Leaning Both Ways at Once: Methodist Evangelistic Mission At
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Leaning Both Ways at Once: Methodist Evangelistic Mission at the Intersection of Church and World by Jeffrey A. Conklin-Miller Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Dr. L. Gregory Jones, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Dr. Laceye Warner, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Dr. Kenneth Carder ___________________________ Dr. Stanley Hauerwas ___________________________ Dr. Randy Maddox Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology in the Divinity School of Duke University 2012 ABSTRACT Leaning Both Ways at Once: Methodist Evangelistic Mission at the Intersection of Church and World by Jeffrey A. Conklin-Miller Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Dr. L. Gregory Jones, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Dr. Laceye Warner, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Dr. Kenneth Carder ___________________________ Dr. Stanley Hauerwas ___________________________ Dr. Randy Maddox An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology in the Divinity School of Duke University 2012 Copyright by Jeffrey A. Conklin-Miller 2012 ABSTRACT This dissertation suggests that a Methodist theology of evangelistic mission requires placement within an account of ecclesiology and the theological distinction of Church and world. It argues for a vision of the Church not as the environment for or instrument of evangelistic mission, but rather as a visible, practicing, and witnessing “People” in, but not of the world. Such a People appear as Christians engage both the practices of intra-ecclesial formation and extra-ecclesial engagement with the “other half of the reconciling event” in the world, at the same time, leaning both ways at once. In this equipoise the Church pursues evangelistic mission along a path between ecclesial accommodation for the sake of cultural relevance in the world (understatement) on the one hand, and ecclesial self-absorption that locates witness in an aesthetic display of holiness to the world (overstatement) on the other. Constructively, I argue that the pursuit of this evangelistic mission along this paradoxical path is best envisioned as a practice of intercession. Intercession names the stance of the People of the Church between formation and mission, between tradition and innovation, between God and the world, leaning both ways at once. Throughout I argue that these concerns are not foreign to but stem from Methodist traditions of theology and practice and address a need in the contemporary United Methodist Church for deeper ecclesiological reflection and clarity regarding the shape of faithful evangelistic mission. The argument begins in Chapter 1 with a review of several contemporary voices in Methodist theology of evangelism, considering the presence (or lack thereof) of the theological relationship of the Church and the world and identifying those who iv “understate” and those who “overstate” that relationship. In Chapter 2, I ask, “What is the agency of the world?” as a means to engage the lack of theological reflection on the formative influence of the principalities and powers in contemporary (understated) theologies of evangelism. Given the agency of the powers mediated through the example of the modern market-state, I argue for the crucial role of intra-ecclesial formation within contemporary Methodist theology of evangelistic mission. Anticipating the challenge that such a turn to formation tends to favor an overstated differentiation of Church and world, I turn in Chapter 3 to an engagement with John Howard Yoder and the Methodist tradition in order to answer the question: “What is the agency of the Church?” Resisting a reading of Yoder that locates the Church’s agency for evangelistic mission in an (overstated) form of aesthetic witness offered to a watching world, I offer a reading of Yoder that locates ecclesial identity in a particular Peoplehood sent to the world to discern and name the alliances between Church and world that reveal the truth of God’s reconciliation with the world through Christ. In the final two chapters, I seek to develop an account of Methodist ecclesial identity that “leans both ways” between being a “People called Methodist” formed by the practices of Wesley’s General Rules (Chapter 4) and, at the same time, a People shaped via the evangelistic mission of intercession in the world, an image borrowed from the theological vision of Rowan Williams (Chapter 5). Taken together, these chapters argue for a location of evangelistic mission in the Church as a Peoplehood, a politics constantly in formation, engaging the “other half of the reconciling event” and extending “unrestricted communion” as it serves an v intercessory role, standing between God and the world. I conclude with reflection on the impact of such theological vision on the ecclesiology and missiology of the contemporary United Methodist Church in the United States, suggesting the expression of evangelistic mission in “intercessory ecclesial” terms as a guide to the development of new ecclesial communities, institutional expressions of Methodist connectional structuring, and extra- ecclesial partnerships for the sake of service and witness in the world. vi DEDICATION To Shannon, Emma, and Ethan vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract iv Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Chapter 1 14 1.1 Introduction 14 1.2 Why Focus on the Distinction of Church and World? 17 1.3 Why is Concern for Church-World Crucial for Methodists? 25 1.4 Church and World within Contemporary Methodist Theology of Evangelism 31 1.4.1. Setting the Scene: Albert Outler 31 1.4.2. The (Likely) Understatement of the Church-World Differentiation: George Hunter 37 1.4.3. The (Potential) Overstatement of the Church-World Differentiation: Bryan Stone 45 1.4.4. Living Within Over-and Understated Accounts: Arias, Abraham, Jones 52 1.4.4.1 Mortimer Arias 54 1.4.4.2 William Abraham 59 1.4.4.3 Scott Jones 68 1.5 Conclusion 75 Chapter 2 76 2.1 Introduction 76 2.2 Wesleyan/Methodist Reflections on the World 81 2.3 The Principalities and the Powers 96 2.4 The World’s Agency in Action: Contemporary Formation by the Principalities and Powers 101 2.5 David Yeago and Vincent Miller: The Powers of Modernity and Market 103 2.6 The Necessity of Formation for the Engagement with the World 111 2.7 The Impact of the World and the Call for Formation in a Methodist Theology of Evangelistic Mission 126 2.8 Addressing Evangelistic Mission that Understates the Church-World Difference 127 2.8.1 Revisiting Hunter 127 2.8.2 Priscilla Pope-Levison 130 2.9 Conclusion: The Necessity of Formation for Evangelism 137 Chapter 3 141 3.1 Introduction 141 3.2 Are There Risks in Connecting Formation and Evangelistic Mission? 144 viii 3.3 The Wesleyan Relationship Between Ecclesiology, Soteriology and Missiology 153 3.3.1. Church, Salvation, and Mission 157 3.4 The Agency of the Church in Evangelistic Mission 168 3.5 Articulating the Agency of the Church: John Howard Yoder as a Theologian of Evangelistic Mission 170 3.6 The Christian Witness to the State: Church-World and the Middle Axiom 172 3.7 Church Engaging the World: Discernment 188 3.8 Church Engaging the World: Proclamation as “Linguistic Crafting” 192 3.9 Evaluation and Conclusion 198 Chapter 4 202 4.1 Introduction 202 4.2 Methodist Ecclesial Identity: Calling a People 205 4.3 Identifying the Dialectical Relationship of Soteriology and Ecclesiology: James Logan and Methodism’s “Evangelical Imperative” 207 4.4 Clarifying the Need for an Account of “Peoplehood” for Evangelistic Mission 209 4.5 Peoplehood and the Methodist Tradition 211 4.6 John Howard Yoder’s Ecclesiological-Renewal Typology 213 4.7 Wesley as Proponent of Spiritualist and Theocratic Renewal 216 4.8 Yoder’s Problematizing of Spiritualist and Theocratic Renewal 221 4.9 Wesley, the General Rules, and the Development of Methodist Peoplehood 223 4.9.1 Visibility of the Embodied Community 224 4.9.2 Practices that Shape the Inner Life 225 4.9.3 Witness Offered by the Community 228 4.10 Implications for Contemporary (United Methodist) Ecclesiology and Evangelistic Mission 232 4.11 Conclusion 240 Chapter 5 243 5.1 Introduction 243 5.2 Difficulties in Seeking Ecclesiology that Leans Both Ways at Once 244 5.3 Complicating Peoplehood, Church and World: Rowan Williams 251 5.3.1 The Inescapability of the World: Always “In the Middle of Things” 254 5.3.2 Troubling Church, World, and the Space Between 257 5.3.3 Church in the Breathing Spaces: Engaging the Other in Reconciliation and Forgiveness 263 5.4 Rowan Williams and John Howard Yoder: Leaning Both Ways at Once 268 5.5 Engagement Between Church and World: Evangelism as Intercession 272 5.6 Implications for a Methodist Ecclesiology and Evangelistic Mission 283 5.7 Connectionalism and Ecclesiology 286 Conclusion 296 6.1. Leaning Both Ways Inside Methodist Ecclesiology 297 ix 6.2. Methodist Evangelistic Mission: Smaller Than Congregation 299 6.3.Methodist Evangelistic Mission: Larger Than Congregation 300 6.4.Expanding the Conversation 301 Bibliography 306 Biography 319 x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am pleased for this space to offer some acknowledgement of those who have had a share in the development of this project. I begin by offering gratitude to my co- advisors, Greg Jones and Laceye Warner, for their guidance, patience, and the ways they remind me that I am part of the People called Methodist. Both show me that the work I do in this project and in the institution is for the Church. I offer thanks as well to the members of my dissertation committee, Stanley Hauerwas, Bishop Kenneth Carder, and especially Randy Maddox who has been a guide and a resource in many important ways. I have been blessed to be a student among such faithful teachers. The gift of time that allowed me to finish this project was offered by my colleagues at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, and for that I am thankful, particularly to Dave Odom and Nancy James.