IV. India’s Bishop Newbigin-Resurrection Not Immortality

Even in far-flung Southern India, Bishop LESSLIE NEWBIGIN, ^{5252) LESSLIE NEWBIGIN, of the Church of Scotland, was educated at Cambridge University, receiving his theological training at Westminster College. Going at once to the Madras Mission in South India, he served until 1947, when he was elected bishop of South India, for the diocese of Madura and Ramnad. He has been active in World Council of Churches work.} active in World Council of Churches affairs, adds his voice to the growing chorus of witnesses around the globe, advocating that man be “treated as a living whole,” and his “eternal future” be conceived of in terms of the “resurrection of the body,” not in the framework of the “immortality of the soul.” In 1954, in The Household of God, ^{5353) First given as the Kerr Lectures in Trinity College, Glasgow, in 1952.} Dr. Newbigin stated:CFF2 899.5

“In the Bible salvation is concerned with the whole created order. The whole visible world is ascribed to God, and it is, in its essential nature, good. Though the fall of man has mysteriously corrupted nature also, yet nature itself is not evil. Nor is it merely the neutral setting of man’s spiritual life. It has its own part to play in glorifying God. And its renewal is part of the consummation for which at present the whole creation groans and travails in longing. In particular man’s physical frame is not treated as the merely temporary envelope of an immortal spirit. Man is treated as a living whole, and his eternal future is conceived of in terms of the resurrection of the body rather than of the immortality of the soul. The final consummation of all things is conceived to include the renewal of the whole created universe, and of man’s body, and the restoration of its lost harmony in the joy of God’s service.” ^{5454) Lesslie Newbigin, The Household of God (Copyrighted 1954 by Friendship Press, New York. Used by permission.), pp 66, 67. (Italics supplied.)}CFF2 900.1