Description
Lesslie Newbigin’s development of a fresh paradigm of missionary theology and cultural engagement has solidified his reputation as not just one of the most important missionary theologians of the twentieth century, but as continually relevant in the twenty-first. Paul Weston focusses on how the engagement with Michael Polanyi’s understanding of ‘personal knowledge’ illuminates Newbigin’s work, and contributes to its ongoing significance.
Interlinking themes of ‘Revelation’, ‘Knowing’ and ‘Story’ and tracing through Newbigin’s engagements with modernity and post-modernity, Weston suggests how the ‘logic’ of Newbigin’s approach continues to provide insight to mission theologians and practitioners. It is Weston’s conviction that Humble Confidence presents Newbigin’s thinking in a way that can serve the continuing mission of the church.
About the Author
Paul Weston is Director of the Newbigin Centre for Gospel and Western Culture at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, where he is a tutor in Mission Studies and Homiletics. Alongside his position as Director, he also lectures in Mission Studies in the Cambridge Theological Federation. He has written widely on Lesslie Newbigin.
Contents
Foreword by Scot Sherman
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Resources
Note to Reader
Introduction
Part One: Discovering the Story
1 Revelation
2 Knowing
3 Story
Part Two: Losing the Story
4 The Genesis of a Project
5 The Critique of Modernity
6 The Post-Modern Turn
Part Three: Living the Story
7 The Church as Sign
8 Telling the Story
9 The Story in Dialogue
10 Jesus and the World’s Faiths
11 The Gospel as Public Truth
12 Engaging Theology
Epilogue
Bibliography
Scripture Index
Author Index
Subject Index
Endorsements and Reviews
In an age when the ‘acids of modernity’ and post-modernity have challenged Western Christianity as it has never been challenged before, Lesslie Newbigin’s thought offers a powerful, inspiring, cogent, and joyful ‘logic’ of Christian mission. In this lucid, rich, and deeply engaging book, Newbigin’s friend and disciple Paul Weston explains his vision in ways that not only reveal Newbigin’s genius but also his faith-filled ‘humble confidence’ in the revolutionary meaning of Jesus Christ. It is one of the best books I have read in the past year. Stephen Bevans, SVD, Catholic Theological Union
Many books skate over the surface of their subject matter. Not this one. It is the fruit of many years of deep engagement with the thought of one of the most significant recent thinkers in missiology, and it is written by someone who doesn’t just think about mission but engages with it on the streets as well. This will be an essential guide to the work of Lesslie Newbigin for many years to come. Graham Tomlin, Director, Centre for Cultural Witness
Humble Confidence is the fruit of decades of sustained reflection and engagement with the thought of Lesslie Newbigin. Paul Weston writes with the skill of a missiologist and the heart of an evangelist. By exploring the interplay between revelation, knowing, and story, he gets at the inner logic of Newbigin’s vision, and finds dynamic insight for what Newbigin called the ‘missionary encounter’ between the gospel and our culture. This is a must-read book for those who care about that encounter in the twenty-first century. Scot Sherman, Executive Director, The Center for Church Innovation
A fine study of the remarkable vision of twentieth-century churchman Lesslie Newbigin, with careful attention to its critical intersection with the era-healing philosophy of scientific discoverer and public intellectual, Michael Polanyi. Essential reading for the rehabilitation of the Christian church in our time. Esther Lightcap Meek, author of Contact with Reality: Michael Polanyi’s Realism and Why it Matters
Newbigin’s orthodox Trinitarian approach, Christocentric in its ecclesiology, Spirit-centred in its missiology, and God-centred in its hope, is characterised by Weston as patristic. His book is not an easy read, any more than Newbigin’s was an easy or comfortable missiology. But it was based on a “humble confidence” that “The Church is in God’s keeping. We do not have the right to be anxious about it.”Revd Dr Ian Bradley, Emeritus Professor of Cultural and Spiritual History at the University of St Andrews, in Church Times, August, 2023.
