The Significance of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in a New Millennium
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Stewart Sbts 0207D 10169.Pdf
Copyright © 2013 Joe Randell Stewart All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. THE INFLUENCE OF NEWBIGIN’S MISSIOLOGY ON SELECTED INNOVATORS AND EARLY ADOPTERS OF THE EMERGING CHURCH PARADIGM ___________________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary ___________________ In Partial Fulfillment for the Requirements of the Degree Doctor of Education ___________________ by Joe Randell Stewart December 2013 APPROVAL SHEET THE INFLUENCE OF NEWBIGIN’S MISSIOLOGY ON SELECTED INNOVATORS AND EARLY ADOPTERS OF THE EMERGING CHURCH PARADIGM Joe Randell Stewart Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ Hal K. Pettegrew (Chair) __________________________________________ Timothy P. Jones Date ______________________________ I dedicate this dissertation to my loving wife, Nancy. I will always love you. Thanks for your constant encouragement. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES . x LIST OF FIGURES . xi PREFACE . xii Chapter 1. RESEARCH CONCERN Introduction to the Research Problem . Newbigin’s Influence on the Innovators and Early Adopters Newbigin’s Influence on the Missiology of the Emerging Church The Scope of Newbigin’s Influence Selected Concepts of the Innovators and Early Adopters of the Emerging Church Paradigm . 22 The Pervasive Impact of Christendom . 24 Communal Dimensions of Witness: The Church as a Hermeneutic of the Gospel . .. 30 The Church as Sign, Instrument, and Foretaste . 33 Research Thesis . 40 Focus Statements . 40 Delimitations of the Study . 41 Terminology . 41 iv Chapter Page Research Assumptions . 51 Procedural Overview . 52 2. -
Pope Benedict XVI's Invitation Joseph Mele
Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Summer 2008 Homiletics at the Threshold: Pope Benedict XVI's Invitation Joseph Mele Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Mele, J. (2008). Homiletics at the Threshold: Pope Benedict XVI's Invitation (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/919 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HOMILETICS AT THE THRESHOLD: POPE BENEDICT XVI‘S INVITATION A Dissertation Submitted to The McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for The degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Joseph M. Mele May 2008 Copyright by Joseph M. Mele 2008 HOMILETICS AT THE THRESHOLD: POPE BENEDICT XVI‘S INVITATION By Joseph M. Mele Approved Month Day, 2008 ____________________________ ____________________________ Name of Professor Name of Professor Professor of Professor of (Dissertation Director) (Committee Member) ____________________________ ____________________________ Name of Professor Name of Professor Professor of Professor of (Committee Member) (Committee Member) ___________________________ ____________________________ Name of Dean Name of External Reviewer Dean, The McAnulty -
Lesslie Newbigin's Missional Ecclesiology Explored
Preston Graham Jr. DM44, Prof. Alan Falconer Lesslie Newbigin’s Missional Ecclesiology Explored: A Christo-Centric Proposal For Ecumenism in Today’s Global Context of Spirituality Awe came upon everyone… All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together with one accord in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And day by day the Lord added to them those who were being saved. Acts 2:43-47 Such is the vision we get of the ascended ministry of Christ in the present redemptive age at Pentecost It is the description of a Christo-centric, sacramental, confessional, multi-cultural and organic kind of unity that was in, not of, and for the world to the “praise of God” and in “favor with all the people.” It was, in summary, the description of a missional ecclesiology! And according to Lesslie Newbigin, it was an ecclesiology that had been tragically lost needing to be rediscovered in today’s global city. The truth is… that the unity of the Church is something given to it at its inception, and given by its Lord. That unity had its outward form, first in the fact that the first disciples were visibly grouped around one Lord, and then in the close-knit fellowship of the days immediately following Pentecost, in the sharing in a common baptism, a common tradition of teaching, a common Supper, and a common acknowledgment of the leadership of the Apostles.1 And does anyone doubt for a moment that if today’s global Christian ecclesia looked more like Acts 2, then large numbers of people in every place and culture would know that Jesus is real and that Christianity is true? that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. -
On Being an Apostolic Church Endorsed by the ASC in July, 2010
On Being an Apostolic Church Endorsed by the ASC in July, 2010 1. The Basis of Union affirms, “The Uniting Church in Australia lives and works within the faith and unity of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” (BU par 2). It seeks to be an apostolic church by being true to the apostolic tradition and in relationship with other churches that are also seeking to do so. When the Uniting Church makes public statements it does so as a church that is endeavouring to be faithful to the way of Jesus Christ its Lord and Christian tradition in the context of contemporary Australia. Belief, behaviour, relationships with other churches 2. Being an apostolic church involves beliefs, behaviour and connections with other parts of the Church. Right belief is important as it bears on the faithful way of discipleship and ecumenical relationships. Within the broad framework of orthodox conviction, the Uniting Church embraces diversity of theological expression. Elsewhere the Doctrine working group has pointed out that there are three kinds of theological statements with differing authority: dogma, doctrine and theological reflection.1 Some doctrinal beliefs are foundational and while they can be explored are not to be rejected. Other aspects of theology can tolerate very different positions or be issues that are still in the process of theological reflection and discussion. 3. There are nevertheless limits to diversity of belief within the Uniting Church once people make the basic confession “Jesus is Lord”, a confession that is guided by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). Christian faith holds that we know God through Jesus Christ and in the Spirit. -
Generous Orthodoxy - Doing Theology in the Spirit
Generous Orthodoxy - Doing Theology in the Spirit When St Mellitus began back in 2007, a Memorandum of Intent was drawn up outlining the agreement for the new College. It included the following paragraph: “The Bishops and Dean of St Mellitus will ensure that the College provides training that represents a generous Christian orthodoxy and that trains ordinands in such a way that all mainstream traditions of the Church have proper recognition and provision within the training.” That statement reflected a series of conversations that happened at the early stages of the project, and the desire from everyone involved that this new college would try in some measure to break the mould of past theological training. Most of us who had trained at residential colleges in the past had trained in party colleges which did have the benefit of strengthening the identity of the different rich traditions of the church in England but also the disadvantage of often reinforcing unhelpful stereotypes and suspicion of other groups and traditions within the church. I remember discussing how we would describe this new form of association. It was Simon Downham, the vicar of St Paul’s Hammersmith who came up with the idea of calling it a “Generous Orthodoxy”, and so the term was introduced that has become so pivotal to the identity of the College ever since. Of course, Simon was not the first to use the phrase. It was perhaps best known as the title of a book published in 2004 by Brian McLaren, a book which was fairly controversial at the time. -
Lesslie Newbigin Remembered Rought up an English Presbyterian, I Can Hardly Remember Not Be Ignored
Lesslie Newbigin Remembered rought up an English Presbyterian, I can hardly remember not be ignored. As on so many major issues, agree or disagree, B a time whenIdidn'tknow Lesslie as a legend.We first made approve or disapprove, you have to face him .Thereis no honest contactin 1965when our two sonsconjointly had a difference of way round.We disagreed on two things:how long it took to the opinion with their headmaster and were not welcome in their railway station or airport, and Margaret Thatcher, which we school for a spell . Lesslie and Helen were in Geneva, my wife never discussed. was in Taiwan, I was in New York, and tomorrow was my Some of us are tolerant because we have so much to tolerate doctoral oral. With visions of our erring sons loose on London in ourselves: a sin-based tolerance that sometimes tolerates the streets, Lesslie and I corresponded. On the occasion of my intolerable. Lesslie's tolerance was cruciform, giving him a retirement in 1986,Lesslie reread my letter, which he had kept. sternness in his mercy. He could afford to be severe, but the Wheredoes ourthanksgivingbegin? Lesslie would haveus severity was healing. begin with God. Then comes Helen, greatly loved and greatly He gave one the self-honesty to know one was the monkey loving. What other retiring bishop's wife would, with two on his barrel organ, but yet the monkey felt a little leonine. suitcases and a rucksack, have taken a bus from Madras to Although you were four feet high, you felt basketball tall and London? inspired with a proper confidence.Treating you as an equal, he We give thanks for a man of prayer. -
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Princeton Theological Review Vol. 18, No. 1 | Spring 2015 Church for the World: Essays in Honor of the Retirement of Darrell L. Guder Prolegomena 3 CATHERINE C. TOBEY Darrell L. Guder 5 BENJAMIN T. CONNER “Sent into All the World” 9 Luke’s sending of the seventy(-two): intertextuality, reception history, and missional hermeneutics NATHAN C. JOHNSON The Church as Organism 21 Herman Bavinck’s ecclesiology for a postmodern context MICHAEL DAVID KEY Eucharist as Communion 33 The Eucharist and the Absolute in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit LUKE ZERRA Lesslie Newbigin’s Indian Interlocutors 45 A Study in Theological Reception DEANNA FERREE WOMACK Book Reviews 63 About the PTR 71 Prolegomena CATHERINE C. TOBEY Executive Editor, Princeton Theological Review Who am I to be a witness? Who are you? How can we even dream of being heard when addressing this wide world overcome by complexities, needs, doubts, and suffering? For Karl Barth, the answer is simple. He writes, “The point is, in general terms, that only on the lips of a man who is himself affected, seized and committed, controlled and nourished, unsettled and settled, comforted and alarmed by it, can the intrinsically true witness of the act and revelation of God in Jesus Christ have the ring and authority of truth which applies to other [humans]” (Church Dogmatics IV/3.2, 657). Darrell Guder is such a person, one whose witness is made indelibly clear as Christ’s compassion and conviction simultaneously shine through him. As he retires from his post as the Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, it is the great privilege of the editors at the Princeton Theological Review to present this issue in his honor. -
Lesslie Newbigin's Missionary Ecclesiology
NNeewwbbiiggiinn..nneett OOOnnnllliiinnneee BBBiiibbbllliiiooogggrrraaappphhhyyy ‘As The Father Has Sent Me, I Am Sending You’: Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology 2002 Michael W. Goheen International Review of Mission 91, 362 (2002): 345-369. All material is reprinted with permission from the Newbigin family, the Newbigin Estate and the publisher. All material contained on the Newbigin.Net website, or on the accompanying CD, remains the property of the original author and/or publisher. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without express written permission from the appropriate parties. The material can be used for private research purposes only. Introduction Ecclesiology has become the central organizing principle of 20th century theology. The Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan states that “the doctrine of the church became, as it had never quite been before, the bearer of the whole Christian message for the twentieth century, as well as the recapitulation of the entire doctrinal tradition from preceding centuries.”1 Many factors have contributed to this renewed interest in ecclesiology but perhaps none is so important as the new missionary situation in which European and North American churches find themselves. Jurgen Moltmann believes that “today one of the strongest impulses towards the renewal of the theological concept of the church comes from the theology of mission.”2 According to Moltmann Western ecclesiologies were formulated in the context of a Christianized culture. European churches were established churches that lacked a missionary self-understanding because they found their identity as part of a larger complex called the Christian West. -
Clinton Bennett
Clinton Bennett approach allows him to treat Islamic traditions and their Muslim interpretations with sensitivity and respect, not often found among Christian writings on Islam.'[1] Ben- nett became a US citizen during 2012. 1 Biography 1.1 Background Bennett was born in Tettenhall then an Urban District in Staffordshire, England. In 1966, he migrated to Aus- tralia with his parents, Howard Bennett (1922–1997) and Joan Bennett (1922–2007) and his two siblings. He com- pleted his final year of primary education in Australia then attended Maclean High School, Maclean, New South Wales. He was a member of the School Debating Team taking part in inter-school competitions, a member of the Radio Club, Student Leader of the Inter-School Christian Fellowship chapter and represented his class for a year on the Student Representative Council. He won prizes for acting and for History. After gaining his School Cer- tificate, he worked in Sydney as an officer in the state civil service 1972–1973.[2] Originally an Anglican, Ben- nett was baptised into membership of the Lower Clarence Baptist Church in 1969. He was active in the Christian Endeavor movement and as a youth camp leader. Clinton Bennett Clinton Bennett (born 7 October 1955) is a British 1.2 Education American scholar of religions and participant in interfaith dialogue specialising in the study of Islam and Muslim- non-Muslim encounter. An ordained Baptist minister, he was a missionary in Bangladesh before serving as the sec- ond director of interfaith relations at the British Council of Churches in succession to Kenneth Cracknell. -
From Pluralism Towards Catholicity? the United Methodist Church After the General Conference of 1988
From Pluralism towards Catholicity? The United Methodist Church after the General Conference of 1988 GEOFFREY WAINWRIGHT The United Methodist Church is the most widespread Protestant denomination in the United States. It is also perhaps the most accommodating. Statistically, it is in decline, both in absolute membership figures and as a proportion of the population. While the flexibility of Methodism helped it to grow, overstretching appears to have led to such a loss of contour that there no longer exists a sufficiently coherent identity to attract and retain many new adherents. In recent decades, "inclusivism" and "pluralism" have become formal ideological substitutes for a true catholicity which is always both substantive and qualitative. At the General Conference of 1988, there were a few signs--no bigger maybe than a man's hand--that the Church is coming to that awareness of its own predicament which is the human precondition for acceptance of a divine renewal. It is a matter of the faith, which comes to expression in the teaching of a church and its worship. The two most important documents before the General Conference in St. Louis were therefore the Report of the Hymnal Revision Committee and the Report from the Committee on our Theological Task on "Doctrinal Standards and our Theological Task." That the proposal of a new hymnbook should have aroused popular interest is no surprise, for the Christian people has always maintained at least a lingering sense that the liturgy is the place where the faith is signified. Less expected, given the reputation and modern self-understanding of Methodism, was the attention shown before and at the Conference to the revision of the statement on doctrine and theology in the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church. -
Perspicuity of Scripture: the Emergent Approach
TMSJ 17/2 (Fall 2006) 141-158 PERSPICUITY OF SCRIPTURE: THE EMERGENT APPROACH John MacArthur President and Professor of Pastoral Ministries The most recent battle being waged in the evangelical church is one related to the perspicuity of Scripture. Within the larger context of the Emerging Church Movement is the Emergent Church, whose leading spokesman is Brian D. McLaren. Because of his prominence as a leader of both the Emergent Church and the Emerging Church Movement, what he says about the clarity or perspicuity of Scripture needs to be scrutinized. McLaren undermines the clarity of Scripture by questioning whether biblical doctrine can be held with certainty. He questions the clarity of Scripture by needlessly introducing complexity into biblical interpretation. He further dismisses scriptural clarity by questioning the possibility of deriving propositional truth from the Bible. Also, his refusal to abide by the Bible’s emphasis on the exclusive nature of the Christian gospel raises questions about the Bible’s clarity. McLaren’s pointed criticism of conservative evangelicals who insist on the clarity of Scripture is another indication of his disdain for the perspicuity of Scripture. McLaren’s position on the perspicuity of Scripture is clearly at odds with what the Bible itself says about its own clarity. * * * * * From the very beginning, the battle between good and evil has been a battle for the truth. The serpent, in the Garden of Eden, began his temptation by questioning the truthfulness of God’s previous instruction: “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’? … You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:1, 4-5). -
Worship in Eighteenth-Century Anglicanism and Methodism THE
Volume 1 1994 ST Kimbrough, Jr. Charles A. Green Editor Assistant Editor Worship in Eighteenth-Century Anglicanism and Methodism PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CHARLES WESLEY SOCIETY October 1994 Princeton, New Jersey Introduction . 3 ST Kimbrough, Jr. "Our Elder Brethren Join": The Wesleys' Hymns on the Lord's Supper and the Patristic Revival in England . 5 Geoffrey Wainwright Charles Wesley and Methodist Religious Life, 1750-1775: The Manuscript Sources . 33 Gareth Lloyd Changing Patterns of Worship in British Wesleyan Methodism, 1780-1828 . 47 Timothy S. A-Macquiban "Guide Me, 0 Thou Great Jehovah": Contributions of Welsh and English Calvinists to Worship in Eighteenth-Century England . 67 Ted A. Campbell Charles Wesley: A Man of the Prayer-Book . 85 John Lawson John Wesley's Prayer Book Revision: The Text in Context . 119 Karen B. Westerfield Tucker Proceedings ofThe Charles Wesley Society 1994 Published in the United States by The Charles Wesley Society, 1996 Editor, S T Kimbrough, Jr. Assistant Editor, Charles A. Green Copyright © 1996 by The Charles Wesley Society. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of The Charles Wesley Society. The Charles Wesley Society Archives and History Center Drew University Madison, NJ 07940 S T Kimbrough, Jr., President J. Richard Watson, Vice President Wilma J. Quantrille, Secretary Charles A. Green, Treasurer E. Alan Rose, Secreta.ry-Treasurerfor the United Kingdom Board of Directors Oliver A. Beckerlegge Timothy Macquiban Kenneth D.