Celebrating Lesslie Newbigin’s 100th Birthday Today with 10 Things You Probably Did Not Know About Him

Post author By Andy Rowell
Post date December 8, 2009
10 Comments on Celebrating Lesslie Newbigin’s 100th Birthday Today with 10 Things You Probably Did Not Know About Him

Today is the centennial of Lesslie Newbigin's birth. He was born 100 years ago today on December 8, 1909. He died January 30, 1998.

Ten Things You Probably Did Not Know about Lesslie Newbigin in Honor of the Centennial of his Birth

10. Newbigin means "new building" according to the first page of his autobiography.

9. Though only three years apart in age, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Feb 4, 1906 – Apr 9, 1945) and Lesslie Newbigin (Dec 8, 1909 – Jan 30, 1998) never did to my knowledge meet one another though the 27 year old Bonhoeffer was in London pastoring a German congregation from 1933-1935 while the 24 year old Newbigin was training for the ministry in Cambridge. Both were very involved in ecumenical affairs and international relationships but Bonhoeffer was active in the 1930's with the World Alliance, Life and Work, and Faith and Order; and Newbigin was primarily involved in the 1940's, 50's and 60's in the International Missionary Council, World Council of Churches, and Faith and Order. Though both were highly effective in the international sphere, both ended their lives more optimistic about the local church and somewhat disappointed in the theological compromises of the large ecumenical organizations.

8. Newbigin was sent out as a missionary by presbyterians (the Church of Scotland) to India in 1936 but in 1947 the Presbyterians, Methodists and Anglicans in that part of India joined together and became The Church of South India. He was elected a bishop. That is how a Presbyterian–they do not have bishops–became a Bishop.

7. On August 15, 1947, India gained its independence from Britain. A month later, on September 27, 1947 the Church of South India was established. There was enormous Hindu (India) vs. Muslim (Pakistan) strife and so it was important for the Christians to demonstrate that they were not divided. Ecumenism for evangelism. Both E's were crucial to Newbigin. In the fall of 1947, Gandhi was 76 and Newbigin was 37. Gandhi was assassinated January 30, 1948. Newbigin died 50 years later to the day: January 30, 1998.

6. Newbigin (age 42-44) and Karl Barth (age 65-67) worked together regularly from 1951-1953 on the "Committee of Twenty-Five" theologians in preparation for the 1954 World Council of Churches conference. Emil Brunner and Reinhold Niebuhr were also in the group. Newbigin, like Karl Barth, did not have an earned doctorate in theology. Newbigin was elected the chair of the group. Barth remembers that the 1952 meeting went better than the 1951 meeting. "I would also suggest that it was because this time we had a chairman, in the person of the young Bishop Lesslie Newbigin from South India, who was able to bring us together and keep us together not only because of our common concern and the human links which joined us, but above all because of his spiritual discipline and his bearing and conduct from the beginning" (Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and and Autobiographical Texts, 399. See pages 395-400 for Barth's memories of those events).

Image from Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His Life From Letters and Autobiographical Text, p. 396. "Preparations in Bossey for the Evanston Assembly of the World Council of Churches, August 1953. On the left of Barth are Florovsky, Newbigin and Visser 't Hooft; behind him is Marie Claire Frommel (who later became his daughter-in-law), and on the left of her are H. Vogel, E. Schlink and D.T. Niles." Newbigin is in the middle in the gray suit in the first row.

5. Newbigin wrote what are arguably his three most significant works (Open Secret, Foolishness to the Greeks, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society) after retirement from the position of bishop at age 65 in 1974. But before the procrastinators take too much comfort in that, he also wrote many articles and books throughout his ministry responding to the needs of the day. Nor did he "retire and write" but rather took a position as a professor of missiology for five years, served as moderator of a denomination (The United Reformed Church), and then pastored a small church for five years.

4. Newbigin and John Howard Yoder (December 29, 1927 – December 30, 1997) both addressed Donald McGavran's "Church Growth theory." See John Howard Yoder, “The Social Shape of the Gospel,” in Exploring Church Growth (ed. Wilbert R. Shenk; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1983), 277-284. and Newbigin, "Conversions, Colonies and Culture" in Signs Amid the Rubble, 78-94 and Newbigin, ""Church Growth, Conversion and Culture" in Open Secret, 121-159. Gayle Gerber Koontz in Radical Ecumenicity: Pursuing Unity and Continuity after John Howard Yoder cites Wilbert Shenk as saying that Newbigin said that Yoder wrote one of the most critical reviews of Household of God that he ever received but I have not found that review yet. Also Yoder used Household of God as an optional text in the syllabus of his "Free Church Ecclesiology" course. Brad Brisco, Josh Rowley, and I discussed Newbigin and Yoder in the comments at Lesslie Newbigin and the GOCN

3. Newbigin's autobiography Unfinished Agenda was originally published in 1985 when Newbigin was 76. It was later published with a new final chapter in 1993 when Newbigin was 84 with a new subtitle Unfinished Agenda: An Updated Autobiography. I was impressed with his leadership, passion for the unity of the church, constant championing of evangelism, love for missions, and emphasis on Bible study.

2. There are in existence many audio recordings of Newbigin's lectures and sermons but they are hard to find. Who will put them online for all of us? Holy Trinity Brompton bookshop in London, UK had lots of Newbigin cassette tapes in 2004 when I visited but they do not list their offerings online. I know of a couple lectures online: the first is from 1995 on "Nihilism" from a conference at Holy Trinity Brompton; the second is from a 1991 conference in Toronto and it is called "Christ: Unique and Universal". Here is a Lesslie Newbigin Photos and Images PowerPoint Slide Show

1. Finally, what Newbigin books would I recommend? I would recommend Open Secret for missionaries; Foolishness to the Greeks for those interested in politics; Household of God for people trying to make sense of denominational differences such as seminary students; The Gospel in a Pluralist Society for those interested in apologetics; Sin and Salvation for theologians, Unfinished Agenda: An Updated Autobiography for historians; The Light Has Come for readers of John's gospel; and The Good Shepherd (out of print–c'mon publishers!–but available for free at Newbigin.net as a pdf) for church staff devotionals.

Happy Birthday, Newbigin!

Here are the books we read this Fall 2009 in Geoffrey Wainwright's Newbigin Course at Duke Divinity School in which I was a teaching assistant.

10 replies on “Celebrating Lesslie Newbigin’s 100th Birthday Today with 10 Things You Probably Did Not Know About Him”

I like this A Proper Confidence, a distillation in some ways of much of his thought.

Thank you for this tribute on Newbigin’s birthday! I am a little surprised that you don’t refer to the newbigin.net resource on-line which is a great help in Newbigin research. Have you not come across it?

Cool post, Andy. I learned much!

Andy, I had tea with him once. Spent about 45 minutes with him in Brazil. 🙂 He was a genuinely wonderful man.

Thanks for commenting everyone. A privilege to have all of you. Scot, George and Darrell, it was great to see you all at SBL. Thanks George, Darrell and Alan for bringing Newbigin to the next generation!

Scot, yes, Proper Confidence is great too. There he refers to Bonhoeffer some who I mention above. “Proper Confidence” is such a great phrase describing our “appropriate humility” as Christians.

George, yes. I love The Household of God too. I used it responding to Tim Keller’s post “The ‘Kingly’ Willow Creek Conference.” http://www.rcpc.com/blog/view.jsp?Blog_param=44 Keller uses Calvin’s king, prophet, and priest categories for thinking about ecclesiology and I suggest in the comments Newbigin’s King: “The Community of the Holy Spirit”, Prophet: “The Congregation of the Faithful,” and Priest: “The Body of Christ.” John Kalz, one of our students, has also alerted me to Newbigin’s book Discovering Truth in a Changing World (2003) in which he covers some of the material from Household of God anew in chapter 5 under the heading “Church: One Holy, Apostolic.” http://books.google.com/books?id=LXvZXycg6ysC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q=chapter%20five%20The%20church%20one%20holy%20apostolic%20in%20the%20previous&f=false

Darrell, yes, Newbigin.net is great. Thanks for the reminder. I looked it up and found they have The Good Shepherd there so I added it above! I wish the website designer would explain how to use it a bit more clearly on the home page. It should say, “Read many of Newbigin’s works here for free!” It is odd that the manuscripts (i.e. articles and books you can read for free!) are listed under the heading “Biography.” It would be cool to get posted some audio there too!

Alan, yes, Geoffrey Wainwright has the audio of Newbigin’s speech in December 1996 in Brazil and the text of it appears at the end of Signs Amid the Rubble.

Christianity Today has also posted a new piece today.
The Missionary Who Wouldn’t Retire
Lesslie Newbigin, born 100 years ago today, launched a new career at age 66 by calling Western churches to act like they were in the mission field.
Krish Kandiah | posted 12/08/2009 10:07AM
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/january/1.44.html

My favorite introduction to Newbigin is still the 1996 Christianity Today piece by one of my favorite story-teller journalists Tim Stafford.

God’s Missionary to Us, Part 1
When Lesslie Newbigin returned to the West after 35 years in India, he found his native England had become a foreign mission field.
by Tim Stafford | posted 12/09/1996
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1996/december9/6te24a.html
Stafford is now blogging by the way: http://timstafford.wordpress.com/

Andy, thanks for the additional links!

I have made the changes to the frontpage of newbigin.net so how to search for texts should be clearer. I have also shifted the searches from under biography. Yes, i have no idea why I originally put them under this heading.

Thank you for pointing out that there is a connection between Newbigin and Bonhoeffer.
I have read all of Newbigin’s books except ‘The Light has Come’. What I can say about his writings is that it has inspired me to have confidence in the gospel.

Good stuff, Andy, thanks. I’d been a Newbigin fan for a long time but enjoyed going deeper in the Wainwright class in ’07.

Hope all is well in Durham-

So glad to have come across this, via the Christian Century blog. In the late 1980’s during a six week sabbatical at Bossey and interning in World Missions at the WCC, I encountered several of Newbigin’s archived sermons, essays and letters. Hopefully they will be published one day in a single volume. My Godparents, while serving in Karachi and Colombo in the 1950’s, met both D.T. Niles and Newbigin, from whom they learned about Roland Allen, the subject of my doctoral dissertation a dozen years ago. Thank you – we need an annual “octave for Lesslie Newbigin” in this Advent season!

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