N - Past Witnesses
- Wachman Nee - Lesslie Newbigin - Reinhold Niebuhr - H. Richard Niebuhr - Henry Handley Norris - Gary North -
==lesslie newbigin======
Lesslie Newbigin (1909–1998) was an influential British missionary, theologian, and author. He spent much of his life in India and is best known for his contributions to the missional church movement and for challenging Western culture to re-engage with the Gospel. Newbigin was ordained by the Church of Scotland in 1936 and immediately left for India, where he worked as a village evangelist for 40 years. He was a key figure in the formation of the Church of South India in 1947, becoming one of its first bishops. He served in leadership roles with the International Missionary Council and the World Council of Churches (WCC), where he helped integrate the IMC into the WCC. After returning to the UK in 1974, he became a public theologian, critiquing what he saw as the secularist assumptions of Western culture with the fresh perspective of an "outsider". Newbigin argued that post-Enlightenment Western culture, with its emphasis on objective, secular knowledge, had become "foreign territory" for the Christian gospel. He insisted that the church needed to approach its own society with a missionary mindset. He is considered a founding father of the missional church movement, which teaches that the church's identity is defined by its participation in God's mission (missio Dei). Newbigin challenged the idea that Christian faith was merely a private belief system. Instead, he saw the Gospel as a public truth with implications for all of life. His experience in India helped him develop insights on how to present the Gospel effectively in radically different cultural contexts.
Notable works: The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission (1978), Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (1986), The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (1989), Unfinished Agenda: An Updated Autobiography (1993)
Notable works: The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission (1978), Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (1986), The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (1989), Unfinished Agenda: An Updated Autobiography (1993)
Apr 5, 2022: Gospel Coalition: Don’t Overlook the Value of Cultural Apologetics
Engaging in cultural apologetics begins with a particular posture toward the world. The missionary theologian Lesslie Newbigin urged Christians toward a “missionary encounter” between the gospel and whatever culture we’re trying to reach.
Engaging in cultural apologetics begins with a particular posture toward the world. The missionary theologian Lesslie Newbigin urged Christians toward a “missionary encounter” between the gospel and whatever culture we’re trying to reach.
==Reinhold niebuhr======
“Humanity’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but humanity’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” -20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr
Today’s Christian Political Tribes
Christian Realism is another brand of political witness that, in the Augustinian spirit of Reinhold Niebuhr, is mindful of human caprice and tries to avoid overly confident political dogmatics. Pursuing political righteousness is necessary but comes with its own dangers and tragedies, Christian Realists believe. No political tribe should ever be confused with the angels. And even saints can lack political wisdom. But Christian Realism is much more a sensibility than a specific political perspective. Active partisans of most perspectives are impatient with its warnings. But most Christians, upon reflection, would likely agree with its key insights, chief of which is that “pride goeth before a fall.” (Juicy Ecumenism 10/21/25) READMORE>>>>
Christian Realism is another brand of political witness that, in the Augustinian spirit of Reinhold Niebuhr, is mindful of human caprice and tries to avoid overly confident political dogmatics. Pursuing political righteousness is necessary but comes with its own dangers and tragedies, Christian Realists believe. No political tribe should ever be confused with the angels. And even saints can lack political wisdom. But Christian Realism is much more a sensibility than a specific political perspective. Active partisans of most perspectives are impatient with its warnings. But most Christians, upon reflection, would likely agree with its key insights, chief of which is that “pride goeth before a fall.” (Juicy Ecumenism 10/21/25) READMORE>>>>
==H Richard Niebuhr======
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Megan Basham’s “Shepherds for Sale” with Bethel McGrew Although I have not read Basham’s book myself, the pattern of ecclesial drift Basham seeks to expose is one that has been repeatedly illuminated by past biblical and cultural commentators. The idea of the church becoming corrupted over time through a top-down process is one that biblical scholars, like Yehezkel Kaufmann, as well as theologians, like H. Richard Niebuhr, pointed out in their own day. As to the biblical data itself, Kaufmann concluded that the corruption of the religion of Israel was almost exclusively one that started at the very top of the social and economic stratosphere, i.e., that came through the royal houses: (The Center That Holds 10/28/24) READ MORE>>>>> |
October 5, 1975: The cultural Christians tend to address themselves to the leading groups in a society, they speak to the cultured among the despisers of religion; they use the language of the more sophisticated circles, of those who are acquainted with the science, the philosophy, and the political and economic movements of the time. They are missionaries to the aristocracy and the middle class, or to the groups rising to power in a civilization. --H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture |
==henry handley norris======
Henry Handley Norris (1771–1850) was an English clergyman and theologian. He was the clerical leader of the High Church grouping later known as the Hackney Phalanx, that grew up around him and his friend Joshua Watson. Educated at Newcome's School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1797, M.A. 1806, he was admitted ad eundem at the University of Oxford on 23 January 1817. Norris became a curate of Hackney parish church, the Church of St John-at-Hackney.
Henry Handley Norris Files
On the sole ground that "in the beginning it was not so," He dismisses the cases captiously put to Him, making this the criterion of lawful marriage under His perfect dispensation; and, still keeping steadily before Him the primeval pattern, He pronounces the vital principle of marriage to be "the making of twain one flesh," and expressly declares, that it is by "God's joining them together," that this blending of their beings takes effect, and that the contract is inviolable; and farther, that it is an exempt jurisdiction reserved by God exclusively to Himself, and not to be modified, or, in any respect, invaded by human authority [Mat. 19:3,6]. Man's law indeed may "couple" male and female together; but as our Church affirms, it is their being "joined together by God, and as God's law does allow, that, in His sight, makes their matrimony lawful [Marriage Service.]." -- Rev. Henry Handley Norris
==gary north======
(February 11, 1942 – February 24, 2022)
Gary Kilgore North is an American Christian Reconstructionist theorist and economic historian. North has authored or coauthored over fifty books on topics including Christian theology, economics, and history. He is an Associated Scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Jan 13, 2023: Religion Dispatches: ‘EXPORTING GARBAGE TO THE NATIONS’: CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN RIFTS SPREADING LIKE CRACKED GLASS
Hume and Saint are unabashed Christian Reconstructionists and directors of the Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society (MARS), a regional Reconstructionist hub which has close relationships with the paper, and with the Independence Reformed Bible Church. MARS hosts an annual conference called The Future of Christendom, which has featured such leading figures as the late Gary North, Rev. Joseph Morecraft of Georgia, Col. John Eidsmoe of Alabama, and Rev. Matt Trewhella of Wisconsin.
Hume and Saint are unabashed Christian Reconstructionists and directors of the Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society (MARS), a regional Reconstructionist hub which has close relationships with the paper, and with the Independence Reformed Bible Church. MARS hosts an annual conference called The Future of Christendom, which has featured such leading figures as the late Gary North, Rev. Joseph Morecraft of Georgia, Col. John Eidsmoe of Alabama, and Rev. Matt Trewhella of Wisconsin.
June 16, 2021: Christianity Today: Evangelicals Practicing ‘Strategic Hibernation’ in the American Northwest
Its central ideas were first articulated by Rousas John Rushdoony, a California-based Presbyterian pastor and the son of Armenian immigrants. Gary North, Rushdoony’s estranged son-in-law, is one of many to carry its banner forward into the 21st century.
Oct 30, 2015: The Truth About Moscow: “Pardon My French”: In which Doug Wilson doubles down on Gary North for failing to footnote
A commenter identified a sentence from the quote as belonging to Gary North (and he claims there are others as well). Ten minutes later this post went up and yesterday we saw that the spirit of accusation possessed Mr. Wilson to accuse Gary North of all sorts of sins, including the failure to properly cite his sources.
Apr 7, 2015: Gary North: Tea Party Economist: “Boondoggles R Us!” — China’s Asian Infrastructure Development Bank
Its central ideas were first articulated by Rousas John Rushdoony, a California-based Presbyterian pastor and the son of Armenian immigrants. Gary North, Rushdoony’s estranged son-in-law, is one of many to carry its banner forward into the 21st century.
Oct 30, 2015: The Truth About Moscow: “Pardon My French”: In which Doug Wilson doubles down on Gary North for failing to footnote
A commenter identified a sentence from the quote as belonging to Gary North (and he claims there are others as well). Ten minutes later this post went up and yesterday we saw that the spirit of accusation possessed Mr. Wilson to accuse Gary North of all sorts of sins, including the failure to properly cite his sources.
Apr 7, 2015: Gary North: Tea Party Economist: “Boondoggles R Us!” — China’s Asian Infrastructure Development Bank
Sept 24, 2014: Gary North: Tea Party Economist: Walmart Bank: Free Checking — No Overdraft Fees
July 24, 2014: Pando Daily: As Reason’s editor defends its racist history, here’s a copy of its holocaust denial “special issue”
Perhaps the most shocking article in Reason’s “special issue” was penned by Gary North, who was also Ron Paul’s congressional aide that same year, and has been one of the most influential figures in the Christian radical-right since the 1970s.
July 2, 2014: Twocare: The Hobby Lobby Case and The Alliance Defending Freedom’s Ties To Christian Reconstructionism
The ADF co-sponsored conference featured leading Christian Reconstructionist luminaries such as Gary DeMar, Gary Cass, Doug Phillips, and Gary North – known to some by his lusty advocacy for stoning as a method of capital punishment, due to the fact that rocks are ubiquitous and free.
July 24, 2014: Pando Daily: As Reason’s editor defends its racist history, here’s a copy of its holocaust denial “special issue”
Perhaps the most shocking article in Reason’s “special issue” was penned by Gary North, who was also Ron Paul’s congressional aide that same year, and has been one of the most influential figures in the Christian radical-right since the 1970s.
July 2, 2014: Twocare: The Hobby Lobby Case and The Alliance Defending Freedom’s Ties To Christian Reconstructionism
The ADF co-sponsored conference featured leading Christian Reconstructionist luminaries such as Gary DeMar, Gary Cass, Doug Phillips, and Gary North – known to some by his lusty advocacy for stoning as a method of capital punishment, due to the fact that rocks are ubiquitous and free.
May 7, 2014: American Vision: Gary North straightens out misguided Bundy Ranch hotheads
Cliven Bundy’s stand against the United States government has often been described as the equivalent of the Whiskey Rebellion. We can find this comparison all over the Web.
Cliven Bundy’s stand against the United States government has often been described as the equivalent of the Whiskey Rebellion. We can find this comparison all over the Web.
