Book Reviews Bearing the Witness of the Spirit: Lesslie Newbigin's Theology of Cultural Plurality. By George R. Hunsberger. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,1998. Pp.xii,341.Paperback $28. ChurchhistorianGeoffreyWainwrighthas became rather alarmed because I didn't nuanced, and brimming with insight into said that when the history of the church in know I had a philosophy of culture." the structure of Newbigin's theology and the twentieth century comes to be written, However, Newbigin's ad hoc and into a number of significant issues Lesslie Newbigin will be considered one contextual theology has always issued discussed in missiology today. This book of thetenor twelvemostinfluentialfigures. from a sound theological foundation. is a (slightly revised) publication of The significance of Newbigin's legacy can Hunsberger has exposed that theological Hunsberger's 1987 doctoral dissertation alreadybe gaugedby the number of Ph. D. foundation for cultural plurality by at PrincetonTheological Seminary, with a dissertations in process that deal with his examiningthemesessentialto Newbigin's new opening chapter that shows its thought. missionary theology: the missionary, relevance in the present context. As such, Bearing the Witness of the Spirit is a significance of the doctrine of election, it does not contain any assessment of pioneering work that examines Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God as Newbigin's writing in the last ten years of Newbigin's missionary theology. the clue to the meaning of universal his life (about eighty items, by my count), Hunsberger is professor of missiology at history; conversion and the boundaries of including perhaps his most important WesternTheologicalSeminaryin Holland, the community called church; and the book, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Michigan, and coordinator of the growing relationship of the Gospel as "secular However, this does not at all detract from GospelandOurCultureNetworkin North announcement" to other religions. The the valuable contribution this book will America. In this book Hunsberger concluding section exposes Newbigin's make to missiological discussion today. uncoversa "theologyofculturalplurality" theology of culture by employing a -Michael Goheen implicit in Newbigin's writings. I believe triangular model with culture, Gospel, Newbigin may have responded to this and church at the three corners, and proposal in a way similar to the remarkhe examining the three axes of Gospel­ Michael Goheen is Professor of Mission and made upon hearing that a Dutch culture, Gospel-church, and church­ Worldview Studies, Redeemer College, Ancaster, philosopher had written a paper entitled culture. Ontario,Canada. "Newbigin's Philosophy of Culture": "I The book is clearly written, highly Strategy of the Spirit: J. Philip Hogan further inquiryand dialogue. Perhapsthis and the Growth of the Assemblies of is a project whose time has come-a God Worldwide, 1960-1990. missions-specific compilation of biographical legacies/autobiographical By Everett A. Wilson. Carlisle, Cumbria, reflections and bibliographic resources England, and Irvine, Calif.: Regnum Books/ from the twentieth-century Pentecostal Paternoster Press, 1997. Pp. xiv, 214. missions community. Paperback $19.95. -Grant McClung If missionary biography is a means to bringing the far-reaching contributions of Grant McClung, former miseionaru in Europe, is understanding mission history and Hogan into wider circulation. the Coordinator of Education for Church of God strategy, then Everett Wilson's important Hogan, who had served the WorldMissionsandAssociateProfessor ofMissions newbookis a significantdoorwaythrough Assemblies in pre-Communist China andChurchGrowthattheChurch ofGodTheological which one can enter into the ethos of the (Ningpo, Chekiang Province, East China) Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee. Assemblies of God (AOG), the prototype and Taiwan, was AOG director of the denomination of the twentieth-century Division of Foreign Missions during the Pentecostal movement. Everett Wilson is turbulent and transitional years of 1960­ the president of Bethany College in Scotts 90. Wilson presents him as a rugged Valley, California, and director of individualist who combined a passionate CINCEL-the Latin America Language heart with a singular tough-mindedness. God-Mystery-Diversity: Christian and Research Center in San Jose, Costa Hogan, typical of his generation of Theology in a Pluralistic World. Rica-both of them AOG institutions. Pentecostalleaders,wasmore of anactivist Being an insider of the denomination missions promoter/strategist than one ByGordon D. Kaufman. Minneapolis: Fortress and an obvious admirer of J. Philip Hogan provided with the luxury of time for Press, 1996. Pp. xii, 233. Paperback $21. makes it difficult for Wilson to offer an reflection and writing. Yet, the samples of objective analysis of Hogan or a critique of various quotationsfrom Hogan'swritings Gordon Kaufman presents a forthright his own missions organization. Never­ (mostly informal articles from challenge to the traditional Christian theless, the author is to be credited for denominational publications) invite understanding of world mission. He forcefully argues that truth is not 80 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH mono lithic b u t pluralist ic, that truth in simple and straightforw ard terms what turned more and more to Asia, as Asia n emerges through open d ia logue as they wanted and neede d to know about im migra tion w as beco m in g an opposed to being revealed at a particular the wide world of religio n. He had begun inc re asi ngly importan t fac tor in th e time and p lace in history. According to as an A fr ica n is t, an d so me, myself re ligious d emography of th e United Kaufman, we should abandon the task of include d, think that his experience in Kingd om , and the mainst ream churches findin g a co nc ep tuality ca pable of Africa, between 1933and 1956,stimulated see me d at a loss to know how to react to it. ex p lain ing th e di ver sity of religi ous him to produce his best wo rk, Religion in As far back as the late 1950s Parr inder had ph enomena an d instea d be content to live an African City (1953) being particu larl y been writin g popu lar books about Asian with a cer tain measur e of ambiguity, good. religions an d how the Chr istian migh t thereb y crea ting a clim ate for toler ance In 1958 Parrinder returned to Londo n, assess them, and he followed this line and mu tual respect. where he taught at King's Co llege until through out the rem ainder of his long and Kaufman is ad ama nt that the claim his retireme nt in 1977; he con tinues to live fru itfu l career. H is best no n-African book that Ch ristian ity is abso lute or fina l is "an near London. From Africa his attention was no doubt AvatarandIncarnation(1970) . intrinsically unstable position"(p. 18). An absoluti st sta nce on religio us questions o ffe rs " re ligious legi tim a tion for dangerous ly parochial social and ethnic movem en ts and practices that, in their divisiveness and destructiv eness, are a th reat to all human ity" (p . 191). Yet Kaufman h imself argu es in an absolutist fas hion that all ideas are relative and that pluralism is the only vi ab le wa y of understandin g religio us tr u th. H e contends that matt ers of ultimate im po rt and conce rn are bes t gras pe d thr ough "democratic intera ction " (p.203). For faith in Jesus Christ he substitutes faith in interrelig ious d ialogu e. He cha mpions "unr estricted openness" in the discussion of fund amen tal questions. All positions should be accepted in interfai th discussion on "eq ua l terms" (p. 214). Here we see the ban kru ptcy ofa liberalism that ineluctab ly leads into postmod ernism, thus subve rting the claims of historic Christian faith. - Dona ld G. Bloesch DonaldG.Bloeschis Emeritus ProfessorofTheologtJ, University of Dllbuque Theological Seminary , Dubuque, Iowa. " Lesslie Newbigin was one of the great semina l Christian thinkers of the twentieth century. The merit of this study is that it ide ntifie s the theological bedrock on wh ich Newbigin based his engagement with the burning issues facing the contemporary church. Newbigin A Bag of Needments: Geoffrey was a passionate thinker who boldly engaged th e issues of the Parrinder and the Study of Religion. day affecting the life and witness of the Ch ristian church. It is By Martin Fo rward. Bern: Peter Lang, 1998. instructive to see how these cor e convictions reliably guided him. Pp. 181. $30.95/DM 54/£19. Implicitly, Hunsberger's elaboration of Newbigin's thought call s us Those who, like myself, were privileged to a recovery of conviction, hope, and pa ssion for the gospel, to know and work together with Geoffrey precisely in a radically pluralist world ." -WILBERT R. SHENK Parrinder in the United Kingd om in the peri od from abo ut 1965 to 1976 remember him with affection , no t untou ched wi th a ''A pioneering assessment of Lesslie Newbigin's legacy." sha dow of envy. A mo re likable person it wo uld be hard to imagin e. The envy was -GERALD H. ANDERSON generated by w ha t seeme d to younger colleagues to be the effor tless ease wi th ISBN 0-8028-4369-7 • 353 pages • Paperback • $28.00 which he produced book after book- and had them all publi shed! In those years Par rinder was the compa rative religion ist At your bookstore, who was read by people who did not as a or call 1-800-253-7521 8550 II\... WM. B. EERDMANS rule read com parative religion, notbecause FAX: 616-459-6540 _ I \~ PUBLISHING CO. he was a grea t stylist (he was no t), but E-mail: sales@ee rdmans.com 255 JEFFERSON AVE.
Details
-
File Typepdf
-
Upload Time-
-
Content LanguagesEnglish
-
Upload UserAnonymous/Not logged-in
-
File Pages14 Page
-
File Size-