Contextualizing, Adapting, Translating, Explaining

The Newbigin Reader is a great introduction to the life and thought of Lesslie Newbigin (d. 1998).  I've benefited in many ways from his perspective on missions and epistemology.  I highly recommend him as a solid resource in these areas.  Here's one emphasis he repeats in several places - an emphasis that has really challenged me in…

Missionary Methods: Paul’s or Ours?

While reading through many different books on missions and church planting, I purchased and read this one because it was cited all over the place: Roland Allen's Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours? First published in the early 20th century, Allen revised it in 1927 and it has been reprinted over and over since then. …

The Limits of Science (Newbigin)

  Science delivers "an ever growing abundance of things to have and to do, beyond all the dreams of earlier ages.  It offers no guidance, however, on the questions of worth: What things are worth doing?  What things are worth having?  Perhaps the most poignant example of this tragic situation is the way in which the…

Easter As The Starting Point

"It is obvious that the story of the empty tomb cannot be fitted into our contemporary worldview, or indeed into any worldview except one of which it is the starting point.  That is, indeed, the whole point.  What happened on that day is, according to the Christian tradition, only to be understood by analogy with…

Faith, Doubt, & Certainty in Christian Discipleship (Newbigin)

This is an amazing and truly outstanding book.  Lesslie Newbigin's Proper Confidence (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995) is honestly one of the best brief and to the point books I've read on Christian epistemology (i.e. knowing things - specifically how faith and knowledge relate).  I would love to do a series of blog posts on this…