According to Walter Small, Lynn de Silva and his brothers Fred and Denzil were among the most significant Methodist writers during the period 1931–1964 in Sri Lanka.

Lynn Alton de Silva was born to a Methodist family on 16 June 1919, in the town of Kurana in Katunayake, Sri Lanka.

Lynn de Silva was the second youngest out of one sister: Pearl (?-1999), and five brothers: Frederick Stanley (1904-1980), Roy, George Denzil (?-1996), Eric and Hugh.

[11] A few months after being ordained, Lynn de Silva married Lakshmi Mendis, on 3 February 1951,[12] at the Colpetty Methodist Church in Colombo.

[11] It was shortly before starting work at the Study Center that Lynn and Lakshmi had their third child, Shiromi Priyala de Silva (later Rodrigo), on 3 September 1961.

[5] From 1970 to 1971, de Silva lived in England with Lakshmi while he served the World Churches as William Paton Lecturer at Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham.

He pointed out as nobody did before, such words when uttered in a Buddhist context, distort the Gospel message whilst doing violence also to the Sinhala language.Lakshmi de Silva also played an important role in the Bible translation work.

[12] She possessed sufficient knowledge in Greek and Hebrew to be able to check the accuracy and consistency of the Bible translation, which she continued at a full-time capacity even after she had fallen ill toward the latter part of her life.

[12] Lynn de Silva's ecumenical responsibilities included membership in the Committees of the World Council of Churches (WCC) that focused on the Christian approach to other faiths.

He was among a group of people that led the movement for the "contextualisation and inculturation of the Gospel," and also among those who "advocated and struggled for Church Union in Sri Lanka.

He led a team of Sinhalese leaders for dialogue with the Tamils in Jaffna, and wrote articles on the history of the conflict as well as his analysis of it, in an effort to promote interracial understanding.

[10] In 1979, de Silva was appointed to the Presidium of the National Council for Religion and Peace in Sri Lanka, where he was Executive President for one year.

The main influences responsible for the change included (1) more accurate knowledge of Buddhism than was available in the past; (2) interest in and appreciation for Buddhism shown by Western scholars such as Arthur Schopenhauer, whose philosophy was similar to that of the Buddha; (3) the book by Edwin Arnold titled The Light of Asia, which created a popular interest in Buddhism; (4) the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910, which set the tone for a new Christian ecumenical movement; (5) missionary activities of Buddhists such as Anagarika Dharmapala in the West; and (6) the Tambaram Missionary Conference in 1938, where one of the main themes for discussion was Christian message in a non-Christian world.

[22] In the introductory chapter, Bishop states: The apparently wide differences between the teachings of Gautama Buddha and of Jesus Christ have led many to suppose that there is very little in common between the two systems.

[23] With the resurgence of Buddhism after Sri Lankan independence, the conviction grew even stronger for the need to consider Christianity in the light of a culture and heritage that is predominantly Buddhist, which led to an increased need for dialogue between the two religions.

S. J. Samartha notes de Silva's contribution as "one of the most powerful interventions in the Assembly in support of dialogue," and Carl Hallencreutz describes it as "the personal witness of an experienced theologian from Sri Lanka.

[5][10][15] His findings eventually led to the book titled Buddhism: Beliefs and Practices in Sri Lanka (de Silva 1974), which is widely cited in religious literature (e.g.,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46]).

Contrary to popular belief, de Silva shows that modern Christian scholarship does not support the notion of a soul as an immortal entity separate from the body.

Based on his observation, de Silva shows how the Buddhist doctrine of anattā is complementary to the Christian notion of personal identity – pneuma.

[29] Furthermore, Kitagawa argues that de Silva could have entertained the possibility that Theravada Buddhism might look for Ultimate Reality more readily in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, rather than turning towards Christianity.

"[52] From the evangelical theologians, Tissa Weerasinghe believed that de Silva needs to put more emphasis on the "glaring disharmony" between Christianity and Buddhism that their differing views on the biblical notion of soul suggest.

[55] In a publication that aims at an evangelical approach to religions and cultures, Yung interprets de Silva's contribution as not so much an able exercise in dialogue, but, rather, a brilliant Christian apologetic, addressed to Theravada Buddhists.

Perry Schmidt-Leukel notes how this change of view is evident in de Silva's posthumous article Buddhism and Christianity Relativised, in volume 9 of the Dialogue journal.

[1] In her PhD thesis containing a chapter on de Silva's work, Damayanthi Niles claims that there is a problem with de Silva's argument in relation to salvation, in that it "reconciles the exclusive Christ-event and the inclusive vision of God's salvific plan purely on Christian terms," and that it does not take the "religious visions and commitments of other faiths seriously.

[5] With this frame of mind, de Silva studied the beliefs and practices of people with respect to death, such as the phenomenon of mediums, with help from Buddhist exponents of reincarnation.

Regarding Purgatory, de Silva states in this paper that the Hindu/Buddhist view, where Ultimate Reality is reached through a process of purification through liberation from self and elevation to stages of spiritual development, is more acceptable than the belief in a single life on earth and an everlasting hell or heaven after death.

In agreement with the Hindu/Buddhist view, de Silva, in this paper, regards Purgatory to be a place of cleansing, which ultimately makes a person ready for eternal life in Heaven.

"[5] Being the third and final speaker, he completed his discourse on 2 Timothy 3: 15–17 and he stood up again to answer a question from the audience, but he was barely able to formulate a reply and sat back in his chair.

Mrs. Mendis is credited as being the main person responsible for the uninterrupted functioning of the institute after Lynn de Silva's death.

[60] On 17 November 2009, an article in the Daily News newspaper promoting World Philosophy Day featured a picture and short description of Lynn de Silva, alongside other Sri Lankan philosophers such as K. N. Jayatilleke and Ananda Coomaraswamy.