648 is well known, but bears reexamination, not only because he touched a raw nerve, somewhat in the way that J. A. T. Robinson's Honest to God did, but also because so few theologians have taken seriously the challenge of the philosophy of modern science. Newbigin devotes as much care to this as he ever did to the claims of Vedantism. Nothing less than a reconstruction of the premises of systematic theology is required in response to this. Thus Newbigin asks, "By what authority" do we operate? If it was the burning question for Jesus' audience in the temple, it is no less so today.
Secularization and the other symptoms of Western society are then addressed in this book as well as the consequences of witness in a world of religious and ideological pluralism. Finally Newbigin sets the agenda for mission for friends in the Netherlands, students in Edinburgh, missionaries in Dublin, and indeed all concerned with obedience in faith today. Invited to "dream dreams" by the editor of the Ecumenical Review, he does just that, and is no less challenging in 1991 than in 1960. Perhaps the most significant pages come in the final chapter, "Learning to Live in the Spirit in Our European Home" (Hannover, 1992), where he reveals the sources of his strength for meeting this challenge. There is no easy solution for any of the problems he exposes, but by breaking down the old parameters of thought, he makes it possible for us to appreciate the "enduring validity of cross-cultural mission."
Consistent with his approach to our cultural limitations, Bishop Newbigin has adopted "inclusive" language in his most recent works. However, pronouns have not been changed in earlier papers because that would be anachronistic.
I cannot close this introduction without a word of thanks to my colleagues Dr. Brian Gates and Dr. Francesca Murphy for encouraging this project; to my long-suffering husband, Klaus-Dieter Stoll, for domestic support; to my young sons for putting up with deferred holidays and trips to the park; and above all to Christine Armstrong for deciphering not only my scrawl but also that of Bishop Newbigin, and for producing a high-quality manuscript and disk. Thanks also are due to Bishop Newbigin himself for so patiently answering my constant questions. Hopefully this book does justice to the fullness of Bishop Newbigin's vision and forms a tiny part of the Good News in Christ.