In a reading for a class I'm taking at Regent College I came across an essay by Leslie Newbigin. I'd read him before but, for some reason, many of his thoughts had some deep resonations with me now. Here's the quote:
The Christian gospel has sometimes been made the tool of an imperialism, and of that we have to repent. But at its heart it is the denial of all imperialisms, for at its center there is the cross where all imperialisms are humbled and we are invited to find the center of human unity in the One who was made nothing so that all might be one. The very heart of the biblical vision for unity of humankind is that its center is not an imperial power but the slain lamb.
Newbigin gives us tells the reader this after critiquing modern secular projects at unity (which often involve too much compromise), and then critiquing imperialistic projects at unity (which involve violence and triumphalism). I think he's arrived at a true unity project. You?
2 comments:
Wonderful book, I just read it again and loved it more the second time than the first. He has the heart of a missionary for our own culture.
Denial of self needs to happen at the level of our cultural identity. Instead of cross-cultural exchange we need to exchange culture for the cross. I like what's being said in this post. Ultimately, we must see every culture redeemed and bowing before the slain Lamb as in Revelation 7:9, 10.
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