I'm taking a class called "Evangelism in the Postmodern Context" at Bethany Theological Seminary right now. We have to write papers summarizing the arguments in the books we're reading. I'm auditing the course, so I'm not writing the papers to turn in, but I'll publish them here.
Newbigin Summary
Newbigin starts by saying that the binary set up in the Enlightenment and since then, which pits Christianity/belief against science/fact is a false one. He says every society has areas that are open for interpretation, including its values, and areas that are agreed upon and non-negotiable, including facts. We are pluralists, he says, in the area of values, but not in the area of facts.
He then argues that the realm of science is not as sturdy is it seems, couched as it is in culture and tradition. He says that there are imaginative and intuitive leaps made in the creation of science’s patterns, just as there are imaginative and intuitive leaps made in the establishment of religious dogma. He sees it as a great failing of Christianity during modernity that it succumbed to the temptation to syncretize with science by arguing that Christianity is reasonable and rational, and that reason is an important litmus test with which believers test the articles of their faith.
He says that in order for Christians to confidently proclaim their truth in a pluralist and science-dominated society, they must keep in mind that a. the trouble arises with Christian dogma when it gets entangled in coercion, b. that Christians can’t try to domesticate their message by fitting it into rational patterns, and c. we are on the pathway to truth, and do not know everything. This humility must imbue all Christianity’s mission.
Newbigin emphasizes the role that community has in the gospel. It is no less than the context for salvation. It is through our relations to others that we are exposed to God, and learn of his nature and enact the kin-dom on earth.
Newbigin also points out that all mission is in order to further God’s work, not the will of man, or of the Church. In fact, persuasion doesn’t have much of a role in evangelism. He quotes John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the father draws him.” Our job is to convey to others (all nations) the purpose of human history, as it is revealed in the story of Jesus Christ in the gospels. The story, he is clear, is essential. This is not a group of values that are inherent to every religion (in fact, in polytheism and relativism, “culture collapses” because we cease seeking answers to the pertinent questions of the human condition).
In terms of how to spread this message within a culture and across cultural boundaries, the message must be conveyed in the language of the receptor and according to her way of understanding, but at the same time it must challenge that very way of understanding. This is a difficult task, to use and to challenge a system of understanding at once (especially difficult, I imagine, when the system - language - is foreign). Newbigin’s greatest cause though, is not in other cultures but at home. He warns against the syncretism which threatens to dilute the gospel message in this postmodern context.
What Jesus preached, and what is found in the gospels, says Newbigin, is not simply another recipe for success offered alongside a whole menu of tools to chase “happiness”. Jesus’ teaching cuts through the noise, and offers something different. I’m still reading on to find out exactly how it’s different from other traditions.
One compelling idea stems from the fact that Jesus did not start a religion, nor did he intend to (it was Paul who did that). Says Newbigin, what Jesus did was to prepare communities to bear the secret of the kingdom of God to others. I find this idea hopeful in that it means that all those who work with communities can do what Jesus did. Parents can do this by preparing their kids to carry the keys of God’s kingdom into the world. Pastors can do it. And of course, teachers can do it. Forgive my bias when I say that teachers doing it is the most important, because everyone must past through a classroom, and preachers are still preaching to a self-selecting choir of congregants.
How does this work when we want to avoid imperialism? Well, he says, the heart of the gospel story, embodied in the image of the cross, is a symbol of the failure of empire. It is a symbol of the unity of man through the weakness of man. It is the slain lamb where power resides, not in the Roman empire. Thus, empire is dead, and it is in true, loving, accepting community, like that which Jesus promoted, that we honor God’s vision. The purpose of history is to live in that kind of community.
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