Newbigin: the struggle

Tuesday, March 20, 2012
    Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687
Meditation:
    Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
    —John 14:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    How do we conceive the human quest for reliable truth? If our quest is that of Descartes—for a final certitude that admits of no possibility of doubt, for “eternal truths of reason” that are independent of contingent happenings in history—then the Bible is not the place to look. To look for this kind of certitude in the Bible is to impose upon the Bible a concept of truth that is foreign to it and is therefore a misuse of the Bible. If we take the Bible itself as our guide to the question ”What is truth?” we will find the answer in a long record of struggle between the patient love and wisdom of God and the stubborn, impatient, idolatrous wills of men and women. The story culminates in the coming of the One who is himself the truth—not a timeless proposition but a living Lord who undertakes to lead us into the fullness of the truth as it is present in him.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Truth and Authority in Modernity, Gracewing Publishing, 1996, p. 70 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You alone can lead me into truth. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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