Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture

Foolishness to the Greeks. The Gospel and Western Culture. Lesslie Newbigin. PAPERBACK; Published: 6/1/ ISBN: Pages.
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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. The Gospel and Western Culture, he lays out what he believes to be the best way to reach western culture with the gospel, by looking at several issues in our western society. He will survey post-enlightenment culture, Scripture, the dialogue between Christianity and Science, the dialogue between Christianity and Politics, as well as the role and purpose of the Church.

Newbigin writes his book from the perspective of a missionary to India.

Book Review – Foolishness to the Greeks by Lesslie Newbigin — Logos Apologia

He sets out to engage western culture on the basis of the way they perceive, think, and live. In chapter one, Newbigin argues that the cultural values of western society have so infused with the values of Christianity, that the two have often been confused. From his perspective as a missionary, Newbigin shows the dangers of this idea, It implied that what the missionary brought with him was the pure gospel, which had to be adapted to the receptor culture.

The argument Newbigin stands to make is that when we encounter a culture not our own, we tend to impose on that culture the values and understanding of the gospel we bring to them; a gospel shaped by our own culture. Western culture has changed the way missions is shaped and that has led to the church shrinking in its influence of the culture. Newbigin wants to see a church culture that has its eyes opened to the fact that the gospel and its communication across differing cultures, has been shaped by the culture it has grown out of.

The church has failed to realize this and has lost its relevance in the culture today. This fits very well with what Newbigin sees as the main issue of the culture and what he has already stated the church has done: Newbigin also rightly identifies the way individualism has trumped certain things life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Book Review – Foolishness to the Greeks by Lesslie Newbigin

Each individual has now taken those ideas and defined them how they have wished, and this has spread throughout every area of culture, Christianity included. Two other consequences have followed from this.


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First, the removal of work from the home has completely changed the way the family unit exists. Second, the mechanization of work has urbanized culture and therefore only added to the problem of family-based communities and networks of people. This has also affected the identity of people and the identity of culture. Individuals can choose what they want or not, and that also includes their own identity. This is very prominent in 21st century society with the acceptance of homosexuality or any cultural issue that has now become the norm.

Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture

Most of the culture views the bibles claims as irrational and Newbigin uses the example of the resurrection Jesus as the prime marker of Christianity that has a direct effect upon the culture, which the culture views as illogical and irrational. Newbigin rightly identifies the bible as a plausibility structure in itself but also sees the insights from culture as valuable to its understanding.

Likewise, the view the culture holds of the bible does not change the values and claims the bible holds on its own. A new plausibility structure has been developed in the God whose self-revelation is the bible. Chapter four looks at the pursuit of science and it has shaped and even replaced thinking in modern western culture. The mindset of those in western culture has seen a shift from looking to the bible as its authority, essentially the idea of a Christian society, to the development of scientific thought and discovery and, as Newbigin puts it, Newtonian science Newbigin, The layperson in western society has now begun to replace their thinking from a Christian world-view to that of a scientific world-view.

The cultural norm has now shifted to investigation through the scientific method. The chapter ends with five propositions that Newbigin thinks must be affirmed.

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The first is his refutation that everything can be explained in terms of efficient cause. He sees that in its shift in thinking, modern western cultural has developed a self-defeating argument that will lead to the destruction of the social order as we have come to know it. Secondly, purpose is a personal reality that can only be known through one who chooses to communicate it. In the end, what can be known and how it can be known are seen through the self-revelation of God and the work he has done through his Son on the cross and resurrection.

For Newbigin, this is the purpose of humanity, not skepticism through the scientific method. The aim of chapter five is to determine whether or not the church has a place in politics.

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The place of the church in politics has been met with several objections, three of which he addresses. The first is the notion that the church should have no place in politics and Newbigin identifies this with post-enlightenment thinking. Those who claim to the know facts are the only ones qualified to make decisions about societal matters.

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This is accomplished by placing every area of society, political, economic, and cultural, in the context of the gospel. The final chapter looks at the call of church in every realm of society. Newbigin lays this out with seven ways the church can fulfill its call. New Testament General Works. Social Theology Feminist Theology.

Notable Theologians Abraham Kuyper. Hans Urs von Bal Worship and Liturgy Sacraments and Rites. Christian Living Grief and Suffering. World Religions Catholic Studies. Religious History Early American. American History Regional History. Literature Analysis and Cri Foolishness to the Greeks. The Gospel and Western Culture. He calls us to a thorough critique of our culture and of the way in which we understand or misunderstand the gospel of Christ and his good news of the kingdom of God. Buy this book at Amazon.

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