Hearts Minds Bookstore's Best Books of 2015, Theology

Toward the end of the twentieth century, Lesslie Newbigin offered a penetrating analysis of the challenges of pluralism that confronted a Western culture and society reeling from the dissolution of Christendom. His enormous influence has been felt ever since. Newbigin (1909-1998) was a longtime Church of Scotland missionary to India and later General Secretary of the International Missionary Council and Associate General Secretary of the World Council of Churches.

The first installment in the Missiological Engagements series, the essays in this volume explore three aspects of Newbigin?s legacy. First, they assess the impact of his 1989 book, Gospel ina Pluralist Society, on Christian mission and evangelism in the West. Second, they critically analyze the nature of Western pluralism in its many dimensions to discern how Christianity can proclaim good news for today. Finally, the contributorsdiscuss the influence of Newbigin's work on the field of missiology. By looking backward, this volume recommends and advances a vision for Christian witness in the pluralistic world of the twenty-first century.

Contributions from leading missiologists and theologians, including:



- William Burrows

- John Flett

- Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

- Esther Meek

- Wilbert Shenk

Missiological Engagements charts interdisciplinary and innovative trajectories in the history, theology, and practice of Christian mission, featuring contributions by leading thinkers from both the Euro-American West and the majority world whose missiological scholarship bridges church, academy, and society.



Amos Yong (PhD, Boston University) is professor of theology and mission and director of the Center for Missiological Research at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is the author or editor of over two dozen books, including Spirit of Love: A Trinitarian Theology of Grace, Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture (coedited with Estrelda Alexander), Science and the Spirit: A Pentecostal Engagement with the Sciences (coedited with James K. A. Smith), and The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology.







Scott W. Sunquist (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Previously, he was a professor and dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, taught missiology and Christian history at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and lectured at Trinity Theological College in Singapore. Sunquist is the author of Explorations in Asian Christianity, Understanding Christian Mission, and The Unexpected Christian Century, and a coauthor of A History of the World Christian Movement.



Acknowledgments

Abbreviation Note



1. Introduction: The Legacy of Newbigin for Mission to the West

Scott W. Sunquist

2. Newbigin in His Time

Wilbert R. Shenk

3. Newbigin?s Theology of Mission and Culture After Twenty-Five Years: Attending to the "Subject" of Mission

William R. Burrows

4. Community and Witness in Transition: Newbigin?s Missional Ecclesiology Between Modernity and Postmodernity

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen and Michael Karim

5. Holistic Theological Method and Theological Epistemology: Performing Newbigin?s Plurality of Sources in the Pluralist Context

Steven B. Sherman

6. Honoring True Otherness in a Still-Antipluralist Culture

Esther L. Meek

7. Pluralism,Secularism and Pentecost: Newbigin-ings for Missio Trinitatis in a New Century

Amos Yong

8. Evangelism in a Pluralistic Society: The Newbigin Vision

Carrie Boren Headington

9. What Does It Mean for a Congregation to Be a Hermeneutic?

John G. Flett

10. Asian Perspectives on Twenty-First-Century Pluralism

Allen Yeh



Contributors

Index