INTERPRETING LESSLIE NEWBIGIN'S MISSIOLOGY IN INDIA TODAY by ALEXANDER MURDO ...

267 Pages·2014·1.48 MB·English

OPEN CHURCH: INTERPRETING LESSLIE NEWBIGIN'S MISSIOLOGY
IN INDIA TODAY

by

ALEXANDER MURDO MACLEOD

submitted in accordance with the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY

in the subject

MISSIOLOGY

at the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

SUPERVISOR: PROF J N J KRITZINGER

FEBRUARY 2014
Summary

The central thesis of this study is that Newbigin‟s thought and writing can contribute
to understanding the church as an integral part of Indian society, in terms of both her
identity and role. Newbigin‟s writing, subsequent to his return to the West after more
than three decades in India, often sought to address what he saw as the Western
church‟s loss of confidence in its role and position in a post-enlightenment, post-
Christendom society. This study tries to work with this material, as well as what was
written during his time in India. The second chapter and the third chapter give
consideration to the two central elements in Newbigin‟s understanding of the church‟s
mission and identity: the eschatological renewal of the whole earth that will occur at
the return of Christ and the connection of this end to Christ‟s death on the cross. As
the third chapter will consider, while he locates the focus of the church‟s mission in
relation to the end, the death of Christ indicates the way in which this mission will be
carried out. The remainder of the third chapter will consider the implication of this
for the church‟s mission in relation to the presence of poverty and marginalisation in
Indian society and its movement towards a consumer economy. The fourth chapter
will consider the place of the church in relation to India‟s long and rich culture,
suggesting ways in which the church is to become an incultured community. The fifth
chapter will address the issue of the relationship of the church to the followers of
other faiths. Through interaction with some Indian theologians it will be shown how
Newbigin gave attention to the church as both open to the movement of the Spirit
beyond the boundaries of the church, while also emphasizing the church as central to
our knowing Christ. The sixth chapter will draw out the ways in which Newbigin was
consciously engaging with the post colonial context of the church, particularly in his
interpretation of the relationship between the Spirit and the church.

Keywords: Lesslie Newbigin, Missiology, India, Ecclesiology, Indian Christian
theology, Holy Spirit, History, Inculturation, Post-colonial context

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Acknowledgements

I am very grateful for the guidance of my supervisor Professor K. Kritzinger and, in
the latter stages, Professor W. Saayman. Their instruction and comments have been
invaluable, not only in helping bring this work to completion, but also in developing
my understanding of academic writing.

I am grateful to a colleague and good friend for suggesting, a number of years ago, a
study of Lesslie Newbigin. This was good advice. Newbigin is a rich thinker and till
the end of the study new aspects of his thought kept emerging, nearly all of which I
have found very helpful.

My thanks are also due to Elizabeth, the college faculty members, and the centre staff,
who kept the college running while I was away on an unexpected sabbatical semester.
The time away allowed me to finally get this present work off the ground.

Finally, I am particularly thankful to my parents. Their unfailing support has
extended even to my labour in this work. In a constantly changing world there are
some things that don‟t change. I am also very grateful to a number of family
members who have cheered me along, expressed interest, and accommodated me at
different times in the process of writing. Blood is thicker than water.

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Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Problem Statement 1

1.2 Rationale of this Study 2

1.3 Thesis Statement 3

1.4 Research Questions 3

1.5 Research Methodology 4

1.6 Research Limitations 5

1.7 Chapter Outline 6

1.8 An Overview of Newbigin’s Writing 8

1.9 Secondary Works on Newbigin 10

1.10 Brief Overview of Indian Theological Literature 12

1.11 Terminology 14

1.12 Conclusion 18

2. Newbigin’s Theology of History 19

2.1 Introduction 19

2.2 Newbigin’s Theology of History in Context 19

2.3 Search for a New Mission Paradigm: A Trinitarian 28
Interpretation of the Reign of God

2.4 Interpreting History in the Light of Christ’s Death 34

2.5 The Church and the Kingdom 49

2.6 A Critique of the Relationship of the Kingdom to 56
History

2.7 Eschatology and the Religions 69

2.8 Conclusion 73

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3. Mission as Liberating Service of the Reign of God 74

3.1 Introduction 74

3.2 Newbigin’s Interpretation of the Atonement 75

3.3 Mission as Liberative Action: Engaging the Powers 84

3.4 Newbigin’s Liberative Mission in India 87

3.5 Engaging Capitalism 108

3.6 Conclusion 114

4. Mission as Inculturation 115

4.1 Introduction 115

4.2 Inculturation and the Kingdom of God 117

4.3 Method of Inculturation 121

4.4 Identifying an Incultured Church Community 137

4.5 Trinitarian Rationale of Inculturation 147

4.6 Conclusion 155

5 Mission as Witness to People of Other Living Faiths 157

5.1 Introduction 157

5.2 Elements in Mission as Prophetic Dialogue 157

5.3 The Form of the Church in a Pluralist Society 177

5.4 Revelation and the Church 188

5.5 Conclusion 203

6 Mission in a Post Colonial Context 205

6.1 Introduction 205

6.2 Multi-Dimensional Mission 206

6.3 Newbigin’s Post Colonial Ecclesiology 212

6.4 The Church as the Body of Christ 229
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6.5 Conclusion 241

7 Conclusion 242

Bibliography 246

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Chapter 1
Introduction

1.1 Problem Statement
For more than a hundred years ecclesiology has been an important area of
consideration by Indian thinkers and theologians, beginning with figures like Lal
Behari Dey in the late nineteenth century.1 During the twentieth century this
reflection on ecclesiology has assumed greater urgency due to two different social and
political factors. As the independence movement developed in the early decades of
the twentieth century the church found itself forced to reflect on what it meant to be
the church in India. But this cause of reflection has partially been supplanted in the
latter half of the twentieth century by the rise of Hindu communalism. Hindu
communalists are a small but vocal and powerful movement in India who insist that
Indian identity is necessarily Hindu. This identification denies proper legitimacy and
recognition to the distinct existence and identity of another religious group, as Lobo
points out, “For the communalist all other social identities and distinctions are either
denied or, if accepted in theory, negated in practice or subordinated to the religious
identity.”2 This attitude toward the other finds expression in part in the Hindu
communalists opposition to conversion, which has “forced Christian theologians to
re-think the idea of the church.”3 An example of this “re-think,” as Kim indicates,
was M. M. Thomas‟s suggestion in Salvation and Humanisation that it was possible
to experience the koinonia of the church beyond the boundaries of the visible church
in relationship with members of other faith communities. This was a modification of
the church‟s own self-understanding and, as it happens, one that Newbigin rejected, as

1 L. Dey (1824-1894) promoted the idea of a United Church of Bengal. This is outlined in a speech he
gave to the Bengal Christian Association, entitled, „The Desirableness and Practicability of Organizing
a National Church in Bengal‟ on 13 December 1869
(http://www.aecg.evtheol.lmu.de/cms/fileadmin/national/The_desirableness_and_practicability_of_org
anizing_a_National_Church_in_Bengal_%281869%29_v070716.pdf). In this lecture Dey, himself an
ordained Free Church of Scotland minister and strongly committed to the Westminster Confession of
Faith, suggests the Apostles Creed alone as the church‟s confessional position, on which basis “we
should be in communion with every Church in Christendom” (p.11). Approximately half of this lecture
is taken up with discussion of church government and administration.
2 Lancy Lobo, „Communalism and Christian Response in India,‟ Vidya Jyoti Journal of Theological
Reflection 59 (1995), 366.
3 Sebastian Kim, „The Identity and Mission of the Church in the Asian Contexts of Communal
Conflict, Poverty and Injustice,‟ 17. This is a paper commissioned by the Henry Martyn Center in
Cambridge, U.K.
(http://henrymartyn.dnssystems.net/media/documents/Commissioned%20Papers/The%20Identity%20a
nd%20Mission%20of%20the%20Church%20in%20the%20Asian%20Contexts%20of.pdf, accessed 21
February 2014).
will be considered later. The ongoing impetus of Hindu communalism on
ecclesiological reflection is indicated by a book recently published in 2013 by
Professor Sahayadhas of Union Theological College, Bangalore, entitled Hindu
Nationalism and the Indian Church.4
The importance of Hindu communalism for this study is that it is giving rise to
debate within the church. The identity and role of the church is being contested from
outside the church, naturally leading to some uncertainty and confusion, as well as a
search for greater clarity. Lancy Lobo gives some expression to this tension when he
states that, “In such a situation the dilemma before the Church will be either to
continue with the softer options such as dialogue centres, relief after communal riots,
individual heroism, imparting inter-religious knowledge and so-called liberal
education, or be prophetic.”5

1.2 Rationale of this Study
One of the reasons for the study of Newbigin in the light of the problem
statement above is that he gave quite considerable attention to a mission ecclesiology
in his writing. His mission ecclesiology has been widely noted leading to several
academic studies such as Michael Goheen‟s „“As the Father Has Sent Me, I Am
Sending You:” J. E. Lesslie Newbigin‟s Missionary Ecclesiology‟ (2000).
A second reason for a consideration of Newbigin‟s thought is that it was formed
in the Indian context, where over a thirty five year period from 1939 he served in the
Indian church, approximately twenty years of which was as a bishop in the Church of
South India. Newbigin is well known for his contribution to missiology in the West,
where his work has been extensively studied. Yet, the Indian situation was a key
formative influence, and even after his return to the U.K. he continues to reference
India in his writing. As a missiologist the Indian context is where many of his ideas
where hammered out and given life.
Thirdly, Newbigin‟s writing has received little attention within the church in
India. In a book giving a series of brief surveys of the thought of some pioneers in
Indian theology, Newbigin is described very briefly by M. M. Thomas as having
“systematized from fundamentals the ecclesiology behind the Church of South India”

4 R. Sahayadhas, Hindu Nationalism and the Indian Church: Towards an Ecclesiology in Conversation
with Martin Luther (New Delhi: Christian World Imprints, 2013).
5 L. Lobo, „Communalism and Christian Response in India,‟ Vidya Jyoti Journal of Theological
Reflection 59 (1995), 374.
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in two of his key early works on ecclesiology: Reunion of the Church and The
Household of God.6 M. M. Thomas‟s description of Newbigin‟s thought is limited
and doesn‟t acknowledge the much wider ramifications of his ecclesiology, and its
connection to his eschatology and soteriology. There is little in M. M. Thomas‟s
statement to indicate the potential fruitfulness of Newbigin‟s thought for missiology
in India today, and it rather encourages a view of it as belonging to the past. Among
other Indian thinkers a degree of misunderstanding about the writing of Newbigin can
also be found. In a fairly recent review of K. P. Aleaz‟s book Religion in Christian
Theology and his chapter on Newbigin,7 the reviewer states: “The gospel of God in
Jesus, can evolve into something which is not the gospel through the hands of a
conservative missionary theologian and the thought of Newbigin is a typical example
of such an evolution.”8 This kind of unbalanced assessment of Newbigin‟s writing
sidelines any further consideration of his thought.
For these reasons I believe that Newbigin‟s thought can help contribute to the
debate on the church‟s identity and mission in India today.

1.3 Thesis Statement
The thesis statement is that the visible church as a divinely instituted community
with a divinely given purpose in the world has an integral place in Indian society
today.

1.4 Research Questions
The research questions are focused on drawing out the theological rationale for the
church‟s distinct identity and mission. These particular questions reflect the questions
and issues that Newbigin himself was interacting with in India, relating for example to
the wider action of God in the world outside the church, and the role of the church in
the world today.

6 M. M. Thomas, introduction to Towards an Indian Christian Theology, M. M Thomas and P. T.
Thomas (Tiruvalla: Christava Sahitya Samithi, 1998), 10. Newbigin‟s two works are: The Reunion of
the Church: A Defence of the South India Scheme, rev. ed. (London: SCM Press, 1960); and The
Household of God: Lectures on the Nature of the Church (London: SCM Press, 1953).
7 K. P. Aleaz, Religions in Christian Theology (Kolkata: Punthi Pustak, 2001).
8 Bonita Aleaz, „Review of Religions in Christian Theology,‟ Indian Journal of Theology 44, 1&2
(2002), 115. http://biblicalstudies.org.
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1.4.1 How does Newbigin understand the action of God in the world? Where
can God‟s action be found in regard to Hinduism and secular movements?
1.4.2 In what sense is God‟s action in the world salvific?
1.4.3 What is the relationship of the church in India to God‟s action in the
world? Does the church have a unique role in the world and, if so, what is
it?
1.4.4 What is the relationship and role of the church in India, as a minority
community, to the state and wider society?
1.4.5 Does a coherent theological picture emerge in Newbigin‟s thought that
can sustain missions?
1.4.6 Are there areas of Newbigin‟s thought that can be developed on in
articulating the theological rationale for missions in India today?

1.5 Research Methodology
Reflection on these questions will be developed using Newbigin‟s thought as the
point of reference, and through interaction with other thinkers. These thinkers are
relevant for consideration for several reasons. Firstly, they are, largely, influential
Indian thinkers roughly contemporary with the period during which much of
Newbigin‟s writing was done: particularly Abhishiktananda (1910-1973), M. M.
Thomas (1916-1996), Raymond Panikkar (1918-2010), Sebastian Kappen (1924-
1993) and Samuel Rayan (b.1920). Although Dalit theology developed towards the
end of Newbigin‟s life, the work of some of these theologians will also be considered
because of the significance of their thought in evaluating Newbigin‟s work.
Secondly, there is a reasonable degree of commonality between Newbigin and these
theologians in that all were trying to respond to dimensions of the Indian context.
Having served in India for such a long period of time Newbigin had interacted, either
personally or in writing, with many of the issues they deal with (the advaita to which
Abhishiktananda and Panikkar were attracted); the need for the gospel as addressed to
the whole life of humanity to find clear historical expression (Kappen, Rayan).
An understanding of Newbigin‟s theology of mission will be derived from a large
body of written work that stretches over a sixty year period, containing published
books and numerous articles published in a wide range of journals. Interaction with
some of the large volume of secondary material on Newbigin will help in this process
of identifying the distinctive elements of his thought, although the lack of direct
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