Signs amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History

by Lesslie Newbigin

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2003

Overview

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 Now that he is gone, there is a call for his unpublished writings to be made available.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 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.

Key Features

• Previously unpublished works of the great Lesslie Newbigin
• Lectures pertaining to the kingdom of God in relation to the modern notion of progress
• Lectures on the importance of the Christian mission

Contents

Top Highlights

“The church exists as sign and foretaste of the gift that is promised; in all its members it is called to act now in the light of the promised future: that is its proper this-worldliness. But the church maintains at its heart, through the word and sacraments of the gospel, its witness to a reality which is not of this world. Only the church can give that witness.” (Page 106)

“The church has a real purchase on the world’s life only insofar as it finds a point of reference beyond the life of this world. Only the hope which enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain provides us with an anchor which cannot be moved by any storm or tide.” (Pages 106–107)

“And the answer I believe quite simply is the glory of God.” (Page 120)

“The gospel tells the story of what happened when the true light came into the world, the only light, the light that shines on every human being, the light in which things are seen as they are and reality is distinguished from illusion. Those who were confident that they could see turn out to be the blind, and those who knew that they were blind receive their sight. The light shows up the illusions of human wisdom and godliness and political shrewdness. It overturns human confidence that we can know how and where God is at work in the world. It invites us to believe that the victory of God is achieved in the rejection and shame and suffering of the cross.” (Page 108)

“‘There is no straight line from the politics of this world, from the programs and projects in which we invest our energies, to the Kingdom of God.’ Yet there is room for ‘a movement of radical protest, suffering, and hope’—‘under the sign of the cross and in the power of the resurrection’—in favor of ‘the new reality’ that has broken in from above.” (Page xii)

This volume of previously unpublished lectures by Lesslie Newbigin is an unexpected gift, thanks to his biographer Geoffrey Wainwright. This gift contains welcome supplements to Newbigin’s early seminal writings on ecumenical theology and world missions but also includes his latest critiques of Western pluralist secular society. Newbigin’s was a fresh voice of Christian prophecy in the contemporary situation. This ecumenical missionary-theologian foresaw an approaching global future that would be impacted by the fanaticism of Islamic fundamentalism and the idolatry of an unfettered free-market economy. Newbigin believed that the only hope for a free society lies in the truth and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

—Carl E. Braaten, professor of systematic theology emeritus, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

Product Details

• Title: Signs amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History
• Author: Lesslie Newbigin
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2003
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Pages: 130
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Kingdom of God
• ISBNs: 9780802809896, 0802809898
• Resource ID: LLS:SGNSMDRBBHMNHST
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:57:30Z

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.