Mission Apologetics

By David Feddes

"Can the West be converted?" That question gripped longtime missionary Lesslie Newbigin when he moved back to his British homeland and saw its post-Christian condition. Likewise, renowned author C. S. Lewis viewed Europe and North America as a mission field. Lewis said that Christians in the West needed to learn the "mental habits.. . of their unbelieving fellow countrymen, much as overseas missionaries had to learn the language and traditions of another culture. Lewis and Newbigin were missional apologists: each developed a missionary diagnosis of the cultural context and explored ways of showing the gospel's plausibility in that setting. Missional Apologetics clearly portrays Lewis's and Newbigin's perceptions of Western cultural barriers to Christian conviction, their views of epistemology (how we know things), and their tactics for helping people to see gospel truth. David Feddes draws on Lewis's and Newbigin's books, articles, and thousands of letters, as well as extensive research in cultural history and sociology of religion. In comparing and contrasting Lewis and Newbigin, Missional Apologetics offers fresh insight for knowing and showing gospel truth in our contemporary setting.