Lesslie Newbigin: A Theological Life
By Geoffrey Wainwright
Oxford University Press. 459 pages
Lesslie Newbigin has to be one of the most significant missionary theologians of the twentieth century. His experience as a missionary from Britain to India and then from India to Britain gave him an excellent vantage point to see how we in the West have often compromised the gospel and simply gone with the cultural flow.
Newbigin wrote over two hundred and fifty books, journal articles and pamphlets and for anyone to plough through them is no mean feat. George Wainwright in his new book Lesslie Newbigin: A Theological Life has gone further, citing even archive sources, personal correspondence and other previously unavailable material in his comprehensive account of Newbigin’s life and theology.
Wainwright’s book is a mammoth achievement as he provides us with many useful resources in this single volume:
He provides outlines of the main arguments for most of Newbigin’s major works. He helpfully systemises Newbigin’s thought setting it against the context of his life and ministry. He examines Newbigin under such headings as ‘the ecumenical advocate, the pastoral bishop and the scriptural teacher. Altogether the reader is given a thorough picture of Newbigin the man and his writings. If you are looking for a critical appraisal of Newbigin’s ideas however, you would be disappointed. Wainwright is such a devotee that he would never dare to criticise. Perhaps a second volume is called for?
