Sin and Salvation

A short book on the Christian doctrine of sin and salvation, written for village teachers in the Tamil dioceses of the Church of South India. The preface explains that these teachers, without theological training, carried much of the pastoral care of thousands of village congregations and followed a scheme of study for which four new books were published each year. Newbigin began writing it in Tamil, finished it in English and had it translated; the English edition was published at the suggestion of the Religious Book Club, and he asks readers to remember both its first readers and that its sentences were written to go easily into Tamil. He also dealt with the misunderstandings common among Tamil Christians, which he notes are not those common in England. The book works through the biblical account of sin, from Genesis onwards, and the saving work of Christ. It was published by SCM Press in London in 1956 and by Westminster Press in Philadelphia in 1957.