Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History - Softcover

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(1909-1998) Lesslie Newbigin was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, U.K., in 1909. He completed his undergraduate studies in Cambridge and then served as Staff Secretary of the Student Christian Movement in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied theology at Westminster College at Cambridge and was ordained by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, Church of Scotland in 1936. That same year Newbigin married Helen Henderson and the two of them left for India where he was to be missionary of the Church of Scotland.

In 1947 Reverend Newbigin was consecrated Bishop in the Church of South India, formed by the union of Anglican, Methodist, and Reformed churches. He also served on the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches and as Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the main theme of the Second Assembly. Other members of the committee included famous theologians such as Barth, Brunner, and Niebuhr.

In 1959 Newbigin was called to be General Secretary of the International Missionary Council with offices in London and New York. He was responsible for carrying through final negotiations for the merger with the World Council of Churches. In 1962 he became the first director of the Division of World Mission and Evangelism, and Associate General Secretary of the World Council of Churches with headquarters in Geneva.

In 1965 he was recalled by the Church of South India as Bishop in Madras and remained there until his retirement in 1974. He lived in London, England, until his death in 1998.

Geoffrey Wainwright (1939–2020) was a leading ecumenist of the Methodist Church, a liturgical expert, and a professor of theology at Duke Divinity School for almost three decades. He also served as president of the American Theological Society from 1996 to 1997.
 

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The late Lesslie Newbigin was widely regarded as one of this generation'smost significant voices on Christianity in relation to modern society. Nowthat he is gone, there is a call for his unpublished writings to be madeavailable. To that end "Signs amid the Rubble gathers some of Newbigin'sfinest statements on issues of continuing relevance.

The first set of chapters consists of the 1941Bangalore Lectures, in which Newbigin speaks powerfully of the kingdomof God in relation to the modern -- severely deficient -- idea of "progress." The second group of writings, the Henry Martyn Lectures of 1986, deals mainly with the importance of Christian mission. In the last piece, his address to the World Council of Churches conference on mission andevangelism in Brazil in 1996 -- which editor Geoffrey Wainwright calls his "swan song on the ecumenical stage" -- Newbigin wondersaloud how future generations will judge today's practice of abortion.