ABSTRACT
Theologically, Lesslie Newbigin adopts a strong exclusivist position. The prevailing feeling about Newbigin is that his pastoral heart and his theological head are incompatible. Gavin D'Costa points to this when he writes: Exclusivist theologians tend to adopt either one of two strategies to relieve this awkward tension within their position. Newbigin argues that the only basis upon which a Christian can encounter other religions is from the starting point of all the assertions of the gospel regarding the authority and finality of Christ. Newbigin affirms that there are not only different contemporary interpretations of the Bible message, but that there are varying interpretations of the same events within the biblical record itself. The New Testament itself gives us ample evidence of this. The understanding of God's action in history, in other words, remains always a matter of faith and never of indubitable knowledge.
