Contents THEME: Spiritual Leadership Editorial EVANGELICAL REVIEW of THEOLOGY Page 99 Lord Radstock and the St

Contents THEME: Spiritual Leadership Editorial EVANGELICAL REVIEW OF THEOLOGY page 99 Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival ANDREY P. PUZYNIN page 100 David Livingstone’s Vision Revisited – Christianity, Commerce and Civilisation in the 21st Century SAS CONRADIE page 118 The Missional-Ecclesial Leadership Vision of the Early Church PERRY W.H. SHAW page 131 From ‘Grammatical-historical Exegesis’ to ‘Theological Exegesis’: Five Essential Practices HANK VOSS page 140

The Bible and our Postmodern World VOLUME 37, NO 2, April 2013 Articles and book reviews reﬂecting BILLY KRISTANTO global evangelical theology for the purpose page 153 of discerning the obedience of faith Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation BENSON OHIHON IGBOIN page 166 Reviews page 183

Volume 37 No. 2 April 2013 Evangelical Review of Theology

GENERAL EDITOR: THOMAS SCHIRRMACHER

Articles and book reviews reﬂecting global evangelical theology for the purpose of discerning the obedience of faith

Published by

for WORLD EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE Theological Commission Volume 37 No. 2 April 2013

Dr Thomas Schirrmacher, Germany

Dr David Parker, Australia

Executive Committee of the WEA Theological Commission Dr Thomas Schirrmacher, Germany, Executive Chair Dr James O. Nkansah, Kenya, Vice-Chair Dr Rosalee V. Ewell, Brasil, Executive Director

The articles in the Evangelical Review of Theology reﬂect the opinions of the authors and reviewers and do not necessarily represent those of the Editor or the Publisher.

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WE WELCOME ANDREY Puzynin to this work deriving from another historical issue with his fascinating article on period (however sensitively treated) evangelicalism in 19th century Russia, but theologically, that is, as a word where he focuses on the hermeneu- from God himself. This is a practical tics and the cultural context of Lord approach, focusing on helping theo- Radstock, an English missionary to logical educators to equip potential that country. Hermeneutics is a topic church leaders to ‘hear the divine voice of considerable importance to us, and in Scripture’. this treatment is all the more interest- A related theme is the subject of an ing because of its geographical and his- article from Billy Kirstanto of Indone- torical setting. sia who, with the benefit of his stud- Our second article is just as inter- ies in Germany, alerts us to some of esting but the location is now Africa the issues facing our understanding of and its focus is another missionary, the the Bible in a postmodern world. In a famous Scotttish doctor, David Living- technical discussion, he asserts that stone who was born just one hundred the Bible speaks relevantly in every years ago. The story of this iconic ex- age since it is the eternal Word of God, plorer is well known but here Sas Con- even if there are problems in contem- radie looks at his vision for ‘Christian- porary culture of definition, context ity, Commerce and Civilisation’ and the and relevancy. benefits he saw in these for Africa. Liv- Finally, we turn to Nigeria and hear ingstone’s highly influential (although a reminder from Benson Ohihon Igboin often disparaged) approach to a ‘King- that the personal element is vital, even dom model’ is re-examined in a global though society, organisation and tra- context as a model for today. dition are also important factors. He From these two case studies, we can shows that a born again person is a easily see that vision and leadership changed individual and that spiritual are always key issues. So we turn to transformation is no mere psychologi- Lebanon and Perry Shaw’s study which cal adjustment. Important for his own looks at the way the early church had a context as for the world is his observa- fluid approach to governance and struc- tion that conversion or spiritual trans- ture in response to the challenges that formation will result in ‘positive and confronted the fulfillment of its mis- enviable qualities in social, economic, sional vision. Through all the changes political interaction’. and in the face of many challenges, So our international team of authors Shaw concludes that ‘the missional- reinforces the need for a comprehen- ecclesial vision of the early church sive and detailed awareness of history shaped its governance’, a lesson which and culture in leadership, but most of is needed today as never before. all point to the dynamic of the Word to Now we can appreciate Hank Voss’s produce lasting fruit. challenge that we should be careful to Thomas Schirrmacher, General Editor read the Bible not merely as a literary David Parker, Executive Editor ERT (2013) 37:2, 100-117 Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival

This article is a section of the book, The Tradition of the Gospel Christians: A Study of Their Identity and Theology during the Russian, Soviet, and Post- Soviet Periods by Andrey P. Puzynin (Eugene OR: Wipf and Stock Pickwick Publications, 2011), pages 18-39, and is used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers, http://www.wipfandstock.com, and in association with the author. This book was reviewed in our issue of October 2012 (36:4, 372- 3) by Dr Raymond J. Laird of Brisbane, Australia, who has kindly made the selection and provided this introduction which helps to set this excerpt in its context and highlights its signiﬁcance for our readers.

KEYWORDS: Revivalism, perfectionism, nest of theological-biblical-practical pietism, Biblicism, Evangelical emphases in his ministry among the Alliance, mysticism, prayer, adventism St Petersburg elite which burst into ﬂame in their hearts, and then spread throughout the land among all classes. Puzynin locates those emphases in Biblical interpretation, theological three frameworks which he describes frameworks and cultural tradition are as Puritan-Pietistic, Primitivism, and the burdens of Dr Andrey Puzynin Perfectionism. As many evangelicals in his book on the study of the Gos- of our time have traversed at least pel Christians, an evangelical group part of those frameworks in smaller of churches birthed in a revival in or greater degrees, this reviewer was Imperial Russia towards the end of of the opinion that the analysis of nineteenth century. The agent of that this representative of Anglo-American movement of the Spirit of God was the revivalism as it had developed in the Englishman, Lord Radstock, who with eighteenth century and then took root his background in the Open Brethren, in Russia would be of interest to the the Keswick movement, and the Evan- readers of (ERT) this journal. gelical Alliance, brought a particular The author’s explanation of the

Andrey Puzynin (PhD, LicDD, University of Wales) serves at Hope Church in Donetsk, Ukraine. He has worked at Donetsk Christian University (1997-2001), and tutored and lectured at the MA program of Nyack College/Alliance Theological Seminary in Kiev, Ukraine (2001-2003 and 2006-2011). He recently joined the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham, UK as William Paton Fellow and is currently working on a new research project. This article is from his book mentioned in the Introduction. Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival

historical origins and development of characterized the Protestant Paradigm the numerous elements of those frame- to which Lord Radstock belonged.2 works is instructive. In some instances During the three centuries after the these developments may be enlight- Reformation there were transforma- ening, not only of the past but of the tions (1) from Christian faith defined present, both for the individual and the as correct doctrine towards Christian corporate bodies with whom we fellow- faith defined as correct living; (2) from ship and minister. godly order as the heart of the church’s The analysis raises some questions concern towards godly fellowship as a for readers who are heirs of that tradi- principal goal; (3) from authoritative tional bundle of elements in one way interpretation of scripture originat- or another. It is of profit at times to ing with ecclesiastical elites towards ask, by what have we been shaped? lay and more democratic appropria- What have we kept? What have we tion of the Bible; (4) from obedience lost? How have we integrated those towards expression; (5) from music as that remain? performed by well-trained specialists towards music as a shared expression of ordinary people; and (6) from An understanding of Radstock’s theo- preaching as learned discourses about logical positions is important, not only God towards preaching as impassioned because he initiated the evangelical appeals for ‘closing with Christ’.3 The tradition in St. Petersburg, but also tradition that was brought to Russia in because his views continued to influ- 1873–74 was a result of these trans- ence the evangelical Christians of Rus- formative processes that had been boil- sia for many years after his departure ing for about three centuries in post- from Russia. Madame Chertkova, a Reformation Europe. member of the St. Petersburg evangeli- Lord Radstock was neither a theo- cal group, writes: ‘I am so sorry that logian nor an intellectual, nor did he all of us are so incapable of putting want to be involved in any systematic into words our devotion and gratitude or even written mode of theologizing of to Lord Radstock, and of witnessing to the sort that was typical of the evan- the beautiful work the Lord honored gelicals of the Reformation. Radstock him with for Russia!… Our intercourse breathed the air of Puritan-Pietist with him lasted over thirty years and Christianity. His ‘religion of the heart’ never varied in love and wise council.’1 can be properly understood against the background of the Pietistic tradition and Romanticism, whose rationality came as a reaction against the dry ra- Mark Noll provides another helpful description of the transformations that 2 I am referring to the Post-Reformation Par- adigm of Hans Küng, Christianity, Essence, His- tory and Future (London: SCM, 1984), 614–34. 1 Edward Trotter, Lord Radstock: An Interpre- 3 Mark Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism tation and a Record (London-New York: Hodder (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, & Stoughton, 1914), 63. 2003), 52. Andrey P. Puzynin tionalism of the Enlightenment and the respective theological stances of these scholastic dogmatism of the Reformed two revivalist preachers. Radstock theologies.4 participated in at least one revivalist meeting conducted by Moody in Brit- ain. His answers to Moody’s questions, asked for the benefit of the audience, are published in one of Moody’s books.8 John Kent locates Radstock in the Radstock brought to Russia not only Anglo-American revivalist tradition, Protestant theology and forms of wor- alongside such people as Richard ship but also the evangelical sentimen- Weaver, Reginald Radcliffe, and Rich- tal hymns and music of I.D. Sankey, ard Morgan. ‘All these men were com- Moody’s revivalist companion.9 mitted to an aggressive evangelical With regard to theological convic- way of life before the Ulster Revival tions, Radstock also shared many in 1859. American influence mattered commonalities with George Müller, more than Irish, for the publication the leader of the Open Brethren, who of Finney’s Lectures in England, and enjoyed international fame in the James Caughey’s long visit in the evangelical circles of the time. It is 1840s, helped to stimulate the group’s said that during his first visit to Eng- development.’5 land D.L. Moody wanted to meet two Reginald Radcliffe visited Russia in people: Charles Spurgeon and George 1884 with the purpose of establishing Müller.10 Müller in turn was visiting a Russian branch of the Evangelical the places where Moody had preached, Alliance. Pashkov’s correspondence serving as an Apollos to the new con- contains several handwritten notes verts of the revival.11 Spurgeon invited on Radcliffe’s addresses.6 Radstock Müller to preach in the Tabernacle Hall also shared much in common with his the same year. The arrival of Müller in American revivalist peer D.L. Moody.7 Many similarities can be found in the 8 Dwight L. Moody, Dialogue III, ‘Mr. Moody and Mr. Radstock: What it is to be converted’, 4 Ted A. Campbell, The Religion of the Heart: in Sovereign Grace: Its Source, Its Nature, and A Study of European Religious Life in the Sev- its Effects (Chicago: Bible Institute Colportage enteenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Columbia: Association, 1891). University of South Carolina Press, 1991). 9 Mark M. McCarthy, ‘Religious Conflict 5 John Kent, Holding the Fort: Studies in Victo- and Social Order in Nineteenth-Century Rus- rian Revivalism (London: Epworth, 1978), 101. sia: Orthodoxy and the Protestant Challenge, 6 Vasiliy A. Pashkov, Col. V. A. Pashkov Pa- 1812-1905’, PhD diss., University of Notre pers, 1874-1909, University of Birmingham Dame, 2004, 71; Nikolai Leskov, Schism in Information Services, Special Collections High Society: Lord Radstock and His Followers, Department, 2/2/13. Hereinafter to be cited trans. James Y. Muckle (Nottingham: Bram- as PP. See also Sharyl Corrado, Filosofia Slu- cote,1995), 109. zheniia Polkovnika Pashkova (St. Petersburg: 10 William R. Moody, The Life of Dwight L. Bibliia dlia vsekh, 2005), 111. Moody, by his son (New York: Revell, 1900), 7 James E. Findlay, Dwight L. Moody: Ameri- 119. can Evangelist, 1837-1899 (Chicago: Chicago 11 Arthur T. Pierson, George Müller of Bristol University Press, 1969), 227–61. (London: James Nisbet, 1899), 248-249. Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival

St. Petersburg in 1883 was in line with recently provided a good description of his strategy of visiting places where re- Radstock’s theology. However, because vival had recently taken place. McCarthy’s study has a historical fo- These four revivalists—Lord Rad- cus, he describes Radstock’s theologi- stock and Charles Spurgeon (British cal views without locating him on the evangelicals), George Müller (a Ger- theological map of evangelical devel- man Pietist and member of the Brit- opments in the nineteenth century or ish Brethren), and D.L. Moody (an investigating his specific interpretive American revivalist)—were the pillars approaches.14 As was said earlier, Mc- on which the tradition of the Gospel Carthy was significantly influenced by Christians was established through the Heier’s assumption of the non-denomi- ministry of Radstock.12 national nature of Radstock’s theology. Hans Küng’s paradigmatic approach is more suitable for understanding the theological trajectory of the evangelical movement in Russia, as it provides There are a number of printed resourc- an explanation for the clash of the es containing Radstock’s addresses, paradigms.15 making possible a reconstruction of his theological views and interpreta- tional practices.13 Mark McCarthy has Radstock’s theological views can be 12 All of these four influential evangelical fig- ures of the nineteenth century can be located located within three frameworks that under the rubric of evangelicalism. Besides appeared chronologically.16 The oldest holding to the same evangelical convictions, all four of them were involved in the Keswick movement. Lord Radstock and Spurgeon were in Blackheath Conference (London: J. F. Shaw, preaching from the same pulpit during evan- 1883); Granville Radstock, Separated unto God gelistic meetings (PP II/1/b/8) and attended and a Living Sacrifice: Two Addresses by Lord the same Keswick meetings (McCarthy, ‘Re- Radstock (Glasgow: Publishing House, 1884); ligious Conflict and Social Order’, 271). Spur- Leskov included two sermons of Radstock de- geon’s sermons were translated into Russian, livered in Russia in 1874. See Leskov, Schism, and the early Radstockists were accused by 75-88. the Orthodox of having been converted to ‘the 14 McCarthy, ‘Religious Conflict’, 62–76. faith of Spurgeon’ (PP 2/2/405). George Mül- 15 Küng does not mention in his thorough ler personally visited St. Petersburg in 1882 study the evangelical revival in Russia but fo- and theologically influenced the St. Peters- cuses primarily on Russian Orthodoxy. burg Christians. See Modest M. Korff, Am 16 Noll, Rise of Evangelicalism, 50–65. The Zarenhof (Giessen, Germany: Brunnen-Verlag, frameworks are derived rather arbitrarily 1956), 37-38. from Noll’s discussion of the antecedents of 13 Granville Radstock, Notes of Addresses evangelicalism which he identifies as: Puritan, (London: J.F. Shaw 1870); Granville Rad- Continental Pietist, and High-Church Spiritu- stock and Dwight L. Moody, A Gospel Dialogue ality. Noll points out that the crucial spiritual between Mr. D.L. Moody and Lord Radstock emphasis of the High-Church was its stress (London: Morgan & Scott, 1884); Lord Rad- on ‘primitive Christianity’ (p. 66). However, it stock, ‘The Christian, Who and What is He’ seems more logical to consider ‘Primitivism’ Andrey P. Puzynin and broadest framework can be de- recent framework that played a promi- scribed as ‘Puritan-Pietistic’, because nent role in Radstock’s interpretation the main theological themes of his ad- of Biblical texts was that of Perfection- dresses grew out of these two Protes- ism, which grew out of the Wesleyan tant movements that influenced each movement and the Anglo-American other. The label ‘Puritan-Pietistic’ is revivalist tradition.19 used here to denote the following features that grew out of the Continen- tal and British Protestant paradigm of the preceding centuries: Biblicism, Christocentrism, salvation by grace Heier argues that from the point of through faith alone, an accent on per- view of religious practice, Lord Rad- sonal religious experience and sincere stock’s religious activity could be moral conduct, active faith, and simple linked with Wesley and his successors in early Methodism: ‘What he offered church services.17 was a spiritual faith in opposition to The next framework that appeared the worldliness of the Established and grew out of the Pietistic-Puritan Church. His greatest desire was the tradition in Britain in the nineteenth reading and interpretation of the Gos- century can be called Primitivism, pel through which an intensification of which was characterized by its char- faith was to be achieved and, as a con- ismatic nature, its revivalism in light sequence, salvation.’21 of the impending return of Christ, its Radstock’s connection with Meth- evangelical ecumenism, and its sac- odism should be limited to its broad ramentalism.18 And finally, the most pietistic component and to Wesleyan teaching on assurance of salvation. as a separate framework characteristic of the Victorian era, as suggested by Horton Davies (f.n. 88 below). Noll also states that the sec- 1900 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University ond legacy of the High-Church was establish- Press, 1962), 139–43. Davies includes the ing religious societies promoting personal following movements under the label of Primi- piety and doing good among the people as a tivism: the Primitive Methodists (1812), the whole (p. 67). This legacy was part of Rad- Plymouth Brethren (1827–1830), the Catho- stock’s ministry in Russia, because within lic Apostolic Church (1835), the Disciples one year after his first visit to Russia in 1873 of Christ (founded in 1833 and established his followers started the Society for the En- in Britain in 1843), and the Salvation Army couragement of Spiritual and Moral Reading (1865–1879). (SESMR) that was patterned after the British 19 See Benjamin B. Warfield, Perfectionism SPCK. The first book published by SESMR (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, was John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan 1980). was an influential Puritan writer of the seven- 20 This framework can be viewed as a meso- teenth century. paradigm within the Protestant paradigm 17 Enger, Trond, ‘Pietism’, in The Oxford (Paradigm 4 of Küng). Küng, Christianity, Companion to Christian Thought, eds A. Hast- 614–44. ings, A. Mason, and H. Pyper (Oxford: Oxford 21 Edmund Heier, Religious Schism in the Rus- University Press, 2000), 539–41. sian Aristocracy, 1860-1900: Radstockism and 18 Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in Pashkovism (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, England: From Newman to Martineau, 1850- 1970), 32– 33. Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival

James Muckle is correct in saying that ample of the father of German Pietism, Radstock lacked the sophisticated the- August Franke.27 It seems to have been ology of Wesley, which accommodated no problem for young Müller to inte- reason and tradition alongside expe- grate his Pietistic Lutheran heritage rience and scripture as sources for with the newly developing Brethren Christian theologizing.22 Radstock was movement, inspired by Müller’s broth- more similar to Primitivist Methodists er-in-law Anthony Groves from within than to Wesley.23 the Anglican Church, years before the Self-taught denominational Russian Evangelical Alliance came into exist- historian V.A. Popov suggests that the ence.28 Radstock can safely be located backdrop for the evangelical revival within this broad Puritan-Pietistic was German Pietism through the medi- frame of theological reference. um of the Evangelical Alliance.24 Even though the impact of German Pietism on British evangelicalism through the Radstock believed in the verbal inspi- medium of the Evangelical Alliance ration of scripture, as did all evangeli- is not substantiated by evidence in cals of his time. ‘Faith in the Bible was his study, Popov’s intuition is correct to the early evangelicals as fundamen- in principle.25 Mark Noll has recently tal as faith in God, and they made little pointed out the mutual influence that distinction between the two.’29 Rad- existed between English Puritanism stock states: and German Pietism.26 While many are doubting the Inspi- The compatibility of the two tradi- ration of Holy Scripture, multitudes tions can be observed in the biography in many lands have, for eighteen of George Müller of Bristol, one of the hundred years, found by experience most influential theological teachers of that in proportion as they are obedi- the Open Brethren, who visited St. Pe- ent to the Divine Revelation, not one tersburg in 1882–83 after Radstock’s jot or tittle has failed of the prom- departure. Müller had been a student ises of God to those who believe His in Halle, the centre of German Pietism, Word…. His teachings present the and his original impetus to start an or- most perfect ideals known to the phanage in Bristol came from the ex- human race, and His Spirit is the one power by which corrupt human- 22 James Y. Muckle, ‘Afterword’, in Nikolai ity can be regenerated and changed Leskov, Schism, 113. 23 Kent, Holding the Fort, 38–70. 24 V.A. Popov, ‘Evangel’skie Khristiane- 27 Pierson, George Müller of Bristol, 15–62. Pashkovtsy’, Online: http://odessasem.com/ 28 George Müller, Autobiography of George publishing/bogomyslie_07_04.html; accessed Müller (London: J. Nisbet, 1906), 20–33. See 4 April, 2006. also Robert B. Dann, Father of Faith Missions: 25 The first meeting of the Evangelical Alli- The Life and Times of Anthony Norris Groves ance was held in London in 1846. See Harold (Waynesboro,GA: Authentic Media, 2004). W. Fuller, People of the Mandate (London: Pa- 29 Willis B. Glover, Evangelical Nonconform- ternoster, 1996), 1–40. ists and Higher Criticism (London: Independ- 26 Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism, 53. ent, 1954), 16. Andrey P. Puzynin

into the Divine Image from glory to ance of salvation in the present and glory.30 the future, Radstock never developed Radstock was a person of the Book. or crystallized the doctrine. He called Leskov writes that following his con- his audience to take their position in version, Radstock severed all con- Christ by faith and start a life of per- nections with ‘worldly’ culture: ‘He sonal relationship with God in Christ. renounced music on the grounds that As was true of D.L. Moody, Rad- “he heard better sounds from heaven,” stock leaned towards the Arminian and he ceased to read all the worldly pole as far as the issue of predestina- books since “a man’s life was insufﬁ- tion was concerned.34 His theological cient even for the study of the Bible.”’31 position in this regard can be seen in the interplay of questions asked by Moody during one of his evangelistic The resurrected Christ and a personal, meetings. affective relationship with him is the Mr. Moody. – Is salvation within the major theme of all of Radstock’s ad- reach of every man here tonight? dresses. The following testimonies of Mr. Radstock. – Jesus said, ‘God Radstock’s contemporaries can best be so loved the world that He gave his understood within this frame of refer- only begotten Son, that whosoever ence. Baron von Hügel points out that believeth in Him should not perish, ‘it was the Synoptic Jesus, His teach- but have everlasting life.’ ings, especially the Sermon on the Mr. M. – What would you say to any- Mount, which had saturated all the one who thinks he has no power to ﬁbres of his mind and character’.32 It will be demonstrated below that Rad- believe? stock interpreted all of reality from a Mr. R. – He has the power to believe. Christocentric perspective. Probably he is trying to believe something about himself, to feel something about himself instead of giving credit to God. He is not asked With regard to soteriology Radstock to realize this or that about himself, 35 believed salvation to be free, present, but to believe the faithful God. eternal, and unconditional. This was The Calvinist John Nelson Darby is his main message during the revival- said to have been ‘puzzled over how ist meetings.33 Interpreting the Epistle Moody could on the one hand accept to the Romans in the spirit of Luther the prophetic truths concerning God’s with regard to free and unconditional sovereignty in history, and yet incon- salvation in Christ by grace and assur- sistently allow room for a non-Calvinist

30 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 149. 34 Findlay, Moody, 242. 31 Leskov, Schism, 18. 35 Moody, Sovereign Grace, 125. 32 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 56. 36 George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and 33 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 232–33. McCarthy, American Culture (New York: Oxford University ‘Religious Conflict’, 55. Press, 1980), 46. Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival view of human ability when it came to sin after their conversion, they can be personal salvation’.36 forgiven by Christ, who leads believers Radstock’s evangelical view con- to Christian maturity and deliverance cerning salvation can be summarized from the power of sin.39 Regenerated as follows: the transcendent God loves people can be absolutely sure about his fallen creation. The themes of their eternal security in Christ. ‘Before God’s love and the fallen condition of we are asked to go into service we are individuals are dominant in Radstock’s put on the platform of eternal salva- addresses.37 Every human being can tion; and then we are told to press for- be saved by God’s grace. In order to ward, and stretch forth a hand to those be saved a person needs to exercise who are perishing in the waters, bat- his or her faith by believing the testi- tling with the waves, but ineffectually, mony of the scriptures about salvation because they have not got their feet in Jesus Christ. Everyone who believes upon the Rock Jesus Christ.’40 this testimony is given the new nature This middle way between Arminian- (the new birth) by the gift of the Spirit, ism and Calvinism was never system- which makes possible both fellowship atically thought through by Radstock, with God and a proper understanding which was typical of the evangelicals of scripture. Without personal faith of his time. Chadwick describes the and regeneration a person cannot un- evangelicals of that period in general derstand scripture, nor can they have as follows: ‘They were men of the Ref- fellowship with God. ormation, who preached the cross, the This regeneration constitutes a depravity of man, and justification by change in the existential orientation faith alone. Some of them were Calvin- through which a person comes in con- ists and more of them were not. Most tact with the ultimate personal reality of them had little use or time for doc- of God manifested in Jesus and medi- trines of predestination and reproba- ated by the Spirit. A mere intellectual tion.’41 The most important thing was assent to biblical truths must not be the emotional plea to accept the New equated with regeneration.38 True re- Testament’s testimony about God’s generation should have personal and love in Christ and to live in the light experiential dimensions, accompanied of it. by the receiving of God’s power to overcome sin. Answered prayers and godly living are preferred over systematized The religious experience of regenera- theologizing. Regenerated people know tion was a central motif of Radstock’s that they are saved by taking God at preaching. Sinners must appropriate his word. by faith the unmerited salvation avail- Unregenerated people are not sure about their salvation. God will not allow a saved person to be lost. If people 39 Moody, Sovereign Grace, 122–27. 40 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 47. 41 Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church 37 Leskov, Schism, 18, 24. (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1966), 38 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 27. 440–41. Andrey P. Puzynin able in Christ. Human faith is the chan- that ‘people understand not ideas, but nel through which the Spirit of God feelings.’ ‘In studying the feeling of gives new birth. ‘Are you forgiven? Are Radstock, I myself sense that the man you born again?’42 ‘You are in Christ, is in love with Christ’, one person who or you are not. You have received the knows him well said to me, and this Holy Ghost, or you have not.’43 ‘To be must be true. Radstock is in love, and a Christian is not merely to think about this feeling is almost irresistible.’47 Christ; it means to be in union with In the same vein Trotter states: Christ.’44 ‘He did not see the extension of divine Writing about the theology of the claims to the whole of being and to a German Pietist, Philip Jacob Spener, great extent refused the intellect its Enger Trond states: ‘At the centre of part in the redemption of man. In the Spener’s theology was the experience intellect he still clung to the old tradi- of rebirth, the creation of the new per- tions of Puritanism.’48 son. This was the passion that united all Pietists. This was the experience that could empower faith. In the con- In accordance with the Pietistic im- cept of rebirth we find the Pietists’ petus of evangelicalism, Radstock main concern: it expresses humanity’s was concerned with the practical ap- absolute passivity in salvation, just as plication of his Christianity. McCarthy in natural birth; it expresses the total writes: ‘After Radstock’s father’s death change, the new status as God’s child; in 1856, the rest of the family gradual- it focuses on the necessity of develop- ly turned from high society to the evan- ment and growth. With this re-born gelical movement, donating the money person a new reality has entered the to the religious outreach to the poor. world.’45 Independently, Radstock’s mother was Sharing the Pietistic assumptions very active in the slums of London that were amplified in the context of where she entered brothels to rescue Romanticism, Radstock’s Christianity prostitutes and return them to “a life of had an experiential nature. He was not honorable work”. In London the Rad- so much concerned about intellectual stocks sponsored a home for recent evidence, but would often say that an- immigrants that could accommodate swered prayers were his evidence.46 almost seven hundred people. In Paris The sentimental nature of Radstock’s they supported a home for girls.’49 spirituality was well described by In this religious activity the works Leskov: ‘His ideas are shaky, but his of charity were not separated from spirit is splendid and by his success he evangelism. In fact, evangelism was excellently typifies the words of Taine, the first and foremost activity in which every Christian was expected to be involved. Leskov wrote that Radstock 42 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 17. 43 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 121. 44 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 45. 47 Leskov, Schism, 23. 45 Enger, ‘Pietism’, 540. 48 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 100. 46 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 103. 49 McCarthy, ‘Religious Conflict’, 51–52. Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival would often fill his pockets with copies interest among the St. Petersburg aris- of the New Testament and give them to tocracy can partly be attributed to this passers-by, even though he could not charismatic stance. speak a word of Russian.50 Trotter defines the word mysticism in In his description of a Radstockist terms of ‘… the inner meaning of the meeting, Leskov does not mention the words of Scripture, the facts of history, use of musical instruments. Biblical the world of Nature. The mystic learns messages were the centre of these reli- to discern between the world of sense, gious meetings. The songs of I.D. San- the shadow world, and the Reality that key were sung in English. As with the lies beyond, among the things “which theology and preaching of Radstock, are not seen” where God is all and in the songs were also emotion-oriented all…. Hence to him the distinction of and sentimental.51 His prayers were time, country, race and organization extemporaneous, which was very unu- are subordinate to or absorbed in the sual for people of an Orthodox back- all-embracing truth of the divine unity ground. The space of the hall was ‘sac- of the Spirit….’52 ramentalized’ by signs with biblical This definition of mysticism in Pla- texts such as John 3:16, Luke 12:32, tonic terminology is revealing, both and Colossians 3:23 that were hung on for Radstock and for Trotter, his ma- the walls and which mistakenly were jor biographer. Radstock was indeed taken by some in the audience as ‘no interested in seeing and experiencing smoking’ signs! the transcendent reality of the resurrected Christ. However, his subjective mystical vision of certain aspects of this reality was ultimately reduction- In a sense the Primitivist framework ist, because from the outset his frame- grew out of Puritanism, with its call to work for viewing the mystical reality of return to the simplicity of the apostolic the resurrected Christ was limited by a era, its conversionism, and its promo- Protestant theology that excluded and tion of meditation on the work of the suppressed other forms of Christian Holy Spirit. spirituality. His preoccupation with the pneumatic Christ of faith and with mystical union with him, as well as his rad- The ministry of Radstock was typically ical disinterest in the Christ of history charismatic. From the outset of his and the ecclesial tradition, resembled meetings, Radstock assumed the role in this regard more the spirituality of Docetism that had grown out of Platon- of a pneumatic preacher who was be- ic rationality than it did Chalcedonian ing led by the Spirit to reveal the true Christology.53 meaning of the scriptures. The stir of

52 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 83–85. 50 Leskov, Schism, 38. 53 Cf. Robert J. Schreiter, Constructing Local 51 McCarthy, ‘Religious Conﬂict’, 71. Theologies (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,1986), 21. Andrey P. Puzynin

Radstock is depicted as a typical ing to a person who had reservations evangelical mystic who waited on the about biblical trustworthiness, Rad- guidance of the Holy Spirit in daily stock stated: circumstances. Trotter provides many I am not going to explain them [dif- 54 examples of this. In one anecdote, ficulties in the Bible]; for you can- Trotter tells how once in St. Peters- not understand them; they can only burg, when Radstock was finishing be understood by a supernatural a meeting with a certain person, he power; till you get that supernatural found himself constrained to stay on, power, you will not understand…. even though his conversation was at an Suppose you were an ignorant man, end. After about eleven minutes he felt and had never seen a telescope; I 55 he needed to leave at once. say to you, Do you see that star? Having gone out into the street, That star is a cluster of stars. No, Radstock met a gentleman whom he you say, I have looked all my life, would have missed had he gone out and my sight is clear, and it is one ten seconds earlier or later. Radstock’s star, and you tell me wrong for my meeting with that gentleman had im- eyesight is right. I will not look portant ramifications for this new con- through the telescope.57 vert. Kent describes Radstock in the following terms: ‘He was a great re- Access to supernatural power (the nouncer: he associated the conversion telescope of the metaphor) comes of his sisters with giving up shooting, by means of individual and personal 58 for instance. He solved the problem prayer to God through Jesus. Only af- of his right to preach without ordina- ter the Spirit is received can a person tion by asking God to give him three understand the meaning of the Bible. instances of the value of his doing so Without the Spirit the Bible is a dark within twenty-four hours; he received text. Taking the Spirit as the starting them in the form of unsolicited letters, point for understanding biblical texts, and went on preaching.’56 Radstock prefigured the Pentecostal way of theologizing.59 Apologetics of this sort is consciously affective, personal, and fideistic. The text of the Bible is not understood by The mystical experience of the trans- natural human reason or historical re- cendent Christ in the present was search. In order to overcome rational- much more important for Radstock ist barriers to faith erected within the than were historical questions about meta-narrative of modernist rational- Christ. Radstock believed that biblical texts could be understood properly only when a person received illumina- 57 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 113. tion from the Holy Spirit. Thus, talk- 58 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 114. 59 See Donald W. Dayton, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson. 54 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 202–7. 1991), and Steven J. Land, Pentecostal Spiritu- 55 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 206. ality: A Passion for the Kingdom (Sheffield, UK: 56 Kent, Holding the Fort, 126. Sheffield Academic Press, 1993). Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival ist philosophies, one has to go beyond ing power of the Lord. His seven-year- the boundaries of an impersonal and old daughter was healed of curvature instrumental worldview by taking for of the spine, which had produced great granted the Christian meta-narrative, nervous irritation. The Radstocks in which reality is perceived in per- asked a visiting American pastor to sonal terms, and establish a personal pray for their daughter. After a short relationship with God by taking a leap prayer the girl jumped up and said, of faith. ‘Jesus has done it!’64 Trotter, following the nature of the genre, tends to downplay the darker side of Radstock’s faith healing. His daughter Mary, who Lord Radstock’s revivalist meetings was born in 1871, gives insight into were accompanied by many cases of it: ‘My father, being a faith-healer, no physical healing.60 He had taken up medicines were ever given to us on any 65 faith healing on the basis of the Epis- occasion.’ Writing of her experiences tle of James as early as 1873.61 He be- while in Russia in 1878, she continues: lieved in the operative healing power ‘Besides my illness… two at least of of the Spirit and the command to pray my sisters and brothers had diphtheric for the sick. He saw that sickness is throats, while my mother had a bad connected in Scripture with spiritual miscarriage. No nurse and no doctor 66 rather than physical causes.62 Trotter were called in….’ writes: ‘Through a long life Lord Rad- stock remained steadfast to that Voice of God which he had heard, and when Revivalism was a characteristic phe- in 1905 a new witness from the Antipo- nomenon of the nineteenth century. des, in the person of Mr. J. M. Hickson, The history and geography of revival- came to confirm the reality of Christ’s ism suggest a phenomenon closely healing power, and to declare that the linked to industrialization and modern- gifts had never been withdrawn from ization. Richard Carwardine notes the the Church, he heard with gladness following characteristics of revivalism: this new testimony and watched its de- Charismatic evangelists, mass au- velopment with great sympathy.’63 diences, Bible-based preaching, a One year before his first visit to gospel of repentance, the elevation Russia in 1873 Radstock witnessed a of heart and experience over head remarkable demonstration of the heal- and theology and the proliferation of dramatic, often physical, experiences of conversion, stress on born- 60 Cf. C. Peter Williams, ‘Healing and Evan- gelism: The Place of Medicine in Later Victo- rian Protestant Missionary Thinking’, in The 64 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 167. Church and Healing, ed. W,J. Sheils (Oxford: 65 Daisy Bevan, ‘Odd Memories of an Ordi- Blackwell, 1982), 271–85. nary Person’, in Bevan Collection (London: 61 Kent, Holding the Fort, 148. School of Slavonic and East European Stud- 62 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 23. ies), 4. 63 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 24. 66 Bevan, ‘Odd Memories’, 4. Andrey P. Puzynin

again relationship with Jesus; the an institutional existence, found the obligation to evangelize, faith in an ruthlessly negative attitude of the inerrant Bible, strict personal disci- Brethren horrifying. In most ecclesi- pline; social conservatism, and, very astical circles Brethren were feared commonly, adventist, millennialist, as a solvent of loyalties as well as and dispensationalist expectations a source of strange doctrine; in the founded on a conviction of God’s 1870s, however, the influence of the personal intervention. On one read- Brethren waned as their original ing revivalism has been a way of re- creative leadership aged and was sisting modernity. Early Methodists not replaced.69 sought in enthusiastic religion a Radstock was a revivalist in his own warmth and social network, and an right. In the evangelical seaside and escape from uprootedness, market watering-place tradition, he had con- upheaval, and an emerging factory ducted personal missions in Brighton, system.67 for example, in 1867, and in Scarbor- All the characteristics of revival- ough in 1869.70 Dr. Frederick Baede- ism as described by Carwardine can ker, who later had a long ministry in be found in the ministry of Lord Rad- Russia, was converted during Rad- stock. Even though Radstock was not stock’s revivalist meetings in Weston- 71 a professional revivalist like Finney or Super-Mare in 1866. Moody, ‘he was perfectly willing to as- Radstock used the technique of sociate with professional revivalists; multiple repetitions of main ideas he was present, naturally, at Smith’s which was common among revivalist English Holiness meetings’.68 Kent no- preachers of the time. Leskov reports tices that Radstock’s connections with that during one of his short talks Rad- the Plymouth Brethren were typical for stock managed to ask nine times if a 72 revivalists of that time: person ‘was with Christ or not’. Like many of the lay revivalists 73 of his time he had links with the Plymouth Brethren, whose hard The dramatic events of the French core was mostly ex-Anglican, but Revolution in the 1790s had a special whose ethos had developed in reac- effect on the evangelical interpretation tion against Anglican Tradition: the of scripture. Reading the Bible in the Brethren dispensed with the priest- light of their immediate experience, the hood and cared nothing for the visible Church in the present dispen- 69 Kent, Holding the Fort, 126–27. sation. Anglicans, for whom the 70 Kent, Holding the Fort, 148. ‘Church’ had a personal rather than 71 Robert S. Latimer, Dr. Baedeker and his Apostolic Work in Russia (London: Morgan & Scott 1907), 26. 67 Richard Carwardine, ‘Revivalism’, in The 72 Leskov, Schism, 77. Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, ed. 73 Ernest R. Sandeen, The Roots of Funda- Adrian Hastings et al. (Oxford: Oxford Univer- mentalism: British and American Millenarianism sity Press, 2000), 622. 1800-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago 68 Kent, Holding the Fort, 126. Press, 1970), 47. Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival persecuted Protestants had developed kingdom (Revelation 20). This premil- an interpretive tradition that identi- lennial expectation reflected a pessi- fied the Antichrist with the Papacy. mistic and world-denying attitude. Ad- However, the downfall of the Roman ventist notes were often appropriated Catholic Church in France at the end of in Radstock’s addresses: ‘Have you the eighteenth century opened up new noticed that the Gospel is “preached horizons that reshaped the Protestant in all the world for a witness unto all theological map of the nineteenth cen- nations?’’’75 tury. There is no trace, however, of a de- A seventeenth-century Cambridge veloped system of Darbyite dispensa- Scholar, Joseph Mede, had suggested tionalism in his preaching.76 According that ‘one day’ in the book of Daniel to the adventist teaching of John Nel- (7:25) should be taken as meaning one son Darby, God had established several year. According to Mede’s interpreta- distinct historical time-frameworks, or tion, the fourth beast of Daniel 7, was dispensations, within which he reveals taken to signify the Papacy, which his particular purposes for a particular should reign for 1260 years (time, dispensation. With regard to the mil- times, and half a time = three and a lennium, Darby believed that Christ half years = 1260 prophetic days = would come the first time to take the 1260 calendar years). The beginning of church to heaven, meeting her in the the Papacy was counted from the time air (1 Thessalonians 4:13–17). The when Belisarius entered Rome in 538, rapture of the church was believed to subjecting it to the Emperor Justinian’s be followed by a period of tribulation jurisdiction. In 1798, that is 1260 years (Matthew 24:21), which would be later, Napoleonic armies entered Rome ended by the visible return of Christ to and banished Pope Pius IV.74 the earth with the church, to establish Thus the French revolution opened the millennial Davidic Kingdom prom- a new vista in the interpretation of bib- ised in the Old Testament. Radstock lical prophecy in the light of contem- does not indicate that he believed in porary historical events. The parousia two comings of the Lord—the invisible was expected in the imminent future. (the rapture of the church) and the vis- The premillennial expectation shared ible (establishing the millennial King- by Radstock was based on the belief dom)—as Darby taught. that Jesus would dramatically step into The eschatological views of Rad- history and establish his millennial stock played a threefold role. First, as was the case with D.L. Moody, who quite possibly never became a thor- 74 Timothy C.F. Stunt, From Awakening to oughgoing dispensationalist, the es- Secession: Radical Evangelicals in Switzerland chatological millenarian perspective 1815-35 (Edinburgh: T. & T, Clark, 2000), 22; Grayson Carter, Anglican Evangelicals: in Radstock’s preaching and teaching Protestant Secessions from the Via Media, c. served the real purpose of his address- 1800-1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 152–248; Binfield, ‘Jews in Evangelical Dissent’, 225–70; Oliver, Prophets and Millen- 75 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 248. nialists, 35–36. 76 Carter, Anglican Evangelicals, 220–27. Andrey P. Puzynin es, which was to bring his audience as his resistance to the discussion of into contact with the transcendent any ‘denominational theologies’. And and personal reality of the resurrected finally, his premillennialist views may Christ. ‘It was a way of urging sinners have played an important role in his to turn from their too exclusive con- handling of material possessions. Dai- cerns to contemplate more important sy Bevan is worth quoting again: 77 matters of the spirit.’ Second, taking Soon after this our house at Sheen into account the fine distinction made of many happy memories was given by James Patrick Callahan between up, also ‘the stripping’ of our Lon- ‘primitivist piety’ and ‘restorationism’, don House was nearly completed. it can be argued that Radstock shared My father’s people, for two or three 78 the primitivist pietistic position. He generations, had been collectors of consciously avoided the restoration furniture and pictures…. I believe of primitive ecclesiological structures some of it was really wonderful and (and rituals such as baptism) which, all was good. But fiat went forth, according to the early Brethren view, and all was sold…. Books, of which had failed in other western denomina- there was also an excellent collections. tion, had already gone away in ‘four Thus, taking the position of ‘a wheeler’ loads, in fact anything of mourner’ with respect to historical value, including jewels, that my fa- Christianity, Radstock was not at- ther had not forgotten the existence tempting to revive first-century Chris- of, were turned ruthlessly into mis- tianity, but was eagerly waiting for the sionary donations.79 glorious return of the Lord. This primitivist position of the Brethren may Two days before he died he wrote in a account for Radstock’s unwillingness letter, ‘In common with many others, to establish any evangelical ecclesial I believe the Lord’s return is close at 80 structure in St. Petersburg, as well hand.’

77 Findlay, Moody, 253. 78 James P. Callahan, Primitivist Piety: The Radstock was an active member of the Ecclesiology of the Early Plymouth Brethren World Evangelical Alliance, which had (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1996). According to been established in London in 1846.81 Callahan’s thesis, the Brethren movement, in its origins, did not intend to restore the primitive Christian church with regard to spirituality or ecclesiology. Rather, having observed 79 Bevan, ‘Odd Memories’, 20. the pathetic condition of contemporary Chris- 80 McCarthy, ‘Religious Conﬂict’, 76. Empha- tianity in Britain during the ﬁrst half of the sis in original. nineteenth century, the early Brethren started 81 See John Wolffe, ‘The Evangelical Alliance a non-denominational or better post-denom- in the 1840s: An Attempt to Institutionalize inational movement that consisted of small Christian Unity’, in Voluntary Religion, eds W.J. gatherings of believers of different denomina- Sheils and D. Wood (London: Ecclesiastical tions who met for Bible reading and Christian History Society, 1986), 333–46; J.B.A. Kes- fellowship. These gatherings were viewed as sler, A Study of the Evangelical Alliance in Great meetings of true believers practising biblical Britain (Goes, Neteherlands: Oosterbaan & piety and awaiting the soon return of the Lord. Le Cointre,1968), 10–17; Fuller, People of the Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival

The unity represented by this alliance statement that defined basic evangeli- was born in the vortex of great social cal views. Lord Radstock was a typical and religious uncertainties, the conse- representative of this Protestant body. quences of the French Revolution, the One of Radstock’s Russian follow- increasing influence of the humanistic ers gave the following testimony about philosophy of the Enlightenment, and him: the development of Marxist ideology. All churches are equal to Radstock The first four decades of the nineteenth in so far as they all similarly believe in century had also given rise to ecclesi- salvation by faith [italics mine–A.P.]. astical movements that fragmented the By invitation, and sometimes on his religious map of the British Isles.82 Out own initiative, he speaks to gather- of the chaos of fragmentation, there ings of all these denominations; but grew a sense of the need to cooperate most of all he is in sympathy with interdenominationally. The Alliance the Plymouth Brethren, who have was formed as a confederation, with no ministers. He is not sympathetic the purpose of promoting the Christian to the Quakers, though sometimes unity that already existed among ‘all he speaks in their meetings. In his who, loving the Lord Jesus Christ, are view, the Quakers have ‘little spir- bound to love one another’.83 itual life.’ He also has little sym- Even though evangelical unity was pathy for the Irvingites although the proactive motif, the anti-Catholic he shares their view of the second and anti-Tractarian drives also played coming of Christ, which he expects an important reactive role in the for- at any moment. He interprets the mation of this Protestant body. A pre- Apocalypse, as far as I can judge, by liminary meeting in Liverpool in 1845, taking something from La Mother which was intended to prepare the Guyon and something from Jung- ground for a subsequent international Stilling, and adding something the meeting, was called ‘to associate and source of which it is impossible to concentrate the strength of an enlight- trace; doubtless it is home-grown.85 ened Protestantism against the en- If anyone tries to make him state his croachments of Popery and Puseyism, opinion on some teaching of what- and to promote the interests of scrip- ever church, either he remains com- tural Christianity’.84 The people who pletely silent or, if the questioner is met in London agreed upon a doctrinal insistent, he will say briefly: ‘I cannot speak of that, it is not my affair, I can only explain the Word of God, Mandate, 14–20; Ruth Rouse and Stephen C. 86 Neill (eds), A History of the Ecumenical Move- using the text I find therein.’ ment, 1517-1948 (London: SPCK, 1954), 103, However, this ‘non-denominational’ 338. attitude is limited only to the realm of 82 Michael R.Watts, The Dissenters, vol. 2, the Protestant Paradigm, as we have The Expansion of Evangelical Nonconformity mentioned earlier. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), 37. 83 Ewing, Goodly Fellowship. Quoted in Full- er, People of the Mandate, 18. 85 Leskov, Schism, 51–52. 84 Wolffe, ‘The Evangelical Alliance’, 338. 86 Leskov, Schism, 31. Andrey P. Puzynin

The Slavic Baptist denominational Lord Radstock considered that out- writers attribute Radstock’s lack of ward confession of Christ correspond- emphasis on the importance of water ed to the baptism by water of the early baptism to his association with the Christians, by which they were sepa- Plymouth Brethren. However, infant rated forever from the world around baptism was practised in the Darbyite them.87 Radstock believed in two kinds communities. The Müllerites (Open of baptism: baptism in water and bap- Brethren) were considered and called tism in the Spirit. He defined them as ‘Baptists’ by the Closed Brethren, be- baptism of the body and baptism of the cause Müller believed that the Bible soul respectively.88 Baptism in water taught that baptism should take place ‘is an acknowledgment of sinfulness following the conversion experience, and [of] a need of forgiveness’. How- even though he did not impose his view ever, due to the fact that the ritual of on those who disagreed with him. Rad- water baptism had been practised in stock’s perspective cannot be attrib- all traditional Christian churches, Rad- uted to either Open or Closed Brethren stock appealed to apostolic times and views on the issue. interpreted the meaning of baptism in His ambivalent attitude on the issue the following way: of baptism and other outward identity Real baptism was when a soul ac- markers prolonged the process of sepa- knowledged itself lost and ruined, ration of evangelical converts from the and once for all gave itself right over Orthodox Church. Leskov compares to God, before the world, and was Radstock’s view on baptism with that known by the world as belonging to of some Russian sectarians such as Christ. You may have been baptized the Molokans and Stundists, who also in whatever water ceremony you understood the ritual metaphorically.91 please; but what you need is that heart baptism into Christ, which will be followed by the sealing of the Holy Ghost. Then you know what conversion is.89 This baptism is the Being among those who initiated the baptism of the soul, which will be Keswick meetings in the mid-1870s, evidenced by an outward confession prior to his longest visit to Russia in towards the world; it is the sign- 1878, Radstock shared the perfec- ing of the deed of partnership; the tionist position of the early Keswick definite acceptance of the soul, from movement.92 According to the teaching which time the whole inheritance of Christ becomes the portion of the 91 Leskov, Schism, 59–60. poor sinner.90 92 Kent, Holding the Fort, 148; J.C. Pol- lock, The Keswick Story (London: Hodder & 87 Trotter, Lord Radstock, 20; PP 2/1/b/8 a Stoughton, 1964), 34–35. It should be men- letter to Tikhonov dated 1884. tioned here that all the evangelicals who 88 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 58–60, 115. visited Russia between 1870 and 1880 were 89 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 59. part of the perfectionist movement, which was 90 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 61. spilling over from America to Britain and to Lord Radstock and the St. Petersburg Revival of Pearsall Smith, who brought this Thus, according to Radstock, there movement to Britain on the wave of are three categories of Christians. D.L. Moody’s revival and whose works First, there are nominal Christians— had appeared in print in England seven those who bear the name of Christ and years earlier, a believer can reach a give intellectual assent to Christian state of perfection already in this life doctrines but do not possess saving by an act of faith. Radstock seems to faith. Such people are not to be consid- have shared this vision.93 ered real Christians. The second group According to this perfectionist view, of Christians consists of those people there is a difference between knowing who have trusted the Lord for salva- Christ as Saviour and knowing him as tion but have not dedicated themselves Lord.94 Radstock held the view that it completely to his service. Then, finally, is not enough to receive salvation by the third group of Christians is com- grace. That is only the first stage; the prised of those people who have come person who goes no further than this to know the Lord not only as their Sav- stage will be saved only as a log is from iour, but also as the Lord of their lives, fire.95 Christ needs to be experienced having thus broken the bonds and at- not only as Saviour but also as Lord. tractions of this world.97 The life of Christ mediated by the Spirit The path from the second to the should take hold of believers to such a third stage goes through identifying degree that they stop sinning and live with Christ by being united to him: lives of service in total dedication to ‘He wants simply that you be united to the Lord.96 Him; then you will not merely get the putting away of the sins you have committed; but the living God will put forth Continental Europe. Besides Radstock and George Müller, Otto Stockmeyer and Dr. Bae- his power to keep, to save, to deliver. deker were active propagandists of perfection- Not merely today; but to the end he will ism. Baedeker served as the interpreter for the keep you, and will present you one day, initiator of the perfectionist movement during as a proof of His grace and His love, his trip to Germany. faultless before the throne of God.’98 93 See D.W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (New York: Routledge, 1989), 151–80. 94 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 8. 95 Radstock, Notes of Addresses,110. 97 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 43, 88, 107. 96 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 9, 43. 98 Radstock, Notes of Addresses, 63. ERT (2013) 37:2, 118-130 David Livingstone’s Vision Revisited – Christianity, Commerce and Civilisation in the 21st Century

KEYWORDS: Freedom, abolition, Andrew Ross2 and John Waters3 have slavery, economic development, all made detailed studies of Living- injustice, imperialism, enterprise stone. Neither is the article an attempt development, community to analyse all the issues presented transformation, environment to us by his dreams and visions or to discuss transformation in depth. It is more an effort to grapple with an understanding of David Livingstone’s vision for Christianity, Commerce and David Livingstone has been both mis- Civilisation in Africa and how we must sionary icon and missionary villain in understand the relationship of these ‘3 the past. For many he was the epitome Cs’ in today’s global context. of mission pioneering and for others an imperialistic missionary paternalist whose work bore little if any fruit. However, it was exactly this contro- David Livingstone had a compassion versial ﬁgure from whom we in the and commitment to end the slave trade twenty ﬁrst century can learn when we through Christianising and ‘civilising’ discuss socio-economic and spiritual Africa while facilitating an economic transformation in communities. ‘take-off’ that would provide the eco- This article does not try to discuss nomic incentives to stop the trade from the life and work of David Livingstone in depth. People like Rob Mackenzie,1 2 Andrew C Ross, David Livingstone: Mission and Empire (London: Hambledon and London, 1 Rob Mackenzie, David Livingstone: The 2002). Truth behind the Legend (Chinhoyi: Zimbabwe 3 John Waters, David Livingstone – Trail Blaz- Fig Tree Publications, 1993). er (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996).

Dr. Sas Conradie is co-ordinator of the Global Mission Fund (administered by the Church Mission Society), and the coordinator of the WEA/Lausanne Movement Global Generosity Network; he is also involved in the Stewardship in Mission Taskforce of World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission. Formerly he participated in student mission and community development initiatives in South Africa and was a missionary to an unreached group in Ukraine (email [email protected]) David Livingstone’s Vision Revisited continuing. His passion was to open the slave trade a change in culture was south central Africa to Christianity and needed from within Africa as well. commerce as a way to combat the social ills of the continent. In essence Da- vid Livingstone realised the following: People had to be set free from poverty that encouraged them to sell others into slavery. Economic development in People had to be set free from sins and Africa had to be enabled through com- practices (such as superstition) that mercial activities. Commerce there- prevented them from living lives that fore became to Livingstone one of the honour God. The spread of the Good key building blocks of transforming News of spiritual freedom in Christ, or communities so that slavery could be Christianity, was therefore of utmost ended. importance to Livingstone. He believed Livingstone’s strong belief in these intensely that Jesus has died for all and three Cs—Christianity, Civilisation and salvation is available to all, if people Commerce, as a way to end slavery and will only accept it.4 encourage social transformation had Part of his theological understand- much deeper roots than his own pas- ing was also that the Holy Spirit em- sion. Peter Heslam indicates that powers people to live holy lives and Most historians associate the slogan move away from sin. That would en- ‘commerce and Christianity’ with able social change when more and David Livingstone. Yet its origins go more people followed that example. back to the birth of the abolitionist Livingstone clearly believed in the es- movement, which significantly co- sential relationship of saving souls and incided with the start of the British social transformation towards becom- missionary movement. Legitimate ing more like Christ and living out the commerce, coupled with the gospel, principles of the Bible. would cut off the slave trade at its source in Africa.’5 Wilberforce and the abolitionist movement indeed had an important People had to be set free from cultural role in David Livingstone’s thinking. practices that prevent social and intel- Wilberforce’s own vision for a better lectual development, including slavery. world ‘lay in the transformative poten- Therefore there was a need to encour- tial of faith and business. … It was in age a cultural value system that would pursuit of this vision that he initiated facilitate education, health and law radical social transformation on a glob- and order. This whole package Liv- al scale.’6 Because both Christianity ingstone understood to be civilisation. and legitimate commerce had human The chiefs abused their powers by en- slaving their own people or capturing people of neighbouring groups. To end 5 Peter Heslam, ‘William Wilberforce: how transforming business can turn the tide of history’, Faith in Business 10:4, April 2007:3-4. 4 Ross, David Livingstone, 17. 6 Heslam, ‘William Wilberforce’, 4. Sas Conradie liberty at their core, they were destined between Christianity and civilization to work together for social reform. was therefore not a new idea. It had al- Rob Mackenzie emphasises the ready been hotly debated in missionary importance of the abolitionist move- circles in the 1790s and it can be ar- ment’s thinking on Livingstone when gued that it was the response to the so- he attended a meeting in Exeter Hall cial and economic transformation the in the Strand by the Society for the Ex- UK experienced during (some would tinction of the Slave-Trade and for the say as a result of) the revival move- Civilisation of Africa. ments that swept the UK in the second There it was proposed that Africans half of the 18th Century. Dr. John Philip would only be saved from the slave- of the London Missionary Society em- trade if they were woken up to the phasized that ‘Civilization need not possibilities of selling their own bring Christianity, but Christianity al- produce; otherwise chiefs would ways brings civilization’.9 For Dr. Phil- continue to barbarically sell their ip civilization encompassed education, own kind to pay for the beads, cloth, but also commerce with emphasis on guns and trinkets they coveted. the creative impact of free trade. Commerce and Christianity could The abolitionist ideals of social achieve this miracle, not Christi- transformation through commerce and anity alone. These ideas posed by Christianity became so inspirational Thomas Fowell Buxton, Wilber- that Henry Venn (Church Missionary force’s successor, had a major im- Society General Secretary from 1841- pact on David Livingstone.7 1873) made abolitionism through com- Ross expands this view by saying mercial enterprise a central aspect of that his mission strategy. Cultivating con- tacts with industry, Henry Venn en- If legitimate European commerce listed the support of a Christian manu- could only penetrate Africa and facturer who agreed to import cotton at promote the cultivation of products the minimum profit margin. This ena- Europe wanted to buy, then these bled Venn to set up the Nigerian cotton could be exchanged for European industry. African chiefs therefore had goods, uplifting African standards a viable economic alternative to the of living and ending the slave trade. slave trade.10 At the same time the work of Chris- The belief in the heart of Living- tian missions in preaching the Gos- stone therefore grew that the arrival of pel and in developing schools would honest traders and missionaries would aid the process and in turn be aided provide the opportunity to exchange by it. This was a vision of what Liv- ingstone was to urge on the British public later.8 9 Fidelis Nkomazana,‘Livingstone’s ides of The discussion of the relationship Christianity, commerce and civilization’, http:// archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Jour- nals/pdfs/PULA/pula012001/pula012001004. 7 Mackenzie, David Livingstone, 47. pdf, accessed 30 November 2012. 8 Ross, David Livingstone, 25. 10 Waters, David Livingstone, 228. David Livingstone’s Vision Revisited the natural resources of Africa for Eu- side world to intervene to end the ropean trade goods. This would under- east African slave trade. The whole cut and end the slave trade, leaving the effort was one intended to fulfil Liv- possibility of the growth of Christianity ingstone’s dream of a peaceful and and the development of a more pros- prosperous development of Africa.12 perous African society. One of the aims Livingstone became the patron throughout David Livingstone’s travels saint of liberal imperialism and for was therefore to find suitable bases many he emerged as a paternalist and ‘from which Christianity, civilization colonialist. His vision of the fusion of and commerce could play their role in Christianity and commerce was used to transforming Africa without the vio- morally justify and glorify the British lence, injustice and slavery which he Empire.13 believed had characterized the meeting Through this process of building of European and African heretofore’.11 and enriching the Empire, the three Britain could play an important role Cs that Livingstone was so passionate in the transformation of Africa by providing missionaries and traders to cre- about became distorted in a way that ate the input of Christianity and com- he himself did not intend: merce that would end the slave trade. Christianity was used by imperial During his visits to the UK Livingstone powers to open up areas for expansion tried to convince business people of and to pacify communities. The result the potential for trade and investment was that people were burdened by in Africa. Christianity as a perceived western religion and tried to get away from that, for example, in the Mai-Mai uprising in Kenya. Christianity came to be seen in many cases as the religion of the Perhaps this passion to get the Brit- white-man and of the oppressor ish nation more involved in spreading Civilisation was used to impose Christianity, commerce and civilisation the will of the imperial powers and to in Africa and the fusion of the three in conform communities to the pattern of the development of Africa, became for ‘Civilised Europe’ in order to produce some a pretext for imperial exploita- goods for the ‘Mother country’. The re- tion. sult was that people were burdened by the perceived western way of life. Civi- In the decade of the scramble for lisation therefore became synonymous Africa, 1885-1895, when Africa was with colonialism and oppression. parcelled up by the powers of Eu- rope, leading imperialist statesmen and political commentators were 12 Ross, David Livingstone, 241. agreed in describing the movement 13 Cultural changes within Britain, such as as Europe’s response to Living- an increasingly negative view of dark-skinned stone’s famous appeal to the out- people as inferior to Europeans, might also have played a role in distorting Livingstone’s views on transforming and improving Africa 11 Ross, David Livingstone, 77. for the sake of the Africans. Sas Conradie

Commerce was used to advance the tive image related to the three themes, economic interest and self-enrichment we can redeem what David Livingstone of the imperial powers and individuals and other mission leaders in the 19th such as Cecil John Rhodes, while using Century were so passionate about. the natural resources and cheap labour People still have spiritual needs, but of local communities. The result was with the problems related to the term that people were burdened with the Christianity, we might need to return psychological and social impact of la- to the roots of Christianity, the Bible, bour abuse. Commerce became synony- and start talking about Biblical Faith mous with multi-national capitalism instead of Christianity. That will be ac- that enriches a few and impoverishes ceptable even to Muslims. Ron Sider the masses. in his popular book, Rich Christians in Livingstone’s dream of Christianity an Age of Hunger,14 argues that some and commerce, combining to produce religious worldviews tend to create a what W.W. Rostow has called ‘take- fatalistic attitude towards poverty. For off’ in terms of Africa’s development, example, Hinduism teaches that those therefore did not work out in the way in the lower castes are there because he envisaged. The demand of indus- of sinful choices in prior incarnations. trialised countries for ivory, combined Only by patiently enduring their pre- with the East African slave trade, was sent situation can they hope for a bet- a barrier enough to the achievement of ter life in future incarnations. Eastern that hope being realised, even before religions de-emphasise the importance the powerful worldwide imperialist ex- of history and material reality, consid- pansion of the industrialised countries ering them illusions to escape. A South in the last decades of the nineteenth African bishop once told me that peo- century finally killed it. Other factors ple in the rural areas in South Africa discouraged investment, such as Afri- are so fearful of evil spirits that they ca’s geography that makes transporta- do not take any initiative to improve tion of goods difficult and health condi- their lives. tions that prevent trading from really Biblical faith affirms the goodness taking off. of the created world and teaches that the creator and Lord of history cares for the poor. People can be set free from the fear of evil spirits and experience forgiveness and total renewal by The mistakes of the past are generally experiencing the life-giving ministry of acknowledged today. Even though I Jesus Christ. However, people in their would argue that the link between em- totality need to change and not only pire, mission and commercial exploita- ‘book a place in heaven’. Missionaries tion was forged and often enforced by imperial and commercial motivation it has to be admitted that people became uneasy about the link between Chris- 14 Ronald Sider, Rich Christians in an age tianity, Civilisation and Commerce. I of Hunger (London: Hodder and Stoughton, propose that by dealing with the nega- 1997). David Livingstone’s Vision Revisited therefore must teach the whole gospel be called Enterprise Development, an- and not only salvation of souls. If God other term that is acceptable in com- cares for the poor, then missionaries munity development circles and used should preach that same message. To all over the world. It is therefore bet- teach ‘all that I’ve commanded you’ ter to talk about Enterprise Development includes caring for the poor and needy. than Commerce in order to indicate this People still have social and emo- qualitative difference in business ac- tional needs and need to be freed from tivities. values and cultural practices that prevent social-economic and emotional growth. Society needs to be transformed according to the principles of the Bible as the foundation of today’s Before I propose a model of how bibli- civilisation; not according to the im- cal faith, enterprise development and posed will of imperial powers, but from community/social transformation can within the community. It is therefore be integrated, I just want to briefly better to talk about Social Transforma- mention some models of how the re- tion instead of Civilisation, a term that is lationship of these themes have been a buzz word in global society. viewed in the past: Encouraging steps have been taken in this direction. During the past decade there has been an effort to say that social problems do concern the church, that they are also the church’s problems and the church must deal with them. Hidden behind the former attitude was an incorrect ecclesiology and an incorrect dichotomy in the understanding of church-society relationship. It is very important for Christians to realize their responsibility towards According to this model, biblical faith their communities and what happens has nothing to do with enterprise de- in their communities since they are velopment or social transformation. It members of society. The church must might touch these themes but has very therefore direct itself towards trans- little to do with them. Sometimes any forming and engaging with society and link with business or social issues is not try to escape from it. seen as very negative. Quite often busi- People still have physical needs and ness or politics is seen as evil. Saving need employment to provide for these souls is the only task of the church needs. What is needed is not commerce and of Christians. The result is that that enriches just a few, but a form of people who make a commitment to economic activity that will benefit a Christ only want to become full-time whole community. Such activity where Christian workers, perhaps caring for people engage in business for the sake the sick and needy in their midst but of others and not only themselves, can very little more. Christian service is in Sas Conradie essence the only legitimate career for Christians. Quite often they leave their is seen as the opium of people and jobs in businesses to become full-time private enterprises are believed to Christian workers. oppress the community. This model Global commercial enterprise is a proved unsustainable with the fall dubious affair that impoverishes the of communism. rich spiritually and the poor materially. As Paul Stevens mentions in his book, focus is only on the commercial in- Doing God’s Business: Meaning and terests and what kind of monetary Motivation for the Marketplace,15 ‘The value can be extracted from commu- church has a long history of antipathy nities. Very little space if any at all towards business, except for the value is provided for faith. attributed to businesspeople who give 16 their tithes and sit on church boards’. This attitude has its roots in centuries of church hostility towards making money.17 Paul, for example, says that the love of money is the root of all sorts of social evil. This attitude might also be rooted in the teaching of Jesus in which very little is mentioned about commerce. The underlying point that Jesus is making is only spiritual and relates very little to business. In this view, biblical faith overlaps The danger of this model is that it slightly with community transforma- can lead to the following: tion but not at all with enterprise development. Mission has nothing to do focus is only on the spiritual needs with business and very little with so- in a community and the social and cial action through caring for the poor economic conditions are totally ne- in their midst. The different spheres glected. We see that in Africa today form a chain from biblical faith towards where Christianity has grown dra- enterprise development. matically while churches are poor and somehow unable or unwilling to deal with the social problems such as corruption in their countries.

15 Paul R. Stevens, Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace (Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans, 2006). 16 Stevens, Doing God’s Business, 80. 17 Stephen Green, ‘Sustainable Shareholder Value: Why Values Matter’, Faith in Business 10:4, April 2007: 13-18. David Livingstone’s Vision Revisited

The Cyclic Model suggests that biblical not perceived western traditions. The faith facilitates social transformation Bible and not western Christianity is through the changed values of Chris- being taught. This brings people into a tians who come to faith through evan- personal relationship with God to ex- gelism. Social transformation facili- perience spiritual freedom. In this way tates enterprise development through spiritual transformation is facilitated. an improved business climate as a Evangelism is a call to transformation result of improved social stability. En- and changing behaviour and culture.18 terprise development facilitates bibli- Knowledge of, closeness to, healing by, cal faith in return through more money and commissioning from Jesus there- given to the church through increased fore, constitute the transformation of wealth of church members. That gives the disciples and of ourselves. more ﬁnancial resources for evange- Biblical faith empowers people to lism to change more people, etc – the understand that God loves them, that process becomes a cycle. they can love themselves and that they have to love their neighbours. This message therefore transforms their lives so that they get the courage to start businesses through which they Having in mind the problems related can earn a living for themselves and to the above models, I want to suggest their families and through that glorify the kingdom model as a more integrat- God. These believers then transform ed approach to explain the relationship between biblical faith, social transformation and enterprise development, 18 Anthony J. Gittins, Bread for the Journey – The Mission of Transformation and the Trans- Biblical Faith: The Bible becomes formation of Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, the norm for life and conduct and 1993), 31. Sas Conradie the community around them through The mission we undertake in the encouraging a life-style based on the spirit of Jesus is a mission that biblical message that results in im- transforms all who are involved; proved community care. in fact, the mission has as its very Social Transformation: The biblical purpose the transformation of all principles are lived out. Communities things and persons, to bring them are helped to develop a value system into closer conformity with Christ.20 that facilitates trust and responsibil- Enterprise Development: local ity; increases productivity; and enables communities take control of their own communities to care for one another. economic development. Local job crea- Communities and individuals experi- tion and sustainable wealth creation is ence emotional and social freedom. encouraged. Companies and individu- Traditional God-glorifying values such als from outside are encouraged to in- as the African concept of Ubuntu are vest in sustainable commercial activi- integrated into the transformation pro- ties. Education provides the basis for cess. enterprise development. Economic and Social transformation could be facil- physical freedom is experienced and itated through discussion groups in the economic transformation is facilitated. community and expressed through com- Enterprise Development includes munity action and voluntary service. the provision of capital for the poor to Greater involvement from Christians earn their own way through, for exam- in community structures facilitates imple, micro-loan programmes,21 and also proved social care and the eradication increases trading opportunities for of negative values in the community. local business people, access to mar- This is what has happened in the UK kets, and the development of fair trade with the Abolitionist Movement. At the initiatives. Enterprise development same time these Christian community then becomes a means of church plant- leaders use their involvement as a wit- ing, social service and transformation, ness to the biblical message that mo- community building and grappling with tivates them and in that way they can unjust practices.22 spread Biblical Faith while they are involved in the community. their own countries. Such changes, however, Christians in this sphere can start ‘can happen only if a fundamental transforma- social enterprises such as trading net- tion of values occurs … Evangelism is central works, provision of low cost housing, to social change. Nothing so transforms the essential services for the poor in the self-identity, self-worth, and initiative of a community and environmental initia- poor, oppressed person as a personal, living tives as business initiatives to gener- relationship with God in Christ. Discovering 19 that the Creator of the world lives in each of ate income for the community. them gives new worth and energy to people psychologically crippled by centuries of op- 19 Ron Sider, Rich Christians, 236, summa- pression. As Jesus transforms lives so we as rises the connection between Biblical Faith the Body of Christ can help transform others.’ and Social Transformation very well. The poor 20 Gittins, Bread for the Journey, 162. in developing countries must somehow ﬁnd 21 Sider, Rich Christians, 236. the courage to facilitate structural changes in 22 Stevens, Doing God’s Business, 91-99. David Livingstone’s Vision Revisited

tute an interim sign. In the power of faith, social transformation and enter- the Spirit, the church points all human- prise development: The best way to ity backward to its origins in God’s understand the relationship is three creation and forward to the present overlapping circles that have the aim and coming Kingdom in Jesus Christ.25 of developing self-sustainable com- While establishing signs of the King- munities of believers in Jesus Christ dom of God in their society, believers (Christians in churches)23 that trans- in Jesus: form their society through adhering to God-given principles. With Christ at God’s grace brings about a radical and the centre, these communities of be- total transformation through faith (2 lievers expand the overlapping area so Cor. 5:17). that Christ will become more and more the centre of the life of the society in change the world. As the believers par- which these believers live. ticipate in God’s mission, God’s reign At the heart of this understanding of comes when people accept Jesus as the relationship between Biblical Faith, Lord, and in obedience see God’s will Social Transformation and Enterprise done on earth as it is in heaven. This Development is the conviction that involves economic justice and steward- the Kingdom of God needs to become ship, structural and societal change as a reality in a society or community. The well as personal transformation. It in- concept of the Kingdom of God within volves the whole person, not only the a mission context has been very well spiritual aspects and all of life and not explained in the book, The Good News only the ecclesiastical. of the Kingdom: Mission Theology for the Third Millennium.24 call people and structures to be recon- In an article in this book, Van Engen ciled with creation, with themselves, emphasizes that believers in Jesus are with each other and with God (2 Cor. living in the dialectic of the Kingdom 5:18-21). This life-style is deeply and of God that has already come in Jesus, creatively transformational for it seeks but yet is still in the process of coming to be a sign of the present and coming until he comes again. The ‘already’ and Kingdom of God. Through that the be- ‘not yet’ character of God’s rule means lievers recognize their profound com- that the church and its mission consti- mitment to radical transformation in their societies.

23 In many communities there is a very negative cultural perception of Christians and churches. It might therefore be better to talk about believers in Jesus Christ and communi- Livingstone’s vision to develop Africa ties of believers in Jesus Christ rather than about Christians or churches. 24 Charles Van Engen, Dean S. Gilliland and 25 Charles Van Engen, ‘Faith, Love, and Paul Pierson (eds), The Good News of the King- Hope: A Theology of Mission On-the-Way’ in dom: Mission Theology for the Third Millennium Van Engen, et al, The Good News of the King- (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1993). dom, 253-263. Sas Conradie spiritually, economically and socially standing of the biblical message.29 had a profound impact on the global - mission movement. For example Da- nity Computer Centers (www.tech- vid Scott developed the Blantyre Mis- mission.org) are used to transform sion in present day Malawi as a small society and sometimes facilitate en- missionary community intended to terprise development from a Chris- act with the cooperation of the Afri- tian base that also aims to bring can Lakes Company as a cultural and people to Christ.30 economic as well as religious catalyst within African society.26 This vision lared.org) uses a serious of prin- also ﬁnds its expression in the concept ciples based on the Bible that can of holistic mission where the emphasis be discussed in small groups to is on the church as a vehicle for the change the values in communities transformation of society and catalyst and through that encourage entre- for economic development. preneurship and enterprise develop- This analysis is in line with the ment. conclusions on the future priorities in - world evangelization as suggested by tiatives amongst Unreached People Viggo Sogaard after the Global Inquiry Groups although in some cases the on World Evangelization. emphasis is much more on the link between Biblical Faith and Enter- The emphasis here is on a holistic prise Development and less on So- gospel that not only transforms an cial Transformation. individual person, but it will have However, there remain many chal- transforming consequences for soci- lenges in the 21st Century to achieve eties, for trade and economics, for the dreams of David Livingstone in 27 law, and for human rights. terms of developing self-sustainable Modern day examples of this vision believers in Jesus Christ who can include:28 transform their communities: - ing Business as Mission initiatives (www.bamafrica.org) while the Sa- maritan Strategy (www.samaritan- strategy-africa.org) encourages so- Zambia and Uganda have a real passion for community transformation, cial transformation and enterprise development out of a better under- 29 See, Darrow L. Miller and Scott Allen, Against All Hope: Hope for Africa (Samaritan 26 Ross, David Livingstone, 243. Strategy Africa Working Group, Nairobi, Ken- 27 Viggo Sogaard, Evangelizing our World: ya for a foundational outline of the Samaritan Insights from Global Inquiry, 2004 Forum for Strategy, 2005). World Evangelization, Thailand, September 30 Sas Conradie, (2007) ‘Christian Com- 2004, 59. munity Computer Centers (C4s): Transform- 28 This is not an extensive list but only some ing Communities through Information Shar- of the projects I have been personally involved ing and Technology’, Transformation, Vol: 24 with. (2007) No 2:102-109. David Livingstone’s Vision Revisited

enterprise development and bibli- itual but also economical and social cal faith. Rwanda and Burundi are they will be enabled to generate emerging as peaceful nations after much more of their own financial years of genocide and conflict. Both resources for their own ministries. these countries now have Christian That makes the Kingdom Model es- presidents who ask the global Chris- sential. tian community to assist in spreading the gospel, changing the values in the community and to develop enterprises. There is a real possibility that Livingstone’s vision could The 21st Century is a totally differ- become a reality in these countries. ent world from the one in which David The challenge to Christians in the Livingstone worked. Technological international community is to ac- advances in travel and communica- cept that invitation and get involved tion have made the world a global vil- in these countries, including invest- lage. This is part of God’s design for ing in commercial enterprises. the world since he made humanity an - inter-connected and inter-dependent ment that mistakes have been made community with different resources in the past where the Escapist, in different places. This is in essence Chain and Facilitating Models have why we have globalisation. Within this been followed instead of the King- inter-connected globalised community dom Model. The result is endemic it is important for wealth to be shared corruption, tribal conflict and reli- to the benefit of all. This wealth or gious syncretism. Many churches capital includes knowledge, spiritual, and mission initiatives are now tak- social and monetary wealth. The King- ing steps towards a more Kingdom- dom Model of biblical faith, enterprise orientated Model of understanding development and social transformation the relationship between biblical must therefore become a reality not faith, social transformation and en- only in one community, but ways have terprise development. Theological to be found to link ‘Kingdom communi- institutions are teaching this model ties’ with one another to facilitate and although much more has to be done. increase wealth exchange or to put it better, wealth interchange. The dia- biblical faith, enterprise develop- gram below illustrates this need:31 ment and social transformation has the potential to decrease dependency on so-called western resources. 31 I owe this diagram to Ms Shona Passfield, As indigenous churches and minis- businesswomen and Church Mission Society tries see their task not only as spir- Trustee. Sas Conradie

Born at the time of the Abolitionist There is a growing acknowledgement Movement, David Livingstone’s vision that we live in a very fragile creation. of Christianity, Civilisation and Com- Not only biblical faith, enterprise de- merce had a profound impact on the velopment and social transformation mission movement in the 19th Centu- are needed, but these have to take the ry. Unfortunately this vision has been environmental context in which they distorted by colonialism and imperial- operate into account. Christians have ism. Many Christians and mission ini- a biblical mandate to care for the en- tiatives became reluctant to implement vironment while unrestrained commer- this vision and shied away from com- cial development will cause increased merce and social involvement. Fortu- environmental destruction that will nately there are a growing number of Christian initiatives today that take the result in economic collapse in the fu- vision seriously and present it in a dif- ture. Environmental destruction will ferent form. increase social problems as communi- The challenge for these initiatives ties and individuals ﬁght with one an- is to ﬁnd a way to develop a Kingdom other to obtain scarce resources such Model of ministry that integrates the as water. The concept of the quadruple different aspects of Livingstone’s vi- bottom line has therefore been devel- sion. In a globalised world this model oped to describe the environmental is needed more than ever, whether it responsibility, social transformation, be in well-reached communities in Af- economic development and the spir- rica or unreached areas of Asia and the itual growth in communities.32 Within Middle East. Perhaps it is time to even the framework of the Kingdom Model go beyond the Kingdom Model and put as described previously, the quadruple it within the framework of environmen- bottom line model might be illustrated tal care as described in the Quadruple as follows: Bottom Line Model of mission. Hope- fully there will be many Christian leaders who will venture into what could become very exciting possibilities.

32 See for example Sohail Inayatullah, ‘Spir- ituality as the Fourth Bottom Line’ at www. metafuture.org/Articles/spirituality_bottom_ line.htm for a non-Christian perspective on the Quadruple Bottom Line. ERT (2013) 37:2, 131-139 The Missional-Ecclesial Leadership Vision of the Early Church

KEYWORDS: Mission, leadership, Christian writers to seek justification apostles, deacons, bishop, elders, for contemporary church governance prophets, organisational structure, and administrative practice through ei- Spirit, evangelism, congregation segetical reading of texts that describe the developing life of the early church. In so doing the fundamental missional- ecclesial vision of the apostolic writers THE COMPREHENSIVE picture of God’s is often lost. A classic example is the salvific work shaped the life of the ear- way in which Acts 6 is used to justify ly church. While the specific language various forms of church governance of ‘already and not yet’ was not used, (all of congregational, Presbyterian, or the apostolic leaders’ self-understand- Episcopal patterns are possible), and ing that they were living ‘in the last such practices as committees and food days’ provided them with a missional distribution for the poor. There are le- impetus that they saw as the heart of gion examples of books (and often the the church’s life. This was particularly paragraph headings in Bible transla- the case with Paul, whose theological tions) that refer to this passage as training and dramatic Damascus road ‘the choosing of the seven deacons’, a experience profoundly shaped his mis- designation not applied until Irenaeus sional life and teachings, and in turn in the late second century.1 The term the churches he founded and the indi- ‘deacon’ does not appear once in the viduals he mentored. passage and those chosen are neither here nor elsewhere referred to as ‘deacons’, but as the Seven (see for exam- 1 Irenaeus, Against Heresies, in The Ante- Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, eds. Alexander Roberts In reflecting on early church leadership and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids: Eerd- there is a frequent tendency among mans, 1885/1987), 315-567.

Perry Shaw (MEd, New South Wales; ThM, Princeton; EdD, Asia Graduate School of Theology Alliance), is Professor of Christian Education and Associate Dean at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, Leba- non. He is a curriculum and faculty development consultant to regional schools and ministries throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, and has published The Art of Teaching (translated into Arabic and Farsi), and The Acts of the Apostles (translated to Arabic) as well as numerous articles in Christian Educa- tion and Leadership Studies; he serves on the Peer Review Committee of the Christian Education Journal. Perry W. H. Shaw ple Acts 21:9). A more careful reading (8:1-2), and an introduction to Saul of of this text in its literary context re- Tarsus (8:1, 3), who is to become the veals the deeper issues which shaped great apostle to the Gentiles. Among the early church’s vision of congrega- those scattered is another of the Sev- tional leadership systems. en, Philip, who uses the opportunity to The book of Acts opens with a peri- preach the gospel in Samaria (8:4-13), od of evangelism and growth (chs. 1-3), leading to large numbers of Samaritans followed by the first external chal- being accepted into the church (8:14- lenge to the church with the arrest of 25). Philip is then led south where he Peter and John (4:1-22). The church’s encounters, teaches, and baptises the response of courageous faith (4:23- first Gentile convert – the Ethiopian 30) is met with a fresh outpouring of official (8:26-39), after which we see the Holy Spirit (4:31), and a dynamic Philip preaching in all the towns along community life experience (4:32-37). the coast (8:40). Acts 5:1-10 describes the first internal When taken in its context it be- challenge to the church, the result of comes clear that Luke’s concern in which is the power of God expressed Acts 6:1-6 was not to prescribe a model in multiple ways, and growth in repu- for church governance and decision- tation and numbers (5:11-16). This led making procedures. In point of fact we to the second external challenge to the have no precise details of how the Sev- church, the arrest of the apostles and en were actually chosen – whether by their subsequent release (5:17-40), election, consensus, or appointment. which resulted in rejoicing and the fur- However, there is a detailed descrip- ther spread of the gospel (5:41-42). tion of the positive qualities sought in The conflict over the distribution new leaders. Nor was Luke’s concern of food (6:1) led to the appointment of the administrative shape for distribut- the spirit-filled Seven (6:2-6), and the ing food to the poor. Rather, we read spread of the word of God (6:7). One of nothing further about food distribution the Seven, Stephen, began performing in Acts, and we next see Stephen not miracles and preaching with authority in the ministry of social services but in (6:8-10), leading to the third external the ministry of preaching and miracle- challenge – Stephen’s arrest and mar- working. Shortly thereafter Philip has tyrdom (6:11–7:60). Central to this left his appointed ministry completely passage is Stephen’s ‘sermon’ (7:1- and is evangelising Samaria and be- 53), the longest recorded in Acts, and yond, and is later referred to not as a less an actual ‘sermon’ than a theo- deacon but as an evangelist (21:8). If logical defence before a religious court the point of the passage is to give a that paved the way for the acceptance biblical mandate for committees and/ 2 of Gentiles into the church. or food distribution, at least two of the The end result of Stephen’s martyr- Seven failed pretty miserably in the dom is the scattering of the believers task! The context of this story drives us 2 Perry W.H. Shaw, The Acts of the Apostles to see Luke’s purpose in including it. (Amman: Program for Theological Education There were several reasons, including by Extension, 2000), 97-106. the desire to provide an introduction to The Missional-Ecclesial Leadership Vision of the Early Church the Seven as men filled with the Holy oversee the casting of lots for Matthi- Spirit, to demonstrate how Spirit-driv- as to replace Judas and complete the en and creative decision-making leads Twelve. Through Acts 1-5 the Twelve to the spread of the gospel, and finally, apparently assumed sole responsibility to emphasise that all are welcome in for leadership, including oversight of the people of God. The concerns em- the early church’s finances (4:37; 5:2). bedded in the text are not adminis- As the church grew, the responsibili- trative but rather the following: the ties became unwieldy and the Twelve missional-ecclesial vision of the spread oversaw the appointment of the Seven of the word of God; the power of the (6:1-6) who would take the administra- Holy Spirit at work in the church and tive responsibility from their shoulders the need to depend on his guidance in so that the Twelve could devote them- decision-making; the comprehensive selves to ‘prayer and the ministry of nature of the church racially and lin- the word’ (6:2,4). With Stephen’s mar- guistically, and the love and acceptance tyrdom (Acts 7) and Philip’s growing that should characterize our churches; evangelistic ministry (Acts 8), one can and the holiness and integrity of char- only speculate as to what happened to acter expected in Christian leaders. the caring ministry to which they had The only thing that a careful liter- been appointed, but while absolutely ary-contextual approach to Acts 6 says nothing is recorded it seems probable with respect to governance and church that the apostles continued to appoint administration is that the preferred others to these sorts of ministries. approach is one which best promotes Through Acts 8-11 the Twelve, and the spread of the gospel. That this was in particular Peter and John, continue the ‘prescribed’ approach of the early to play a senior leadership role: the church is evident in the changing shape new movement in Samaria is only con- of leadership recorded in the book of firmed and established with the arrival Acts and the letters. Carter comments on the early church, ‘At every stage of Peter and John (8:14-25); Barna- persons are arranged to do ministry bas saw apostolic approval as crucial in the most effective way … Changing to Saul’s acceptance (9:27); Peter is mission means … new positions and the agency for the acceptance of Cor- persons, sometimes through new roles nelius and his Gentile household into for those already at work.’3 the church (10:1-11:18). Luke’s record sees the Spirit’s work at the heart of the church’s centrifugal missional movement to Samaritans and Gentiles (8:15-19; 10:44-48; 11:15-18),4 cross- ing boundaries and becoming con- textualised in new cultural settings, In the opening of Acts we see authority vested in the Eleven, who in turn 4 cf. Bengt Sundkler, ‘Jesus et les Paiens’, in 3 William J. Carter, Team Spirituality: A Guide Contributions à l’étude de la Pensée Missionnaire for Staff and Church (Nashville: Abingdon, dans le Nouveau Testament, ed. Bengt Sundkler 1997), 19. (Copenhagen: Munksgaard 1937), 1-38. Perry W. H. Shaw frequently in spite of the church’s re- leaders in specific local churches.7 luctance (11:1-3).5 In Acts 14:14 we see the designa- It is with the growth of the multi- tion ‘apostle’ (apostolos) extended to ethnic Antioch church that we first Barnabas. That this became a standard see new official roles being described. designation for certain leaders beyond Agabus was clearly only one among the Twelve is confirmed through the many who were recognised as ‘proph- following: Paul’s standard use of the ets’ (prophe-te-s) (11:27-28), and appar- term as a self-appellation; the refer- ently the leadership of the Antiochian ence to the apostles Andronicus and church comprised a group of ‘prophets Junia (Rom. 16:7), Apollos (1 Cor. 4:6, and teachers’ (13:1). Judas and Silas, cf. 4:9), and Silvanus (Silas) and Timo- ‘leaders among the brothers’ (15:22) thy in (1 Thess. 1:1; cf. 2:6-7); and the are also designated ‘prophets’ (15:32). instructions given on apostles in the Di- While some have questioned whether dache (11:3-6). In 1 Corinthians 12:28 Paul speaks of God’s appointment of these were official designated roles in first apostles, second prophets, third the church,6 the nominal grammati- teachers. Irrespective of whether this cal structure would suggest that they is a chronological or hierarchical prior- were. ity or both, or a prioritisation based on Certainly in the Revelation (11:18; benefit to the faith community,8 or sim- 16:6; 18:24) prophets are singled out ply a listing device, the repeated men- as those who have been targeted for tion in Ephesians 4:11 suggests that persecution, suggesting an official these are stable, permanent roles that leadership role in the late first century were widespread in the early church.9 church. Likewise the Didache (10:7; A discussion of the precise nature of 11:7-12; 13:1-7) speaks of prophets as each leadership role is subject to de- individuals worthy of high respect and bate and has been discussed in some financial support, although by this time depth elsewhere.10 My point here is to they may have had a predominantly indicate the fluid nature of governance itinerant influence rather than being

7 Ronald Kydd, Charismatic Gifts in the Early 5 cf. Craig Van Gelder, The Ministry of the Mis- Church, (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1984), 6-11. sional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit 8 Robert Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community: The (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 40. Early House Churches in their Cultural Setting, 6 Richard B. Gaffin Jr., ‘A Cessationist View’, rev. ed. (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 96. in Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views, 9 Jerome Crowe, From Jerusalem to Antioch: ed. Wayne Grudem (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, The Gospel Across Culture (Collegeville: Litur- 1996), 23-64; John F. MacArthur Jr., Charis- gical, 1997), 141. matic Chaos (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993); 10 For example Kenneth Berding, What are Samuel E. Waldron, To Be Continued? Are the Spiritual Gifts? Rethinking the Conventional Miraculous Gifts for Today? (Ashland: Calvary, View (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2006); Henry 2007); R. Fowler White, ‘Richard Gaffin and Blackaby and Mel Blackaby, What’s so Spir- Wayne Grudem: A Comparison of Cessationist itual about your Gifts? (Colorado Springs: Mult- and Noncessationist Argumentation’, Journal nomah, 2004); Max Turner, The Holy Spirit and of the Evangelical Theological Society Vol. 35, Spiritual Gifts: Then and Now (Carlisle: Pater- no. 2, June 1992, 173-81. noster, 1996). The Missional-Ecclesial Leadership Vision of the Early Church and structure in the early church, and James, had been followers of Christ the continual restructuring that took since the resurrection or even earlier,13 place for the accomplishment of the a usage also found in Papias14 and Ire- missional mandate. naeus.15 It is not until Acts 11:30 that we Eldership continues to be a pre- first hear of ‘elders’ (presbuteros), some vailing pattern of church governance 15 years or more after the Pentecostal throughout the New Testament (Acts founding of the church. But James has 20:17; 21:17-18; 1 Tim. 5:17-19; Tit. also come to prominence, and the apos- 1:5-6; Jas. 5:13-15; 1 Pet. 5:1-5; 2 Jn. tles and elders look to James’ leader- 1; 3 Jn. 1; Rev. 4:4,10; 5:6,8,14; 11:16; ship in the Jerusalem Council (Acts 19:4), although the terminology is 15:13). Schnabel suggests that the rather fluid between ‘elder’ and ‘over- development of leadership by elders in seer’ (episkopos; sometimes translated Jerusalem had resulted from the depar- ‘bishop’), particularly seen in the inter- ture of the Twelve from Jerusalem at change of the terms in Acts 20:17,28 the time of the Agrippan persecution of and Titus 1:5-9. The use of the term 41/42 AD mentioned in Acts 12.11 It is ‘overseer’ is widespread (Acts 20:28; probable that ‘eldership’ was first de- Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:2; Tit. 1:7), and may veloped in the very Jewish environment have been used to refer more specifi- of the Jerusalem Church, based on the cally to those leaders in whose homes 12 model of the Sanhedrin. churches would meet, and who sup- Whatever the reasons for the es- ported the faith community in various tablishment of leadership by elders, ways as ‘patrons’.16 from this point forward elders play a The first we see of the leadership dominant leadership role in the church. role of ‘deacon’ (diakonos) is in Philip- Paul sees the appointment of elders as pians 1:1 and in reference to Phoebe an essential element of his missional (Rom. 16:1). Despite the widespread activity, and both appoints (Acts 14:23) translation of the term in Romans 16:1 and reports to (Acts 20:17; 21:18-19) as ‘servant’ or ‘deaconess’, neither can elders as he travels. Even then it would be justified linguistically, as the use of seem that the term ‘elder’ was loose the masculine form (diakonon) in ref- and fluid, and Acts 15:23 (‘the elder erence to a woman points strongly to brethren’ – hoi presbuteroi adelphoi a formal position held in the church. – is the best attested reading of the Greek text) suggests that in Jerusa- lem at least the term may have simply 13 Roger Beckwith, Elders in Every City: The referred to senior believers who, like Origin and Role of the Ordained Ministry (Carl- isle: Paternoster, 2003), 45. 14 Papias, Fragments of Papias, in The Ante- 11 Eckhard J. Schnabel, Paul the Missionary: Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, eds. Alexander Roberts Realities, Strategies and Methods (Downers and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids: Eerd- Grove: IVP. 2008), 48. mans, 1885/1987), 153-155. 12 Hans Von Campenhausen, Ecclesiastical 15 Irenaeus, Against Heresies. Authority and Spiritual Power in the Church of 16 Udo Schnelle, Apostle Paul: His Life and the First Three Centuries, trans. by J.A. Baker Theology, trans. by M. Eugene Boring (Grand (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969). Rapids: Baker, 2005), 573. Perry W. H. Shaw

Deacons are also mentioned as local writers than leadership roles was the church leaders in 1 Timothy 3:8-10. quality of life expected from these lead- It is noteworthy that Ignatius refers ers (1 Tim. 3; Tit. 1:5-9; 1 Pet. 5:1-4), to deacons as not simply ‘ministers as an essential necessity in the spread of food and drink’ but servants of ‘the of the gospel (Acts 14:23; 20:28-32; mysteries of Jesus Christ’ (Trallians Tit. 1:5). Paul clearly saw true right- 2:3), pointing to their holistic ministry eousness in leaders as having foun- of word and deed in the service of the dational missional implications: the church’s mission.17 good reputation (marturia) of leaders It is probable that the early church (1 Tim. 3:7) is directly related to the gave multiple titles to leaders, for ex- witness (marturia) of the church.18 Fee ample elder (or deacon) and apostle, observes, prophet, evangelist, and/or shepherd- Apart from the authority of the teacher. This is suggested by Paul’s apostles over the churches they had tendency to introduce his letters with founded, there seems to be very lit- greetings to the elders, overseers, and/ tle interest in the question of ‘au- or deacons, but (with the exception thority’ at the local level. To be sure, of the pastoral letters to Timothy and the people are directed to respect, Titus) the application of more ‘charis- and submit to, those who laboured matic’ titles in the body of the text. The among them and served them in the use of multiple titles is also indicated Lord (1 Cor. 16:16; Heb. 13:17). But by a comparison between the most in their roles as those who care for ‘charismatic’ of letters, 1 Corinthians, the others. The concern for govern- in which the emphasis is on the lead- ance and roles within church struc- ership of apostles and prophets, and 1 tures emerges at a later time.19 Clement 42:4 (addressed to the Corin- thian church) in which Clement recaps their early leadership in the words, ‘[the apostles] appointed their ﬁrst converts … to be bishops [episkopous] and deacons.’ Fluidity of governance and administra- Despite the fact that deacons and tion in service of the church’s mission- elders clearly played a signiﬁcant part al-ecclesial vision is also emphasized in the life of the early church, we are in the consistent biblical use of organic nowhere informed as to the precise na- rather than organisational language ture of their leadership roles, although in describing the church: body (Rom. clearly pastoral (Acts 20:28; Jas. 5:14; 12:4-6; 1 Cor. 12:12-26; Eph. 4:4,25; 1 Pet. 5:1-2) and teaching (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:29-30; Col. 2:19; 3:15); family (Mt. 5:17; Tit. 1:9) ministries, and oversight 12:49-50; Rom. 12:10; Gal. 6:10; Heb. of missional advancement (Acts 21:18- 19), were key responsibilities. Of far greater concern to the New Testament 18 Schnabel, Paul the Missionary, 247. 19 Gordon D Fee, ‘Laos and Leadership Un- der the New Covenant’, Crux Vol. 25, No. 4, 17 Beckwith, Elders in Every City, 65. December 1989, 3-13. The Missional-Ecclesial Leadership Vision of the Early Church

13:1; 1 Pet. 1:22; 3:8); bride (2 Cor. er was called on to fulfil the ministry 11:2; Rev. 19:7); wife (Eph. 5:25-28); for which God had gifted him or her, olive tree (Rom. 11:17-24); a chosen so that corporately all might together people, a royal priesthood, a holy na- grow to maturity (Eph. 4:11-12). tion (1 Pet. 2:9). In the New Testament Spiritual gifts found their source the word ‘member’ is consistently used in God himself, and consequently ‘… with a biological rather than organi- the authority to exercise a gift was sational meaning. Likewise, Paul saw the right of any person who had a call his relationship to the churches he had from God and could demonstrate it by established in parental (as father in the ability to use the gift properly. As a 1 Cor. 4:14-15; 2 Cor. 12:14; 1 Thess. result, a large group of diverse people 2:11, and as mother in Gal. 4:19; 1 often shared the leadership.’22 Gaillar- Thess. 2:7) rather than organisational detz asserts that the ‘charism-versus- terms.20 office’ debate is a product of Protes- The familial character of the early tant-Catholic polemics, and that a more church’s self-understanding is equally ‘fluid continuum’ existed between of- seen in that Luke uses some form of fice and gift in the early church.23 the Greek term adelphos (‘brother/ Comparative studies suggest that a sister’) fifty-seven times in the book significant cultural element came into of Acts when speaking of the commu- the formation of structures within the nity of faith. These images point to early church. Meeks,24 for example, the church as: people more than pro- observes clear parallels between the grammes; dynamic and growing rather structure of local Christian communi- than static and stagnant; heterogene- ties in the first century and the concur- ous rather than homogeneous. rent models of the household (oikia), While certain positions (notably the voluntary associations that prolif- ‘apostles’, ‘prophets’, ‘elders’, ‘over- erated in the early Roman Empire, the seers’, and ‘deacons’) seemed to hold synagogue,25 and even the philosophi- some level of precedence, the notion cal and rhetorical schools. of a distinct ‘clergy’ class was foreign There can be no question but that to the early church. The word kleros, patterns of congregational leadership from which the word ‘clergy’ derives, referred not to a separate group within the church, but to all who had received 22 David A. Steele, Images of Leadership and Authority for the Church: Biblical Principles and the inheritance of God’s redemption Secular Models (Lanham: University, 1986), 9. 21 (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:11-12). Within the 23 Richard R. Gaillardetz, Ecclesiology for a early Christian community each believ- Global Church: A People Called and Sent (Mary- knoll: Orbis, 2008), 30-31. 24 Wayne A. Meeks, The First Urban Chris- 20 Robert Banks and Bernice M. Ledbetter, tians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul (New Reviewing Leadership: A Christian Evaluation Haven: Yale, 1983), 75-84. of Current Approaches (Grand Rapids, Baker, 25 cf. David J. Hesselgrave, Planting Churches 2004), 37. Cross-Culturally: A Guide for Home and Foreign 21 cf. W. Charles Arn, ‘Lay ministry: A closer Mission (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), 351, look’, in Church Growth: State of the Art, ed. C. Steele, Images of Leadership and Authority, Peter Wagner (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1986), 108. 27. Perry W. H. Shaw in the early church reflected predomi- Testament terminology teaches us that nant models observable in the local cul- congregational leadership forms must ture. However, the end goal differed: in be understandable to the cultural con- contrast to a world that was shaped by text, and yet flexible enough to cope Caesar the early church leaders recog- with changing needs both outside and nised their primary calling to form an inside the church, with the ultimate alternate community built on an iden- purpose that the community of faith tity rooted in Jesus Christ.26 With this will best live out its missional-ecclesial self-understanding, the focus on char- identity. acter rather than role in early Christian leadership should not surprise. Even within the relatively brief period represented by the New Testa- A careful reflection on leadership pat- ment documents, change and develop- terns in the early church suggests the ment in church structure is observable. following general principles: 27 Lingenfelter notes that in the early days, while the community was small early church shaped its governance. and localised around Jerusalem, and Organisational change occurred group-identity was a central concern, whenever the shape of governance a ‘collectivist’ approach to leadership was hindering the spread of the was adopted by the early Christians. gospel and the formation of a com- As the church grew, incorporated first munity that reflected the incarnate Samaritan, then Gentile believers, character of God. and expanded far beyond the Levant region, a more complex organisation Testament leadership terms seem evolved. However, structures remained to make any definitive statements fluid until the close of the first century. on church governance or Christian While the first hints of more formal- leadership practice singularly un- ised categories appear in the pastoral wise. Where any form of structured letters to Timothy and Titus and in ministry is considered it is seen as the Didache, it is only in the writings of Ignatius (Ephesians 6; Magnesians a call to service of the faith commu- 6; Trallians 3; Philadelphians 1; Smyr- nity rather than as an opportunity to 28 naeans 8) in the early second century exercise power. that more hierarchical and rigid ec- 29 clesial leadership structures begin to institutionalisation were at work appear. If anything, a study of New even in the early church. However, its commitment to missional-eccle-

26 Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, The Missional Leader: Equipping your Church to 28 Gaillardetz, Ecclesiology for a Global Reach a Changing World (San Francisco: Jos- Church, 32 sey-Bass, 2006), 118. 29 Paul G. Hiebert, Daniel R. Shaw, and Tite 27 Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Transform- Tiénou, Understanding Folk Religion: A Chris- ing Culture: A Challenge for Christian Mission tian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 194-201. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 333-346. The Missional-Ecclesial Leadership Vision of the Early Church

sial vision with its balance between the community of faith are called to ‘prophets’ [apostles and prophets] take positions of supervisory lead- and ‘priests’ [elders and deacons] ership, there is nonetheless a wide slowed the process of institutionali- variety of leadership roles and these sation at least until the early years roles will be filled by many differ- of the second century. ent members of the Body of Christ. - Multiple leadership is based on Holy dom for both the choice of leaders Spirit giftedness. and their on-going ministry. It is - the Holy Spirit who provides both ing filled with the Holy Spirit, and a the gifting and authority necessary recognition that leaders are no more to fulfil particular leadership func- (or no less) than stewards entrusted with an authority which ultimately tions. Consequently, one of the chief is not their own, are more important responsibilities of existing leaders is leadership issues than are position to acknowledge and empower those and task. Christian leadership finds whom the Holy Spirit has already its power base in spiritual rather appointed. Church governance in than other forms of power. the early church is fundamentally a - 30 ‘pneumatic’ order. lational, emphasising mutual care and responsiveness to needs. The purpose of leadership is corporate growth in Christ, a growth that will 30 Emil Brunner, The Misunderstanding of the not occur individually in an isolated Church (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968). setting.

Aspects of Reforming Theology and Practice in Sixteenth Century Europe Michael Parsons (ed.) Experts in Reformation studies identify and elucidate areas of sixteenth century reforming activity to demonstrate the thoroughgoing nature of the Reformation agenda. This insightful collection of essays provides close examination of the diverse approaches to theology and ministry that developed during the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Aspects of Reforming is an invaluable contribution to the field of Reformation theology. Andre A. Gazal, Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, Northland Graduate School, Wisconsin Michael Parsons is Commissioning Editor for Paternoster, Associate Research Fellow, Spurgeon’s College, London

9781842278062 / 229x152mm / 298pp / £29.99

Paternoster, 52 Presley Way, Crownhill Milton Keynes, MK8 0ES ERT (2013) 37:2, 140-152 From ‘Grammatical-historical Exegesis’ to ‘Theological Exegesis’: Five Essential Practices

KEYWORDS: Prayer, canon, church, context, analogy of faith, Rule of faith, hermeneutics, Christology Theological exegesis is not a light matter; it is a dangerous thing to hear the If I know myself I am ﬁrst and fore- voice of God. One seventeenth-century most a theological exegete. English writer is reported to have said, J. I. Packer1 ‘I had rather see coming toward me a whole regiment with drawn swords, The kind of questions serious young than one lone Calvinist convinced that theologians put to us are: How can he is doing the will of God.’3 For the I learn to pray? How can I learn to sincere exegete, the danger is twofold: read the Bible? Either we can help obedience to the voice of God proved them to do this, or we can’t help costly for the twelve disciples, but them at all. Nothing of all this can even graver danger lies in failing to be taken for granted. discern whether one is hearing God’s Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a 1936 letter to voice or another’s. Perhaps the most Karl Barth2 famous example of a devilish use of ‘God’s voice’ is attributed, not surpris- ingly, to the Devil himself. In Matthew 4:6 the Devil quotes Psalm 91:11–12 1 ‘In Quest of Canonical Interpretation’, in The Use of the Bible in Theology: Evangelical Options, ed. Robert Johnston (Atlanta: John Knox, 1985), 47; cf. 45. 3 Cited in Nicholas Wolterstorff, Until Justice 2 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditating on the Word, and Peace Embrace: The Kuyper Lectures for trans. Gracie David McI. (Cambridge, MA: 1981 Delivered at the Free University of Amster- Cowley, 1986), 22. dam (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 9.

Hank Voss (MA, MACE Talbot School of Theology; PhD ABD Wheaton College) is Senior National Staff with The Urban Ministry Institute (http://www.tumi-la.org). In addition to his involvement with theological education, he has helped to plant three churches. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at a Wheaton College theology PhD colloquium and at the 2011 Hermeneutics Session of the Evangelical Theological Society in San Francisco. From ‘Grammatical-historical Exegesis’ to ‘Theological Exegesis’ in an attempt to persuade Jesus to do leaders in the church to practise theo- something that neither the human nor logical exegesis?’ More specifically, the divine author of Psalm 91 intended. how do we balance an emphasis on hu- In a 1984 article in Baker’s Evangeli- man and divine authorship—which has cal Dictionary of Theology, F. F. Bruce tended to be an evangelical strength— claimed that grammatical-historical while paying greater attention to a exegesis (GHE), by itself, is an inad- traditional evangelical weakness: equate reading strategy for the church; readers, their contexts, and their inter- something more, ‘theological exegesis’ pretative communities? How are teach- (TE), is needed.4 Since that article was ers of the church to equip the people of written some thirty years ago, much God to hear the divine voice in Scrip- has been written by evangelicals re- ture? What basic reading practices are garding the theological interpretation necessary for Christian faithfulness of Scripture. Many of these more recent when the church is facing massive discussions help us to build on Bruce’s and rapid growth, especially the type insight in order to more explicitly de- of growth described as ‘church plant fine an evangelical practice of theo- movements’.7 Toward an answer to logical exegesis. Kevin Vanhoozer is a these pressing questions, this article leader in this discussion among evan- proposes five practices for evangelical gelicals. He has authored a significant theological exegesis: monograph, edited a dictionary, and 1. Theological Exegesis Approaches written numerous essays on the topic.5 Scripture with Faith Seeking Under- He understands theological exegesis to standing (fides quaerens intellectum). be an ecclesial reading practice which 2. Theological Exegesis Is Faithful to listens for the divine voice speaking in the Original Contexts (grammatical- scripture by attending to the canon’s historical exegesis). Text/s, Author/s, and Reader/s.6 3. Theological Exegesis Reads Scrip- While there has been much discus- ture with the Analogy of Faith (ana- sion of what theological exegesis is, logia fidei). there has been far less discussion on 4. Theological Exegesis Reads Scrip- how it works in practice. Thus this ture with the Rule of Faith (regula article addresses the question, ‘How fidei). do global theological educators equip 5. Theological Exegesis Reads Scrip- ture within the Community of Faith (intra ecclesiam). 4 F. F. Bruce, ‘Interpretation of the Bible’, in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter Note that the first and last of these A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984), 565– practices are especially attuned to the 68. reader of the text. Emphasis on the 5 See for example, Kevin J. Vanhoozer et al., reader draws attention to practices, eds., Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of not simply method. Alasdair MacIn- the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, tyre suggests that ‘practices’ require 2005). 6 See especially: Kevin Vanhoozer, Is There a Meaning in This Text? The Bible, the Reader, 7 David Garrison, Church Planting Movements: and the Morality of Literary Knowledge (Grand How God is Redeeming a Lost World (Midlothi- Rapids: Zondervan, 1998). an, VA: WIGTake Resources, 2004). Hank Voss us to attend not only to methods, but like those of Sharif who launched ‘the also to the ends of the community in largest Church Planting Movement in which the practice is located.8 Meth- the history of Christian missions to ods can be didactically helpful,9 but Muslims’.13 Between 1991 and 2001 only when they are situated within Sharif’s movement has seen 4000 these larger practices.10 The unique churches planted among Muslims and nature of the church’s being and call- ‘more than 150,000 Muslims come to ing requires reading strategies distinct faith in Christ’.14 The five practices for from the culture in which it dwells. As theological exegesis proposed here aim Yeago notes, ‘Renewal of the church to stimulate reflection on the types of requires not only new ideas about the theological education needed to serve church, but renewed practices of being pastors like Sharif or those currently the church, and chief among these are being equipped at the institution where practices of understanding and applying I serve, The Urban Ministry Institute.15 the Scriptures.’11 The thesis advanced is that an evan- The explosion of Christianity among gelical version of TE provides the best the urban poor and in the global south way forward for these pastors and for gives rise to perhaps the most exciting the theological educators whose voca- stories of the twentieth century. The tion is to serve them. five practices of TE identified above are especially significant for those regional theatres. David Garrison has done the global church an invaluable (although fides quaerens intellectum widely ignored) service in documenting Anselm’s (d. 1109) motto of faith seek- twenty-five emerging ‘church planting understanding is the starting point ing movements’.12 He records stories for the theological exegete. TE is a practice for those who have already 8 After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre made a volitional decision to respond Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, to the command, ‘You follow me!’ (John 2007), 187. 21:22). Their aim in reading Scripture 9 See for example Jack Kuhatschek, Applying is to know the mind of Christ.16 They the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990); Robert Traina, Methodological Bible Study (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980). 13 Garrison, Church Planting Movements, 36, 10 Richard Hays, ‘Reading the Bible with 120. Eyes of Faith: The Practice of Theological Ex- 14 Garrison, Church Planting Movements, 115. egesis’, Journal of Theological Interpretation 1:1 15 The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) has (2007): 11–12. launched over 100 satellite campuses around 11 ‘The Bible: The Spirit, Church, and the the world since 2001. The vision of the insti- Scriptures: Biblical Inspiration and Interpre- tute is to provide formal theological education tation Revisited’, in Knowing the Triune God: for church leaders serving among the urban The Work of the Spirit in the Practices of the poor. See further: www.tumi.org. Church, ed. James Joseph Buckley and David 16 Thomas F. Torrance, ‘The Reconciliation Yeago (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 93; of Mind: A Theological Meditation upon the emphasis added. Teaching of St. Paul’, in Theology in the Service 12 David Garrison, Church Planting Move- of the Church, ed. Wallace M. Alston, Jr. (Grand ments. Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 200–201. From ‘Grammatical-historical Exegesis’ to ‘Theological Exegesis’ receive in faith Scripture’s claim of di- Jesus, have mercy on me’, he is aware vine authorship, and approach the text of his notorious tendency to suppress of scripture differently from the texts unsavoury truths (Rom. 1:19–19; Ps. of other respected authors (Teresa of 119:9,11). Ávila, Shakespeare, Endo) or even Secondly, dependency means that other texts which claim divine author- theological interpreters must be will- ship (Koran, the Book of Mormon). For ing to turn ‘common hermeneutical evangelical theological exegetes, the agendas upon their heads’ by making triune discourse of Scripture is unique, the life of prayer ‘utterly basic’ to their and they approach scripture aiming for practice of theological interpretation.18 a greater love and a deeper knowledge Jeroslav Pelikan has famously pointed of the triune God. out that for the first 1500 years of the Anselm’s motto, ‘I do not seek to church, nearly all the theologians of understand in order that I may believe, the church (i.e. theological exegetes) but I believe in order to understand’ were either bishops or monks. The vast did not represent a new interpretive majority of these would have followed practice. More than a thousand years some form of the Benedictine rule or a before, others had confessed a similar liturgy of the hours which would have 17 ‘motto’. A humble acknowledgement them praying through the Psalter, in- of God was deemed the starting point cluding Psalm 119, every week. for knowledge (Prov. 1:7) and wisdom Testimony to the influence of this (Ps. 111:10). Those who wish to have practice on medieval exegetes is legion: understanding (Ps. 111:10) into the ‘whilst you were singing the psalms, work (and word) of God, must begin did it not sometimes come about that with the fear of the Lord. The transla- you were illuminated by the brilliance tors of the LXX were so sure of this fact of the spiritual sense?’; or ‘when fixed that they added to the MT of Proverbs in a fervor quite new, I began to love 1:7 an explanatory phrase, ‘and piety singing the Psalms for God’s sake, toward God is the beginning of percep- many things in the divine Scripture tion [aisthe-sis]’, (NETS). For theological exegetes, ‘the fear began to be unlocked for me in silence of the Lord’ calls for a radical depend- as I was Psalm singing that I had been ency upon the Holy Spirit, a dependen- unable previously to track down by 19 cy with at least two implications. First, reading.’ This prayerful approach to the theological interpreter approaches exegesis is at odds with much west- Scripture with sin as an epistemologi- ern exegetical practices, where the cal category. Without a favourable an- primacy of the life of prayer is rarely swer to the continual prayer of ‘Lord,

18 Bartholomew and Holt, ‘Prayer in/and the 17 For Blocher (and for Augustine, Aquinas, Drama of Redemption in Luke: Prayer and Ex- and Calvin), ‘the fear of the LORD is the prin- egetical Performance’, 367. ciple of exegetical and theological wisdom’ 19 Cited in Henri de Lubac, Medieval Exege- (Henri Blocher, ‘The Fear of the Lord as the sis, vol. 3: The Four Senses of Scripture (Grand “Principle” of Wisdom’, Tyndale Bulletin 28 Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 626, n.305; 658, n. [1977]: 4, 15, 28). 184, cf. n.182; 724, n.182. Hank Voss discussed.20 Is it really surprising that empowered by the Holy Spirit to write earlier theological exegetes so often the Holy Scriptures. While the church heard the divine voice in places where has sometimes become distracted from we find silence? the ‘literal’ sense of Scripture, it has When the Christian exegete ap- almost always agreed that the literal proaches the text with the prayer, sense was the most important. Origen ‘Open my eyes, so that I may behold himself built the spiritual sense upon wondrous things out of your law’ (Ps. the literal. Sensitivity and care (even 119:18),21 she is positioned between love) for the original grammatical, the discredited positivism of ‘objective’ historical, and literary contexts of the historical criticism and the despair of text remain a central practice of TE. the derridian-deconstructionist play- Richard Hays has argued along similar ground. In faith she approaches scrip- lines: ture with neither blind optimism nor History therefore cannot be either despairing playfulness—rather she inimical or irrelevant to theology’s comes seeking the mind of Christ, an affirmations of truth. The more ac- understanding of the divine voice, and curately we understand the histori- a proper response of obedient love. cal setting of 1st-century Palestine, Exegetical handbooks for the global the more precise and faithful will church in the twenty-first century can be our understanding of what the no longer ignore this basic posture of incarnate Word taught, did, and suf- the ecclesial reader. fered.22 Clarity on this point makes it worth repeating. Attention to the divine illo- Grammatical- cution of a text does not replace atten- historical Exegesis tiveness to the human authors whom God divinely prepared and equipped The human authors of Scripture are to speak his own words. Tolerance not excluded from the golden rule. We for interpretive sloth and pride are do our best to listen to them as we our- not to be condoned. GHE seeks to at- selves would want to be heard—not the tend carefully to the human authors’ least because we believe each to have voices as individuals within a particu- been individually shaped, chosen, and lar book, corpus, or testament.23 It is

20 For exceptions see: Patrick Reardon, Christ in the Psalms (Conciliar, 2000); Dietrich 22 ‘Reading the Bible with Eyes of Faith: The Bonhoeffer, The Prayerbook of the Bible (Life Practice of Theological Exegesis’, 12. Together; Prayerbook of the Bible, ed. Geffrey 23 Anthony Thiselton, The Two Horizons: Kelly, trans. Daniel Bloesch and James Burt- New Testament Hermeneutics and Philosophi- ness (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006). cal Description with Special Reference to Hei- 21 Psalm 119 (Bonhoeffer’s favorite Psalm ) degger, Bultmann, Gadamer, and Wittgenstein is the prayer of the Christian Exegete (note the (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 91, 440; I-thou language throughout the Psalm). Rein- Vern Poythress, ‘Divine Meaning of Scripture’, hard Hütter is writing an entire commentary Westminster Theological Journal 48:2 (1986): on the Psalm for the Brazos Theological Com- 277; Vanhoozer, Is There a Meaning in the Text?, mentary Series. 265. From ‘Grammatical-historical Exegesis’ to ‘Theological Exegesis’ easier to hear clearly one voice, than analogia fidei, but he calls it the analo- many speaking at the same time. By gia totus Scripturae, and explains that carefully listening to each human au- it means thor, theological interpreters are more [T[he comparison of all relevant accurately able to hear the divine passages on any topic, under the voice speaking through the canon as a methodical duty to avoid substantial 24 whole. Thus evangelical TE does not contradictions. It implies a system- denigrate GHE, but seeks to recover atic character in biblical interpreta- alongside of it the historic emphasis of tion, the totality of a coherent Scrip- the church on the divine voice speak- ture being the norm.27 ing in Scripture as a whole.25 This rule is an essential component of Protestant interpretation and is also commonly referred to by the analogia fidei Latin phrase: scriptura ipsius interpres (Scripture is its own interpreter). In The analogy of faith (analogia fidei) has short, the analogy of faith requires always played an essential role in ecclesial exegesis, but it moved to even theological exegetes to take the whole greater prominence as a reading strat- canon of Scripture into consideration egy during the Reformation due to the when interpreting a biblical passage. movement’s motto of sola scriptura. This Vanhoozer calls this idea of the divine practice eventually came to mean that voice speaking through the canon as more difficult-to-understand passages a whole a ‘canonical illocution’, and in Scripture should be interpreted by he defines it as ‘what God is doing by the clearer ones. Henri Blocher help- means of the human discourse in the 28 fully traces four versions of the prac- biblical texts at the level of the canon’. tice in the Protestant tradition.26 He We find a compelling example of calls the first version the ‘traditional’ the analogia fidei in Jesus’ reading view and it corresponds to what I have strategy in Matthew 22:29–32. When called ‘the rule of faith’ in the next sec- challenged by the Sadducees about his tion (the term ‘rule of faith’ does not belief in the doctrine of the resurrec- appear in the article). Blocher’s fourth tion (a belief that had developed more use, endorsed by the Second Helvetic clearly during post-exilic Judaism and Confession, refers to what I mean by thus was not acceptable to the Saddu- cees who accepted only the Pentateuch as canonical), Jesus ‘proves’ the doc- 24 Examples of evangelicals who have of- trine from Exodus 3:6. Grammatical- fered helpful proposals of what this could historical or historical critical study look like on a larger scale include Paul House, Charles Scobie, and Chris Wright. 25 Daniel Treier, Introducing Theological In- 27 Blocher, ‘The Analogy of Faith in the terpretation of Scripture (Grand Rapids: Baker, Study of Scripture,’ 20. 2008), 187–205. 28 Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic 26 Henri Blocher, ‘The Analogy of Faith in Approach to Christian Theology (Louisville: the Study of Scripture’, Scottish Bulletin of Westminster John Knox, 2005), 179, emphasis Evangelical Theology 5 (1987): 18–24. original. Hank Voss might not find the doctrine of the resur- of faith as a component of TE.32 Within rection in Exodus 3:6, but Jesus’ teach- biblical studies, the recent explosion ing in Matt 22:29–32 reveals that the of interest in the use of the Old Tes- idea of resurrection is part of the divine tament in the New, intertextuality, and illocution.29 intracanonical criticism illustrates its Jesus’ final words to the Sadducees increasing importance.33 A third exam- in Mark’s version, ‘polu planasthe’ (‘You ple can be seen in evangelicals’ contin- are quite wrong’, ESV), continues to ued commitment to a form of biblical warn theological exegetes of the dan- theology which displays many of the ger of failing to attend to the divine qualifications of TE.34 voice found in the canon as a whole. As To these western examples must be Craig Blomberg notes: ‘Contemporary added the testimony of pastors serv- objections to Jesus’ logic here perhaps ing among the world’s more than one reveal an unnecessary rigidity in our billion urban poor. Many of these lead- modern historical/grammatical herme- ers will never be able to afford more neutics rather than any fallacy with Je- than three or four books beyond their 30 sus’ interpretation.’ Vern Poythress, Bible.35 The exegetical fruits of these while not discussing the analogia fidei teachers of the church, who almost in particular, makes a similar point, always rely upon the canon for their ‘We must attend to God’s meaning. ‘commentary’ on a pericope, is not to And God’s meaning is not boxed in. be quickly despised.36 Rather, it will become evident in the subsequent events and in the subsequent words of explanation.’31 While the value of the analogy 32 ‘A theological exegesis will therefore pay of faith has repeatedly proven itself as much, if not more, attention to the canoni- throughout church history, its impor- cal context as the historical in order to discern tance can also be illustrated from re- the communicative intent of the divine play- cent western evangelical theology, bib- wright’ (Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 249). lical studies, and biblical theology. In 33 See articles on ‘Intertextuality’ and ‘Scripture, Unity of’, in Dictionary for Theologi- theology, Kevin Vanhoozer’s proposal cal Interpretation of the Bible, 332–34; 731–34. for a ‘canonical-linguistic approach’ to 34 See T. Desmond Alexander et al., eds., Christian theology presents a powerful New Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Exploring appeal for the recovery of the analogy the Unity and Diversity of Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2000); and the New Studies in Biblical Theology Series edited by D. 29 Although see J. Gerald Janzen, ‘Resur- A. Carson. rection and Hermeneutics: On Exodus 3:6 in 35 The Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge (a Mark 12:26.’, Journal for the Study of the New ‘precritical’ Bible study aid with some 300,000 Testament: 23 (1985): 56. intratextual references), or some similar tool, 30 Craig L. Blomberg, Matthew, NAC (Nash- should be one of those few books. ville, TN: Broadman, 1992), 334. 36 I think of conversations on ‘suffering’ 31 Vern Poythress, ‘The Presence of God with leaders of persecuted house churches in Qualifying Our Notions of Grammatical-His- China, or on ‘citizenship’ (Acts 22:38; Eph. torical Interpretation: Genesis 3:15 as a Test 2:19; Phil. 3:20) with pastors whose congre- Case’, Journal of the Evangelical Theological So- gations consist of undocumented workers in ciety 50:1 (2007): 99. the United States. From ‘Grammatical-historical Exegesis’ to ‘Theological Exegesis’

rule is debated, its essence is three- regula fidei fold: Scripture narrates the story of the mission of God (His-story), Scripture Evangelical interpreters are becoming leads us to Christ, and, the God who increasingly aware of a fourth ecclesial created the world is the Father of the interpretive practice; Scripture must Lord Jesus Christ who together with be read according to the Rule of Faith. the Holy Spirit is to be worshipped as This rule cannot be neglected if an in- Yahweh. The three elements of this terpretation is to be considered ‘Chris- rule are most authoritatively summa- tian’—at least this has been the unani- rized in the Nicene Creed—the ‘pledge mous opinion of the ‘one, holy, catholic of allegiance’ for the one (holy, catho- and apostolic church’ (Nicene Creed) lic, apostolic) nation under God (1 Pet. since the fourth century. Although 2:9).40 Thomas Aquinas identified the rule of faith as sola canonica scriptura est regu- lae fidei (canonical Scripture alone is the rule of faith)—which would make it analogous to the Protestant version The first element of the rule of faith is of the analogy of faith (scriptura ipsius a commitment to reading Scripture as interpres), the rule is better thought of a single story in which we as readers as an authoritative summary of Scrip- are participants. N. T. Wright points ture’s message—a trustworthy map to out that the unity of the first Chris- Scripture.37 tians was to be found in the story they The rule of faith is referred to by shared: both Ignatius (d. c. 107) and Polycarp Their strong centre, strong enough (d. 156), although it receives its first to be recognizable in works as di- significant development with Irenaeus verse as those of Jude and Igna- (d. c. 185) and Tertullian (d. c. 225).38 tius, James and Justin Martyr, was Its content was perhaps most clearly not a theory or a new ethic, not an articulated by Vincent of Leréns (d. c. abstract dogma nor rote-learning 445), who described it as that which teaching, but a particular story told 41 has been believed everywhere, always, and lived. by all.39 While the exact form of this Jehovah’ in some 230 countries, adding cur- 37 Kevin Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine, rent weight to St. Vincent’s concern. See also 208; John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian James Kombo, The Doctrine of God in African Religion, 4.9.14, ed. John Thomas McNeill, Christian Thought, 21–22. trans. Ford Lewis Battles, Library of Christian 40 James K. A. Smith calls the Nicene Creed classics v. 20–21 (Philadelphia: Westminster, the ‘pledge of allegiance’ for the church (De- 1960), 1165. siring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and 38 Kathryn Greene-McCreight, ‘Rule of Cultural Formation [Grand Rapids: Baker Aca- Faith’, in Dictionary for Theological Interpreta- demic, 2009], 190). tion of the Bible, 703; Treier, Introducing Theo- 41 N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the logical Interpretation of Scripture, 57–68. People of God: Christian Origins and the Ques- 39 Vincent of Leréns, Commonitory, 2.6–7. tion of God, vol. 1 (Minneapolis: Fortress, The Jehovah’s Witnesses claim ‘assemblies of 1992), 456. Hank Voss

Paul Blowers, in a seminal article on Scripture and the Christian life.44 It the Rule of Faith, has built on Wright’s listens in Scripture for the voice of the observation to show that the heart of Spirit who leads us to Christ.45 It seeks the church’s rule of faith is a shared to know Christ in all of Scripture, for story. He writes: Christ through the Spirit reveals the My premise here is that at bottom, Father (Matt 11:27). The exact way in the Rule of Faith (which was always which Christ is met in the canon is not associated with Scripture itself) specified by the rule of faith, but it does 46 served the primitive Christian hope agree that he is its res. of articulating and authenticating a Debates rage as to what it means world encompassing story or met- to read Scripture with a Christological anarrative of creation, incarnation, lens (e.g., Is such reading christocen- redemption, and consummation.42 tric, christo-ecclesiological, christo- monic or christotelic?). Whatever An increasing number of biblical schol- methodological lens is used, the rule of ars and theologians recognize that faith requires us to read all of Scripture Christian interpretation of Scripture in a manner informed and normed by must be done within the interpretive an orthodox Christology.47 However, we framework of the cosmic drama of must keep in mind Kevin Vanhoozer’s 43 salvation in which we participate. Al- warning, ‘Spiritual formation can be though the embrace of a participatory the aim, but not the norm, of biblical exegesis within Scripture’s metanar- interpretation. The norm must remain rative is celebrated under labels such the author’s illocutionary intent.’48 as ‘Salvation History’ and ‘Missional Hermeneutics’ these movements are simply rediscovering the ancient Rule 44 Mt. 5:17; Lk. 24:27, 44; Jn. 5:39; Heb. of Faith’s emphasis on the mission of 10:7; Gal. 4:19; Eph. 4:13. God in the canonical biblical narrative. 45 Typology thus becomes a vital interpretive skill in TE. See discussion in: Daniel J. Treier, ‘Typology,’ in Dictionary for Theological Inter- pretation of the Bible, 823–27. 46 ‘The implication is that exegesis does not confine itself to registering only the verbal If the first component of the rule of faith sense of the text, but presses forward through has to do with interpretive practice be- the text to the subject matter (res) to which ginning and ending within the story it points.’ Brevard Childs, ‘Toward Recovering of God, the second component of the Theological Exegesis’, Pro Ecclesia 6 (1997): 19. rule makes clear the goal of all TE: to 47 For a well-developed example of Augus- know Christ, for he is the telos of both tine’s practice of Christological reading, see Treier, Introducing Theological Interpretation of Scripture, 70–77. 42 Paul Blowers, ‘The regula fidei and the 48 ‘From Speech Acts to Scripture Acts: The Narrative Character of Early Christian Faith’, Covenant of Discourse and the Discourse of Pro Ecclesia 6 (1997): 202. the Covenant’, in After Pentecost: Language 43 For example, Richard Bauckham, Bible and Biblical Interpretation, ed. Craig G. Bartho- and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern lomew and et. al., vol. 2, SHS (Grand Rapids: World (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003). Zondervan, 2001), 42. From ‘Grammatical-historical Exegesis’ to ‘Theological Exegesis’

has no other focus or basis.51 The third component of the Rule of Has Heim overstated the case? Per- Faith exegetes Yahweh. The God of haps, but if so he is correct at least Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is to be iden- to insist that the Nicene Creed cannot tified with the Father, Son, and Spirit be bypassed by the evangelical theo- of the NT documents. C. Kavin Rowe logical exegete. The creed captures has shown how the canonical texts ex- the cosmic story of redemption and the erted pressure on the early church to Christological and Trinitarian rules of ‘conclude that there is a necessary and the ancient church.52 It provides an es- essential connection between the Old sential map, reliably laying out the land Testament and, at least, economic Trin- in which TE is done.53 It serves theo- itarian doctrine’.49 The Rule of Faith logical exegetes as a ‘fence’, helping does not require the ecclesial exegete them recognize when a certain reading to find the Trinity in every pericope, of Scripture lies beyond the bounds of but it does require the exegete to face orthodoxy.54 The creed is ‘the touch- the canonical ‘pressure’ of relating the stone and guarantee of orthodox, bibli- Creator God of Genesis 1:26 with what cal faith’; it is the pledge of allegiance the Spirit has revealed about God the for evangelical theological exegetes.55 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The earliest form of the Rule of Faith is difficult to confirm, but its threefold emphasis was reliably embodied in the catholica regula Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed of We have so far laid out four essential 385.50 The Nicene Creed thus serves as a foundational guide for the theological exegete. S. Mark Heim remarks: 51 S. Mark Heim, ‘Introduction’, in Faith to Creed: Ecumenical Perspectives on the Affirma- The [Nicene] creed is not only one tion of the Apostolic Faith in the Fourth Century: of the unifying factors of past eccle- Papers of the Faith to Creed Consultation, Com- siastical history, it is the most tradi- mission on Faith and Order, ed. S. Mark Heim, tionally authoritative expression of Faith and Order Series (Grand Rapids: Eerd- mans, 1991), 19. the Christian faith. If we are inter- 52 My introduction to theological exegesis ested in other forms of unity, we can and the importance of Nicene orthodoxy came bypass the creed, but a unity in faith from Don Davis. Most recently, see his Sacred Roots: A Primer on Retrieving the Great Tradi- 49 He bases his claim on exegetical studies tion (Wichita, KS: The Urban Ministry Insti- of: 1) Joel 2:32; Rom. 10:13; Acts 2:21; 2) Jn. tute, 2010). 20:28; 3) 2 Cor. 3:17a; 4) Gal. 4:4–6; 5) Rom. 53 Philip Turner, ‘Introduction’, in Nicene 8:9–11(C. Kavin Rowe, ‘Biblical Pressure and Christianity: The Future for a New Ecumenism, Trinitarian Hermeneutics’, Pro Ecclesia 11:3 ed. Christopher D. Seitz (Grand Rapids: Bra- [2002]: 306). zos, 2001), 11; cf. Vanhoozer, Drama of Doc- 50 While the Roman Catholic and most trine, 204, 449–50. Orthodox communions recognize all seven 54 ‘Those who are not of the truth take them- ecumenical councils, the Protestant churches selves out of the game by their refusal to play have generally acknowledged only the first by the rules (viz. the Scriptures, the Rule of four (thus accepting the Nicene and Chalcedo- Faith)’ (Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 426). nian Creeds). 55 Bray, Creeds, Councils, and Christ, 118. Hank Voss practices of TE. Although all are inter- meaning of Scripture.57 related, they have been presented in a The ‘Pentecostal plurality’ of which dogmatic order. Faith in Christ is the Vanhoozer speaks includes those pas- door through which one approaches tors and teachers living among the Scripture in order to do TE (practice world’s one billion urban poor. one). After believing, one listens first to Theological exegetes must be hum- individual scriptural soloists (practice ble enough to hear what the Spirit is two), and then to the canonical choir saying to the whole body. It is not only (practice three) in order to hear what the meritocratic elite, ‘qualified by the Spirit is singing in the Word. If the guild certification’, who have been giv- song that is heard does not resonate en ears to hear what the Spirit is say- with the rule of faith, it must be tuned ing to the churches.58 Wise ecclesial into harmony (practice four). Finally, exegetes from across the ages warn us the theological exegete recognizes that to pay careful attention to the cognito what he has heard in a given text must per modum connaturalitatis (Aquinas),59 now be sung in a local theatre (practice to ‘the spiritual instinct of the chil- 56 five). But should this final stage be a dren of God’,60 and to those formally solo or ensemble performance? untrained who have a ‘theological in- Rene Decartes (d. 1650) is well stinct’ attuned to the mind of Christ.61 known for his basic premise, cogito Theological exegesis requires a type of ergo sum (I think therefore I am). One ‘corporate discernment of spirits’,62 a of my professors was fond of pointing out that it was the ‘I’ not the ‘think’ which was revolutionary and thus foun- 56 Since the individual comes to faith in a lo- dational for the Enlightenment. Three cal community, there is also a circular dimen- hundred years later, most western ex- sion to the process. egetes have deeply imbibed the princi- 57 Kevin Vanhoozer, ‘Theological Method’, in Global Dictionary of Theology, ed. William ple of individualism from the Father of A. Dyrness et al. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP modern philosophy. But emphasizing Academic, 2008), 896. See also The Drama of ‘my thought’, ‘my interpretation’, ‘my Doctrine, 27. song’ is a theological danger for the ec- 58 Yeago, ‘The Spirit, Church, and the Scrip- clesial exegete. According to Paul it is tures’, 50. ‘we’ who ‘have the mind of Christ’ (2 59 Discussed in Johannes Baptist Metz and Cor. 2:16), but who are we? Vanhoozer Edward Schillebeeckx, eds., ‘The Teaching Authority of All–A Reflection about the Struc- offers helpful insight on this point: ture of the New Testament’, in The Teaching A canonically-centered catholic tra- Authority of Believers (Edinburgh: T. and T. dition that includes voices from past Clark, 1985), 19. and present, North and South, East 60 Helmut Thielicke, A Little Exercise for and West, thus corresponds to the Young Theologians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), 26. nature of the Bible itself. To affirm 61 Torrance, ‘The Reconciliation of Mind: A a ‘Pentecostal plurality’ is to ac- Theological Meditation upon the Teaching of knowledge that it takes many inter- St. Paul’, 303. pretive communities spanning many 62 Avery Dulles, Models of the Church, Ex- times, places and cultures in order panded Ed. (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, fully to appreciate the rich, thick 2002), 18. From ‘Grammatical-historical Exegesis’ to ‘Theological Exegesis’ process which John Powell explains is Secondly, if the one Spirit (Eph. 4:3– called ‘connaturality’: 4) who speaks in Scripture is speaking As the life of Christ is deepened in to all Christians, in all places and at us by the Holy Spirit, there is cre- all times, then wisdom dictates that ated in the Christian a ‘sense of theological exegetes carefully consid- Christ,’ a taste and instinctual judg- er how members of the body in other ment for the things of God, a deeper times and places have heard the Spir- perception of God’s truth, an in- it’s voice. Our confession of a ‘catholic’ creased understanding of God’s dis- or universal church is of great weight positions and love toward us. This for TE, since no one contemporary is what Christians must strive to culture has a complete understanding attain individually and corporately; of Scripture.65 The ecclesially attuned theologians call it Christian connatu- exegete seeks to avoid the blind spots rality. It is like a natural instinct or of our age and the chronological snob- intuition, but is not natural, since it bery of most historical critical exegesis results from the supernatural reali- by listening to the communion of saints ties of the Divine Indwelling and the across the ages. He also seeks to avoid impulses of grace. No account of di- the western academic captivity of the alectical or analytical facility, which Bible by dialoguing with global ex- is purely human, can provide this egetes whose location outside of the connatural instinct. It is increased West allows new insights to emerge. only by the continual nourishment of the life of God that vivifies the Christian.63 Theological exegetes recognize that they are members of the body of Christ, ‘And now the end has come. So listen and their interpretations of Scripture to my last piece of advice: exegesis, are offered with interdependence upon exegesis, and yet more exegesis! Keep the perspectives of other members of to the Word, to the scripture that has the body. The body has a variety of been given to us’,66 said Karl Barth. But ways of knowing: ears (hearing), eyes (sight), hands (touch), nose (smell), bach, Sadhu Sundar Singh, or ‘uneducated’ tongue (taste). No one member of the pastors like A. W. Tozer or John Bunyan. See body (e.g. a seminary trained exegeti- further: Billings, The Word of God for the People cal ‘eye’) understands a text of Scrip- of God, 117–18. ture as well as the whole body who 65 For well-developed thinking on this di- together share in the ‘mind of Christ’.64 mension of catholicity see: Jonathan R. Wil- son, Why Church Matters: Worship, Ministry, and Mission in Practice (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 63 John Powell, The Mystery of the Church 2006), 125. (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1967), 8. Cited in Dulles, 66 Karl Barth in a farewell sermon from Models of the Church, 19. Psalm 119 to his Bonn students in 1935 after 64 Consider the insights offered by ‘un- being forced from his university post. Eber- trained’ exegetes such as Vinoth Ramachan- hard Busch, Karl Barth: His Life from Letters dra, Mother Teresa, Jean Vanier, Paul Brand, and Autobiographical Texts (Grand Rapids: Ee- Paul Tournier, Dorthy Sawyers, Frank Lau- rdmans, 1994) 259. Hank Voss what kind of exegesis is it to be? In this missed the point of the theological in- essay I have argued that theological terpretation movement.69 Rather, theo- exegesis (TE), rather than grammati- logical exegesis is a reading strategy cal historical exegesis (GHE) alone, for the community of readers who have will best serve the global church. Evan- decided to follow Jesus as Rabbi. It is gelical theological exegesis requires not something to be forced upon those five ecclesial practices, and GHE is who have not made a faith commitment only one of the practices necessary to Jesus, nor does it imply that evangel- for pastors and church teachers to be ical theological exegetes have no need adequately equipped (2 Tim. 3:17) to to learn from others. interpret the Word of God.67 A ‘distinc- Theological exegesis is analogous tive ecclesial enterprise of scriptural to that old Mennonite slogan, ‘A humble proposal for world peace: Let all interpretation’ requires wisdom and a Christians agree to stop killing each balance of these five practices; this is other.’ The point is not to exclude non- where future research on evangelical believers from the proposal, the point is TE needs to focus.68 rather to say that one must start some- Finally, what about our non-Chris- where. Theological exegesis is a read- tian neighbours? For Jesus and his ing strategy for teachers of the church, disciples, there were only two types of intra ecclesiam; it is for those who claim reading: reading with siblings (Luke to follow the way of Jesus, and who are 8:21) and reading with neighbours called to teach (Matt. 28:19-20) other (Lk. 10:26, 33, 36–37). Our eyes are disciples how to read the Scriptures often opened when we read Scripture that testify to Christ (Luke 24:27). with neighbours, and we learn invalu- The practices of theological exegesis able lessons. If one thinks theological provide the kind of help ‘serious young exegesis provides an excuse to ignore theologians’ and pastors need. I hope Adler’s art, Sternberg’s poetry, or an Bonhoeffer would be pleased, and that agnostic’s critical commentary, one has Sharif will be helped.70

67 In a longer version of this paper I describe 69 Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry the neglect of these ﬁve practices as the Re- (New York: Basic Books, 1985); Meir Stern- lational Fallacy, Exegetical Fallacy, Canonical berg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative (Indiana Fallacy, Theological Fallacy, and the Ecclesial University Press, 1987); William Propp, Exo- Fallacy. dus 19–40, AB (New York: Doubleday, 2006). 68 See for example, Daniel Treier, Virtue and 70 Thanks to Ryan Peterson, Timothy Lar- the Voice of God: Toward Theology as Wisdom son, Dan Treier, and John Walton for feedback (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006). on previous versions of this paper; remaining errors are my own. ERT (2013) 37:2, 153-165 The Bible and our Postmodern World

KEYWORDS: contextualization, ing to evaluate the opportunity and re- contemporary theology, plurality, duction of postmodernism, we should aesthetics, Postliberal, marginal, sketch roughly the main arguments of foundationalism, metanarrative postmodernism against modernism or in other words, the paradigm shift from modernity to postmodernity. MAKING THE BIBLE relevant to the contemporary audience is not a new problem but it has been the lasting struggle of Christian theologians. In every age however, two alternatives can always be found with regard to this issue: the more negative responses and the more positive responses to contemporary thought. Such alternatives are First is the shift from epistemological unavoidable since from the Christian foundationalism. The belief that true perspective there are the inﬂuences of knowledge should be based on the both divine common grace and sin in every contemporary (secular) thought. Therefore, the right response to post- les débuts de la scolastique réformée (=Travaux modernism should be arguably both d’Humanisme et Renaissance, vol. 147), (Ge- fascination and aversion.1 Before mov- neva: Droz, 1976), 118; quoted from Chris- toph Strohm, ‘Methodology in Discussion of “Calvin and Calvinism”’, in: H. J. Selderhuis (ed.), Calvinus Præceptor Ecclesiæ: Papers of 1 Compare Fatio’s designation of the term the International Congress on Calvin Research applied to the relationship between Lambert (Princeton, August 20-24, 2002) (=Travaux Daneau and medieval scholasticism in Olivier d’Humanisme et Renaissance, vol. 388) (Gene- Fatio, Méthode et théologie: Lambert Daneau et va: Droz, 2004), 83.

Billy Kristanto (PhD, Universität Heidelberg, ThD, Universität Heidelberg), an ordained minister of the Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia, is a pastor with international experience, and academic dean at the International Reformed Evangelical Seminary, Jakarta, Indonesia. His musicological dissertation has been electronically published under the title: Musical Settings of Psalm 51 in Germany c. 1600-1750 in the Perspectives of Reformational Music Aesthetics, while his theological dissertation, Sola Dei Gloria: The Glory of God in the Thought of John Calvin was part in the series International Theology and published by Peter Lang (2011). A shorter version of this paper was presented at the FEET Biennial Confer- ence in August 2012. Billy Kristanto

first principles from which all else is ogetics, or even evangelization were derived is typical of the modern para- then reductively directed to combat digm. In the words of B. K. Putt, the basic (secular) presuppositions by One can undertake an epistemo- showing the supremacy of Christian logical archaeology, and ‘dig’ back presuppositions. In other words, Chris- through the layers until one can dis- tian witness was understood as a fine cover a bedrock of first principles demonstration of the battle between (archai) upon which the edifice of the two totally opposing first prin- learning rests. Only if such a begin- ciples. Apologetics for instance was ning can be located can there be any essentially an archeological process hope for establishing objective and that tried to dig deeper and deeper to certain truth.2 discover the first principles or basic presuppositions of the faith. Other In the case of Rene Descartes, epis- principles are superficial if not artifi- temology is based upon the certainty of cial since they reflect only the deepest the existence of the doubting human assumption of the human heart. self, thus making the idea of doubt Foundationalist theories have been the foundation of knowledge. Modern criticized on the grounds that they are Christian theology for sure did not fol- insufficient as a basis for the super- low Descartes in claiming certainty is structure of belief and because they based upon the doubting self; rather it lack coherence: claimed divine revelation as the guarantee of the certainty of faith. Thus a … it is not obvious that we have huge difference between both cannot beliefs which are indubitable, in- be ignored. corrigible, or in any sense intrinsi- On the other hand, modern Chris- cally justified; and hence it is not tian theology also tried to demonstrate obvious that we have any beliefs the reasonability of the Christian faith which should count as foundational. in such a way that is also compatible Moreover even if we admit founda- with the modern paradigm of foundational beliefs, those beliefs will be tionalism. The certainty and objectivity defeasible evidence for the rest of of Christian truths were demonstrated what we believe. And this ensures by insisting on a set of Christian ‘first that the rest of what we believe is principles’ or presuppositions such justified because of the way our as the existence of God, the God who evidence globally fits together. But revealed, the God who had a saving global requirements of this sort are plan for humanity, and so on. This is the hallmark of coherence theories 3 of course not wrong in itself. However, of justification. debate, polemics, argumentation, apol- 2 B. Keith Puth, ‘Preunderstanding and Her- Second is the shift from the belief in meneutical Spiral’ in Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Introduction to Interpreting Scripture, ed. Bruce Corley, Steve Lemke, and 3 Scott Sturgeon, ‘Epistemology,’ in Philoso- Grant Lovejoy (Nashville: Broadman & Hol- phy 1: A Guide through the Subject, ed. A. C. man, 1966), 203-4. Grayling (Oxford: University Press, 1999), 21. The Bible and our Postmodern World the existence of metanarratives that focused on the soteriological aspect can also be understand as a shift from of the Bible. The plurality of messages the emphasis on unity at the expense that do not emphasize the soteriologi- of plurality. Unity is not uniformity and cal agenda was soon to be regarded as diversity does not necessarily lead to unevangelical. fragmentation. However, the modern On the other hand, our postmodern mind seemed to be very cautious about world tends to stress plurality not only the potential of disintegration and as fact but also as ideology (that is, thereby had been suspicious of every pluralism). Uniformity is considered kind of plurality. It reflected on various unattractive, boring, and reductive. alternatives from subordinationism in Postmodernity is searching for rich- the doctrine of Trinity or highly hierar- ness and diversity instead of logical chical ecclesiological structure to the coherence. It does not even matter wearing of a uniform in the communist whether one still cannot harmonize ideology. tensions between two or more oppos- In the tradition of Christian theol- ing ideas. It is the nature of reality that ogy, it is appropriate or even neces- it should always be perceived para- sary to advocate the harmony of the doxically. The search for truth is best Gospels, of the Laws, of the Prophetic described as an ongoing and unsettled Books, or even of one single book such dispute that does not need to be settled as the Book of Genesis or a Pauline let- in a definitive way.5 Instead of speak- ter. If there is a place for diversity, then ing of ‘the theology’ of the Old Testa- it should be highly subordinated. The ment, one speaks of ‘theologies’ in the thought of one single central (highest) Old Testament.6 In the New Testament focus dominated the way of doing mod- field the particular theological profile ern systematic theology. Even in the of each Gospel can be clearly distin- field of Biblical Theology, advocating guished.7 By contrast with the older many focuses could not be accepted tradition, one does not try to ‘harmo- as a sound methodology, especially for nize’ the different profiles presented by the Old Testament. Geerhardus Vos, various Gospels but rather celebrates for instance, pointed out the impor- the multifaceted picture of Jesus. tant role of the principle of successive berith-makings (covenants) in marking the new periods in the Bible. He also believed that in the earlier stages of 5 Compare Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy revelation, there are so many things in (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), 73-4. common and that greater diversity was 6 See for instance Erhard S. Gerstenberger, reached only in the later periods. The Theologies in the Old Testament (Minneapolis: individual peculiarities should ‘sub- Fortress Press, 2002) and Rolf Rendtorff, serve the historical plan’.4 Correspond- Theologie des Alten Testaments: Ein Kanonischer ingly, the evangelical message was Entwurf, vol. 2: Thematische Entfaltung (Neu- kirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2001). 7 Compare Udo Schnelle, Theology of the New 4 Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and Testament, trans. M. Eugene Boring (Grand New Testaments (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerd- Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2009), 399- mans, 1948), 25-6. 523, 659-750. Billy Kristanto

conceptual knowledge, for interpreta- Third is the shift from ‘pure reason’ tion of human sciences in that way will with its concept of (rational-conceptu- be inadequate. Gadamer asks, ‘But is al) truth to the signiﬁcance of herme- it right to reserve the concept of truth neutical aesthetics. Modern thinking for conceptual knowledge? Must we reasoned from the foundation upwards not also acknowledge that the work of 9 with its optimistic certainty of the art possesses truth?’ Gadamer’s her- power of reason. Even the response meneutic approach to art has forced to art by Immanuel Kant in his aes- him to revise aesthetical thinking by thetic theory had been converted into integrating aesthetics into his herme- abstraction and conceptual judgment, neutics. In the last section of his Truth thereby reducing aesthetic judgment to and Method, Gadamer argued for the a matter of merely subjective response. inseparable relationship between the Modern Evangelical theology, follow- true and the beautiful by emphasizing ing the demand of the age, was dem- the self-evident presenting nature of onstrated as science that used modern the beautiful. This self-evident nature tools borrowed from scientiﬁc method. of the beautiful is at the same time that Charles Hodge in the prolegomena of which distinguishes the beautiful from his Systematic Theology described the- the good: ology as science in a way that ‘it must Obviously what distinguishes the include something more than a mere beautiful from the good is that the knowledge of facts. It must embrace beautiful of itself presents itself, an exhibition of the internal relation of that its being is such that it makes those facts, one to another, and each to itself immediately evident (ein- all. It must be able to show that if one leuchtend). This means that beauty be admitted, others cannot be denied.’8 has the most important ontological In this regard, Hodge even emphasized function: that of mediating between the more important task of systematic idea and appearance.10 theology compared to that of biblical It is this function of mediating that pre- theology. vents human beings from succumbing Against Kantian tradition, Gadamer to ‘impure imitations and appearances argues that the radical subjectivization of virtue’, for human virtue is frequent- in Kant has relied on the methodology ly described vaguely ‘in the unclear of the natural sciences in conceptual- medium of appearances’ in that it has izing human sciences. However, the no light of its own like the beautiful.11 search for truth cannot be limited to It is the radiance of the beautiful that saves human beings from the seduction 8 Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 of deceptive copies of the truly good. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1995), 1; see also Stanley J. Grenz, ‘Star Trek and the Next Generation: Postmodernity and the Fu- 9 Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, ture of Evangelical Theology’, in The Challenge 2nd rev. ed., trans. J. Weinsheimer and D. G. of Postmodernism: An Evangelical Engagement, Marshall (New York: Crossroad, 1999), 41-2. ed. David S. Dockery (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor, 10 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 481. 1995), 96. 11 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 481. The Bible and our Postmodern World

Thus in our contemporary climate, egy of deconstruction is committed to transparency is more highly regarded finding alternative meanings within than rational scientific talk of the truth a text. For Derrida there is without and the good because truth and good- doubt ambivalence in the text, so that ness can be falsified behind the surface not even the author can impose on it of its mere appearance. On the other any stable or unequivocal meaning. It hand, the experience of the beautiful is the task of deconstruction to uncov- or even the ugly reflects such an im- er what has been suppressed in a text. mediacy that it is believed to offer a Such a philosophical task is therefore better approach in the search for truth. textually based. Derrida criticizes what The seductive power of cultural prag- he called the metaphysics of presence matism, for instance, lies in its offer that generally employ a hierarchical of immediate experience in the work structure or subordination in treating of (popular) art, creating a generation numerous dualisms by prioritizing one that desperately longs for continu- side and marginalizing the other side of ous entertainment in their lives. The the opposition: search for pleasure and enjoyment has The enterprise of returning ‘strate- now surpassed the search for rational- gically’, ‘ideally’, to an origin or to a ity. priority thought to be simple, intact, normal, pure, standard, self-identical, in order then to think in terms of derivation, complication, deterio- Fourth is the shift from the certainty ration, accident, etc. All metaphy- of language and its single meaning. In sicians, from Plato to Rousseau, modern understanding, language was Descartes to Husserl, have pro- believed to be referential in nature. It ceeded in this way, conceiving good points to a (transcendental) reality out to be before evil, the positive before there. It was seen as the medium of the negative, the pure before the im- conceptualization. There can be thus pure, the simple before the complex, only one single correct meaning in a the essential before the accidental, text. Equivocation in language was the imitated before the imitation, classified as logical fallacy. The mod- etc. And this is not just one meta- ern optimistic view of the certainty of physical gesture among others, it language caused the limitation of the is the metaphysical exigency, that question of truth to the rational-logical which has been the most constant, mode. The observation of true knowl- most profound and most potent.12 edge required for the most part ana- If this dual operation is accepted, then lytical competence to find and then ex- one cannot prioritize (metaphysical) clude any logical fallacy. The meaning presence without regard for the con- of a text was believed to be stable and tingent. All textual writing therefore always present to the reader. In postmodern thinking, the meaning of text has to be found in the (social) context 12 Jacques Derrida, Limited Inc. (inc. ‘Af- of its usage. terword’), ed. Graff, trans. Weber (Evanston: In contrast, Jacques Derrida’s strat- Northwestern University Press, 1998), 236. Billy Kristanto should function in the absence of any Thus, the pleasure in the beautiful determined addressee.13 Thus there is should move from subjective to objec- never an absolute meaning to any text. tive judgments. It is not built upon our A more radical reception of Derrida interest in the object’s existence but is will move to and affirm ontological sub- ‘merely contemplative’.15 By excluding jectivity. However, a balanced and per- any interest in the fulfillment of moral haps more constructive reception will requirements, Kant confirmed the divi- be positively reminded of the danger of sion of aesthetics from ethics (this is the sin of pride in hermeneutics. Yet, not to say however that Kant did not it still does not mean that there is no discuss the relationship between aes- objective meaning in a text. It rather thetics and ethics at all).16 The typical suggests that the meaningfulness of a modern compartmentalization of disci- text does not depend on its single un- pline was established. equivocal meaning. By contrast, postmodernism tends to have general scepticism of objectivity in the explanation of reality. Thus, human understanding is not the mir- Fifth is the shift from the objective ror of reality out there; it is rather the and value-free view of reality with its social construction of the human mind belief in a disinterested point of view. itself. Therefore, there is no so-called The modern understanding of objectiv- universal truth valid for all kinds of ity carried the idea of distant obser- people. What we have is truth only for vation on the reality of an object or a a certain group or community. In his fact. Declared bias should be excluded Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig from any objective observation. For Wittgenstein developed the concept Immanuel Kant, the judgment of taste of language-games and models of dis- should be based upon disinterested course to address language’s diversity pleasure. Thus, an object can be said of uses and its activity-orientedness. to be truly beautiful if it is judged as Drawing heavily on Wittgenstein’s ‘the object of an entirely disinterested theory, Jean-François Lyotard criti- satisfaction or dissatisfaction’.14 The cized the concept of metanarrative in pleasure felt in discovering something his work, The Postmodern Condition: A beautiful should be neither a pleasure Report on Knowledge. Lyotard attacked built upon the fact that the object is the notion of transcendent and univer- able to simply satisfy our senses, nor sal truth.17 upon the fact that it can serve a practi- In the various directions of contem- cal use desired by us, nor upon the fact porary Christian thought the Postlib- that it can fulfill moral requirements.

15 Kant, Critique of Judgment, §5. 13 Derrida, Margins of Philosophy, trans. 16 See for instance his Critique of Judgment, Bass (Chicago: University Press, 1982), 375. §42, §59-60. 14 Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment, 17 Lyotard, Jean-François Lyotard, Introduc- trans. J. H. Bernard (New York: Haffner, tion: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on 1951), §1. Knowledge (1979), xxiv-xxv. The Bible and our Postmodern World eral theologian George Lindbeck bor- modern metaphysical foundation for rows from Wittgenstein’s philosophy of science has put the modern human language to give strong emphasis self-consciousness and reason at the on those respects in which religions centre. Philosophy was no longer the resemble languages together with maidservant of theology (ancilla theo- their correlative forms of life and logiae) but became a scientiﬁc disci- are thus similar to cultures. … The pline. Baruch Spinoza’s rationalism function of church doctrines that excluded doctrines and miracles from becomes most prominent in this the substance of Christian religion by perspective is their use … as com- emphasizing the essential role of love munally authoritative rules of dis- and reverence. course, attitude and action.18 Similarly, the philosopher John Locke in England understood Christi- Mirroring Wittgenstein’s thought, anity as the religion of tolerance, vir- Lindbeck also argues for a self-refer- tue, and morality. The representative ential Bible reading and interpretation of French Enlightenment, Voltaire, that is, there is no need for extraneous initiated mind freedom, tolerance, references such as reading foreign psy- and human rights against the Catholic chological or philosophical meanings into the biblical text. Lindbeck gives an Church. In Germany, Gottfried Wilhelm example of a natural reading of clas- Leibniz argued for the conformity of sic literatures such as Oedipus Rex and faith and reason. His differentiation War and Peace, between necessary eternal truths and actual truths ﬁnally subordinated rev- In order to understand them in their elation to reason and theology to phi- own terms, there is no need for ex- losophy. The rationalism of Christian traneous references to, for exam- Wolff understood Christianity as the ple, Freud’s theories or historical strengthening of human moral power treatments of the Napoleonic wars. while rejecting the supernatural con- Further, such works shape the im- cept of revelation. agination and perceptions of the at- However, the postmodern critique of tentive reader so that he or she for- reason proposes a model of communi- ever views the world to some extent cative reason against modern subject- 19 through the lens they supply. centred reason.20 Following Kant’s distinction between private and public reason, Michel Foucault suggests the dimension of private reason when one Sixth is the shift from placing human- ‘has a role to play in society and jobs to ity (and its autonomous reason) at do’ and the dimension of public reason the centre. Rene Descartes’ famous when one ‘is reasoning as a reasonable method of doubt that established the

20 Compare Jürgen Habermas, The Theory of 18 George A. Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine Communicative Action: Reason and the Ration- (Minneapolis, 1984), 18. alization of Society, trans. Thomas McCarthy 19 Lindbeck, Nature of Doctrine, 116. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1984). Billy Kristanto being …, when one is reasoning as a did not just unconditionally succumb member of reasonable humanity’.21 to the demands of his audience since Long before Foucault’s suggestion in the previous verses the same Paul however, the Neo-Calvinism of Abra- wrote, ‘… I became as one under the ham Kuyper already suggested the law (though not being myself under idea of sphere sovereignty in which the law) … I became as one outside each sphere of life should have its own the law (not being outside the law of distinctive authority or calling. Here, God but under the law of Christ) …’ (1 the reformational theology of voca- Cor. 9:20-21). Thus, context-sensibility tion/calling was applied to the calling means both accommodation and at the of distinct spheres of life with their same time critical assessment. The particular institutions. If it is applied same principle should be exercised to- to the different field of disciplines, it wards our contemporary (postmodern) means that each discipline of learning audience. will have its own particular calling. Kuyper’s idea of sphere sovereignty, however, does not necessarily lead to Against the reductionism of (modern) pillarization since it is a product of con- foundationalism, two things can be fessionalism rather than the doctrine said: first, the Bible itself sometimes of sphere sovereignty. On the contrary, uses a foundationalist metaphor to de- sphere sovereignty will free one disci- scribe human life.22 Second however, pline from the tyranny of other disci- this is certainly not the whole picture plines. of reality described by the Bible. Still in the same gospel, Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven by using another metaphor of leaven and flour.23 Such depiction does not fit into the foundationalist view of reality. Insisting on foundationalism as the sole paradigm to describe reality does not do justice Sensitivity to the context of his audi- to the complexity of human life. A ence was one of the most important sound evangelical postmodern theol- characteristics of Paul’s philosophy of ogy therefore should be open to other ministry. In his letter to the Corinthi- ways of presenting the reality of life. It ans he wrote, ‘I have become all things means that theology does not deal only to all people, that by all means I might with the ‘first principles’ of knowledge; save some. I do it all for the sake of rather, it should deal also with minor the gospel, that I may share with them or marginal principles of our contem- in its blessings’ (1 Cor. 9:22-23). It porary society while employing the should be noted, however, that Paul

22 For example the description of one who 21 Michel Foucault, ‘What is Enlighten- built his house on the rock or on the sand in ment?’ in: The Essential Foucault (New York: Mt. 7:24-27. The New Press, 2003), 43-57. 23 See Mt. 13:31-33. The Bible and our Postmodern World riches of evangelicalism in answering those contemporary questions. Rather complex is the postmodern in- As an example, the search for imma- sistence on the rejection of any kind nence in the New Age spirituality will of metanarrative. On the one hand, the not merely be judged and polemically Bible does present the metanarrative labelled as a rejection of the qualita- of creation, fall, redemption, and con- tive difference between Creator and summation, but on the other hand, the creation as the ‘first principle’ of their question of the nature of rejection of spirituality thus contrasting evangeli- a metanarrative should be considered cal belief (in divine transcendence) carefully. What Lyotard criticized in with New Age (pantheistic) belief; his Postmodern Condition is substan- rather, the evangelical Christian will tially the totalizing nature of a met- seek for the richness in the Bible that anarrative, which tends to dismiss the deals with and satisfies the issue of im- existing tensions and paradoxes of the manence. reality of truth. Against the totalitar- The ‘tabernacle theology’ in the Old ian domination of unity over diversity, a Testament (God’s special presence), contemporary evangelical theology can for instance, can be of great relevance emphasize the multifaceted picture in here since its core message is the di- the Bible. It is the one and the same vine immanence in the midst of his Jesus but through the perspectival lens people. This tabernacle theology can of different Gospels. The plurality of also point out its fulfilment in the in- the pictures of Jesus should not be sup- carnation of Jesus and its final (escha- pressed but rather encouraged. It will tological) fulfilment in the life to come, not destroy the unity or harmony of the thereby explaining the imperfection or Bible or the four Gospels; it will rather present and witness to the biblical the partial satisfaction of the hunger richness, something that our postmod- for immanence in this present world. ern world is desperately looking for. The communal dimension of imma- Similarly, the Old Testament should nence can also be emphasized through be presented with its many theologies, the intimate fellowship between mem- thereby preventing any kind of reduc- bers of the body of Christ in the acts of tionism by focusing on one central idea. loving and being loved. The diverse theological voices or tradi- Responding to such a case as New tions in the Old Testament should shed Age spirituality in a polemical way light on the beauty of its fulfilment can be useful sometimes but it is not in the New Testament instead of vice always so. The exclusive approach of versa. In the field of Systematic Theol- foundationalism does not encourage ogy, good and constructive ecumenical the pursuit of biblical richness; it rath- dialogues should not be shunned but er tends to oversimplify our complex invited to build a structured pluralism, reality by reducing it to certain basic whereby one’s particular theological principles that finally lead Christian tradition should not be abandoned but people to self-satisfaction. enriched. In the field of Historical Theology, one should be aware of the danger of Billy Kristanto narrow-minded confessionalism that In relation to the postmodern search always tries to prove the supremacy of for plurality and a multifaceted picture, one’s own theological tradition at the here is now the time to demonstrate same level as the supremacy of the Bi- the harmony of the different theolo- ble. In the field of Practical Theology, gies in the Bible. Unlike the so-called particularly in the context of ecclesio- hard postmodernist who is reluctant logical structure and church office, to resolve the conflicting ideas, a good the advancement of many spiritual evangelical theology will try to handle gifts should relativize the emphasis on them as creative tensions, to present one single spiritual gift of the church the biblical message in its multifaceted leader. The presence of faith and love dimension. rather than fear and self-love should The ‘Christology-from-below’ in the guarantee the accommodation of dif- Gospel of Mark that describes the way ferent spiritual gifts in the life of the of the earthly Jesus as the true Son of church community. God in the so-called Markan secrecy theory26 and the ‘Christology-from- above’ of the Gospel of John that starts with the idea of the preexistence and Against the reductive view of the Word the incarnation of Jesus as the divine of God as rational-logically presented revelation of glory and truth27 are not truth, the aesthetic mode of the Word at odds but in harmonic beauty. Both of God, that is, its beauty should be ex- are high Christology. Similarly, the an- plored and emphasized. The psalmist swer of the problem of evil or suffering witnesses the law of the Lord as ‘more in the Book of Job and in the Book of to be desired … than gold, even much Ecclesiastes, however different they fine gold; sweeter also than honey and might be, will contribute to the many- drippings of the honeycomb’. The Bible sided aesthetic views of the Bible. supports the aesthetic aspect of the An evangelical aesthetic theology Word of God together with its logical should occupy itself with the idea of aspect. seeing the glory of God. How does Dooyeweerd listed at least fifteen the glory of God relate to ecclesiastic aspects in his Christian philosophy, of worship, to the process of learning, to which the analytic or logical aspect is work as vocation, to the family life, to only one.24 Dooyeweerd sees harmony the public society, and other spheres of life? Aesthetic theology is greatly con- at the heart of this aesthetic aspect.25 cerned with the question of enjoyment and happiness. Though the search for 24 Compare Herman Dooyeweerd, A New truth and holiness cannot be excluded Critique of Theoretical Thought, vol. 2, trans. here, the emphasis should be placed David H. Freeman (Philadelphia: Presbyte- more on the attainment of the highest rian and Reformed, 1969), 118-26; see also enjoyment in human life (which is only L. Kalsbeek, Contours of a Christian Philoso- through and in Christ). phy: An Introduction to Herman Dooyeweerd’s Thought (Toronto: Wedge Publishing, 1975), 40-2, 99-100. 26 Compare Schnelle, Theology, 409-12. 25 Dooyeweerd, New Critique, vol. 2, 128. 27 Compare Schnelle, Theology, 669-76. The Bible and our Postmodern World

son and logic is at the same time regu- Against the belief in the single mean- lated. Not every contradiction should ing of a word, text, or language, wheth- be considered as logical contradiction. er the Bible rejects any kind of ambigu- Apparent contradictions can occur ity or equivocalness of meaning should due to the different preference for or be made clear. Paul’s use of the word even inconsistent use of vocabulary in soma for instance can be distinguished the expression of one’s (theological) in three different contextual meanings thoughts. Without a careful discern- as a neutral, negative, and positive.28 ment of the use of language in a par- Even the key term ‘lifted up’ in the ticular theological tradition, useless same verse in the Gospel of John car- polemics will often be hard to avoid. ries the double meaning of crucifixion This does not mean, however, that the and exaltation.29 The ambiguity of a arbitrary use of vocabulary is encour- word does not necessarily mean deni- aged since it easily tends to confuse gration. It rather again demonstrates the intended meanings. the richness of meaning (and its appli- A good evangelical postmodern cations). theology should be able to solve the It should be noted, however, that language problem. This means, first, the variety of meanings are at the same a careful discernment of the use of vo- time not unlimited. There are thus cri- cabularies in their specific contexts; teria of justification for the multiple secondly, not to engage in a useless meanings of a biblical text. In the case debate or polemics over the preference of Paul’s soma, the justification can of vocabularies according to one’s own be found by referring to the context theological tradition; thirdly, the theo- of its use. In the case of the Gospel of logical contents of the text are of high- John, the criterion for John 3:14 lies er importance than the choice of cer- in the preceding verse 13 that refers tain vocabularies; and lastly, whenever to Christ’s exalted or glorious divinity possible biblical vocabularies should while for John 12:32 the meaning can be given the highest preference. be concluded from the following verse 33 which refers to Christ’s crucifixion. Both Pauline and Johannine texts require careful discernment to avoid a Concerning the belief in an objective one-sided interpretation. and value-free view of reality, several points can be made. The term ‘subjective’ should not always be considered as inferior to objective knowledge. The By giving room for this so-called ‘lan- Kantian disinterested point of view can guage flux’, the totalizing power of rea- also lead to the truth being very distant, whereas subjective knowledge 28 Compare Udo Schnelle, Apostle Paul: could also mean personal involvement His Life and Theology, trans. M. Eugene Bor- or engagement with the known real- ing (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, ity. There is indeed a positive value in 2005), 495-96. bias-driven knowledge. It is even the 29 Compare Jn. 3:14; 8:28; 12:32, 34. nature of truth that in order to fully Billy Kristanto understand it, one has to place oneself the common life of the church. The in the truth. Jesus says, ‘If anyone’s scripture’s authority for that life will is to do God’s will, he will know consists in its being used so that whether the teaching is from God or it helps to nurture and reform the whether I am speaking on my own au- community’s self-identity as well as thority.’30 The access to the knowledge the personal character of its mem- that Jesus’ teaching is God’s teaching bers.33 can be granted through a bias towards Does this mean that by grounding the obedience to do the will of God and not authority of scripture in its function for through a disinterested point of view. the ecclesiastical communal life, Post- In this regard, Stanley Hauerwas, liberalism has reduced the concept of probably the most important Postlib- truth to ‘internal consistency’?34 To eral ethicist, plausibly says, highlight the setting aside of the cor- Christian convictions are not iso- respondence theory of truth in Post- latable ‘facts’, but those ‘facts’ are liberalism is to miss the persuasive part of a story that helps locate invitation of Hauerwas’ theological what kind of ‘facts’ you have at all. thought. By emphasizing the nature … To emphasize the story charac- of truth in its function in the Christian ter of the gospel is an attempt to communal life, Hauerwas successfully suggest that examining the truth of excludes the possibility of knowing the Christian conviction is closely akin truth without getting involved in the to seeing how other kinds of stories Christian life. From an evangelical per- form our lives truly or falsely.31 spective, such a theological statement can be viewed as a form of Christian For Hauerwas, it is typical that rhetoric trying to persuade unbeliev- the modern and rational story plainly ers to accept the scripture’s authority 32 ‘teaches us that we have no story’. by joining the community of the body What is encouraged in this kind of of Christ, an invitation that a modern paradigm is finally the self with its au- Kantian disinterested point of view has tonomous reason. The authority of the failed to offer. scripture’s story is then based upon its practical function in the life of the ecclesiastical community: Concerning the shift from placing hu- Claims about the authority of scrip- manity with its autonomous reason at ture are in themselves moral claims the centre to a marginal position, one about the function of scripture for needs simply to refer to the inconven- ient fact of the Copernican Revolu-

30 John 7:17. 31 Stanley Hauerwas with Richard Bondi 33 Hauerwas, Community of Character, 95. and David B. Burrell, Truthfulness and Tragedy: 34 So, for instance, the criticism by the evan- Further Investigations in Christian Ethics (Notre gelical theologian Alister McGrath in his book Dame: University Press, 1977), 73. A Passion for Truth: The Intellectual Coherence 32 Hauerwas, A Community of Character (No- of Evangelicalism (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter- tre Dame: University Press, 1981), 84. Varsity Press, 1996), 153. The Bible and our Postmodern World tion postulating that our world is not disciplines to be liberated from the the centre of the universe; it is placed exclusive ecclesiastical power though rather at the periphery. However, it is not liberated from God’s truth. The precisely this marginal world that God struggle for recognition and acknowl- so loved and to which he gave his only edgment in the plurality of sciences Son. The hunger for self-significance, should not be asserted by theology usually accompanied by the greed for since it is God who will use her to fulfil being at the centre, is a modern mythos his eternal purpose in the reality of his that needs to be revisited by evangeli- kingdom. cal theology. It is not our being at the Without theology there are too many centre that moved God to love human unanswered questions left behind by beings but precisely our marginal posi- the false triumph of scientism. There is tion. always a secure space for theology that Of particular importance here is cannot be occupied by other sciences. the theological profile of the Gospel of Polemical writings directed against Luke. Schnelle points out that in the other sciences can be reduced and Gospel of Luke, ‘God stands beside transformed into persuasive and con- those who have no rights (18:1-8), the structive interdisciplinary dialogues. despised and disdained (18:9-14), and Through her witness, theology could those who cannot appeal to their gene- indeed invite other sciences to partici- alogy and social class (7:1-10; 10:25- pate in reflecting the divine glory of our 37; 17:11-19).’35 It is for those margin- Father’s world. alized people that God has shown his mercy and used them in a special way. In the same manner, theology does not have to struggle to become the queen To conclude, postmodernism has given of the sciences in order to be able to us many challenges as well as opportu- powerfully influence the world. nities to rethink and revise evangelical On the other side, theology should theology. To be sensitive to the context does not mean to give up faithfulness not accept the role of victim, one that is to the Bible. Many postmodern issues increasingly marginalized in our highly have been discussed and reflected in secular society. She should rather pre- the Bible. Contemporary evangelical sent its attractiveness by sounding theology just needs to draw from the the truth and serving society. By plac- richness of the Word of God. Together ing herself among the plurality of sci- with the apostle Paul, evangelical ences, theology will encourage other theologians can become all things to all people, that by all means we might 35 Schnelle, Theology, 477. save some. ERT (2013) 37:2, 166-182 Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation

KEYWORDS: Jesus Christ, Holy standing and meaningfulness of spirit- Spirit, salvation, moral, intelligent, ual transformation. Thus, his question: commitment, Christianity, religion by what power do you do the wonderful miracles, and the answer he got: you To be formed in a religious tradi- must be born again, express the theolo- tion is not to merely give intellec- gy and philosophy of spiritual transfor- tual assent to the theological and mation upon which this essay focuses. ethical doctrines; it is to internalise Nicodemus was a teacher, and learned in the tradition of the Jews. these teachings and precepts, to As a teacher, he obviously expected hold them in one’s heart, to fasten some intellectual/literal explication of them on the centre of one’s will. It the concept of being ‘born again’ in his is precisely in extraordinary circum- conversation with Christ. It was not stances, such as those generated by practically or literally possible for a deadly conﬂict, that formation in an grown person or even newly born ba- ethical and spiritual tradition distin- bies to re-enter their mothers’ wombs guishes the behaviour of genuinely 1 to be re-born. Jesus’ answer introduced religious actors. the metaphysical/spiritual dimension The conversation between Jesus and to a literal probing. Thus, what ap- Nicodemus in John 3 opened an impor- pears impossible in the literal/natural tant dimension in the former’s ministry. conceptualisation is apodictically pos- That conversation had two elements: sible in the metaphysical realm. This intellectual and spiritual, and the re- certainly underscores that transforma- sult was predictable: change, conver- tion is not a psychological, physical, sion, transformation. For Nicodemus, natural or literal transmutation, but a Judaiser, logical or intellectual dis- one which has spiritual anchorage as course was necessary for the under- expressed in Christian theology.2

1 R. S. Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: 2 A. Dzurgba, God and Caesar: A Study in the Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (Lanham Sociology of Religion (Ibadan: John Archers, & Oxford: Rowman & Littleﬁeld, 2000), 286. 2002), 51.

Benson Ohihon Igboin (BA, MA, PhD), a lecturer in the Department of Religion & African Culture, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria, a Deacon and House Fellowship Leader, Deeper Life Bible Church, has authored several articles in both local and international journals and contributed chapters to numerous books. Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation

The result is significant. Although is fundamentally a cognitive issue that there is no record that Nicodemus can interfere with the actual process was converted, the actions he carried of human knowledge thereby under- out inherently portray that he was a mining human progress such that at- disciple at heart, or at least a secret tentiveness, intelligence, logic and disciple. He made a careful legalistic responsibility are substituted for blind- defence of Jesus against the Pharisees, ness, dullness, rationalization and in- and played a secondary role with Jo- action.’ Lack of knowledge of the truth seph of Arimathea in the burial of Jesus is a fundamental reason for religious Christ.3 ignorance. As he puts it: bias is ‘the It is important to state that Nicode- infantile beginning of psychic trouble’.5 mus showed a ‘bias’, which is typical of As a cognitive term, bias hampers an unconverted person. In other words, or distorts intellectual development; Nicodemus was speaking from a back- it is an aberration of understanding or ground which was fundamentally dif- knowledge, it is a scotosis. Scotosis in ferent from the answer he got. Thus, relation to bias is an unconscious pro- it becomes necessary for us to discuss cess that arises, not in conscious acts, bias as a basis for conversion. From ‘but in the censorship that governs the there, the paper will discuss transfor- emergence of psychic contents’.6 In mation in Christian thought, the intel- this process, unwanted insights are ex- lectual commitment and consequences cluded, which has been found to lead of transformation. These represent to the emergence of contrary insights. the three dimensions of transforma- Scotosis therefore opposes under- tion – theology, philosophy and result standing, because it is the refusal to (change or transformation) – which ask relevant questions whose answers will guide us in our discussion. are suspected to be contrary to one’s desired expectation. This leads to an attempt to ignore, belittle or reject higher values. 4 Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) has Bias blocks insight that concrete articulated human bias as a basis for situations demand, and makes intel- conversion. According to him, bias is ligence seem irrelevant to practical at the centre of religious reactions: living, from which follows unintel- indifference, violence, intolerance, ligent policies and inept courses of conflicts, etc. To remain in this state action that severely distort social is to operate perpetually at the stage and cultural goals (incarnated val- of religious ‘unreasonableness’ and ues).7 ‘irresponsibility’. Generally, bias is understood in the sense of prejudice. Lonergan thinks that it is cognitive, 5 C. Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in because as Cyril Orji interprets it, ‘bias Sub-Saharan Africa’ in African Ecclesial Re- view, 49/1&2, (March-June 2007): 50. 6 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Sub- 3 Dzurgba, God and Caesar, 51. Saharan Africa’, 50. 4 This section is wholly based on Bernard 7 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Sub- Lonergan’s thought as used by Cyril Orji. Saharan Africa’, 50. Benson Ohihon Igboin

The consequence as Lonergan puts individual as well as the individual’s it is that a person begins ‘to hate the community, affecting one’s existen- truly good, and love the really evil’.8 tial situation, one’s worldview, and This does not happen only at the level the way one’s community perceives of the individual, but also at group or others different from them. It is a national level. At any rate, it divides deliberate and conscious refusal to humanity into disparate groups with live and act attentively, intelligently, opposed and irreconcilable views. rationally and responsibly. Although There are four main ways by which it is a conscious refusal to act atten- bias is normally manifested. The first tively, intelligently, rationally, and is the dramatic bias that results from responsibly, it can also be acquired psychological conditioning, which is unconsciously through the sociali- absolutely beyond the control of the zation process.10 person. This leads to rejection of avail- The above situation – bias – is one able knowledge at one’s disposal. This state of life which can be cured through results in the neglect of the develop- conversion. Lonergan believes that ment of affective attitudes and behav- the antidote to bias is conversion, not iour. Thus, the person is most likely just of change of faith towards a reli- to pursue wrong values and ignore or gion but essentially a ‘turning from’ deny truth. to a ‘turning towards’ a ‘construc- The second is individual bias, which tive life-creating and fulfilling way of manifests itself in egoism. This has the life’, thereby rejecting every tendency tendency to distort the development towards the destruction of life in all of ‘a person’s intelligence and one’s ramifications. Conversion therefore is affective and experiential orientation, not just an individual event; it is multi- leading to selfish pursuit of personal dimensional because a change towards desires at the expense of the common God manifests itself at the personal, good’.9 social, moral and intellectual levels. The third is the group bias, which has been considered to be the ‘more powerful and blinder bias’. This kind of bias divides people into social classes: Thus, conversion, which is a long pro- ethnocentrism, race, gender, etc. cess, helps in overcoming one’s biases The final one is the general bias of at the intellectual, moral, affective common sense. This is the act of find- and religious levels, such that the un- ing short-term immediate panacea to converted are those who still live ac- perennial or complex problems. Orji cording to their biases, and are most sums it up in this way: probably ignorant of them. Conversion Bias… is a scotosis that afflicts the can then be viewed as ‘a change from unauthenticity to authenticity, a total self-surrender to the demands of the 8 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Sub- Saharan Africa’, 50. 9 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Sub- 10 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Saharan Africa’, 51. Sub-Saharan Africa’, 57. Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation human spirit: Be attentive, intelligent, and human knowledge’.14 Intellectual reasonable, reasonable and in love.’11 conversion helps to cast off false ideas Lonergan considers conversion to and philosophies which one had im- be developmental, that is, it is an on- bibed for a very long time. going process. It is generally a move- The second change is the religious, ment from a wrong perspective to a which is an instance of self-transcend- correct one which conforms to accept- ence. The transcendent person has the able moral, religious and intellectual experience of God in an unrestricted standard. According to Louis Berkhof, manner. It is this level of experience true conversion is born of godly sor- that prompted Lonergan to regard reli- row, and issues in a life of devotion gious conversion as the ‘other-worldly to God…. It is a change that is root- falling in love’ that manifests itself in ed in the work of regeneration, and ‘total and permanent self-surrender that is effected in the conscious life without conditions, qualifications, 15 of the sinner by the Spirit of God; reservations’. Religious conversion a change of thoughts and opinions, is intricately linked with human intel- of desires and volitions, which in- lectual and emotional state. That is volves the conviction that the for- why religious conversion changes the mer direction of life was unwise and totality of the person. Orji aptly puts it wrong and alters the entire course this way: of life.12 What this means in essence is that Berkhof is convinced that there are religious conversion is not simply a two sides to conversion: the active process of becoming, say a Christian and the passive. The former is the act or Muslim, but a total and radical re- of God, by which he changes the con- orientation of one’s life to God (not scious course of human life, and the religion), that one surrenders, not latter, the result of this action as seen only oneself, but also one’s unad- in the observable life of the converted mitted deepest pretence to absolute in their course of life and turning to personal autonomy. Religious con- God.13 Thus, Lonergan identified three version helps one embrace what is kinds of conversion, to which scholars good, true, noble, and truly human- have added the fourth. izing. It is a yes to the mystery of The first is the cognitive or intel- God that finds practical expression lectual conversion. Intellectual con- in love of one’s neighbour, ensuring version is a ‘radical clarification and, that one loves unconditionally the 16 consequently, the elimination of an way God would have us love. exceedingly stubborn and misleading The third type is the moral conver- myth concerning reality, objectivity,

14 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in 11 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa’, 53-54. Sub-Saharan Africa’, 53. 15 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in 12 L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Edin- Sub-Saharan Africa’, 54. burgh: The Banner of Trust, 2003), 483. 16 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in 13 Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 483. Sub-Saharan Africa’, 54-55. Benson Ohihon Igboin sion which is intricately related to reli- Therefore, affective conversion is gious conversion. More often than not, the concrete possibility of overcom- religious conversion is the basis for ing moral impotence, of not only be- moral conversion. Moral conversion re- ing able to make a decision to com- moves human and social inhibitions as mit oneself to a course of action or demonstrated in individual, group and direction of life judged worthwhile general bias because the basis of one’s or personally appropriate, but of decisions and actions has changed. ‘It being able to execute that decision consists in opting for the truly good, over the long haul against serious even for value against satisfaction obstacles.21 when value and satisfaction conflict.’17 The experience of conversion at In other words, moral conversion en- this level extends love to fellow hu- genders a radical drive towards the man beings, the ecosystem and God. good as against ‘apparent good’ that Aleaz argues that a saved or redeemed satisfies temporally. It demands a re- person automatically expresses love at sponsible act on the basis of ‘vertical the vertical, horizontal and base levels. freedom’ and advances towards au- 18 He says, ‘Salvation is a reality which thenticity to ‘opt for the truly good’. can be experienced authentically here The fourth is the affective which is and now. A redeemed person is the one the ‘intentional response to feelings who lives in harmony not only with fel- and dramatic experience of being in low beings, but also with the … earth, love.’ This is the idea of transforma- God and spirit.’22 This whole concept tion from ‘I’ to ‘We’ consciousness. of conversion has been succinctly This affective consciousness works for summed up by Orji in this way: others genuinely because self has been overcome. In religious thought, affec- Conversion has to be intellectual tive conversion speaks of faith and love (repent of the refusal to seek truth that produce a comprehensive relation- and knowledge), religious (repent ship, since ‘faith is the knowledge born of the refusal to be unrestrained in of religious love’.19 In fact, ‘besides the love), moral (repent of the refusal factual knowledge reached by experi- to seek the transcendent good of encing, understanding, and verifying, the other) and affective (repent of the refusal to love as God has loved there is another kind of knowledge 23 reached through discernment of value us). and the judgments of values of a per- These four kinds of conversion are son in love’.20 intricately linked; they are not isolated one from the other. They are the

17 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa’, 55. 21 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in 18 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa’, 59. Sub-Saharan Africa’, 55. 22 K. P. Aleaz, ‘A Tribal Christian Theology 19 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in from India’ in Asia Journal of Theology, 19/2, Sub-Saharan Africa’, 56. (October 2005): 385. 20 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in 23 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa’, 56. Sub-Saharan Africa’, 59. Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation standard by which a genuine spiritual vain and of all people believers are transformation or conversion can be most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:14-19).24 weighed. Thus, the Jesus-Nicodemus The apostle Paul elucidated the conversation could be said to reflect order of this idea of second spiritual them: intellectual acceptance of Je- transformation. He taught that Christ sus’ teaching on conversion that had must first return (1 Thes. 4:16-17). a corresponding intellectual change of Christ will then ‘transform the body thought which brought about commit- of our humiliation, that it may be con- ment. Even though it cannot be estab- formed to the body of his glory’ (Phil. lished with certainty that Nicodemus 3:21; Rom. 8: 29). This aspect of spirit- accepted Christianity, his bold identi- ual transformation does not command fication with the burial of Jesus even our interest in this present enterprise. when his disciples ran away can be in- The concept of being born again terpreted as being religiously convert- emphatically means the mark of true ed. The case of Paul is definitely clear Christians and way to salvation. Theo- in all the four kinds of conversion. As logian Robert Sproul articulates this from the very moment Nicodemus en- view when he says that ‘if a person countered Jesus, even though not much is not born again,… then he is not a is heard thereafter, he could not have Christian.’ This line of thought is pur- remained morally hypocritical, and his sued by the Merriam-Webster’s Colle- affection was demonstrated during the giate Dictionary which defines a born burial of Jesus. again as ‘a usually Christian person who has made a renewed or confirmed commitment of faith especially after an intense religious experience’.25 However, such a definition does not Two kinds of spiritual transformation essentially align with the biblical con- appear to be discernible in Christian ception of being born again because it thought. The first is the conversion makes it a personal choice by human which has to do with the change in effort, excluding the supernatural the here and now. The second has an work of God; biblically speaking, sal- eschatological dimension, which is the vation is God’s gift rather than human eternal hope of those who experience effort. This is substantiated by the the spiritual transformation in the here Greek rendering of being born again to and now. The second does not separate mean being born ‘from above’ or ‘from human destiny from the cosmic desti- heaven’. Thus Jesus used the water ny. This is punctiliously argued by Ted and spirit symbols to explain to Nic- Peters in the following submission. The resurrection of a spiritual body 24 T. Peters, God – The World’s Future: Sys- can occur only at the advent of tematic Theology for a New Era (Minneapolis: the eschaton. If there is no cosmic Fortress Press, 2000), 23. transformation, then there is no 25 This definition is retrieved from http:// resurrection; and if there is no res- www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/born- urrection, then Christian faith is in again accessed 25th August, 2010. Benson Ohihon Igboin odemus that unless a person is born of do with conscious efforts to maintain water and the spirit, they cannot enter a distance from the Gentiles for the into the kingdom of God. Jesus indeed preservation and guaranteeing of life was referring to baptism and the Holy as prescribed by the Torah’.28 Spirit, which was demonstrated during Paul expressed a manifest change his own baptism. It is in this sense that after his conversion in intellectual, born again means a new beginning in religious, moral and affective modes the relationship between God and the though those who heard of it were at baptised, both in water and in spirit. first sceptical. Nevertheless, his activi- Akpenpuun Dzurgba provides in- ties thereafter showed that he indeed sight into the dynamics of transforma- was converted. He changed from being tion that is very broad. The concept a persecutor to the preacher of the faith of being born again is understood as he notoriously fought to exterminate. referring to someone who has been He fought for the abolition of religious converted or has had a religious expe- racism between the Jews and Gentiles. rience, which informs their change in For him, all he gained was counted lost belief and morality. Conversion therein order to gain Christ. However, Paul’s fore is the pre-requisite of being born Judaism’s zeal and radicalism were again. Conversion is an ‘act or process carried over to his Christian mission- of changing from one religion or one ary enterprise, but with unwavering religious belief to a different religion proclamation of Jesus as the Saviour. or religious belief’.26 As argued by Lon- Paul’s example of radical conver- ergan, the issue of change of religion sion represents one aspect. There is is secondary; conversion must first also a gradual, subtle conversion. This and necessarily be towards God, and takes a longer period of time involving then religion. This makes conversion devotion, Bible study and catechetical an inward change that manifests itself teaching. Even though it is a longer in the outward.27 Although, Nicode- process, it also demonstrates intel- mus’ conversation with Jesus did not lectual, religious, moral and affective explicitly state that he was converted conversion. instantly, we find an unmistakable ex- Thomas, one of the disciples of Je- ample of radical or sudden conversion sus appears to be a very good example. in Paul’s spiritual experience. He did not fully believe in Jesus until he Paul was a Judaiser, a lawyer and had seen the marks of the crucifixion of religious activist who persecuted the Christ as indisputable empirical/intel- early Christians until he had an encoun- lectual evidence of the validity of the ter with Jesus on his way to Damascus. claim of Christ’s resurrection, and then The Damascus experience implies that his Lordship. No wonder he exclaimed: Paul broke with his ‘former life in Juda- ‘My Lord and my God!’ Thereafter, he ism epoch, insofar as this epoch had to proclaimed Christ with great passion

26 Dzurgba, God and Caesar, 51. 28 B. O. Ukwuegbu, ‘St. Paul of the Letters: 27 Orji, ‘Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Setting the Facts Straight’ in The Nigerian Sub-Saharan Africa’, 54. Journal of Theology, vol. 23 (June 2009): 28. Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation and conviction. Tradition has it that he social behaviour or moral principles; went on a missionary journey to India, trespass – action which is morally established a few churches in the west wrong; iniquity – being unfair and evil coast; travelled to the east where he to other people – demand confession was martyred at Mylapore in the city and repentance. It is this that trans- of Madras.29 forms a person into a member of the Thus, we can distinguish two kingdom of God. ‘The coming kingdom transformatory processes; one is radi- requires the spirit of conversion.’33 As cal while the second, which is subtle, Karl Peschke puts it: takes place within a faith community, This priority does not connote an especially of those born into a faith exclusion of those who fall short of 30 family. the law of the kingdom, but it de- Conversion begins with contrition, mands from them conversion. The ‘a heartfelt sense of sorrow for one’s kingdom accordingly requires the sins, and is followed immediately with transformation of this world in ac- repentance, a turning away from one’s cordance with God’s will and with sin and toward a commitment of living the commandment of love.34 justly’.31 John the Baptist emphasised Peschke’s argument is born out of repentance as a condition for baptism. his understanding of the Pentecostal Since repentance is the expression of congregation, which brought a large remorse for a wrong action, confes- population to conversion in the Acts of sion is necessary so that there will be the Apostles. This is still the demand a correlation between what goes on in today in Christian preaching. Peter and the internal and the external. Repent- other apostles had gathered in the Up- ance is from the heart and confession per Room where they prayed. There is a declaration of the ‘working’ of the was a sudden sound believed to come heart. from heaven in the form of a powerful The idea of repentance is intricately bound with sin. Therefore, the acts of sin,32 transgression – acting against have to do with intent. Avon is translated as iniquity. Avah is its root word, which means to sin, understood in scriptures to be intentional 29 P. W. Goetz, (ed.), The New Encyclopedia sin. Fesha is understood as wilful sin, whose Britannica, 5th ed. vol. 21, (Chicago: Encyclo- root word is pesha, meaning to sin or rebel, pedia Britannica, Inc, 1990), 1. especially against God. Khata-ah translated 30 R. A. Akanmidu, ‘Reflections on the Inter- as error, has its root from Khata, meaning to action between Religion, Morality and Politi- sin, transgress or miss. It is understood as un- cal Leadership in Nigeria’, being a paper pre- intentional sin. See W. J. Morford, The Power sented at the 11th annual convocation of The New Testament: Revealing Jewish Roots, 3rd ed, Nigerian Academy of Letters, (2009): 4. (Lexington: Shalom Ministries, Inc, 2003), 31 Peters, God, 252-253. 406. 32 The concept of sin in the Hebrew connotes 33 K. H. Peschke, Christian Ethics: Moral The- different aspects as follows: Avel means wick- ology in the Light of Vatican II, vol. 2, (Banga- edness, injustice, wrong; Rasha means wick- lore: Theological Publications in India, 1992), ed, cruel, evil; Zadon means wickedness, evil, 70. insolence, malice. The following root words 34 Peschke, Christian Ethics, 69. Benson Ohihon Igboin wind. This was immediately followed the philosophical strand of spiritual by flames of fire that rested on those transformation. present. The Holy Spirit gave them the ability to speak in different languages they had previously not understood. This was testified to by those who originally We have examined spiritual transfor- spoke those languages and thought mation through the grid of the biblical/ that Peter and his group were drunk. theological concept. It does appear But ‘Peter defended the genuineness that the transformed person is aided by of the religious experience convinc- the Holy Spirit in response to Christ’s 35 ingly’ which led to the conversion of atoning sacrifice. This forms the justi- about three thousand people from dif- fication of the ‘born again’ claim. And ferent religions to Christianity. They all this also represents one aspect of Nic- thereafter demonstrated the salience odemus’ conversation with Jesus. The of conversion. other aspect, the philosophical, now In the case of Christian faith, the engages our attention. The thrust of dynamic of being convicted of guilt, this section is not to deny the claim of making confession, receiving for- spiritual transformation. It is rather giveness and absolution, experienc- to demonstrate that it is credible and ing cleansing, and then living a life true, and that it does lead to an observ- of freedom, peace and joy is the very able positive manifestation. substance of what it means to be a Some philosophers argue that all Christian. It is as this experience is facts are ‘theory-laden’ and therefore translated and expressed in a na- bare facts are meaningless. Actually, tional context that something new the same fact can elicit different mean- is introduced to the apparently ir- ings when viewed by different peo- 36 reconcilable conflict. ple. This makes the claim of spiritual The underlying principle of spir- transformation a much more difficult itual transformation in Christian theo- task for Christians. This being so, the logical thought is that such Christian crucial task of Christian philosophy is experience produces a change in the to help the communication process be- mental, moral and spiritual nature of tween those who have different beliefs the person, engineered by the power or worldviews. of the Holy Spirit, in response to the Beliefs other than Christian are establishment of a personal relation- viewed by Christians as a veil, which ship with Christ. This presupposes ‘can only be removed by supernatural that conversion entails the totality of conversion’.37 This might as well ex- the person. This leads us to examine tend to the change from a theistic to an atheistic worldview. Whether this

35 Dzurgba, God and Caesar, 53. 36 K. R. Ross, ‘Asia’s Cry for Reconciliation: 37 N. L. Geisler, and P. D. Feinberg, Intro- A Challenge to the Churches’ in Asia Journal of duction to Philosophy: A Christian Perspective Theology, 19/2, (2005): 417. (Michigan: Baker Books, 2007), 77-78. Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation transformation will be considered ‘a consist of such ‘bare facts.’ They in- supernatural act of God’ remains a clude the meaning the facts held for matter of argumentation, but it is out- those who encountered them and side the thought of Christian conver- their reality is known through the sion. The same applies to the natural- observable consequences. In this in- ists who see everything in the natural stance, we may be clearer about the realm, thus denying supernaturalism. meaning and the consequences than For the Christian, conversion is re- about the ‘facts’ in themselves, but quired (a change of heart and lifestyle) this would be true of other momen- in order to understand the message of tous events in history.40 spiritual transformation. As Geisler The observable consequences, and Feinberg admonish, which Dodd emphasises, are the mani- One task of Christian philosophy, festations of a transformed life. This then, is to work on a pre-evange- will constitute the thrust of the subse- listic level to get the outsider to quent section. look around the edges or through The task of providing evidence is se- the cracks of his glasses, or to take rious. For many philosophers, human them off and try a set of ‘theistic persons are natural living beings with glasses’ on for size…. Unless the a material body. They are animals ex- intellectual ground is cleared and a cept that they possess essentially a ra- straight course is cut for the word tional property.41 The importance of the of truth, it is unlikely that the Chris- rational dimension in relation to spir- tian is truly communicating the itual transformation is that the mind is gospel of Christ to men of different the citadel of human personality, and it 38 worldviews. effectively rules the person. The mind The truth of spiritual transformation is often thought to be the last aspect does appeal to evidence and argumen- of the person to capitulate to spiritual tation. Clearly, when we see change in transformation. a person who has been changed, we Paul understood perfectly that radi- do recognise it. However, what un- cal commitment must encompass the derlies the change is open to radically intellectual dimension of the person different speculations. The claim that who has been converted. Conversion encountering Christ changes people’s then must ﬁrst be from the mind. Thus, lives requires evidence to authenticate he urged: ‘but you must from the inside it. However, to propose an alternative continually be changed/transformed explanation on the basis of ‘pre-con- into a new form, by the renovation/ ceived theory, is of dubious proﬁt’.39 As renewal of your mind, to prove what Dodd strongly argues, is the good, pleasing and perfect will But the events that make history do of God for you’ (Rom. 12:2). The truth

38 Geisler, and Feinberg, Introduction to Phi- 40 Dodd, The Founder of Christianity, 170-171. losophy, 78. 41 P. M. Gaiya, Religion and Justice: The Nige- 39 C. H. Dodd, The Founder of Christianity rian Predicament (Kaduna: Espee Printing and (London: Macmillan, 1970), 170. Advertising, 2004), 27. Benson Ohihon Igboin is that we are more prone to think our peace, as evident in the testimonies of own thoughts and ventilate our opin- respected scientists or outright athe- ions when they seem to be preposter- ists who have had Christian experi- ous to religious thought.42 This means ence, he concludes that submission in Christian thought that such a mind rather than rebellion is a demonstra- is yet to be regenerated. tion of genuine intellectual integrity.46 John Stott argues that intellectual Ted Peters acknowledges the ar- integrity as regards spiritual trans- gumentation surrounding intellectual formation requires submission rather integrity with regard to spiritual trans- than intellectual arrogance. According formation. He suggests that illumina- to him, the twenty-first century person tion precedes conversion. This is done queries the authenticity, trustworthi- by the ‘Spirit’, which symbolised by ness and tenability of the Christian ‘the fire of revelation and the lamp of experience. Those who believe in the wisdom begins the transforming work experience are believed to lack intel- by illuminating the human mind with lectual integrity. Religion is regarded the knowledge of salvation’.47 Illumi- as obscurantism, mental schizophre- nation is possible by presenting exter- nia, intellectual suicide, etc. by the nal and objective knowledge of the his- modern secular mind. Thus it is irra- toricity of Jesus and the Christ-events. tional to seek to attain spiritual trans- He adds: formation because it is out of the reach But the facts are not enough. Illumi- of reason, and the sole arbiter of reality nation adds to external knowledge in modern times is to ignore the nature an internal knowledge, a convic- of spiritual transformation because it tion of the heart, a realization that involves a person and a relationship, regeneration makes such turning not an argument, and the transformed, toward the light possible. Regenera- 43 who is also a person, not a computer. tion, which literally means ‘rebirth’ The quest of the secular mind for is the act of grace by which the Holy evidence backed with reason, it must Spirit makes the living Christ pre- be said, is not wholly objective. This sent to the sinner in faith. It is the is because evidence is susceptible to act whereby the universal saving 44 different interpretations. However, event of Christ takes effect in a par- Stott would answer that ‘integrity is ticular person’s life, one’s particular 45 the quality of an integrated person’. sins are forgiven, and the power of Since the integrated person is not at the new creation is appropriated.48 war with himself or herself, but at Wesley Wildman and Leslie Broth- ers, neuropsychologists, observe that the credibility of spiritual transforma- 42 J. Stott, The Contemporary Christian tion can be hampered by the reality of (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 90-91. 43 Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 177. 44 D. Taylor, The Myth of Certainty: The Re- flective Christian and the Risk of Commitment 46 Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 177. (USA: Jarrell, 1986), 71, 67. 47 Peters, God, 252. 45 Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 177. 48 Peters, God, 252. Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation social and linguistic contexts. In other traditions worldwide, as congenial words, a complication arises from the to the natural and social sciences as way people describe their Christian it is to religion, and well matched to experiences, which largely depends amazing facet of human life that we on social and linguistic factors. Apart call ultimacy experiences.50 from that, they hold the view that we One of the ways of ascertaining this cannot know for certain the contents of reality is by observation of manifest the minds of other people. This makes changes to which we now turn. it difficult to ascertain whether we are describing the same experiences even when identical descriptions are involved within a single social-linguistic context. According to Dodd, ‘the style is the The above might lead to relativ- man’.51 This he pursues by arguing ism of descriptions but it is not an that in relation to spiritual (Christian) insurmountable problem. Thus, what transformation, an encounter with the is needed are ‘sometimes mundane- historical Jesus certainly produces ob- seeming, sometimes spectacular ex- servable consequences. Describing the periences of conversion and character experience of the apostles, he writes: transformation’.49 This implies that in Now they were new men in a new spite of the barrier of social-linguistics world, confident, courageous, enter- to the credibility of spiritual transfor- prising, the leaders of a movement mation, the ‘observable consequences’, which made an immediate impact to use Dodd’s term, can help in over- and went forward with an aston- coming it. This is based on the fact ishing impetus…. It made them that there are certain moral and social new men, but it was also the birth behavioural changes that are visible as of a new community…. They them- a result of the experience of genuine selves had passed through death to spiritual transformation. They con- new life.52 clude: Arthur Pink corroborates this view It is real, and it is doubtless more when he states that genuine salvation wondrous and strange than our best brings about true, positive observable and worst guesses. This is the hy- transformation. He writes: pothesis that best makes sense of the basic data, including the data of Salvation is a supernatural thing religious experience… it is a pow- that changes the heart, renews the erful idea well attested by mythical will, transforms the life, so that it is evident to all around that a miracle of grace has been wrought…. A 49 W. J. Wildman and L. A. Brothers, ‘A Neu- ropsychological-Semiotic Model of Religious Experience’ in Russell, R. J., Murphy, N., Mey- 50 Wildman and Brothers, ‘A Neuropsycho- ering, T. C. and Arbib, M. A. (eds.) Neuroscience logical-Semiotic Model, 413. and the Person: Scientific Perspective on Divine 51 Dodd, The Founder of Christianity, 37. Action (California: CTNS, 1999), 351. 52 Dodd, The Founder of Christianity, 170-171. Benson Ohihon Igboin

faith that does not issue in godly liv- enviable qualities in social, economic ing, in an obedient walk, in spiritual and political interaction. Akanmidu fruit, is not the faith of God’s elect.53 agrees that the transformatory pro- Again, the challenge of a true Chris- cess, deﬁned as ‘a form of change that tian is thrown forth here. And quickly, runs counter to the force of insistence true Christians in the real sense of the on choices that have the potential of word, and who authentically qualify to being vices, and not virtues’, results in be so called (as in the Antioch experi- the deepening awareness which makes ence where the observers were able to inroads ‘into the character of the individual and performance’.57 discern that the life of the followers of Peters gives a scintillating exam- Christ was in tandem with their mas- ple of demonstrable spiritual transfor- ter and then called them Christians mation. In the West, alcoholism was – little Christ), must demonstrate the regarded as a matter of will, which characteristics and contents of spir- made alcoholics morally responsible. itual transformation. The spiritual fruit Later society despised the alcoholics which arises from repentance and con- for wasting their families’ income. The version must be practically put into ac- most effective cure was considered to tion. This is the distinguishing factor be repentance. The Christian revival- between true and false spiritual trans- ists, John and Charles Wesley, prayed 54 formation. for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Dzurgba pointedly states that ‘a for conversion of heart and for strength transparent moral character is to be of will to stop drinking. ‘Those who noticed by the public in respect of the repented and received the Spirit re- 55 born-again’s social life’. Thus, a true ceived the power to cease and desist spiritual transformation involves a dis- from drinking alcohol and immediately play of a high moral standard different became loving spouses and responsi- from the pre-conversion experience. ble parents.’58 This remedial method The fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, impacted positively on society such patience, kindness, goodness, faithful- that The Woman’s Christian Temper- ness, gentleness, self-control – must ance Union and Alcoholics Anonymous be manifestly portrayed. This must be- changed their views and acknowledged gin from their ‘perception of realities, that alcoholism is a matter of personal ideas, speech, taste, emotion or feel- will, and sought divine power to over- ing, and action’.56 come it.59 So, apart from genuine religious pie- The foregoing analysis shows that ty, it is expected that spiritual transfor- a true spiritual transformation must mation should bring about positive and have a direct tangency with life and ex-

53 A. W. Pink, ‘What is Apostasy?’ in The 57 Akanmidu, ‘Reflections on the Interaction Sword and Trumpet, LXXVI/12 (Dec. 2008): 4. between Religion’, 3-4. 54 W. F. Kumuyi, The Hour of Decision (Lagos: 58 T. Peters, Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and So- Life Press Ltd, 1990), 16-19. ciety (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publish- 55 Dzurgba, God and Caesar, 54. ing Co., 1994), 315. 56 Dzurgba, God and Caesar, 54. 59 Peters, Sin, 315. Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation perience. This dispels the notion that tobiographies are true testimonies of Christian experience is psychologically spiritual transformation. Among them induced, or brought about through we can mention Sir William Ramsay persuasive and emotional words. This who was as staunch sceptic, Frank also dispels the conditioned reflex Morrison, C. S. Lewis, Lew Wallace, theory that after exposure to Christian and Giovanni Papini, amongst others. thought a person can be caught in the type of spiritual hypnosis which enables the person to react mechanically to certain issues/ways in certain condi- Christians are people who have been tions.60 converted or thoroughly evangelised63 This does not however obliterate a which is not necessarily a literal or psychological benefit of spiritual trans- sensory experience in which they must formation. McKnight has amply shown have ‘received God’s revelation and that such psychologists as Eric Erick- seen glorious things in heaven’64 as son, J. Piaget and L. Kohlberg agree prerequisite. Dairo’s apparent literal that our cognitive and moral develop- and archetypical perception of being ments go through stages. This implies born again makes the case that every that conversion happens in gradual Christian is supposedly or likely to or progressive dimension just as faith have the same salvation experience. grows in stages. Faith, they also agree, The authentic baseline of this experi- develops in cognitive, spiritual, moral ence, it seems to us, is to ‘identify with and psychological aspects61 which is in the central act of conversion in which tandem with Lonergan’s concept of the the individual consecrates his or her intellectual, religious, moral and affec- life to Christ, atones for past sins and tive. becomes “born again” or saved.’65 Josh McDowell has compiled a com- This point is supported by Hans Urs pendium62 of testimonies of people who von Balthasar, who underscores that experienced spiritual transformation. the Christian experiences of Christ by He thus presents it as an empirical and Mary, the apostles who lived physically historical fact of true spiritual trans- with Christ, and the apostle Paul for information. He gave his testimony as an atheist who was converted. The list contains different people from different 63 A. Dzurgba, An Introduction to Sociology walks of life whose biographies and au- (Ibadan: Centre for External Studies, 2002), 20. 64 A. O. Dairo, ‘Born Again Christian Scep- 60 J. McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Ver- tics and Political Democratic Progress in Nige- dict: Historical Evidences for the Christian Faith ria: Giving Caesar His Dues’ in ORITA: Ibadan (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life, 1999), 337- Journal of Religious Studies, XLI/I, (June 2009): 338. 83-93. 61 S. McKnight, Turning to Jesus: The Sociol- 65 R. Marshall, ‘God is not a Democrat: Pen- ogy of Conversion in the Gospels (Louisville: tecostalism and Democratization in Nigeria’ John Knox, 2002), 185. in Gifford, P. (ed.), The Christian Churches and 62 McDowell, Evidence that Demands, 341- Democratization in Africa (Leiden: E. T. Brill, 368. 1995), 244. Benson Ohihon Igboin stance, are distinctively different. But Holy Spirit is subjective or cannot pass the integrity of the experiences remain through the ‘eye’ of empirical verifica- first of all ‘an integrating totality and tion processes. the power of the object of faith’ and Subsumed under the above is the in- also ‘a readiness for openness to oth- strumental theory which explains con- ers’.66 The essence, therefore, is: ‘It is version to Christianity, not on the basis the whole person that God desires. God of intrinsic value of the faith, but on does not want only man’s soul but also, some advantages accruable from it.69 with tantamount importance, man’s According to Elechi, ‘It was the desire body.’67 for education, coupled with the com- petition between the denominations, rather than ambition to embrace the new faith, that led to the rapid spread What does the foregoing hold for the of the Christian churches in Iboland.’70 Nigerian experience of conversion? Umejesi corroborated this view Much has been said about Christianity when he recently examined the activi- in Nigeria as a widespread faith whose ties of the Holy Ghost Mission in Igbo- spirituality evokes a paradox of faith land, and the responses of the people. and action. The high religiosity but low Through the instrumentality of educa- morality displayed by some Nigerian tion, the missionaries had unhindered Christians attests to this. The expla- access to the people’s homes and they nations of this paradox are modelled (the people) competed in releasing along naturalistic and numinous theo- their children just as the missionaries ries of conversion. The former can fur- were thriving in giving incentives.71 ther be subdivided into the instrumen- The instrumental theory may be tal, deprivation-fulfilment, ‘who-whom’ supported by the many instances of and the intellectual theories.68 the prosperity gospel, which do not fo- The naturalists, in their evolution- cus on the core of salvation message, ary thinking, conceive of conversion as but summon the respondents to the a natural phenomenon, which does not altar on the basis of what they stand take account of the power and work to gain physically or materially. It is of the Holy Spirit. This arises from not difficult to find such messages that their belief that the intervention of the do not relate to Christ and his saving message. This partly accounts for the problems associated with the quality 66 E. R. Babor, ‘A Review of Balthasar’s The- and integrity of Christians in Nigeria, ology of Faith and Experience: Leading One to be a True Christian’ in ORITA: Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies, xl/ii, (Dec. 2008): 67-90. 69 Gaiya, “Conversion of the African”, 138. 67 Babor, ‘A Review of Balthasar’s Theol- 70 F. K. Ekechi, Missionary Enterprise and ogy’, 68. Rivalry in Igboland 1857-1914 (London: Frank 68 M. A. B. Gaiya, “Conversion of the African: Cass, 1971), 73. A Case Study of an Ngas Prince” in Appiah-Ku- 71 I. O. Umejesi, ‘The Holy Ghost Mission in bi, K. Edet, R. N., Ehusani, G. and Olagunju, J. Igboland (1885-1967): The Shanahan Story’ in (eds.), African Dilemma: A Cry for Life (N. P.: AAU: African Studies Review, 8, (June 2009): EATWOT, 1992), 138. 173-189. Bias and Conversion: An Evaluation of Spiritual Transformation and the paradox of faith and action.72 argue that pastors/theologians must The deprivation-fulfilment theory not shy away from a strictly intellec- emphasises that people accept Christi- tual/philosophical presentation of the anity because of their frustration that gospel message because it will help in has been caused by ancestral/histori- engaging the unbelievers in the truth cal curses or evil covenants. This they and power of the scripture.74 believe reveals itself in economic, so- On the other hand, the numinous cial, political failure. Therefore, they theory of conversion as demonstrated believe they have been limited by those in Nigeria relates to the power/work of factors and need deliverance or exor- the Holy Spirit in salvation. Here the cism. This also explains the number of Holy Spirit also requires the active deliverance ministries and activities.73 faith of the individual in response to The ‘who-whom’ theory states the gospel. This is understood in the that conversion is dependent on the act of self-giving that evokes faith, presenters of the message and the love and hope or a holistic surrender thought and feeling of the respondents to Christ who transforms one’s life, be- about them. This is seen in the aping of cause ‘only this power… can explain the presenters by their converts. It is the transformation that takes place in not infrequent to come across ‘Chris- the believing person and his total con- tians’ whose only evidence of spiritual dition which results from it’.75 birth is to talk, dress, gesticulate or do It is within the above scenario that things generally like their pastors. Christians in Nigeria are often classi- The intellectual theory speaks of a fied by such widely varying qualities conversion from one form of thinking as ‘genuine’, ‘fake’, ‘social’, ‘political’, to another, especially from traditional ‘economic’, ‘nominal, ‘seating-warm- African religion to Christianity. Some- ing’, or ‘church-going’- which in fact time the message is not presented in parallel the western concept of utili- an intellectual/logical way and when tarian, situationist or Kantian Chris- people leave a particular church for an- tianity.)76 In spite of that, in Nigerian other, it will perhaps be to satisfy a cu- society, we can easily look around and riosity. However, Moreland and Craig point to great spiritually transformed personalities including W. F. Kumuyi, E. A. Adeboye, S. K. Abiara, D. O. 72 B. O. Igboin, ‘The Gospel of Prosperity: Oyedepo, B. A. Idahosa, Tunde Bakare, An Appraisal of Its Syncretistic Contours’ in to mention a few. They are notable, not EPHA: Ekpoma Journal of Religious Studies, just because they preach the gospel, 6/1&2, (June 2005): 160-181. 73 D. Ayegboyin, ‘… But Deliver us from but because they reflect the essence Evil…: The Riposte of the MFM and its Impli- cations for the Reverse in Mission’ in ORITA: 74 J. P. Moreland and W. L. Craig, Philosophi- Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies, xxxvii, (Illi- (June & Dec. 2005): 33-64. See also, P. N. cal Foundations for a Christian Worldview nois: IVP Academic, 2003), 1-6. Mwaura, ‘A Spirituality of Resistance and Hope: African Instituted Churches’ Response 75 Babor, ‘A Review of Balthasar’s Theol- to Poverty’ in ORITA: Ibadan Journal of Reli- ogy’, 73. gious Studies, xxxvii/1&2, (June & Dec. 2005): 76 S. W. Kunhiyop, African Christian Ethics 65-83. (Nairobi: WordAlive Publishers, 2008), 42-43. Benson Ohihon Igboin of spiritual transformation. There are set in motion which have been made many others also who are not well in society for what mankind believes known leaders but when we observe to be its best – in the inward trans- and interact with them personally we formation of human lives in political can see that their experience is also order, in the production and distri- a valid testimony to their transforma- bution of goods to meet the physical tion. needs of men, in healing physical In review, we can remember that ills, in the relations between races the only constant phenomenon in life and between nations, in art, in re- and in history has been the constancy ligion and in the achievements of of change. Everything changes; and hu- the human intellect. Gauged by the man beings too change from one belief consequences… [and] measured by to another. On this basis, we have ex- His influence, Jesus is central in the amined spiritual transformation with human story [and change in human 77 the hindsight that a true change brings society]. also about observable changes, espe- McDowell adds, ‘This is why I be- cially morally, which serves as empiri- lieve that Jesus Christ is the greatest cal and historical evidence to justify it. revolutionary who has ever lived.’78 This change arises from an encounter And we do not believe or agree less. with Christ. We conclude by agreeing with Kenneth Scott Latourette who 77 Cited in McDowell, Evidence that Demands, says: 338; emphasis my addition. Through Him, movements have been 78 McDowell, Evidence that Demands, 375.

The Appeal of Exodus Stefan Kürle Contents 1. Introduction—Hermeneutical Reflections & Method; 2. Yhwh—‘National Hero’ and ‘King’; 3. Moses—the Mediator, Not the Hero; 4. Israel—Between Ideal and Reality; 5. Summary and Conclusions In The Appeal of Exodus Stefan Kürle offers a thorough, exegetically profound and pleasantly readable study using a functional-synchronic approach with a rhetorical-critical analysis. Walter Hilbrands, Giessen School of Theology, Germany This is a masterly study of the book of Exodus that brings out its message with clarity and depth. It is an essential read for anyone who would expound these chapters of Scripture. Gordon Wenham, Trinity College, Bristol Stefan Kürle is Professor of Biblical Studies, South American Theological Seminary, Londrina, Brasil

9781842277805 / 229x152mm / 297pp/ £24.99

Paternoster, 52 Presley Way, Crownhill, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ES ERT (2013) 37:2, 183-192 Books Reviewed

Reviewed by Raymond J. Laird Reviewed by Timothy Laurence John Jefferson Davis Don A. Carson Worship and the Reality of God: an The Intolerance of Tolerance Evangelical Theology of Real Presence Reviewed by Norman T. Barker Reviewed by Raymond J. Laird Marion Andrew Matthew Levering My China Mystery Jesus and the Demise of Death: Reviewed by David Parker Resurrection, Afterlife, and the Fate of Ben Witherington III the Christian Making a Meal of It: rethinking the Reviewed by Thomas K. Johnson theology of the Lord’s Supper David VanDrunen Reviewed by Raymond J. Laird Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms: A Mark A. Noll Study in the Development of Reformed Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind Social Thought And David VanDrunen Living in God’s Two Kingdoms: A Biblical Vision for Christianity and Culture Book Reviews

ERT (2013) 37:2, 183-185 ethics at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, would be something out of the ordinary. I was not to be disappointed. The thrust of the study is that to a large extent American evangelicals, with few exceptions, have lost their way in their practice of corporate worship. He argues that the reality of the presence of the Triune God has been pushed aside by two dominant worldviews, or two ontolo- gies, that have arisen in turn over the Reviewed by Raymond J. Laird, Centre for last few hundred years. On one hand, Early Christian Studies, Brisbane, Australia. scientific materialism has pushed God out of his universe, and on the other, From the moment that A. W. Tozer’s the more recent digital virtualism of The Knowledge of the Holy was men- post-modernity has pushed the natural tioned, I became aware that this study universe out of view into the background by Professor John J. Davis, professor of life. Hence, the reality of the pres- of systematic theology and Christian ence of God in a God-centred universe Book Reviews has been displaced. The mock reality of Christians understand themselves when a humanly invented digital universe, in at church. He proposes that we should which the individual autonomous self think of ourselves as being trinitarian, exercises total control, has taken over. ecclesial, and doxological. This, he Davis’ plea is that evangelical churches asserts, brings conformity to the ‘new- return to a supernatural ontological creation self’ which is antithetical to the framework of Trinitarian theism. The autonomous self of modernity and post- hallmark of such is loving relation- modernity. The claim is that the various ships operating as the norm of life and expressions of the autonomous self worship. Davis bases his study on solid arising from those hostile contexts have distorted both individual and corporate theology, perceptive biblical knowledge, life and worship. and a year of practical field work in attendance at a wide range of churches. The chapter on the eucharist centres on Thus his analysis of the state of evan- an extensive argument for recognition of gelical churches in North America, his a ‘real presence’ of our Lord, the risen perception of the historical causes for Christ, not on the table, but at it. The an apparent decline, and the remedy he discussion is comprehensive, supported suggests are not without substance. He at first by an historical survey of the traces the decline to its commencement denuding and devitalising of Protestant in Reformation iconoclasm, followed by worship. More positively, Davis calls up Enlightenment naturalism, next the sub- insights derived from the New Testa- version of worship in revivalism’s mar- ment, the early church, ecumenical ginalisation of the Eucharist, and finally, theology, recent philosophy and cyber- the seduction of modern consumerism space to clear a path into the future. In and entertainment-oriented cultures. the process, new insights are thrown on There is much food for thought here, issues which have been well aired in the and no less for argument. Nevertheless, past. Newer issues are also illuminated with appropriate comments, with the Davis is penetrating in his colourful concern throughout being to move evan- treatment of the issues involved. gelical churches from a ‘real absence’ The first impression received was that to the ‘real presence’. The final chapter the most important part of this study is is of a practical nature with suggestions the discussion on the Eucharist or Holy on teaching a vital structure of worship, Communion, by far the longest chap- and on ways to implement change to- ter in the book. On reflection, Davis’s wards a framework of ‘Ancient-Modern material on the ontology of the self is Blended Worship’. probably of greater consequence. This There is much helpful material here discussion on the core identity of the for consideration by pastors, teachers, Christian self lays a necessary founda- lecturers, indeed for all those in leader- tion for a change of mind set. To achieve ship in the church. There is little doubt the type of ancient-future worship Davis that many are feeling the shallowness promotes, such a change is required so and futility of much that occurs under that major adjustments in eucharistic the banner of worship. They could profit theology and practice can be imple- themselves and their people by careful mented. reflection on the things Professor Davis At the heart of his analysis is the point- has raised. As expected from a profes- ed question as to how typical evangelical sional academic, the book is enhanced Book Reviews by judicious references, two excellent to come. bibliographies, and two useful indices. Levering, the theologian, conducts the There is some repetition, but the flow reader through a Christo-centric theo- of argument carries the reader along logical study, the first three chapters buoyantly throughout. There are also a being assigned to the after-crucifixion number of surprises along the way that experience of Christ: his descent into are well worth exploring. Hell, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Father. He argues that Christ is a forerunner and paradigm of ERT (2013) 37:2, 185-186 the believer’s after death experience. For the Christian, the paradigm is modified to our differences from the Lord, the substance of the final four chapters. Included among the controversial issues raised therein is the place of merit in the human-divine relationship, the question over whether or not we have spiritual souls, the nature of our resurrection form, and the substance of the final beatific vision. Reviewed by Raymond J. Laird, Centre for Early Christian Studies, Brisbane, Australia. The chapters on Jesus Christ also address controversial issues such as Dr. Levering, Professor of Theology at the assertion of The Apostles’ Creed the University of Daytona, and Director that Christ descended into Hell, a of the Center for Scriptural Exegesis, tenet which has been denied by quite Philosophy, and Doctrine, gives us a number of theologians. Of particular a book that follows the disciplines note, is a discussion of post-mortem expressed in the latter office. It is grace that leads to salvation for those a theological discussion. it is based who have died. The conversation on the firmly on the Christian Scriptures, and it meaning of ‘the right hand of the Father’ acknowledges the debt which he claims is another matter that Levering handles is owed to Greek philosophy. Levering expertly. has focused on personal eschatology, a Levering, the philosopher, sides with much vexed question concerning death, those who are constrained to admit that an intermediate state, resurrection and Hellenic philosophy was merged into glorification: vexed, because some of Jewish and Christian thought. However, these issues have been denied, shunned, he adopts a both-and position in relation or lightly considered in twentieth to issues where Jewish and Hellenic century theology. The afterlife, Lever- insights are regarded as opposed rather ing observes, has been pushed into the than as complementary. Again the dis- background in the rush for relevance to cussion is balanced and enlightening. life in this present age by a focus upon As for Levering, the biblical exegete, horizontal relationships at the expense the reader cannot help being struck by of giving full value to the transcendental the large number of Scripture passages relationship with God which is brought that form a critical part of this study. A to its fullness only in the age which is rough count shows that there are more Book Reviews than five hundred texts referenced in the author has drawn attention to numerous main text of this work. If we take as an biblical texts, the addition of a Scripture example the chapter on the ascension index would have enhanced this work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which contains for the reader wishing to look wider one hundred and fifteen references, than the normal commentary literature it must be concluded that the author for discussions of biblical passages, highly values the Bible as a vital, indeed especially as applied in the context of the primary source for theological theological inquiry. reasoning. He firmly adheres to Pope Benedict XVI’s dictum which he quotes, that ‘where theology is not essentially ERT (2013) 37:2, 186-187 the interpretation of the Church’s Scrip- ture, such a theology no longer has a foundation’. The methodology adopted by the author is to introduce a topic as understood by an eminent contemporary such as Tom Wright, bring other contemporary writers into the dialogue, then compare their reasoning with that of Thomas Aquinas. All of this is done with a focus on their handling of Scripture. At appropriate times he inserts a reminder of philosophical elements that are present in the text or in the theological con- structs of the authors he has placed in conversation. This makes for interest- ing discussions indeed. Overall this is a conversation worth joining as an interested eavesdropper. It probably needs some expertise to appreciate the depth Reviewed by Thomas K. Johnson, Martin of the conversation, yet there is much Bucer Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic that could be grasped by the educated layperson in the local congregation. As In these two books, David VanDrunen is usual, there are areas of controversy takes up the difficult task of finding a in which one may disagree with the historic Protestant and biblical frame- author’s position. Nevertheless, one work for social ethics that avoids four cannot but emerge the richer and wiser common distortions: a dualistic separa- for having taken part, even though it has tion from the world, a theocratic desire been by proxy, so to speak. to dominate the world, relegating the Sixty pages of copious informative world to moral neutrality or normless- endnotes contain references, quotes, ness, and the hope that we can save and comments, a valuable resource for secular culture by our efforts. To this further research on topics covered in the end he has re-appropriated the Reforma- book. A bibliography of thirty pages of tion doctrines of God’s natural moral law works cited is another commendable fea- and God’s two kingdoms, which were ture. The index is adequate, but as the not adequately appropriated by four Book Reviews lines in modern theology: Karl Barth, commonality that believers and unbeliev- Neo-Calvinism (represented by Herman ers share’ (p. 75 Living). ‘The church Dooyeweerd and Albert Wolters), the exists as a community of sojourners and new perspectives on Paul (represented exiles precisely because the common by N. T. Wright), and the emergent kingdom, founded in the Noahic cov- church movement (represented by Brian enant, continues to exist…. Christians McLaren). must strive for faithful obedience to God These four theological lines properly in both kingdoms’ (p. 101, Living). attempted to overcome a reduction of His historical book provides precise Christianity to a mere saving of souls, definitions and is the best history of but mistakenly talked as if all the world Protestant social ethics I have read. The is in Christ or else that Christians must themes which he addresses are crucial redemptively transform all of culture. for Christian proclamation and social Accidently the gospel of the kingdom engagement. We must teach the doctrine becomes a message about ‘our work of of justification by faith alone clearly, transforming the world toward peace which requires that we also clearly and justice’ (p. 24, Living), with a lack distinguish law and gospel and then the of clarity about the gospel of justifica- two kingdoms of God. The two kingdoms tion by faith alone. doctrine, far from reducing the cultural His solution is a renewed biblical under- influence of the biblical message, has standing of culture, God’s two kingdoms, been a key to why Christianity has a natural moral law, and the gospel. His radically different relation to cultures book Living is suited for entry level from other religions, and one that has theological students, as well as pastors been so constructive. VanDrunen has and Christian educators; Natural Law is very nicely explained God’s kingdoms. a highly academic history of Protestant But there is a huge task which his work ethics of top quality, designed for profes- brings to attention: we urgently need a sors and advanced scholars. new articulation and application of natural law ethics by evangelical scholars. VanDrunen finds God’s common, civil kingdom described in relation to Cain (Gen. 4), and this common kingdom ERT (2013) 37:2, 187-189 is confirmed in characteristics of the covenant with Noah (Gen. 9). Very precisely he says, ‘God does not call them [believers] to engage in cultural labours so as to earn their place in the world- to-come…. God gives us a share in the world to come as a gift of grace in Christ and then calls us to live obediently in this world as a grateful response. Our Reviewed by Timothy Laurence, Lawyers’ cultural activities do not in any sense Christian Fellowship, United Kingdom usher in the new creation’ (p. 28, Liv- ing). He claims that, ‘God creates a This book is a ‘must’ for Christian lead- deep and fundamental spiritual antithesis ers—especially those who hear that line between believers and unbelievers’ and all the time! Not because of its author— also that ‘God ordains a broad cultural though Carson is always worth reading. Book Reviews

It is a ‘must’ because of the staggering Jesus himself will return to put wrong to importance of its subject and because right. The ‘old tolerance’ is a good thing few evangelical scholars have Carson’s and has come in large part from the competence to tackle it. ‘Staggering’ is influence of Christianity within western actually one of Carson’s own repeated heritage as the Reformation gradually words to describe what he is observing led to a clearer distinction between the in western culture. It is not just that we roles of church and state, expression are destroying our freedoms, but that and coercion. this self-destruction is now celebrated, The ‘new tolerance’, however, is the and it is the one thing that no one must belief that one should not disagree criticise. What is it? Tolerance. with another view, but should accept Anyone familiar with Don Carson’s writ- everything (and hence nothing). Its ing knows that he is not an alarmist and flaw is that it cannot tolerate any view does not make foolish generalisations. that is intolerant of it. To do so would Instead, he carefully traces historical be to tolerate intolerance; but not to do patterns, makes nuanced distinctions so would be intolerant! Therefore this and engages with leading social com- ‘new tolerance’ is a self-contradiction. mentators in the secular world. And yet While claiming to be value-neutral, it he is still staggered by what he sees: inevitably becomes the tool of bullying how the championing of vacuous democ- selfish interests, and Christianity itself racy is leading to democracy’s demise; is targeted most frequently. how the privatisation of religion is curb- This book echoes the content of Carson’s ing the freedom of religion, and how this earlier work, Christ and Culture Revis- loss is bringing, in turn, the loss of other ited, but applies it to the specific area civil freedoms. A mistaken moral high of the public square. In places the book ground is removing morality from public requires careful attention. It is flooded life. And this hurts everyone. with good quotations and contemporary Carson begins by making a distinction international examples which makes it between what he calls the ‘old’ and the authoritative, notably up-to-date and a ‘new’ tolerance. From there his thesis is tremendous resource. It also makes the simple: the ‘new tolerance’ is intrinsi- book slightly repetitive, as the topic is cally intolerant. It is therefore self- addressed from a number of complemen- contradictory and self-destructive—and tary angles. so is any public square built upon it. And But this is why it is a ‘must’. If Carson’s yet, he argues, having rejected almost book is full of repeated examples, our everything else, the ‘new tolerance’ is contemporary lives are filled with them the only absolute ‘good’ the West now all the more—and yet ordinary Chris- values. tians rarely notice what they are or The ‘old’ tolerance is seen in the con- understand what is happening. Chris- viction that everyone has the right to tian leaders are in a unique position express differing views, especially when to serve their people by engaging with we disagree with them or find them Carson’s book and repeating the content offensive. This, he says, comes from even more simply to equip disciples to a conviction that truth and goodness understand and engage lovingly with the can be known and should be pursued world around them. by discussion and argument, and that The need is great and much is at stake. Book Reviews

Carson’s conclusion gives ten practical minded people. Frank arrived in Shang- applications for how to do it—including hai with a party of three Australians and the social priority of truth and evan- two New Zealanders a week after war gelism. But if Christian leaders don’t broke out in Europe in 1939. engage with this book it is unlikely that The group took up their work in west other Christians will deal adequately China, adjacent to Tibet. The slog of with its staggeringly important message, learning the language was lightened by which affects all our lives and how we the adventurous spirit of young men rev- love our neighbours and stand for the elling in the nearby mountains. Marion gospel. gives a vivid picture of Frank’s early missionary work as probationary, then junior missionary working with a senior ERT (2013) 37:2, 189-190 colleague in NW China, with market preaching and meetings. Missionaries adopted Taylor’s edict of Chinese dress to reach people who had never heard the gospel. Language study continued to better communicate this precious message. Reviewed by Norman T. Barker, Brisbane, Japan controlled east China. In the dark Australia days after Pearl Harbour, a plea came from the British army for men who With a daughter’s loving touch, Austral- spoke Chinese to serve with the Gurkha ian Marion Andrews has given to us Rifles. Frank took up a captaincy in a moving story of her parents, Frank early 1944, serving to the end of the and Ella White. Rev. Frank W.F. White war in Burma and West China. For (1911-2001) served as missionary, army his service he was made a Member of captain and Presbyterian minister. From the British Empire (M.B.E.), an award ‘long-lost treasure’ – a photo album finally received by Marion from Queen found after her father’s death, with Elizabeth II in 2009. helpful notes inscribed, together with These war years extracted a heavy toll Frank’s prayer letters and her mother’s on Frank’s health, but after a period of record of her life, she has written a co- recuperation in Australia, he was eager herent account of ‘Her China Mystery’. to take up his work again in China, Founder of the China Inland Mission returning in 1946, against the looming (CIM), the renowned J. Hudson Taylor, Communist threat. There was adjust- visited Australia in 1890 at the invita- ment to CIM’s new vision of missionary tion of Australian CIM supporters. He work, not as leaders but as co-workers appealed for 100 missionaries from with national Christians. By early 1946, Australia in the last decade of the 19th Ella Davidson had settled into language century—101 went. A steady stream school, followed by appointment to Lan- followed in the 20th century. These chow in NW China. Ella witnessed the included Frank White in 1939 and Ella movement of God’s Spirit in Lanchow, Davidson in 1945. If China features in the way the local church organized itself our news today, during this period China for evangelism, and the passion to share was much in the hearts of missionary- the gospel into central Asia, a spirit that Book Reviews inspired and grew the church through A.J. Broomhall, testified to his continued difficult times. interest in China. Frank and Ella met when a `shining A mystery indeed, beautifully laid bare, angel’ emerged from her clinic to meet a for the family first of all, and for the tired, cold and hungry driver of a heavy wider church. ex-army truck with long-awaited sup- plies. Marion recounts Frank’s engagement, within a space of a few days from ERT (2013) 37:2, 190-191 their meeting, to her missionary nurse mother. Not everyone has the opportunity to propose on the famous Wall of China! They were married by CIM Gen- eral Director, Bishop Frank Houghton, in Shanghai Cathedral in September 1947. By Christmas 1947 they were back at their mission station in NW China. On 31 March 1948 they moved into their first humble home since marriage. Reviewed by David Parker, Editor, Evangelical Review of Theology Two months later they had to flee, as Mao’s Communists advanced from NE Well known Asbury New Testament China. The death of a Swedish mission- scholar, Ben Witherington III follows ary tried by a People’s Court and stoned up his previous companion volume on to death for `sins against the people’ baptism with a further compact survey led CIM to revise its earlier policy of of an important but often misunderstood holding on. They spent a year at a CIM ‘basic element of Christian life and wor- Hospital compound where Frank worked ship’. It begins with an overview of the as a hospital evangelist and where passover in Judaism and religious meals Marion was born. But Frank’s continued in the ancient world before closely ex- ill-health dictated early furlough. Frank amining the narratives of the last supper described their arduous journey out of from the synoptic Gospels. China, to return to Brisbane, Australia, The book then turns to the early church in June 1949. and the material in the Pauline letters CIM was reorganized as OMF to work before returning to the Fourth Gospel throughout SE Asia, but could offer no where a long section is devoted to the place for Frank and Ella. They found writer’s contention that a correct view themselves bereft of their dream of of the authorship of that Gospel solves life-long work in China. With doors to the apparent discrepancies between it overseas service closed, Frank was and the other Gospels and illuminates ordained to preach the gospel at home. its own particular contribution to our News about the Chinese church was understanding. Throughout these sec- dark. Frank found it difficult to speak tions, careful analysis of the text and of China, creating Marion’s `China the historical background help to show mystery’. His gift to the Presbyterian clear distinctions between passover, Church’s college library in the 1980s Last Supper and the Lord’s Supper (or of the multi-volume history of China communion). In particular, the findings missions by Hudson Taylor’s nephew, of recent sociological studies are put Book Reviews to good use in showing the settings of ERT (2013) 37:2, 191-192 these meals. In contrast to the space and attention devoted to the biblical material, the survey of the development of the practice and understanding of the Lord Supper throughout the history of the church is much shorter, less sympathetic and far more selective. It is mostly angled to show how great a departure there has been from the simple meal setting of the Reviewed by Raymond J. Laird, Centre for early disciples and church. Early Christian Studies, Brisbane, Australia. The author is well aware of the different social and religious settings that exist Fifteen years ago, Mark Noll voiced his today and the problem of deciding what experience of and revulsion to the exist- is normative now in comparison with the ence among many evangelical Christians of a general distrust, extending to primitive practice. He warns against try- disdain, of higher secular learning. He ing to re-enact the practices of the Bible mourned the fact that academic study as if in doing so the value and validity was treated by many as nothing other of the service would be assured. Instead than a threat to the faith. After a decade he urges readers to see that the Lord’s and a half of further study, teaching, Supper should focus on the death of public lectures, and peer consultation, Christ and its benefits and the presence he has produced a biblical-theological of Christ himself. He believes that there raison d’etre for evangelicals to not only would be advantage in reinstating a appreciate higher learning, but also to home setting for worship and ‘making a recognise the necessity to pursue it. meal’ of the service! Knoll, takes the centrality of Christ, The book is short, written in a relaxed something which is both precious and personal style, and provides plenty of critical to evangelicals, and presents a references for further reading while at cogent argument from Bible and creed, the same time focusing firmly on the that creation is close to the heart and text of Scripture, making it a welcome purpose of the Creator and therefore addition to the literature on this impor- worthy of study in all the variety of its tant subject. elements. He argues that creation is revealed in Scripture and affirmed by the creeds, as being ‘by Christ’, as main- tained ‘in Christ’, and finding its purpose as being ‘for Christ’. Therefore, truth is not to be found only in revelation, but also in creation, a reason more than suf- ficient for evangelicals earnestly to pursue learning at the higher levels. This reviewer finds his argument convincing. It comes as a surprise that Knoll asserts that Christology provides specific Book Reviews guidelines for academic research. As he peal is to Christian professionals to test notes, such an approach to research has this proposition and the guidelines that been thin on the ground in the past two flow out of it, by applying these to their centuries. One cannot but agree that the research in their chosen fields. Knoll’s creation- evolution debate which arose hope is that other minds might unearth with the advent of modern scientific some vital things that he has missed. methodologies has scared off Christians The discussion he presents, the sugges- from considering Christological, or any tions he makes, and the paths he takes biblical principles for that matter, as be- are all worthy of consideration. ing relevant to such research. Thus this If this challenge is taken up, perhaps section of the book is of deep interest to new generations of evangelical Christian all those involved in higher learning or scholars could be produced who are contemplating it. Four guiding principles more confident of the relevance of their are identified: doubleness, contingency, faith, more bold in the application of the particularity, and self-denial. These are truth as it is in Jesus, and more Christ- not presented as laws for intellectual centred in their intellectual life than life, but simply that Christian belief may many before who have struggled against extend naturally to all areas of human endeavour. Although some problems such issues as historical relativism, arise for this reader, this chapter de- scientific rationalism, anti-intellectual serves serious consideration. gnosticism and defective exegetical hermeneutics. The crunch appears when Knoll explains how these Christological principles Knoll’s work is completed with a reprise might be applied to various fields of of the issues raised in his previous book study. He chooses history, science, and on this topic. He lists some heartening biblical studies for this demonstration. signs which have emerged that indicate These chapters are probably the most that change for the better is occurring controversial of the book. Indeed, Knoll in some quarters of evangelical thought. has already raised some doubts at the Among other things, he mounts a beginning of the chapter on the Christo- defence of Peter Enns’ Inspiration and logical guidelines at page 44: ‘The result Incarnation, in which Knoll, while not is that even basic intellectual moves endorsing all that Enns has expressed, can pose difficulties. In my own case I finds some crucial ideas similar to have been thinking about the bearing the main thrust of his own work. This of Christology on historical practice for should help to stimulate others to step more than a quarter of a century and out to question some positions unwisely am not at all certain that I have cracked adopted in the past. this particular nut successfully.’ As a closing note, I remember writing a This is ironic, and really begs the ques- paper many years ago on ‘My Theory of tion as to the validity of the adopted History’ for an Honours’ Theories of His- approach. In theory, it sounds great and tory seminar. If I had seen a book like promises much; in practice, apparently this one at that time, that paper would it is difficult to apply and the promise have been very different. I can make no begins to fade. Nevertheless, Knoll’s ap- greater commendation of Noll’s book. ABSTRACTS/INDEXING This journal is abstracted in Religious and Theological Abstracts, 121 South College Street (P.O. Box 215), Myerstown, PA 17067, USA, and in the Christian Periodical Index, P.O. Box 4, Cedarville, OH 45314, USA. Word Biblical Commentary It is also indexed in the ATLA Religion Database, published by the American Theological Library Association, 300 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60606 USA, E-mail: [email protected], Web: 1, 2, 3 John (Revised Edition) www.atla.com/ Stephen S. Smalley MICROFORM The letters of John, although simple in style, affirm such profound truths that This journal is available on Microform from UMI, 300 North Zeeb Road, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, interpreters throughout history have laboured to explain them. In this extensively MI 48106-1346, USA. Phone: (313)761-4700 revised edition of his commentary on the Johannine epistles Smalley updates his Subscriptions 2013 work by interacting with recent scholarship on the letters over the last twenty years. This revision is seamlessly woven into the commentary. *Sterling rates do not apply to USA and Canada subscriptions. Please see below for further information. Stephen S. 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