newbigins trinitarian missiology

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Newbigins Trinitarian Missiology: The

Doctrine of the Trinity as Good Newsfor Western Culture

Adam Dodds

Adam Dodds is a final year doctoral student and teaching fellow at the University of Otagoin New Zealand, where he is studying Lesslie Newbigins trinitarian missiology.

Abstract

This paper explores Newbigins trinitarian missiology by first evaluating its theological basis,and then looking at the practical implications for the churchs mission within Western culturetoday. Newbigin claimed that the doctrine of the Trinity . . . is the necessary starting point ofpreaching. This statement actually involves two mutually related claims that are discussedusing the resources of recent trinitarian theology. First, evangelism begins with describing thetriune God, and second, the triune nature of God is irreducibly bound up with the substanceof the gospel. This discussion evaluates these bold claims using the resources of trinitariantheology, taking the claims in reverse order because the second impinges upon the first. Thesecond part of this paper applies the fruits of this discussion to the churchs mission withinWestern culture. It briefly articulates a relational ontology based on the doctrine of the Trinity,and then describes a relational anthropology based on the imago Dei. Next it exploresNewbigins theology of the inter-relatedness of all life as the clue to understanding missionalelection. The practical implications this has for ecclesiology and missiology vis-a-vis Newbigins

understanding of the congregation as the hermeneutic of the gospel conclude this exploration.They demonstrate the abiding significance of Lesslie Newbigin for continued theological, mis-siological, and practical reflection.

In 1963 Newbigin wrote his major work on the Trinity, Trinitarian Doctrine for TodaysMission, in which he claims the doctrine of the Trinity . . . is the necessary startingpoint of preaching.1 By itself, this is clearly an overstatement, but Newbigin goeson to explain this claim, saying . . . one cannot preach Jesus even in the simplest terms

1 Newbigin, Lesslie (1998) Trinitarian Doctrine for Todays Mission, Paternoster, Carlisle, p.35.


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without preaching Him as the Son. His revelation of God is the revelation of an onlybegotten from the Father, and you cannot preach him without speaking of the

Father and Son . . ..

2

In the next paragraph Newbigin goes on to immediately add theHoly Spirit to that claim. The context of this passage concerns the place of the doctrineof the Trinity in evangelism, rather than the specific activity of preaching. From thecontext, Newbigin makes at least two related claims: that evangelism begins with de-scribing the triune God, and the triune nature of God is irreducibly bound up withthe substance of the gospel. My purpose is to first evaluate these bold claims using theresources of trinitarian theology, and second to briefly explore in what sense the doctrineof the Trinity is good news to Western culture. This will involve sketching a theologicalanthropology, a doctrine of election, and some practical implications for the church-in-

mission.

Evangelism and the triune God

Prima facie, trinitarian theology seems in broad agreement with Newbigin in affirming thatthe triune nature of God is irreducibly related to the substance of the gospel. In the early20th century A. Schlatter said that . . . the Trinitarian name of God is the ChristianGospel.3Toward the end of that century, Carl Braaten says, The doctrine of the Trinityis the solid declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.4 Jenson declares that the phrase

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a condensed telling of the gospel.5

Colin Gunton de-scribes the doctrine of the Trinity . . . as encapsulating the heart of the ChristianGospel.6 Why is there this broad agreement that Gods triune nature is central to thenature of the gospel? The answer, as Newbigin suggests, is that the gospel concerns theactions of the triune God. Naturally, the gospel centres on the life, death and resurrectionof Jesus, but this same gospel does not describe Jesus apart from the Father and the Spirit.

In evangelism the crucial issue at stake is the question, Who is Jesus? The evangelistsanswer that Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father. Pannenberg observes, The title

Son reflects Jesus message of the Father. The reflection of the content of the messagefalls on his person.7 The gospel declares that God, the Father of all humanity (Eph. 3:

2 Newbigin, Trinitarian Doctrine. . ., p.36.

3 Schlatter, A. (1923) Das chr. Dogma, p.354, quoted in Karl Barth Church Dogmatics I/1: The Doctrine of the Word of God. G. W.

Bromiley (trans.) & G. W. Bromiley & T. F. Torrance (eds), T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, p.302.

4 Braaten, Carl E. (1990) The Triune God: The Source and Model of Christian Unity and Mission, Missiology: An International Review,

Vol. XVIII No. 4, October, p.424.

5 Jenson, Robert W. (1997) Systematic Theology Vol. 1: The Triune God, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.46.

6

Gunton, Colin E. (1997) The Promise of Trinitarian Theology, 2nd

ed., T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, p.31.7 Pannenberg, Wolfhart (1991) Systematic Theology Vol. 1, Geoffrey W. Bromiley (trans.), Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, p.309.

International Review of Mission Volume 99 Number 1 April 2010


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1415; 4:6), loves Gods wayward children with a strong and persistent love that is un-deterred by wilful rebellion. From eternity the Father and Son have, with the Holy Spirit,

given and received love to and from each other. In the sending of Gods Son, God theFather demonstrates that the love between Father and Son is so expansive that allhumanity are invited to participate in the sonship of Jesus and themselves becomeadopted children of God. As children of God, humans can have security in the love oftheir heavenly Father, confidence when approaching God in prayer, and intimacy in re-lating to the Sovereign Creator and Ruler of all as Abba. Pannenberg is right to suggestthat the content of the gospel is reflected in Jesus person as the Son. Thus the answer tothe crucial question in evangelism is that Jesus is the beloved Son, the only begotten ofthe Father.8

Jesus cannot rightly be identified without describing the triune nature of God. This is be-cause, says Moltmann, The New Testament talks about God by proclaiming in narrativethe relationships of the Father, the Son and the Spirit . . ..9 Although the gospel is thegospel of Jesus Christ, this gospel begins with the Father sending the Son who is conceivedby the Holy Spirit. Stepping back from a close reading of the gospel narrative in order todiscern the broader theological landscape, Gunton says, The gospel is that the Fatherinterrelates with his world by means of the frail humanity of his Son, and by his Spiritenables anticipations in the present of the promised perfection of the creation . . ..10The

Son was sent by the Father and lived to carry out Gods will. The beginning of the Sonsmission his conception and empowerment at baptism, and the climax of his mission his atoning death and resurrection, were all accomplished in and by the Holy Spirit.11Thatis why Athanasius described the doctrine of the Trinity as . . . the summary (skopos) of ourfaith.12 In what way does the doctrine of the Trinity summarize the Christian faith?Daugherty explains that the doctrine of the Trinity . . . could be called the theologicalstatement of the gospel; it is the gospel explained with reference to the being of God.13

The doctrine of the Trinity not only identifies this triune God as the author of and chiefactor in the drama of salvation, but it goes further to say that this triune God revealed in

8 Newbigin, Trinitarian Doctrine . . ., p.36.

9 Moltmann, Jurgen (1993) The Trinity & the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God, Margaret Kohl (trans.), Fortress Press, Minneapolis, p.64,

emphasis removed from whole sentence.

10 Gunton, op. cit., p.72.

11 Cf. Luke 1:35 (conception), Luke 3:2123; 4:18f (empowerment), Hebrews 9:14 (atonement), and Romans 1:4; 8:11

(resurrection).

12 Athanasius, De Decretis 31, quoted in Anatolios, Khaled (2001) The Immediately Triune God: A Patristic Response to

Schleiermacher, Pro Ecclesia, Vol. X, No. 2, p. 166.13 Daugherty, Kevin (2007) Missio Dei: The Trinity and Christian Missions, Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol. 31:2, p.162.

Adam Dodds Newbigins Trinitarian Missiology


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the gospel events is actually who God is in and of himself. The gospel reveals aGod who loves (Rom. 5:8), and . . . the doctrine of the Trinity is the teaching that God is

love, not only towards us, but in his deepest and eternal being.

14

In other words, theimmanent and economic trinities so truly correspond that Gods loving actions in thegospel story are an economic echo of the eternal trinitarian love that God is. T. F. Tor-rance says,

If the economic or evangelical Trinity and the ontological or theological Trinity were disparate thiswould bring into question whether God himself was the actual content of his revelation, and whetherGod himself was really in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to himself. That is the evangelical andepistemological significance of the homoousion. . . formulated by the Council of Nicaea in AD. 325 . . . .

The trinitarian message of the Gospel tells us that . . . in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit we really

have to do with the Lord God himselfas our Saviour.15

The doctrine of the immanent or ontological Trinity safeguards the fact that the gospelisin fact the good news that God really does love us because God is love. In other words,the doctrine of the Trinity ontologically underpins the truths of the gospel. However, thisdoctrine is also rooted in the events of the gospel in which God reveals himself as Father,Son and Spirit. Therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity is not speculation projected ontothe divine being. On the contrary, Trinitarian theology is not theory; it is an account ofGods beingwhich is tied to his action, and that action centres on a gospel rooted in the life,

suffering and resurrection of Jesus.16 In this dialectic of divine being and action, couldwe go as far as saying that the triune God isthe Christian gospel?

Well, the gospel declares that the triune God has judged all humanity in Christ out ofGods love for them. The No of God has been spoken within an all-encompassingYes so that all humanity has been judged and forgiven and invited to participate in theloving relations that God is. Concerning the divine Yes spoken to humanity, Barth saysit is Jesus Christ who . . . pronounces a single and unambiguous Yes. Barth then goes

further, saying of Jesus Christ, He is this Yes, and therefore not merely its proponent,sign, symbol or cypher.17 The gospel is not merely what Jesus pronounces effects orenacts, but in his person he is the gospel. Following Barth, T. F. Torrance argues that theatoning reconciliation and the death of death that Jesus achieves on behalf of allhumanity do not occur externally from his person. Rather, . . . atoning reconciliation,

14 Gunton, Colin E. (2003) Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Essays towards a Fully Trinitarian Theology, T. & T. Clark, London, p.18.

15 Torrance, Thomas F. (1996) The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, pp.78, emphasis

original.

16

Gunton, op. cit., xiv, emphasis added.17 Barth, Karl, Church Dogmatics IV/3: The Doctrine of Reconciliation Second Half, p.797.



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and one might add, the death of death, takes place within the personal Being of theMediator.18 However, the atonement itself does not constitute the heart of the gospel.

Torrance explains, . . . it is not the atonement that constitutes the goal and end of thatintegrated movement of reconciliation but union with God . . ..19 God became humanin order to adopt all humanity into the divine life, what the ancient Eastern fathers calledtheosisor theopoiesis. The good news is that the triune God, Creator, and Redeemer, loveshumanity even in its obstinate and defiant rebellion, and, by way of the atoning re-conciliation accomplished in and by the mediator Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spiritwho unites us to this mediator, humanity is beckoned into fellowship with God. Thetriune God is the gospel, for in Jesus the Emmanuel humanity discovers not only thatGod is with us but that God is for us, because this is Gods nature. The gospel events are

only good news inasmuch as they describe the actions of this God who is himself thegospel.

Nevertheless, it would be a false dichotomy to suggest that God is the gospel apart fromGods actions that the gospel describes. There is no division between divine being andact, for as Psalm 119:68 succinctly describes God, You are good and do good . . .. It isof course by Gods good deeds that Gods being as the triune God who is good is re-vealed. Describing the unity of divine being and act, Barth says, God is who He is in Hisworks. . . . in Himself He is not another than He is in His works.20 Gods self-revelation

is reliable because God is truthful, so we know that he is giving us himself and not anexternal manifestation whose internal structuring may be different.21 Simply put, Gods. . . revelation is His Self-donation.22 In concluding this section one must affirm thatNewbigin was right; the doctrine of the trinity is irreducibly bound to the substance ofthe gospel.

What of Newbigins other claim that evangelism begins with describing the triune God?Evangelism by definition is a communication of the gospel, and the gospel as we have

seen is both the being and the saving activity of the triune God in the life, death andresurrection of Jesus Christ. That is why H. Bavinck says, In the doctrine of the Trinitybeats the heart of the whole revelation of God for the redemption of mankind.23

18 Torrance, Thomas F. (1983) The Mediation of Christ, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, p.73.

19 Torrance, Ibid., p.77.

20 Barth, Karl (1957) Church Dogmatics II/1: The Doctrine of God, p.260.

21 Gunton, op. cit., p.42.

22 Forsyth, P. T. (1998) The Soul of Prayer, Paternoster Press, Carlisle, p.18.

23 Gereformeede Dogmatiek, vol. II 4th ed., 1918, p.346f, quoted in Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics I/1: The Doctrine of the Word of God,

p.302.



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Athanasius rightly called the doctrine of the Trinity the summary of our faith, butBavinck adds to that, calling it the . . . kernel of the Christian faith, the root of all

dogmas, the substance of the new covenant . . ..

24

All Christian truths that one wouldseek to communicate in evangelism, such as creation, fall, salvation, eschatology and soon, derive from the doctrine of the Trinity, for the works of God can only be rightlyunderstood in the light of the nature and being of God. That is why Khaled Anatoliossays, Trinitarian doctrine is the hermeneutical key to Christian faith.25 Therefore,evangelism must describe the triune God of the gospel, communicating the truths con-tained within the doctrine of the Trinity without discussing the (necessary) obscurities ofits theologomena. These truths, summarized in the patristic term homoousion, cruciallyinclude the fact that God actually is from and to all eternity the loving God revealed in

the gospel, that the gospel is a gospel of salvation because Godis its author, and that thetriune God who is love has so acted in the events of the gospel so that all may participatein the divine nature. In Trinitarian Doctrine, Newbigin observes,

The vehemence of the doctrinal struggles which centred on the formulation of the trinitarian doctrine,and especially on the question of the relation of the Son to the Father, is evidence of the centrality ofthis issue for the whole Christian witness to the pagan world of that time.26

The missiological significance of the doctrine of the Trinity, with its central Christological

and pneumatological aspects, was clearly enormous during the patristic era. MissiologistAasulv Lande acknowledges this fact, but proceeds to argue that the doctrine of theTrinity is inescapably culture-bound to its Greco-Roman context and so it should remainin its socio-cultural past. Lande believes that for our purposes in the 21st century thedoctrine of the Trinity is irrelevant.27 Lande is not alone is this summation, for ImmanuelKant said it was irrelevant whether a person worshipped three or ten persons, because. . . it is impossible to extract from this difference any different rules for practicalliving . . ..28 I believe both Lande and Kant not only completely misunderstand thedoctrine of the Trinity as I have already shown, but also, as I hope to demonstrate shortly,

this is a misreading of the utility of this doctrine for mission in and to Western culture.Against Landes thesis I concur with Gary Simpson, who argues that the doctrine of theTrinity possesses intrinsic relevance for missiology.

24 Ibid.

25 Anatolios, op.cit., p.166.

26 Newbigin, op.cit., p.35.

27 Lande, Aasulv, Trinitarian Missiology, audio cassette AN812. After Newbigin: A Missiological Enquiry in Honour of Lesslie

Newbigin, 23 November 1998, Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. DA29/13/2/12. Lesslie Newbigin Archives, Special

Collections Department, Main Library, University of Birmingham.28 Quoted in Moltmann, op.cit., p.6.



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To my mind, it is not mere coincidence that we are developing a consensus regarding the dearth ofmissional imagination at the congregational level at the same time some are deploring the non-trini-

tarian character of Christian theology, life, and practice. I will investigate, therefore, the link between

no Trinity and no mission.29

Given what we have sketched about the relation between the doctrine of the Trinity andthe gospel, a demise in the belief in and confession of the triune God will inexorably leadto a partial or faulty understanding of the gospel. Misunderstanding this good news,which contains within itself missional momentum, will result in a corresponding declinein missional consciousness and practice.

The doctrines of the Trinity and Christology are inextricably related, so neglecting the Trinity

leads to neglecting the importance of Jesus. Robert Schreiter says, . . . a neglect of the Tri-nity opened the way for theocentric understandings that minimise the importance of Jesus inthe Christian confession.30 Minimizing the importance of Jesus necessarily leads to a de-crease in missional consciousness and activity since the Person of the Mediator, in whom thefullness of the godhead dwells bodily, is the content of the gospel. Schreiter says that ne-glecting the doctrine of the Trinity leads to neglecting orthodox Christology, but I would alsoadd that neglecting orthodox Christology leads to a denial of the doctrine of the Trinity.These two doctrines, along with pneumatology, stand or fall together.31 Both the doctrines

of Christ and the Trinity were eroded by the forces of the Enlightenment as epitomized inthat quintessential Enlightenment religion Deism which denied both the homoousionandthe doctrine of the Trinity. Churches that were significantly affected by the Enlightenmentparadigm were not, in general, those who were actively promulgating the gospel. On thecontrary, Walls states that the modern missionary movement . . . is an autumnal child of theEvangelical Revival.32 Evangelicalism is well-known for its high Christology, historicallyorthodox theology, and its missionary character: three elements that are not unrelated.

I have examined the claims that evangelism begins with describing the triune God, and

the triune nature of God is irreducibly bound up with the substance of the gospel with

29 Simpson, Gary M. (1998) No Trinity, No Mission: The Apostolic Difference of Revisioning the Trinity, Word and World, Vol.

XVIII, No. 3, p. 265.

30 Schreiter, Robert J. (1990) Jesus Christ and Mission: The Cruciality of Christology, Missiology: An International Review, Vol XVIII,

No. 4, p. 434.

31 Dogmatically, Christology exercises interpretive control over pneumatology, not vice versa. That is why in the patristic era the

Sons identity had to be first established before that of the Spirit, for understanding the latters identity requires a sound

Christology. It is no accident that Athanasius applied the same arguments for the Sons divinity to the debate concerning the

Spirits divinity.

32 Walls, Andrew F. (1996) The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh,

p.79.



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the aid of modern trinitarian theology. In the course of this discussion I believe I haveverified these claims and deepened these insights in ways Newbigin was unable to

achieve due to his vocational commitments. The triune God is the gospel, and so ne-cessarily evangelism begins with describing this God whose being is in communion.Thus I have demonstrated the importance of Newbigins insights for a trinitarian mis-siology that indicates the abiding significance of Newbigins writings for continuedtheological reflection and for continued missionary praxis, two activities that Newbiginrefused to separate. Having described the inter-relation between the doctrine of the Tri-nity and the gospel, we now turn to how this doctrine is good news specifically toWestern culture.

The Trinity good news to western culture

According to Colin Gunton, the theological enterprise has two main foci the internalfunction of helping the church better understand the truth, and the external function,. . . the elucidation of the content of the faith for those outside the community of belief:the apologetic or missionary function.33 It is commonly believed that, while trinitariandoctrine might be of value for the former, it is an obstacle to the latter, . . . a trouble-some piece of theological baggage which is best kept out of sight when trying tocommend the faith to unbelievers.34 Like Newbigin, Guntons

belief is the reverse: that because the theology of the Trinity has so much to teach about the

nature of our world and life within it, it is or could be the centre of Christianitys appeal to the un-believer, as the good news of a God who enters into free relations of creation and redemption with his

world.35

I think Gunton particularly has in mind the fruits of the doctrine of the Trinity for aholistic theological anthropology and the inter-connected nature of all created reality, soimportant in this era of heightened ecological awareness. Gunton was no doubt influ-

enced by his doctoral father Robert Jenson, who summarizes his major work on thedoctrine of the Trinity by saying, The whole of this book can be read as a sustainedargument for the proposition that consistently trinitarian faith is now the Wests onlyopen alternative to nihilism.36 In the foreword, Jenson explains this claim a little further,suggesting, In the foreseeable future the life of the Western world will be very like thatof the declining Mediterranean antiquity in which Christian trinitarian language was first

33 Gunton, op.cit., p.7.


35

Gunton, op.cit., p.7.36 Jenson, Robert W. (1982) The Triune Identity: God According to the Gospel, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, p.186.



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created presenting a different divine offering on every street corner.37 In this analo-gous context it is vitally important that in this increasingly pluralistic society we identify

which god we mean. Hence Jenson asserts, Therefore the Western church must noweither renew its trinitarian consciousness or experience increasing impotence and con-fusion.38 In agreement with Newbigin, some trinitarian scholars, including Jenson andGunton, see a particularly missional role for the doctrine of the Trinity in late- or post-modern Western culture.

Trinitarian anthropology

How is the doctrine of the Trinity really the gospel, good news, to modernity? Trinitarian

theology in recent years has offered the church rich resources for understanding what itmeans to be truly human, in contrast to the hyper-individualism that besets late- or post-modern culture. I shall first outline the communal nature of Gods being, and then pro-ceed to discuss a correspondingly relational theological anthropology. From here I shallgive an account of Newbigins understanding of election as Gods missional strategy, andthen I will conclude with practical implications for the church-in-mission.

Over fifty years ago Newbigin said, God is not an individual; God is personal but He isnot a person. He is a Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God; one personal being in

whom love is perfect and complete because love is both given and received.39

InThe Open SecretNewbigin further describes the divine life, saying, Interpersonal related-ness belongs to the very being of God.40 With the benefit of modern trinitariantheology we can develop Newbigins insight further, and say with John Zizioulas, Thesubstance of God has no ontological content, no true being, apart from communion.41

In other words, there can be a sharing in being, because in God the one and manycoinhere. In the doctrine of the Trinity this ontological sharing is expressed in theconcept of person, which is understood relationally. According to Zizioulas, it is thanksto the Cappadocian fathers that theology possesses the concept of the person, as an ontological

concept in the ultimate sense.42 Since the three divine Persons eternally exist in mutuallyloving perichoretic relations, the concept of person is inherently interpersonal.

37 Jenson, op.cit., p.ix. Following Michael Polanyi, Newbigin often made parallels between that time period and our own. Newbigin,

Lesslie (1983) The Other Side Of 1984: Questions for The Churches, Geneva, WCC, p.63.

38 Jenson, op.cit.

39 Newbigin, Lesslie (1956) Sin and Salvation, SCM Press, London, pp.1718.

40 Newbigin, Lesslie (1978) The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, rev. 1995, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, p.70.

41 Zizioulas, John D. (1985) Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church, DLT, London, p.17.

42 Zizioulas, John D. (1995) The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: The Significance of the Cappadocian Contribution. In: Christoph

Schwobel (ed.), Trinitarian Theology Today: Essays on Divine Being and Act, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, p.56, emphasis original.



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The person cannot exist in isolation. God is not alone; He is communion . . ..43 Therelations between the divine Persons are ontologically constitutive, what T. F. Torrance

calls onto-relations. Gunton explains,

The persons are what they are by virtue of what they give to and receive from each other. As such,

they constitute the being of God, for there is no being of God underlying what the persons are to andfrom each other. Gods being is a being in relation, without remainder relational.44

God, the source and goal of all created being, is inherently relational; Gods being is incommunion. This insight of trinitarian theology has profound implications for theolo-gical anthropology. Without requiring a Thomist notion of analogia entisand all that thatentails, by affirming that God created humans in the imago Dei, one cannot understandhuman being without first understanding the One in whose image humanity was created.Reflecting on the imago Dei, Newbigin says, The image of God is not seen in an in-dividual man, but in man-and-woman bound together in love. He explains, Thus thenature of man is that he was made in love, by love, and for love. Love is the source andend of his being. Therefore man cannot live alone.45 It is being-in-relatedness forwhich God made us and the world and which is the image of that being-in-relatednesswhich is the being of God himself .46

In his lifetime Newbigin contrasted this account of being human with what he char-acterized as Indian religion that sought to understand the true nature of humanity bylooking inwards.47 Newbigin believed that classical thought was simply an extension ofthe thought-world of India, part of the one philosophical family.48 This school ofthought portrays human being not as an inter-related family but as a spiritual monad,with this depiction featuring prominently in both Enlightenment (Descartes) and mod-ern thought (John Hick).49 For Newbigin,

The deepest root of the contemporary malaise of Western culture is an individualism which denies the

fundamental reality of our human nature as given by God namely that we grow into true humanityonly in relationships of faithfulness and responsibility toward one another.50

43 Zizioulas, Ibid.

44 Gunton, op.cit., 143.

45 Newbigin, Sin and Salvation, pp.1718.

46 Newbigin, The Open Secret, p.70.

47 Newbigin, Ibid., p.69.

48 Newbigin, Lesslie (1995) New Birth into A Living Hope, unpublished, no page numbers. www.newbigin.net

49

Newbigin, The Open Secret, p.102. Hick, John (1976) Death and Eternal Life, Harper & Row, New York.50 Newbigin, Lesslie (1989) The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, SPCK, London, p.231.

http://www.newbigin.net/http://www.newbigin.net/


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Western society today is commonly described as being postmodern or late modern,which in part is a reaction against modernism with its conviction about progress and

belief in an overarching metanarrative. It is also, however, a deepening of other featuresof modernism, particularly its focus on the individual.51 By contrast, Newbigins por-trayal of human life is inter-personal, corporate, cosmic and teleological.

God is love, and God created humanity in the divine image and likeness, so human per-sonhood is understood in the light of divine personhood. Since God is a communion ofPersons inseparably related, then it naturally follows that human being is inherently rela-tional, for it is in our relatedness to others that our being human consists.52 For beinghuman, relations with other humans are not superfluous; rather, human being consists in

these relations. Human being is a being-in-relation, and so these relations are onto-rela-tions, that is they have ontological status.53 The origin of human life is the triune Godwhose being is communion, and the goal of this same human life, that to which all thingsare directed, is that shared communion of love and bliss which is the being of the Tri-nity.54 Simply put, the goal of human life is that which out of all the Old Testamentdivine imperatives Jesus highlights as the most important: loving God with all your heart,mind, soul and strength, and loving your neighbour as yourself.55 Newbigins trinitariantheology defines his theological anthropology, which in turn shapes his missiology andecclesiology, both of which can be understood in relation to his doctrine of election.

Election and the missionary church

For Newbigin, election is central to a biblical ecclesiology and missiology. Explainingdivine election Newbigin says, The instrument of His choosing [election] is precisely theapostolic mission of the Church. I chose you, says the incarnate Lord to His apostles,and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit (John 15:16).56 In Gods electionof Abraham, Israel, and the church, Newbigin understands that they are to be conduitsof Gods blessing, not cul-de-sacs.57 Gods mission is the reconciliation of his wayward

51 Brian Carrell confirms this, stating that one of the chief features of modernity is a focus on the individual which translates into

individualism. Carrell, Brian (1998) Moving between the Times, The Deepsight Trust, Auckland, p.40.

52 Gunton, The Promise . . ., p.113.

53 This raises profound questions of the quality of ontological personhood of those whose lives have been shaped by abusive

relationships, and those persons who are incapacitated from engaging in normal relations due to mental or physical illness or

the effects of trauma. This important subject lies outside the scope of this paper.

54 Newbigin, Lesslie (2003) Living Hope in a Changing World, Alpha International, London, p.15.

55 Mark 12:3031.

56

Newbigin, Lesslie (1953) The Household of God: Lectures on the Nature of the Church, SCM Press, London, p.102.57 Piper, John (1993) Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions, Baker, Grand Rapids, p.106.



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creation and is therefore cosmic in scope, but the doctrine of election teaches thatThinking globally, God acted locally.58 God accomplishes his universal mission by

means of particular election. For Newbigin, election is Gods choosing (election) of apeople to be His own people, by whom He purposes to save the world.59The challengeto any doctrine of election is holding together the particular with the universal, and inthis, as in so many other areas, Newbigin shows the way forward. Those elected by Godare indeed blessed, but they are elected as Bearers not exclusive beneficiaries.60

David Bosch concurs, asserting that The purpose of election is service, and when this iswithheld, election loses its meaning.61

Election provides the framework in which Newbigin understands ecclesiology.

He says the Church is . . . the pars pro toto in the sense that it is sent in order thatthe rest of the world may be converted . . ..62 God has chosen the church to be bearersof Gods blessing in order that others might also be chosen through the church to receiveGods blessing for themselves, and then themselves be channels of divine blessingfor others. Therefore election, and consequently the church, is decidedly missional, for itrefers to Gods strategy of choosing some on behalf of all, choosing some for the sakeof all.

The Bible depicts divine wisdom appearing as foolishness to human understanding, and

in many ways election is a prime example. The question arises, says Barth, indeedwhether God and the world would not be far better served by a word of reconciliation(2 Cor. 519) spoken by Jesus Christ Himself and alone, without any co-operation on thepart of Peter and Paul, let alone the rest of us.63 Why would God elect such indirect,inefficient and unreliable means as the church? Why did God not choose to bless allpeople directly rather than using the fallible, weak, erring and wayward church? By way ofa preliminary answer, Gods strategy of election is in accord with Gods salvific and re-velatory action in Christ. If God were to savingly reveal Godself to all people directly,

then this entails an ahistorical account of God and divine revelation that is at odds withthe biblical witness. But whydoesGod savingly reveal himself through actions in history

58 Howard Snyder quoted in Escobar, Samuel (2003) The New Global Mission: The Gospel from Everywhere to Everyone, IVP Academic,

Downers Grove, p.62.

59 Newbigin, Lesslie (1954) Why Study the Old Testament?, National Christian Council Review, Vol. 74, p.75.

60 Newbigin, The Open Secret, p.32.

61 Bosch, David J. (1991) Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, p.18. See also Blauw,

Johannes (1962) The Missionary Nature of the Church: A Survey of the Biblical Theology of Mission, Lutterworth Press, London, p.22.

62

Newbigin, Lesslie (1969) The Finality of Christ, SCM Press, London, p.97, emphases original.63 Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/3, p.607.



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rather than in an ahistorical manner? Why does God savingly act through the churchrather than in more efficient and reliable ways that do not depend on human coopera-

tion? To revert to a human analogy, why would a wise manager choose risky andunreliable means of accomplishing his or her purposes? The decisive clue to the answerlies in ascertaining exactly what these purposes are, and how the means are related to theends. In addressing these questions one must begin with theological anthropology un-derstood in the light of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Humans are intrinsically relational beings made in the image of the God whose being isin communion. The intrinsic relatedness of the human person is in particular directedboth to God, the creatures maker and Lord, and to fellow humans. Sin primarily consists

in humans failing to completely love God and fellow humans and so has both Godwardand humanward dimensions. Hence, the reconciliation that God intends for humanityrequires repairing the breach not only between humans and God, but also between hu-mans and their fellow humans. If God simply desired the salvation of each individualsoul, then election appears to be arbitrary favouritism. However, since election is Chris-tocentric and corporate, so the salvation that God intends for humanity is alsoChristocentric and corporate. God is seeking not a city populated with redeemed in-dividuals, but a bride, a body, what Martin Luther King, Jr used to call the belovedcommunity. Newbigin clearly perceived that election is Gods means for salvation be-

cause it is commensurate with Gods ends.

But a salvation whose very essence is that it is corporate and cosmic, the restoration of the brokenharmony between all men and between man and God and man and nature, must be communicated in

a different way. It must be communicated in and by the actual development of a community whichembodies if only in foretaste the restored harmony of which it speaks. A gospel of reconciliationcan only be communicated by a reconciled fellowship.64

Gods purpose is that humans should have concern for their fellow humans; therefore

God chooses one to be sent to another, and so on, so that all may be knit together in oneredeemed fellowship. Receiving Gods saving revelation, therefore, requires the humilityto receive it from another person, Gods appointed messenger.65 This humility is notsimply a means to an end but is itself part of Gods saving purpose of reconciling anduniting humanity in Christ, for one aspect of human unity is simply corporate humilityunder Christ. Thus the church becomes His reconciled and reconciling people.66John

64 Newbigin, The Household of God . . ., p.141.

65 Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, pp.8283.

66 Newbigin, The Household of God, p.101. It is worthwhile noting that the most sustained discussion of election by Newbigin prior to

1978 is in his one volume devoted to expounding ecclesiology, The Household of God.



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Thompson rightly says, The church is, on the one hand, the provisional result of mis-sion but, on the other hand, it is Gods agent of it.67 Going one step beyond Thompson,

as the reconciled humanity, the church is also the goal of Gods mission. For Newbiginsalvation depicts a making whole, a unifying of all creation whose source and pattern isthe love within the life of the triune God, the summing up of all things in Christ.68

Christ reveals that God is like a mother hen seeking to gather her chicks under her wings,so there can therefore be no private salvation. Humans cannot experience salvation in itsfullness until all for whom it is intended have it together.69That is why God advances themissio Deiby way of electing the church, and this has profound implications for ecclesialpraxis.

Practical implications for the church-in-mission

The church is called to be a sign, instrument, and foretaste of this beloved communityhere on earth. As the church continues to be defined not by the character of its waywardmembers70 but by the One who is its Head, so she can become what Newbigin famouslycalled the hermeneutic of the gospel. This insight is a development from his earlier ec-clesiology worked out in The Household of God. There Newbigin affirms that not only is thechurch the proclaimer of the gospel, a typically Protestant emphasis, but, drawing onRoman Catholic ecclesiology, he also affirms that the church . . . is also itself the bearer

of Gods redeeming grace, itself a part of the story of redemption which is the burden ofits message.71 Newbigin is not here idealizing the church for which he gave his lifesservice he knew its empirical reality far too well for that. Indeed, one of his shorterwritings is entitled The Church: A Bunch of Escaped Convicts. Explaining thistitle Newbigin says, That is why laughter is so big a part of church life when it ishealthy . . ..72 The church is born of God, but this does not entail immunity to the sinthat besets the rest of the human family. Therefore the church needs to be continuouslyreformed by undergoing the process of mortification and vivification, by which the Spiritincreasingly conforms her to the likeness of Christ.73 In the aforementioned article

Newbigin says:

67 Thompson, John (1994) Modern Trinitarian Perspectives, Oxford University Press, New York, pp.7576.

68 Ephesians 1:10.


70 Describing the church David Bosch says, Throughout most of the churchs history its empirical state has been deplorable. This

was already true of Jesus first circle of disciples and has not really changed since. Bosch, Transforming Mission, p.519.


72

Newbigin, Lesslie (1990) The Church: A Bunch of Escaped Convicts, Reform, June, p.6.73 The Reformed slogan ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est is helpful.



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The Church does not exist for the sake of its members; it exists to continue the mission of Jesus. Butthis does not make the Church a mere programme agency. The Church continues the mission of Jesus

first by being itself a foretaste of the kingdom, a community in which the freedom and joy of the

kingdom are already tasted and celebrated in praising and adoring God. It can thus also be a sign ofthe kingdom, pointing beyond itself to Gods love and holiness.74

Newbigin suggests that the gospel becomes credible to the world when there is a con-gregation of people who believe it and live it.75 One characteristic of such a congregationis the prevalence of praise. Praise, something that is almost totally absent from modernWestern society, is cultivated in the church by an attitude of reverence toward the Onewho is truly worthy of adoration. This praise is naturally expressed as thanksgiving inresponse to the gratuity of Gods love, which the apostle Paul calls grace. Thankful that

she has been chosen by God, the church expresses this thanksgiving not merely by prayerand song but by the missionary praxis of bearing, proclaiming and demonstrating thegood news of Jesus. The churchs worship services are both the place where the foretasteof Gods present and coming kingdom is experienced and where the church is sustainedfor her mission. She is built up by the preaching of the word that comforts the disturbedand disturbs the comfortable, and is nourished by the eucharist which is bread for themissionary journey.76

As the first fruits of the new humanity, the church experiences Gods love and forgive-ness in Christ as she is caught up by the Spirit into the dawning reality that is the destinyof all creation. This is particularly true of the church engaged in worship. As the churchjoyfully and reverently beholds and worships her Lord, she is transformed from onedegree of glory to another. In such acts of adoration the church catches a glimpse andeven tastes of Gods new creation, and this fills her with hope.77 The church is the defi-nitive community of hope, the hope that God will make all things new, because in Christand by the Spirit cosmic renewal has begun. This is tremendously significant for late- orpost-modern Western society that has grown sceptical and apathetic with modernitys

conviction about progress and that is characterized by what Newbigin calls the dis-appearance of hope.78 In the midst of this society the presence of large and smallcommunities of hope is a profound witness. Furthermore, as the hope-filled church ex-

74 Newbigin, op.cit.

75 Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, p.227ff.

76 Motte, Mary (1993) Issues in Protestant-Catholic Discussions of Theology of Mission. In: The Good News of the Kingdom: Mission

Theology for the Third Millennium, Charles Van Engen, Dean S. Gilliland, Paul Pierson (eds) Orbis Books, Maryknoll, p.122.

77

Cf. Romans 5:5.78 Newbigin, The Other Side of 1984, p.1.



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periences as a foretaste the peace of Gods new creation, she grows increasingly intoler-ant towards the sinful conditions of this present life, and so engages in action for justice

and mercy.

79

The church increasingly reflects her nature as the bearer of the gospel as she is in-corporated by the Spirit into the Sons filial obedience to the Father. As humanity remadein Christ, the church is the place where Gods intentions for humanity are realized, albeitpartially, for she is . . . a provisional representation of the new humanity in the midst ofthe old.80Thus, the churchs very existence is itself a sign, sacrament and witness of thecoming kingdom of the God who is love. Supremely, God created humans as relationalbeings for loving relations with God and each other. Hence, Jesus said to his disciples,

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one an-other.81This love is not understood in terms of Pelagian self-help, but rather as a Spirit-enabled response to the gift of grace that is Jesus Christ. Genuine loving relations ofhonesty, trust, and joy should characterize the church. Since this is organizationally im-practical for congregations of fifty or five hundred, this commitment to love others isnaturally expressed by organizing the congregation into small groups, commonly calledhomegroups, fellowship groups, cellgroups or lifegroups. These small groups, of whichNewbigin spoke positively, meet regularly for the members to share their stories and theirlives, and for worship, prayer, Bible study, discipleship and mission.82 This will help to

practically enable the church to be the loving community that is both her calling and hermission. Furthermore, J. Andrew Kirk believes that these small groups . . . are the key tothe local church in mission, and he believes this is true regardless of geographical con-text, whether in rural Norfolk or rural China, in urban Birmingham or urbanJohannesburg.83

Finally, the church is unique in that she alone lives in the knowledge of the reality that, inChrist, she is unconditionally loved by God. The church is enabled to extend this same

grace of unconditional love and forgiveness to others, because, by Christs work in whichshe participates by faith, she has been judged and forgiven, and thus has been ontologi-

79 Fiddes, Paul S. (1989) Past Event and Present Salvation: The Christian Idea of Atonement, DLT, London, pp.3233.

80 Barth, Karl, Church Dogmatics IV: The Doctrine of Reconciliation Part Two. G. W. Bromiley & Ed. G. W. Bromiley & T. F. Torrance

(trans.), T. & T. Clark International, London, 2004, p.642.

81 John 13:35.

82 Newbigin, Lesslie and Aagaard, AnnaMarie (1989) Mission in the 1990s: Two Views, International Bulletin of Missionary Research,

Vol. 13, No.3, July, p.102.83 Kirk, J. Andrew (1999) What Is Mission? Theological Explorations, DLT, London, p.218.



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cally reconstituted from above. This good news of the forgiveness of sins contains itsown missionary impetus for the church to spread the gospel to others. As such the

churchs boundaries are porous and ever-expanding as the Lord continues to build Godschurch and as more people experience the forgiveness of their sins and so are caught upin the growing and inbreaking of Gods new creation.



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