The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission

by Lesslie Newbigin

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 1995

Overview

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.

Key Features

• Aimed at preparing men and women for missionary service
• Interacts with contemporary concerns in mission theology
• Challenges the church to present the gospel in a complex modern world

Contents

Top Highlights

“Here, then, is the first answer to the question ‘Who is Jesus?’ He is the Son, sent by the Father and anointed by the Spirit to be the bearer of God’s kingdom to the nations. This is the Jesus who was proclaimed by the first Christians to the world of their time.” (Page 24)

“When he or she has done the best to find idioms of speech, of lifestyle, of rite and liturgy that will most effectively embody the truth of the gospel, the evangelist will still have to recognize that these idioms, shaped as they are by a different set of beliefs, will distort the truth that they are employed to embody. There is no way of avoiding this fact.” (Page 146)

“Allen’s charge against modern missions was that they had been tempted by their alliance with colonial powers to act as though the mission of the church could be pursued in the style of a cultural and educational campaign, as though the object was to multiply replicas of the sending churches.” (Page 130)

“When, as the result of the preaching of the gospel, a Christian community has come into being, Paul entrusts the whole responsibility to the local leadership and moves on.” (Page 129)

“The church has been made to appear more like a school where examinations have to be passed than a place where the community meets to celebrate its freedom.” (Page 124)

Product Details

• Title: The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission
• Author: Lesslie Newbigin
• Edition: Revised Edition
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 1995
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Pages: 200
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Mission of the church; Missions › Theory
• ISBNs: 9780802808295, 0802808298
• Resource ID: LLS:PNSCRTNNTTHMSSN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:16:29Z

About Lesslie Newbigin

Bishop James Edward Lesslie Newbigin (8 December 1909 – 30 January 1998) was a Church of Scotland missionary serving in the former Madras State, India, who became a Christian theologian and bishop involved in missiology, ecumenism, and the Gospel and Our Culture Movement.