Review of Lesslie Newbigin’s 1956 primer Sin and Salvation

I am a teaching assistant for Geoffrey Wainwright’s Lesslie Newbigin course at Duke Divinity School.

Sin and Salvation by Lesslie Newbigin  

Geoffrey Wainwright, professor of systematic theology at Duke Divinity
School, has called “Sin and Salvation” “a marvelous, moving summary of
the gospel.” Lesslie Newbigin’s book published in 1956 is succinct,
clear and ecumenical.

Newbigin (1909-1998) begins the preface this way,

“This small book was originally published in Tamil for the use of
church workers in the Tamil dioceses of the Church of South India.
Those for whom it was intended are mostly village teachers of
elementary grade, who–although without theological training–have to
bear a heavy share of the responsibility for the pastoral care of
several thousand village congregations in the Tamil country . . . I
began writing it in Tamil but found that the work was proceeding too
slowly and therefore completed it in English, and requested a friend to
translate it. I have therefore tried to write the kind of English
sentences that would go easily into Tamil, and have had all the time in
mind the necessities of translation” (p. 7). (Newbigin describes more
fully the villages he had in mind when he wrote this in chapter 7
“Kanchi: The Villages” of his Unfinished Agenda: An Updated Autobiography).

The Duke Divinity School students who read this book for
Wainwright’s course noted how valuable Newbigin’s little book was for
helping them review theology. They also appreciated the breadth of his
description of what the cross accomplished. Newbigin cannot be pinned
down as merely “Reformed”–his work has traces of Wesleyan, Orthodox
and Catholic theology as well. (See Wainwright’s extensive analysis of
“Sin and Salvation” in chapter one of his book Lesslie Newbigin: A Theological Life.

Fans of Newbigin’s writings from the 1980’s and 1990’s will be
interested to note that even as early as 1956 when he was 47 years old,
he was reflecting on what Darrell Guder later called “the missional
church” drawing inspiration from Newbigin. For example, Newbigin writes
in the preface of Sin and Salvation that he has has decided to treat
the “church” before “faith” because “it is the order which the
non-Christian has to follow when he comes to Christ. What he sees is a
visible congregation in his village. It is that congregation which
holds out to him the offer of salvation” (p. 9).

Most people will likely want to read Newbigin’s later works before
picking up “Sin and Salvation” but as vigorous discussion continues
surrounding the nature of Christian salvation and
justification–consider Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision by N. T. Wright, The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul by Douglas Campbell, The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright by John Piper, and Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology
by Michael Gorman)–Newbigin’s Sin and Salvation reminds theologians of
the need to explain the gospel fairly and thoughtfully to preachers,
teachers, students, new believers, and the curious outsider. It is not
surprising that late in life Newbigin developed a friendship with Holy
Trinity Brompton Church in London which developed the Alpha course and
related resources like Nicky Gumbel’s Questions of Life: A Practical Introduction to the Christian Faith. Another recent attempt to clearly and simply explain the gospel is James Choung’s book True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In and his sketched diagrams. Newbigin would himself acknowledge the need for such resources.

I have reviewed a couple other little known books by Newbigin now.

Book Review: Signs Amid the Rubble by Lesslie Newbigin

Recommended: Lesslie Newbigin’s Unfinished Agenda: An Updated Autobiography