Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth
Overview
An important book for all who are concerned with the impact of Christianity on today’s world, Truth to Tell affirms the gospel as the truth—not only for personal life but also for life at the public, societal level.
In emphasizing the Christian gospel as the truth that calls for radical conversion, Lesslie Newbigin runs counter to the prevailing subjectivism and skepticism in our society regarding the possibility of knowing ultimate truth. Societies like ours that have undergone “modernization” tend to regard the world’s religions as agencies for the cultivation of privately held religious opinions—agencies that can be studied with the tools of sociology, psychology, and other secular disciplines.
But, says Newbigin, the Christian church is not simply an agency that stands for good personal values. In three pointed chapters—“Believing and Knowing the Truth,” “Affirming the Truth in the Church,” and “Speaking the Truth to Caesar”—Newbigin develops the argument that the Christian gospel is a statement of objective, historical truth, and all other modes of thought are to be evaluated in the light of the gospel truth.
Directed especially to ministers and concerned laypeople, Truth to Tell consists of the Osterhaven lectures delivered by Newbigin at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan.
For more by Lesslie Newbigin, see Eerdmans Lesslie Newbigin Collection (8 vols.).
Key Features
- Argues for the gospel as both private and public truth
- Counter-culturally affirms the ability to know truth
- Contends that all truth claims are to be evaluated in light of the gospel
Top Highlights
“For the Church simply to be free to do its own thing is not freedom. The proper freedom of the Church is inseparable from its obligation to declare the sovereignty of Christ over every sphere of human life without exception. The individualistic model of freedom which pervades our society and controls the way we approach every question has to be challenged by the gospel affirmation that we are not naturally free but that we may receive the gift of freedom when we are in Christ, and that in every area of life there is only one Lord to be obeyed, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Pages 71–72)
“The first is that it is widely thought in modern societies that the Christian Church is not so much a source of true knowledge as it is an agency which stands for good values and which is to be supported because it does so.” (Page 2)
“Prophet did, there could not be a real conversation. Jesus, instead, created a human community to which he entrusted the task of interpreting his mission and his message in ever new circumstances. Hence, to the scandal of Muslims, we have four gospels instead of one, and almost all of Jesus’ words and deeds come to us in variant versions. Jesus entrusted to his community the responsibility of interpreting all that concerned himself and promised that as his community went out into all the nations, with their varying languages and cultures, they would be led into the fullness of the truth.” (Page 6)
“Truth was ultimately unknowable. In Gibbon’s tart words, all religions were to the people equally true, to the philosophers equally false, and to the government equally useful.” (Page 16)
- Title: Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth
- Author: Lesslie Newbigin
- Series: Osterhaven Lecture Series
- Volume: 2
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 1991
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Pages: 108
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Apologetics › 20th century
- ISBNs: 9780802806079, 0802806074
- Resource ID: LLS:TRTHTLLPBLCTRTH
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:31:42Z