Newbigin Justifies Gospel Taught To Modern 'Good Non-Christian'

How Christians may presume to teach the gospel to non-Christians who may be of greater moral and spiritual eminence was a problem discussed by The Right Reverend Dr. J. E. Lesslie Newbigin in last night's third William Belden Noble lecture at Memorial Church.

The Christian authority to teach the gospel, Newbigin declared, derives from the fact that the "total event of Christ" was indeed an event, on whose reality all men were agreed, and was not merely a teaching or a philosophy. Modern Christians may teach greater men than themselves for the same reason that the rabble of the time could enter heaven before their greater contemporaries--because the established religious men of the day were concerned with their own self-righteousness. In the "total event of Christ" Newbigin stated, men were--and are--confronted with a demand over and above the demands of men. Because this demand is uniquely universal and significant, the Christian is justified in singling out the Christ event as the one basis for a modern world faith.

Newbigin discussed two of the three aspects of the "total event of Christ"--the doctrines of Creation and of Sin. Discussion of the third, the doctrine of Election, concerning the condition of Christian unity, was postponed last night because of time considerations and will precede tonight's lecture