In the scope of the 20th century, Lesslie Newbigin is one the most profound and influential thinkers with regard to the gospel and modern Western culture. One would be hard-pressed to find a voice for contemporary missions who has not been influenced in some way by Newbigin.
This has been my experience. There are several authors, pastors, and teachers whom I admire who turn to Newbigin as a confident resource in understanding what ministry and missions look like today. That being said, I wanted to go to the source myself and learn what I can, particularly to understand the cultural moment we find ourselves in as the church on mission.
Lesslie Newbigin’s thoughts and writings are so important to me, because I am growing more fascinated and even concerned by these new cultural discoveries that Newbigin has been writing about for decades. He has already given language to many of the issues that that church must deal with in light of engaging culture with the gospel. This is what I intend to discuss moving forward.
A Brief History and Background of Lesslie Newbigin
Newbigin was born in England in 1909. By his late twenties, he was married and moving to India as a missionary. In addition to serving as bishop of the Chuch of South India, Newbigin played an essential role in the merging of the International Missionary Council with the World Council of Churches between 1959 and 1961, where he assumed the position of associate general secretary. After decades of full-time missionary work in the field, he returned home in 1974, where he became a devoted professor and pastor.
As a missionary in India, he learned not only how to understand and communicate the Gospel but further to discern effectively what context he is bringing the gospel. The skills and missional framework he developed on the field in India proved to be most insightful in exposing many dynamics of a post-enlightenment culture in the west. His desire was to help the British church discover ways to engage British contemporary culture, which in turn has produced a supplemental resource for the Western church engaging Western culture.
Christ and Culture
The conversation of Christ and culture requires an assessment of at least two theological categories–anthropology and ecclesiology. A look at the category of anthropology will reveal how people think in our modern society. This is where Newbigin is quite brilliant. He is able to parse out perspectives, hidden values and beliefs, and some of the cultural nuances that tend to shape the way we think and understand the world. The category of ecclesiology is especially important in understanding who we are as the church and, therefore, how we are to engage with culture. To do the missiological work of partnering with God in the work he is doing in our day, it is essential that we address both anthropology and ecclesiology. Before we take this turn, however, there is another resource that is helpful in this conversation.
Richard Niebuhr’s classic, “Christ and Culture,” offers a framework for discussing how Christ engages with culture. Although these five approaches do not account for every nuance in the conversation, I think they are still worth articulating for the sake of this topic.
First is “Christ against culture,” which is the approach that Christ and his church are a separate culture altogether. As implied, Christ stands against culture and, therefore, rejects its values and priorities. This leads the church to isolate itself from culture—standing against and apart from the world. Similar to the Essenes of the first century, this approach seeks to create a church removed from culture as a picture of the redeemed people of God waiting for God to sort out all the wrong in his world.
The second approach is “Christ of culture.” Perhaps on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from “Christ against culture,” this approach sees culture as fundamentally good. Culture is not seen as something to stand against but rather something that should be affirmed in the life of the church. In my opinion, this is the most dangerous approach to Christ and culture because it will inevitably lead to the church looking like the culture rather than the culture starting to look like the church. Oftentimes, the values of the culture will prevail over the values of the Kingdom.
Next is “Christ above culture.” Niebuhr would suggest that this is the primary approach of the church throughout history. The church plays an indispensable role in pointing our culture to a greater good that is beyond the culture. This approach acknowledges that there is still a gap between Christ and culture—recognizing the reality of sin and the need for a savior. With that, this approach maintains a view that God is sovereign over His church and the culture (being careful to hold those as distinct from each other).
Then Niebuhr offers the approach of “Christ and culture in paradox.” This position aims to articulate the tension that is experienced as a citizen of heaven living in the kingdom of this world. The tension is based on the understanding that God is perfect and holy and all of humanity is broken and condemned in their sin. God’s kingdom is characterized by grace and righteousness. The struggle or paradox of the church is living in two opposing realities at once. In some of Paul’s writings, this tension is often felt when he confesses, “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (Romans 7:21, NIV).
“Christ the transformer of culture” is the final approach to culture. This approach comes from the conviction that God is working to redeem and restore all of creation. Christ intends to transform culture, not leaving it in its sin-sick state, but will one day fully and finally restore creation to himself. The church plays a present role in this work by engaging in culture to transform it to reflect the ways of the Kingdom of God. This approach is not short on hope. Like Jeremiah instructed the exiles in Babylon, “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jer. 29:7, NIV). Of all of the approaches set forth by Niebuhr, Christ the transformer of culture, seems to reflect the heart and practice of a church on mission. However, I don’t see how any one approach is sufficient for every time and place. Perhaps there is a time and place where each approach is most appropriate.
