A Word in Season: Perspectives on Christian World Missions

by Lesslie Newbigin

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 1994

Overview

This collection of 17 never-before-published essays, sermons, and addresses by Lesslie Newbigin, one of the premier missiologists of the twentieth century, puts forth his developing view of the agenda for Christian mission from 1960 to 1992. Considered “the quintessence of Newbigin’s thought” by editor Eleanor Jackson, these papers record the dynamics of Newbigin’s ideas about mission as he confronted new issues in the church and society.

Newbigin’s sermon at Riverside Church in New York City in 1960 opens discussion on the themes of unity in mission, changes in the missionary enterprise, and developments in the theology of mission. A second group of articles addresses specific “frontline” situations: mission in the modern city, the pastor’s role in the inner city, and future of the parish church. Newbigin then moves to frontier concerns: the resistance of modern society to the gospel, the cultural captivity of the church, and the consequences of witness in a world of religious and ideological pluralism—themes central to many of his full-length books. Finally, Newbigin sets the agenda for mission as the church approaches a new millennium.

Spanning three significant decades in the history of church outreach, A Word in Season offers an important perspective on the course of Christian mission and provides valuable instruction to those who struggle with the missionary task today.

Key Features

• Never before published essays, sermons, and papers
• Addresses specific “frontline” situations in missiology
• Investigation of contemporary society’s relationship to the gospel

Contents

Top Highlights

“The ‘secular’ society is not a neutral area into which we can project the Christian message. It is an area already occupied by other gods. We have a battle on our hands. We are dealing with principalities and powers.” (Page 150)

“meaning. Crucial to this process is the translation of the Bible.” (Page 163)

“All understanding of reality involves a venture of faith. No belief system can be faulted by the fact that it rests upon unproved assumptions. What can and must be faulted is a blindness to the assumptions one is relying upon. The gospel is not a set of beliefs that arise or could arise from empirical observation of the whole human experience. It cannot be based upon inductive reasoning. It is the announcement of a name and a fact that offer the starting point for the whole lifelong enterprise of understanding and coping with experience. It is a new starting point.” (Page 79)

“To be elite (elect) is to be chosen for a task and to be responsible to the one who has chosen you. Elitism has become a bad word because those who should have seen their calling as one for responsibility have seen it as one for privilege. Such self-serving elites have brought just condemnation. But no society can be healthy without responsible leadership. To evade the calling to leadership out of fear of the charge of elitism is unworthy.” (Page 175)

“The Church, it seems to me, needs to be very humble in acknowledging that it is itself only a learner, needing to pay heed to all the variety of human experience in order to learn in practice what it means that Jesus is King and Head of the human race. But the Church also needs to be very bold, bold in bearing witness to him as the one who alone is that King and Head. For the demonstration of the truth we have to wait for the end.” (Page 79)

Many fresh and stimulating insights to the world Christian missionary enterprise.

—Books & Culture

A stimulating introduction to the thought world of an ecumenical giant of the twentieth century who, though past 85 and severely handicapped in sight, is nevertheless constantly producing fresh perspectives on the church, kingdom, and mission.

—Lutheran Quarterly

A helpful and thought-provoking book for every missionary and every mission administrator.

—Missiology

Product Details

• Title: A Word in Season: Perspectives on Christian World Missions
• Author: Lesslie Newbigin
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 1994
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Pages: 219
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Mission › Theory
• ISBNs: 9780802807304, 0802807305
• Resource ID: LLS:WRDSSNWRLDMSSNS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:53:08Z

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.