Author LESSLIE NEWBIGGIN
Publisher TRIANGLE
ISBN 0-281-05253-0
The author was a renowned missionary statesman and theologian, a man of great experience in church life in India and throughout the world. This little book is exactly what it says it is and is developed from two hours of talks he gave at Holy Trinity Brompton London in 1997. In it we are led through the story, the narrative of the Bible in an uncomplicated way. Apparently, a Hindu friend challenged him many years ago whilst ministering in India, this man stated that Indians had sufficient religious books and the unique nature of the Bible seemed to elude the average Christian. In his view Christians viewed their book as a collection of wisdom and looked for nuggets of truth to comfort and help them in their daily walk rather than seeing it as a wonderful narrative written to explain the history of the world and of mankind and God. Newbiggin was stirred by this challenge realizing its truth and began to present Bible as story, the history of God’s dealings with His creation, mankind in particular and this short book is covers the subject in about eighty pages. Many in the churches would do well to get it and read it several times. Since it was published other books have come that deal with the story of God in a similar way but, sometimes in more theological and doctrinal ways, but, the narrative idea has definitely become more popular in the last decade or so. N.T.Wright is another author who has approached the story of God as the overruling narrative of history. So many Christians really do read their Bibles in little chunks to obtain some ‘word’ and that is totally inadequate. A Walk Through the Bible would be a good start in obtaining a far larger picture of God at work in the whole of history and help to locate each reader as an individual within that overriding framework.
