“…the confession of Jesus as the unique Son of God who by his
incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection has acted decisively for
the redemption of the world and for the renewal of the whole
creation…provides the hermeneutical key with which I seek to understand the scriptures as a whole.
When we read, and meditate on, and immerse ourselves in the Scriptures, we become aware of the basic tensions within the Scriptures.
Place, for example, the book of Joshua alongside the Sermon on the
Mount. Place the exclusivist writings of Ezra and Nehemiah alongside the
inclusivist writings of Jonah and Ruth. Put Paul and James side by side
on the doctrine of justification, or put Romans 13 and Revelation 13
side by side in search of a doctrine of the state. Plainly, these are
simple examples of an immense internal critique which is going on throughout the whole of the Bible.
And that critique is part of the very life of the church, because a tradition remains living when it is constantly wrestling with questions of truth.
And the hermeneutical key to which I have referred—namely, the actual incarnation and ministry, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—is the point at which this internal tension is historically actualized,
which at its very heart is the tension between the holy wrath of God
and the holy love of God, the ultimate tension which has its final
manifestation and resolution in the atoning work of Jesus Christ, is the
key by which we can understand the great internal tensions within the
Scriptures.
Which means that when we read the Scriptures, we do not simply read
individual passages by themselves and take them as they stand to be
God’s Word for us, but that take the Scripture always in its canonical
wholeness and read the whole of it within the perspective of its
canonical wholeness and with the hermeneutical key of the ministry,
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
– Lesslie Newbigin,
“Scripture at the Locus of Truth,”
The Trinity Journal for Theology and Ministry 4.2 (2010): 43-44
From Boston University School of Theology...
Newbigin, J(ames) E(dward) Lesslie (1909-1998)British missionary bishop in India, theologian, and ecumenical statesman
Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, Newbigin was educated at the
University of Cambridge, where he was brought to Christian faith through
the ministry of the British Student Christian Movement, which he later
served for two years as secretary in Glasgow. In 1936 he was ordained by
the Church of Scotland for missionary work in India. He served as a
village evangelist (1936-1947), as an architect and interpreter of the
Church of South India (CSI), and as a bishop of the CSI in Madurai
(1947-1959). In 1959 he became general secretary of the International
Missionary Council (IMC) and guided it in 1961 to integration with the
World Council of Churches (WCC), which he served until 1965 as associate
general secretary, with responsibility for the Commission on World
Mission and Evangelism. He then returned to India as CSI bishop of
Madras until 1974. During his postretirement years in England, he [was]
professor of ecumenics and theology of mission at Selly Oak Colleges in
Birmingham (1974-1979), moderator of the United Reformed Church
(1978-1979), and pastor of a small inner city United Reformed
congregation in Birmingham (1979-1989). In 1982 he organized the Gospel
and Our Culture group to explore the form of Christian mission to pagan
Britain.
Newbigin was preeminent as a theologian passionately devoted to the
mission and unity of the church. The influence of his thought and style
are found in countless ecumenical conference reports he wrote or edited,
in articles, sermons, and biblical studies throughout his career, and
in his books, especially
The Household of God (1953) and
The Open Secret: Sketches for a Missionary Theology
(1978, rev. ed. 1995). At the same time, engagement of Christian faith
with the spirits and worldviews of modern society was his constant
theme. His
Honest Religion for Secular Man (1966) foreshadowed the substantive theology and social analysis of his later works,
Foolishness to the Greeks (1986) and
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (1989).
