VOL XXXVI
1981
No. 3
EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR Melvin E. Dieter
MANAGING EDITOR Alice
George Rogers
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Sharon
Boyd Hayes
BOOK EDITOR Donald E.
Demaray
EX-OFFICIO President Frank Bateman Stanger
FACULTY REPRESENTATIVES Michael P. Harold W. Donald E.
Boddy, Donald C. Boyd, Burgess, Allan Coppedge, Demaray, David L. Thompson,
Harold B. Kuhn
STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES Lewis H. Archer Steven L. Todd
THE ASBURY SEMINARIAN (USPS 546-440) VOLUME XXXVI
JULY 1981
NUMBER 3
The in the
Wesleyan Message Life and Thought of Today
Asbury Seminarian is published quarterly by Asbury Theological Seminary at 204 North Lexington, Avenue, Wilmore, Kentucky. Second Class postage paid at Wilmore, Kentucky 40390. Copyright 1967, by Asbury Theological Seminary. Subscription price $3.00 per annum. Single copies $1.00. The
IN THIS ISSUE ARTICLES Holiness and Social Justice
by
Frank Bateman
John
Wesley
by Samuel
J.
3
Stanger
and the
Press-Gangs
24
Rogal
Wesley and the Plurality of Worlds by Ivan Zabilka
34
BOOK REVIEWS
39
BOOK BRIEFS
48
John
of this publication is to serve as an organ of Asbury Theological Seminary for the dissemination of material of interest and value primarily to its immediate constituency of alumni, stu dents and friends, but also to a broader readership of churchmen, The purpose
theologians, students and other interested persons. Material published in this journal appears here because of its in trinsic value in the on-going discussion of theological issues. While this publication does not pretend to compete with those theological journals specializing in articles of technical scholarship, it affirms a commitment to rigorous standards of academic integrity and prophetic forthrightness.
Holiness and Social Justice Frank Bateman
by
"Holiness" and "Social Justice"
Stanger
I like the sound of these words
ďż˝
I have been to many conferences when I heard only one of the terms, to the total exclusion of the other. I remember a day when
together.
certain Holiness groups were so preoccupied with an emphasis upon the personal aspects of religion that one was considered in
theological error, perhaps even back-slidden, if concern were expressed about society. On the other hand, I have participated in meetings when the thinking and discussions were so dominated by social issues that personal holiness seemed to be the forgotten word. A Definition of Terms What do
by "holiness" and "social justice"? I am using "holiness" in both an experiential and ethical sense. Recall the words of John Wesley as he described the personal experience of holiness: we mean
This it is
to be a
perfect
man
.
.
.
even
to have a heart so all-
as continually to offer up flaming with the love of God every thought, word, and work, as a spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God through Christ. ...
It is to be
inwardly
and
outwardly devoted to God. It is heart, mind, soul, and strength. This
loving God with all the implies that no wrong temper, none contrary to love remains in the soul; and that all the thoughts, words, and actions are governed by pure love. It is pure love
But
Wesley
was
Dr. Frank Bateman
Work and
reigning
alone in the heart and life.
truly biblical
Stanger
Preaching
at
as
he went
on
to
say that
an
is President and Professor of Pastoral
Asbury Theological seminary,
where he
has served since 1962. He holds the S.T.M. and S.T.D. degrees from Temple University, as well as several honorary degrees. 3
The
Asbury Seminarian
experience of holiness always manifested itself in the holy life. The holy life is the life filled with Jesus Christ. It is the manifestation of "the fruit of the Spirit" in one's life. The holy life is the Christian's daily life lived under the influence of the active ministry of the Holy Spirit. The holy life reaches out in loving relationships to all others. What is "social justice '7 The root idea of "justice" is "rightful," "lawful," "impartial." "Social justice" implies the treating of persons with due appreciation for both their worth and needs. It is the use of authority and power to uphold what is the right. Social justice is the creation of social conditions which provide every person with the opportunity of fulfilling the potential of one's personhood and to share in the necessary "good things" of God's creation. To accomplish this, social justice seeks to eliminate social injustice, all those social evils that threaten the welfare and destiny of God's creatures. In the
"Holiness and Social Justice," I make four basic affirmations. Three of these will be dealt
development
propose to with in some summons
of the
topic,
detail, but the final affirmation is intended only
and
a
guidepost The
to
future
Evangelical
thinking
and
as a
acting.
Tradition
evangelical interpretation of the Christian faith, to which the holiness tradition is historically committed, has both understood and insisted upon the dynamic relationship between the personal and social aspects of the gospel. a personal Let it be quickly said that there are not two Gospels the Gospel of Gospel and a social Gospel. There is only one Gospel which has both personal and social God in Jesus Christ Here is the first affirmation: The
ďż˝
ďż˝
ďż˝
manifestations. social
has characterized the
evangelical tradition. We begin our documentation with the Holy Scriptures which are truly the divinely-inspired source of evangelical theology. We think at once of the Old Testament prophets, such as Jeremiah, Historically,
concern
Ezekiel, Amos, and Micah. The fundamental conviction of the
prophets which distinguished them from the ordinary religious life of their day, was the conviction that God demands righteousness and justice. Their concern was with the social and political life of their nation. Their sympathy was wholly and passionately with the poor and oppressed. They opposed the complacent optimism of people who 4
were
self-satisfied and unconcerned.
Holiness and Social Justice We
move
into the New Testament. Jesus Christ has been called the
"Consummator." He
came
to
fulfill the Law and the
Prophets.
He
embodied the concerns ďż˝
prophetic stream of faith and hope. The insistent of social justice appear at the very beginning of His ministry
in the declaration of His purpose in His
synagogue. Hear again the text of that The me
Spirit of the Lord is to preach the gospel
sermon
in His home-town
sermon:
upon me, because He has anointed to the poor; He has sent me to heal
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised,
to
preach
the
acceptable
year of the Lord
(Luke
4:18). 1 think often of what E.
Jesus: suppose Jesus
was
broken-hearted, captives,
Stanley Jones said actually referring to
about these words of those who
were
poor,
blind and bruised.
champion of the economically depressed. He exalted love for neighbor. He allowed no bias of race or color. He reached out to foreigners. He lifted human life to a new high level. He treated women differently than the custom of the times. He had a deep sympathy for and an unusual understanding of children. He sought freedom for those who were in any kind of bondage. Jesus evaluated a person's spiritual life in terms not of religious Jesus
was a
exercises, but of ethical and social derivatives. He denounced
religious leaders who "devoured widows' houses." In His parable of the last judgment He emphasized social ministries. Jesus did all of this as the champion of a new kingdom, the Kingdom of God, whose values were to supplant the standards and structures of the present world. The Kingdom of God is both personal and social. Christ's teaching the Kingdom was an endeavor to both persuade persons to enter God's Kingdom of forgiveness and love and to establish a worldwide, ideal human society in which justice and good will shall be realized. But the Kingdom of God always begins within a person; hence all social manifestations have rootage in personal experience. Constantly through His teachings and activities Jesus was trying understand that one's social conscience and
to
make
us
to
be
wide
as
as
the love of God. He
was a
concern are
living example
of social 5
The
Asbury
Seminarian
in its varied aspects. On the one hand, He took a towel and washed His disciples' feet. Here was revealed His "mercy ministry."
ministry
whip and drove the money changers out of the His "authority ministry" which, in this case, was Temple. an attack upon a practice that was robbing worshippers of their dignity and worship of its reverence. In both His use of the towel and the whip Jesus revealed that Christians can be "change agents." People and institutions can be changed. There are Christian means to Christian ends. The New Testament Church was quick to accept its social responsibihties. The Early Church continued what Jesus began. They sought to incorporate into the life and activity of the church "the mind of Christ" toward both persons and society. Early in the life of the Church officers were selected to supervise But He also took Here
a
was
ministries to the poor. The leaders of the Church exhorted respect for government and law and in turn admonished political leaders to be
dealings with citizens. A study of the social influences of the proclamation of the Gospel in the early Church becomes an amazing revelation of both moral impetus and spiritual power in the direction of the amelioration of evil conditions and the effecting of
just
in their
needed reforms. A hurried
social
glimpse
of the Christian centuries reveals
an
authentic
whenever the Church has been
spiritually vital. W.E. Sangster has reminded us that the saints have always been concerned persons. He writes: "Normally though by no means always they in saints are activists rather than (the Protestantism) contemplatives. are often in their Though they world-forsaking thought, they are not world-forsaking in fact." {The Pure In Heart) William Temple's significant volume, Christianity and Social concern
ďż˝
Order, is based
on
the thesis that there is
Christian social
teaching.
ďż˝
an
authentic tradition of
David H.G. Head writes: "The marks of holiness the bread and the wine the marks of secular
ďż˝
the
are
the marks of
symbols of redemption. They
are
also
things."
Calvin, a leader in the Protestant Reformation, was tremendously concerned about corporate righteousness. When he went to Geneva he found it to be one of the most depraved cities in Europe. He determined through the preaching and application of the Gospel to make it one of the most wholesome and best-governed cities in Europe. And he succeeded. John
6
Holmess and Social Justice
EvangeHcal Revival of the 18th and 19th centuries placed evangelicals in the forefront of humanitarian concerns. John Wesley is significantly representative of this. "The Wesleyan Way' was to The
transform both individuals and social conditions. For
us to
be dis
cussing "Holiness and Social Justice" is actually a fresh and creative underscoring of our Wesleyan heritage. Throughout his life and ministry John Wesley made a serious effort to relate the teachings of the Bible to social issues. The Holy Club at Oxford University, of which he was a leader, had two distinct goals: (1) disciplined spiritual growth; and (2) personal involvement in social needs. So, New Testament,
on
the
engaged
one
in
hand the members studied the Greek
private
devotions and
also visited the
the
practiced regular prisoners, the poor, and
sick, they children. neglected It is interesting to note that later these became the same two goals of the class meeting which Wesley established. Wesley contended that there was no personal holiness without
fasting.
But
instructed
social holiness. He insisted that every Christian must be involved socially to survive spiritually. The Christian ground of all of this was threefold: (1) the lordship of the Trinity; (2) the servanthood of
Christians, and (3) the supremacy of love.
Wesley reminded his
followers that the Ten Commandments
were
living and that being a Methodist Christian meant to love one's neighbor as well as God. Wesley said that the root of social blessings was the right use of evils was the wrong use money, and conversely that the root of social of money. He worked against the peril of riches and offered a life of Christian stewardship as the only workable antidote. Truly John Wesley was a knight with a burning heart who rode through English history and by the grace of God changed the moral and spiritual ethos of the British Empire. He won souls to Christ by the thousands, and the power of his influence joined that of others to vanquish human slavery, inspire child labor laws, reform the prison
ethical fundamentals in Christian
and build schools, system, establish labor unions and credit unions,
orphanages, and homes for widows. Fifty years after John Wesley's death, his evangelistic fervor had swept two continents and his mighty influence was still felt for good in the British parliament. As my esteemed friend, Gilbert James has written: "Why, Wesley's spiritual descendants, confront the citadels of evil? Why as
have have
we we
been
so
slow
to
left the battle to 7
The Ashurv Seminarian the humanist and to the
Carl F.H.
evangelicals then the
v\
ungodly?"
Henry raises
the
shun the realm of
same
issue with all
politics,
evangelicals:
"If
economics and social order,
hole conduct of world affairs will be forfeited to others b\
the very persons who the world."
are
called to be the salt of the earth and
light
of
Reflecting upon the centuries, evangelicalism rightly perceived has always been concerned about social values, social practice, and social institutions. Major evangelical movements of the past were able to discern the most pressing needs of their day, social as well as spiritual, and to make impressive impacts in both spheres. In v iew of this why did intense social concern suddenly become '^ lacking among e\ angelicals during the first half of our 20th centur\ 1 think that Paul Rees has given us as concise and clear an answer as
is needed. He writes: What
came to
be known, in
an
unfortunate
phrase,
as
the
Gospel' was not born in the womb of modernism, as many of today's evangelicals imagine, but sprang from the enlivened spirit and enlightened conscience of e\ angelicals However, it was the polarizing of the American Christian community around 'modernism' and 'fundamentalism' that in the muting of the resulted largely unwittingly e\ angelical social conscience. (Article in The Herald) 'Social
.
.
.
ďż˝
dramatic resurgence of interest in social concern on the part of evangelicals. Included in the pronouncement of the Ke\ Bridge III Consultation ( 1968) were these Recent decades have witnessed
decisive statements: "We ha\
e
a
not made clear the
full
implications
the love of God for all
of
persons;" "we have been insensitive to the biblical concern for justice and mercy." In the same \ ear ( 1968) the National Association of Evangelicals in their meeting in Philadelphia, adopted the following resolution: While
they
lives in the
are w
not
of the world. Christians live
out
orld and therefore it is in the world that
their
they
make their witness. For them to remain aloof from concrete decisions
8
affecting
Holmess and Social Justice social
they
developments in
our
do not believe God is
time would be
sovereign
suggest that in all the affairs of men. to
For them to withhold their love in any measure from those in need would be to suggest that they do not believe God is
love. On November
in
Chicago
23-24, 1973 approximately 50 evangelical leaders
grapple with the dimensions and demands of a theme that had been broadly set out as "Evangelicals and Social Concern." The group issued "A Declaration of EvangeHcal Social met
to
Concern" which included such declarations We affirm that God
people.
.
.
as
these:
total claim upon the lives of his
lays
.
We have not demonstrated the love of God to those
suffering
social abuses.
.
.
.
We
acknowledge that God requires justice. But we have not proclaimed or demonstrated his justice to an unjust American society. We must attack the materialism of
our
culture and the
maldistribution of the nation's wealth and services. We
acknowledge
our
Christian
responsibilities
of
citizenship.
One year later, in November 1974, an enlarged group of evangelical leaders from all parts of the country returned to Chicago add actions to their words of the
previous year. In order to implement the 1973 Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern, a host of specific action proposals were developed and accepted. The Lausanne Covenant, adopted by the International Congress on World Evangelization in 1974, makes nine assertions in Article 5 about evangelical social action: (1) concern for justice; (2) concern for reconciliation; (3) concern for the liberation of human beings; (4) respect for the dignity of persons; (5) determination not to exploit, but (6) to serve fellow human beings; (7) denunciation of evil and injustice; (8) efforts to exhibit, and (9) to spread the righteousness of Christ's Kingdom. to
9
The When the National Association of
Asbury
Evangelicals
Seminarian
met
in annual
convention in 1977, two of the three adopted resolutions concerned social issues; (1) the use of military force and (2) the violation of human
rights
in
Uganda.
The most recent worldwide
evangelical conference was the World Evangelism Consultation at Pattaya in Thailand in 1980. This conference wrestled with defining the relationship between evangelism and social justice. Even though the Gospel apart from social justice was affirmed as the basis of world evangelism, there was a sensitivity to the importance of social justice in its relation to Christian proclamation and behavior in today's world. It is significant to note that the social justice issue remains so important as an aftermath of the Pattaya Consultation, it has been decided that in 1982 there will be a special consultation on evangelism and social responsibility. A recent poll among evangelical leaders reveals that social concern has shown the most improvement among evangelicals since the previous poll taken in 1973. The contemporary insistence upon social evangelicals is deepening all the time. Of
concern on
the part of note is the
particular evangelicals that the Christian gospel not be limited to personal conversion, but that it incorporate also a vigorous demand for social justice that indicts oppressive politico-economic forces. relentless demand of Third World
The HoHness Tradition So far in
our
historical overview
we
have
spoken
for the
most
part
of
evangelical Christianity in general. However, an important chapter in the historical research in relation to Christian social concern is the part played by the Holiness Movement in it all. It is well known to most of
that
Timothy Smith, in his monumental volume. Revivalism and Social Reform, concludes that the significant social reforms of the 19th century in America were the us
result of
evangelical revivalism. Certainly the Holiness emphasis in Methodism and the activities of the Holiness Movement after early its organization in 1867, played vital roles in such revivalism which had such far-reaching social effects.
Recently
I made
an
interesting discovery concerning Henry Clay
Morrison, long-time editor of The Pentecostal Herald, and the founder of the 10
theological seminary
I
serve.
In 1906 Dr. Morrison
Holiness and Social Justice
proposed selected, School Such
a
Pentecostal School
courses were
but the School
adopted,
be housed in
was to
a
of Evangelism.
Pentecostal
Teachers
was never
started. The
Building in Louisville, Ky.
building supply and convention facilities. publishing facilities, In his proposal. Dr. Morrison wrote: would
a
the need for school
We propose to make this Pentecostal
practical
Christian effort
.
.
.
were
Building a
when elections
facilities,
bee-hive of
come
which
involve great moral issues regarding saloons, desecration of Sabbath, and the barter in young girls, and the devil
the
marshals all his hosts, with God's help, we will go up against them in solid phalanx as one man, with prayers and songs and votes. What
interesting confirmation of the truth that true holiness is a springboard for social action! Donald Dayton has reminded us that the Holiness Movement differs from fundamentalism and evangelicalism in that it has always been more oriented to ethics and the spiritual life than to a defense of doctrinal orthodoxy. The Holiness tradition has tended to raise ethics
an
to the status
In its
that fundamentalists have accorded doctrine.
spiritual genius,
committed
the Holiness Movement has been
ethically
the incalculable worth of the
individual; (2) the sanctity of marriage as a divine institution; (3) the right of equal opportunity; (4) freedom of religion; (5) priority of moral values over the material; and (6) social obligation and responsibility of every able to
(I)
person.
the years the "Holiness Churches" have been concerned about the abolition of slavery, the role of women and women's
Through
the poor and oppressed, peace in the world, urban ministries, and community based on spiritual
suffrage, ministry labor
reforms,
to
unity in Christ. Perhaps the Salvation Army has been the most consistent and dramatic corporate spiritual manifestation of the Gospel in both its personal and social aspects that the Wesleyan world has witnessed since the days of the Wesleyan Revival. The Army has not been content merely to sing gospel songs, clap hands and beat tambourines, and to parade with bands and banners. Salvationists have trod every known path of human need, sought out haunts of 1 1
The human
wretchedness, and hurried everywhere.
to
the side of
As Commissioner Arthur R. Pitcher has said
Salvation of
Army caring."
Such social
today
as
they
has combined
concern
have
and
ever
William H. Roberts,
a
theology
Seminarian
Asbury
so
hurting people
definitively: "The a theology
of cleansing and
activity are as alive
in the Salvation
been. In his letter of invitation
Program Chairman,
to me,
Army
Lt. Co.
wrote:
Can holiness
people ignore the reality of the situation, as far system of justice, the poverty stricken and lack of good education are concerned? Can we sit by while some have sub-standard housing unemployment unequal of our What is the application judicial system? challenge to us of "He went about doing good?" as
our
ďż˝
It is
highly significant
to note the
ďż˝
existence and
activity
present Christian Holiness Association Commission
on
of the Social
Action. The purpose of this commission is to keep the holiness movement aware of contemporary social problems and to stimulate effective
programming
and action in
Recent research confirms what
assisting we
with solutions.
have been
concluding
historically concerning evangelical Christians and social action. George Gallup, the well-known research pollster, has observed that evangelicals are twice as likely as non-evangelicals to be involved in social service Two
on a
sociologists,
person-to-person level. Thomas
Campbell and Yoshio Fukuyama, have co-authored the volume The Fragmented Layman. Even they admit their surprise in their discovery that "religious piety" or "devotionalism," instead of diminishing interest in social issues, actually increases concern for social issues. So they conclude that "people with a significantly pious attitude, by daily prayer and devotional activities, scored substantially higher than others in their willingness to accept minority representatives as neighbors and in their support for social justice."
Theological Affirmations Let
second
major affirmation in support of my thesis: 77?^ biblical theology which undergirds the holiness emphasis provides a sound polemic for the inevitable relationship between 12
me move now to a
Holiness and Social Justice holiness and social justice. 1 propose in merely bold strokes to delineate what I consider to be the various components of such a
theological polemic. 1. The Fact of Divine Creation. Persons, created in the image of God, are seen in their dignity, tragedy, and destiny. Such Divine creation establishes the rights of persons, but always on the basis of faith in God. Actually a person's worth is what one is worth to God. The fact of Divine creation affirms supreme worth to persons. Faith in God expresses itself in concern for the rights and needs of persons. Unconcern for others is self-will and this is the
essence
of
sin. William
Temple wrote: "Of the forms of self-will, complete indifference to other people in the world is the worst." To love God with all one's heart, all one's mind, all one's soul, all one's strength, is also to love one's neighbor as one's self. In a very real sense the integrity of one's relationship to God depends on one's relationship to others.
2. God's earth and
Gift of the Good all its beauty and
His Creatures. God gave the resources to His creatures. God gave
Earth
to
persons dominion over the earth. Mankind even after the Fall is responsible for subduing the earth. We are stewards of what the earth
contains. resources
Such
stewardship the good of all
for
to
God
requires
the
use
of earth's
of God's creatures.
Sovereignty Over All ofLife. God's sovereignty over all of life is expressed through the Lordship of Christ. Such lordship 3. God's
involves socio-cultural
obligations. Christian
declaration of God's intent in respect regard Carl F.H. Henry writes: Christian
evangelism
which erode the moral
a sense
paralysis
vices,
uncover
wears
in
an
to
Christian 4.
more
than
vacuums
idolatries and national
only
far
all the issues of life. In this
speak only to must also help
in the lives of men; it the intellectual mood of the day, deal with cultural
the emotional
shape
must do
to
mission is the
priorities,
confront the
of human worth and
problems
dignity,
cope with
that emboldens multitudes to shameless
all the subtle and
alluring
masks that
man
age which believed itself at the gates of
discover
a
desolation and
a
waste,
paradise {article in
Michigan Advocate)
The Natural Order and Justice. Such Christian thinkers
as
13
The Asbury Seminarian William
Temple, Reinhold
Niebuhr and Carl F.H.
Henry
are
persistent in their claim of the Natural Order's insistence upon justice. The demand for justice is inherent in the order of created things. The Christian Faith did not discover justice, but the Spiritual Order supports this prior claim of the Natural Order for justice. Christianity insists upon the practice of justice. How tragic that spokesmen for the Church have often talked a great deal too much about love and freedom and not nearly enough about law and justice. The New Testament enunciates the political responsibility of Christians. Government is ordained of God. Government and
jurisprudence
are
strategic
Government exists for the
favored groups. 5. Christ's Doctrine
teachings
of Jesus has
realms of vocational service to
good
of all
citizens,
not
simply
humanity. for certain
of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God in the both personal and social dimensions. James S.
Stewart makes this clear in these words:
Clearly there were two main lines along which all His thoughts of the Kingdom ran. On the one hand, Jesus thought of it as the rule of God in the heart. On the other hand. He thought of it as the rule of God in the world.
Kingdom is the rule of God in the heart, it follows, first, that the Kingdom of God is moral, not nationalistic; second, that the Kingdom of God is spiritual, not material; third, that the Kingdom of God is actual, not ideal. If the
Kingdom is the rule of God in the world, it follows, first, that the Kingdom of God is social, not individualistic; second, that the Kingdom is universal, not local; third, that the Kingdom of God is awaiting a final consummation and not yet fully complete. {The Life And Teaching of Jesus Christ) If the
Experience of Repentance. Both the call to repentance and its actuality have social dimensions. Repentance is a turning from sin to God, not only in the individual's subjective consciousness, but in the world. Without ethics there is no real repentance. Repentance ethics is more than generalizations it has to do with specific acts of 6. The
ďż˝
self-sacrifice in 14
concrete
situations. Salvation is man's
return to
God,
Holiness and Social Justice but it is at the
Repentance
same
time also man's return
is much
more
individual and God. It is the
than
a
to
private
his
neighbor.
affair between the
complete reorientation
of life in the
in response to the work of God in Jesus among persons Christ. When evangelism does not take repentance seriously, it is
world
ďż˝
ďż˝
because it does not take the world take the world
seriously,
seriously,
and when it does not
it does not take God
seriously.
The New Testament concept of personal spiritual experience is that which finds expression in social relationships. E. Stanley Jones says: "A religion that does not start with the individual, does not start. But a religion that stops with the individual, stops."
Repentance makes Christians citizens of two worlds. As citizens of two worlds, there must be both the preaching of the Gospel and the promotion of social justice. Even though we are not of the world, we are in the world. As long as we are in the world our concern is with the people of the world. 7. The Purpose of the Church. The Church is the gift of Christ to the world. There
are
but three alternatives for the Church in relation
(1) try to flee from it; (2) tolerate it and conform to it; (3) condemn it and seek to change it. Because the Chruch is the Christ-Spirit incarnate, it must pursue the third alternative: condemn the world and seek to change it. As the to the
world:
incarnation of the
organized
Christ-Spirit
on
earth, the Church is
to be the
conscience of Christendom. It should be swiftest
to
awaken to every undeserved suffering, bravest to speak against every wrong, strongest to rally the moral forces of the community against
everything
that threatens the better life among persons.
Rene Padilla writes:
worldly religious club that organizes forays into the world in order to gain followers through persuasive techniques. It is the sign of the Kingdom of God; it lives and proclaims the Gospel here and now, among men, and waits for the consummation of God's plan to place all things under the rule of Christ. It has been freed from the world, but it is in the world; it has been sent by Christ into the world just as Christ was sent by the Father (Jn. 17:1 1-18). In other words, it has been given a mission oriented toward the building of a new humanity in which The church is
God's
plan
for
not
man
another
is
accomplished,
a
mission that
can
be 15
The
performed only through cannot and
should
triumphalism, Lausanne
not
sacrifice.
Its
be to achieve the
Asbury Seminarian
highest
success
ambition
that leads to
but rather faithfulness to its Lord,
{address at
Congress, 1974)
Thus, I have attempted
delineate
theology of theology must be more than theory; it must become theology-in-action. In a world in which the language of faith has lost meaning for lack of translation into life, the acting out of God's kind of sharing announces as no words can, the Good News of Christ to humankind. Is it consistent for the Christian community to cry over the crucifixion of Christ and fail to be moved by the human conditions which make Christ cry? There is a practical concern in all of these theological insights. Nothing seems to have more effect upon human minds and lives than social circumstances. William Temple reminds us: to
a
sound bibhcal
social involvement. But such
ďż˝
More potent than school or even than home, as a moral influence, is the whole structure of society, and especially its
economic structure. This fixes for all their
place in the which they gain and keep
general scheme; and the way in that place of necessity determines
a
great deal of their
profoundly influences their {Daily Readings from William Temple) conduct and
Faith in God
likewise,
not
only
creates a
certain kind of climate, but,
the maintenance of such faith is
it creates. The
only
way to
confront
outlook upon life.
dependent upon the climate
current
naturalistic views of
persons and the world is with the equally radical alternative of the Biblical revelation of the will of God.
Holiness Offers Relevant In the
Insights
of these historical and
and
Approaches
theological backgrounds, let us now converge upon the heart of our topic and seek to discover the distinctive relationship of holiness to social justice. Here, then, is my third major affirmation: 77?^ theological, experiential, and ethical emphases of the holiness tradition support and contribute to the achievement of social justice. When this is understood, holiness is readily viewed as an answer to injustice. Perhaps there are some myths to be dispelled at the outset. We 16
light
Holiness and Social Justice
already tried to deal with one of these myths, that there are two gospels, diametrically opposed to one another, a personal gospel and a social gospel. The teachings of Jesus indicate clearly that there is but one Gospel which has both personal and social manifestations. A second myth seems to imply that holiness has fulfilled its social obligation when it has influenced a person's life-style. For have
illustration, a sanctified person may be content to say that since "1 don't smoke," or "drink" or "go to nightclubs," holiness has had its wholesome effect upon me socially. However, social involvement means far more than a personal life-style; it relates to evil and unjust
social structures which
help to determine personal life styles. There is a third myth: "God never intended Christians to get involved in worldly affairs." To believe this is to bypass the implications of the fundamental doctrines of Divine creation and sovereignty. God is sovereign of all things. He is seeking to reconcile the world unto
Himself. If Christians
worldly affairs, why and "the salt of the
did Jesus
of
speak earth?" Why are we
not to
are
us as
be involved in
"the
told to
light of the world," let our lights shine? to
make friends with mammon? How often
we
have heard the fourth
myth: Get a person right with or she will change society; get enough converts
God and
inevitably he and society will be redeemed. How wonderful if this were true, but it just doesn't automatically happen this way. Society is made up of individuals, but it is also made up of inherited
and attitudes which have become
part of the social structure and which exist apart from the will of the individual. Even the change of the individual leaves entirely intact this inherited customs
social structure. For illustration,
did of
to
change individual
get rid of the slave system. It took
not
legislation
to oust
a
a
slave
owners
wide-scale frontal attack
slavery.
We must also disabuse
our
minds of
thinking
that
evangelism
and
synonymous. It is easy for some to think that since holiness churches are evangelistic, that's the social action that God
social action
are
intends for the church.
Evangelism and social Evangelism is persuading Lord.
It creates
Christ's
Body,
new
action
distinct
are
persons to accept Christ
churches,
which in turn
new
plant
centers
rectifying
of life,
as
activities.
Savior and
new
parts of
other churches.
On the other hand, social action is the in
spiritual
activity of existing churches
the social order. 17
The
Asbury Seminarian
Finally, there are those who beUeve that since the task of changing society is so complex and staggering we can never hope to accomplish it, why then, begin it, when nothing but disappointment and frustration lie ahead? If
cease
took this
attitude, we would stop preaching and teaching, evangelizing, and never again be concerned about sending
we
missionaries. The task of world and
whelming frustrating as it in faithfulness to our doing same
is
evangelization
that of social
action,
just
but
we
as
over
keep
on
Lord's commission. We must have the
dedication and faithfulness in relation
to
taking the Gospel
into
all the world of social relations and structures.
Three Critical Distinctions So much for
myths.
As
critical distinctions. Social
keep in mind three is inherent in regeneration. A
proceed,
we
concern
let
us
born-again Christian cares about the hurts and needs of others. Christians are people who care. Social ministry is doing something about alleviating the sufferings and needs of others. Social ministry has been spoken of as evangelical humanitarianism. Social action is doing something about the structures of society which are the source of injustice and oppression and are the cause of the hurts and needs of people. Certainly each of these is a legitimate spiritual activity. Holiness has a contemporary relevance to social justice. Holiness confronts the moral crises of
teachings,
times with its ethical ideals, ethical ethical influence, and ethical models. our
The Ideal of Holiness Holiness is related to social
Holiness seeks the mind of God wholeness for all of life
ďż˝
societal. God is
relational, seek justice.
Because of its
a
justice
as
because of its
core
ideal.
revealed in Jesus Christ. God wills
mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, God of justice.
ideal, holiness
Holy
persons therefore
certain kind of person who seeks to be God-like and Christ-like. Such persons are sensitive, core
compassionate, caring, actively
creates a
benevolent.
The Ethic of Holiness Holiness is Ukewise related to social justice because of its inherent 18
Holmess and Social Justice
Christian
sanctity is a summons to Christian ethics. Holiness, if not ethically practical, is really not holiness at all. The ethical content of sanctity revolves around six strategic foci: (1) perfect love for God and others; (2) seeking in the scriptures for the mind of Christ as it relates to the issues of life; (3) satisfying ethical motivation being and acting as holy persons for the sake of God, others, and one's highest self; (4) respect for the funded experience of the saints of the ages concerning both personal and social issues; (5) resolving the inevitable tension between justice and
ethic. The call
to
ďż˝
love; (6)
awareness
must be
lived and
of the contemporary situation in which holiness
applied. The Power of Holiness
Moreover, holiness is related
to
social justice because of its infused
power. The experience of holiness makes possible a distinctive kind of spiritual power within one's life. It is at once the power of illumination. There is not merely as awareness of what is wrong, but a
wrong, and spiritually of the evil and possible
sensitivity to
basic
causes
inspired insights avenues
as
to
both the
of solution.
The infused power is, moreover, that of personal transformation. Transformed persons are the necessary initiating and implementing
agents in any hoped-for social transformation. No social theory, however good in itself, can be effective fully apart from good persons
working
it.
formula for
Sociology has no good systems. But
creating good
persons to make sinners into
Holy Spirit can good persons, who in turn become good citizens who are concerned about good social systems. Such good citizens are motivated by love work their
to God and others in
their
the
concern
for social
justice
and in their
concerted attack upon evil social structures. Effective social action is grounded always in personal trans formation. There must be a "journey inward" before there can be a
"journey
outward."
James S. Stewart writes: All the social reform in the world, taken
bring
in the
There is
inner
a
Kingdom.
.
.
by itself, will
never
.
and essential work of God's grace in the for which no amount of amehoration of his
primary
man
outward circumstances
can
possibly
act as a
substitute.
.
.
.
19
The You will
never
make
a
Asbury
Seminarian
of regenerate conditions build the City of God out of
Utopia
out
but unregenerate hearts, nor men who have never been converted and redeemed.
.
.
.
Get the
spiritual side of things right and you will assuredly helping to put the material side right. {The Life And Teaching of Jesus Christ)
be
Bruce same
Kendrick, writing of life in crowded East Harlem makes the
point:
Words alone
Social action
were
not
enough;
but neither
were
deeds.
only first aid; it did not reach down to the roots of life. The point of the gospel was not just to patch up society's wounds; it was to grapple with the wills of the men who inflicted those wounds. The gospel had to get beneath the skin and there renew the springs of life where society begins, (from article in United Chruch Observer) was
The process of authentic social change is clear. It begins with new creatures who have become new beings and consequently experience new
for
thinking and feeling and willing.
a new
creation in which all of
also become
But the
life,
both
new
creatures reach out
personal
and
social, has
new.
The power which holiness infuses is also courageous and persistent. A saint gets up immediately when he stumbles and keeps
going. The holy community never gives up the struggle until the strongholds are thrown down. Spiritual forces are continually impelled by an apostolic optimism. There is the persistent belief that under the leadership of King Jesus and in the power of the Spirit, it can be done, the world can be turned upside down for Christ. The
Community Concept
Furthermore, holiness is relevant idiom of
to
in Holiness
social
justice
because of its
community. In a real sense, those whom the Spirit fills become the Body of Christ, a holy people, created for good works. Whenever the Body of Christ is pictured in the Scriptures in its Divinely-intended nature, it is seen as a community bound together in mutual respect and loving relationships; a community in which each of the many members is doing what God intended; a community 20
Holiness and Social Justice in which all
are
members
In contemporary
tension between
one
of another.
there is the ever-present possibility of individuals, between the individual and the group,
society
and between groups. One of the functions of community is to resolve such tensions. Such tensions can be resolved only by the insistence upon love and justice. Is not the holiness
emphasis
perfect love able to make a this point? If humility is demanded for upon
significant contribution at majorities to deal with minorities, does not holiness insure it? So, the experiential insights and ethical influence of holiness are added to the historical understanding and theological undergirding of the relevance of holiness to social justice. The ideal, the ethics, the these are spiritual energies, the creation of community in the achievement of all that is involved injustice and indispensable the good life. Purposefully, this message has been general in its approach to the relationship between holiness and social justice. We have sought to discover dynamics historical, theological, experiential, ethical �
�
�
which make holiness and social involvement relevant Since
we
believe
stage in the
we
have discovered such
treatment
of the
topic
dynamics,
to each other.
the next
could be to focus
logical specific
on
contemporary social issues and seek the relevance of holiness to the solution of each. However, anyone who has any understanding at all of the that to
of contemporary problems knows deal with each such social issue adequately would require an
multiplicity
and
intricacy
almost "ad infinitum" freedom of time.
Holiness
this is
not our
continuing process in our concerned dedicated acting in the days and years ahead.
luxury. Rather, it reflection and
Certainly
must be
People
a
Must Be Involved In
But I do want to make
a
fourth
Seeking
Solutions
major affirmation
as a
sort of
final analysis, to discover Christian solutions to contemporary social problems will require the concerted thinking, praying and activity of spiritually concerned people everywhere. Actually this will demand a spiritual unity among evangelicals in general and holiness people in particular heretofore unrealized. Think of the enormity of the social issues that confront us today: Such issues as legal In the area of Social and Economic Justice summary: In the
�
discrimination, institutional sexism and racism, sexual harrassment, ethnic minorities, ageism, retirement, children's rights, financial 21
The Asbury Seminarian
exploitation,
consumer
advocacy, collective bargaining, distribution
of wealth. Such issues as sexism, Secuality and Life Styles ERA, homosexuality, marriage and family, cohabitation, divorce, abortion, communes, the single life style. In the
area
of
In the
area
of Environmental Justice and Survival
�
�
Such issues
impact of technology, agricultural and rural life, hunger, responsible consumption, urbanization, world resources, ecology, pollution, energy, poverty. Such issues as health and disease, In the area of Human Welfare mental health, drugs and alcohol, pornography, health care delivery, genetic engineering, cloning, biogenetics, recreation, euthanasia, handicapping conditions, population control, housing. Such issues as basic In the area of Political and Human Rights
as
�
�
education, law and order, use and abuse of power, criminal justice, rights of religious minorities, capital punishment, gambling, church-state relations, civil liberties, voting, extremism, repression, crime, delinquency, mass media and communications, human freedom,
dishonest In the war,
computerization.
area
UN
of Peace and World Order
are
our
Such issues
as
nuclear
affairs, disarmament, conscription, conscientious
objectors, U.S. foreign community. In
�
and
search for solutions
military policy, oppression,
to
social
problems,
certain
world
imperatives
indispensable:
(1) There must be a re-birth of concern about human beings. (2) There must be a rediscovery of basic Biblical principles
underlying our faith. (3) There must be the conviction that the church is capable of being a "change agent" and of participating significantly in "social engineering." Surveys reveal that the intensely religious can be extensively influential, for illustration, research shows that the Moral Majority in 1980 was really a minority movement. But this minority comprised the talkers and the doers, and they extended their influence far beyond that which their numerical strength alone would suggest. (4) There must be the
recognition that in the attack upon social evils we are actually warring against "principalities and powers," "spiritual wickedness in high places;" and so we must be supported by spiritual powers greater than our mere human efforts. 22
Holiness and Social Justice
eschatological issue must always be kept in full view. When we have given our most and done our best, all that needs to be done in the rectifying of society will not be fully achieved. Ultimately it will take God Himself to perfect the Kingdom. Holiness, a key to social justice, the answer to injustice? Theologically, it has the right to be. Historically, it has been. Experientially and ethically, it is equipped to be. But will it be in our day? It all depends upon us. (5)
The
Grant
us
Grant
us
Grant
us
the will to fashion
feel. the strength to labour as we know, the purpose, ribbed and edged with steel. as we
To strike the blow.
Knowledge But
we
ask not
Lord, the will
Give
us
The
to
�
�
Thou has lent; bitter need.
knowledge
there lies
build above the
our
deep
intent
deed, the deed.
(John Drinkwater) Let
us
pray
Thy Church, which is set today perplexities of a changing order and face to face with demanding personal and social responsibilities. Baptize her afresh in the life-giving spirit of Jesus! Bestow upon her a greater respon siveness to duty, a swifter compassion with suffering, and a deepening loyalty to the will of God. Help her to proclaim boldly the reality of the kingdom of God. Put upon her Hps the ancient Gospel of her Lord, fill her with the prophets' scorn of tyranny, and with a Christlike tenderness for the heavy-laden and downtrodden. Bid her cease from seeking her own life, lest she lose it. Make her valiant to give up her life to humanity, that, like her crucified Lord, she may mount by the path of the cross to a higher glory; through the same O God, amid the
our
Jesus Christ
Father,
our
we
pray for
Lord. AMEN.
�
23
John Wesley and the Press-Gangs by
Samuel J.
Rogal
During the 50 years (1739-1790) of John Wesley's campaign throughout England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales on behalf of primitive Christianity and the evangelical revival, the leaders of British Methodism received and
physical
abuse.
more
Negative
than their share of verbal insults
responses to their efforts to reform
both Church and social structure included
everything
from
spittle to
dead cats and
dogs and rotten vegetables, to dirt, stones, and even fire. Generally, Anglican vicars and their bishops encouraged the sheep to engage in such exercises in the hope that disruption of Methodist indoor meetings and outdoor services would tend to discourage the development of societies and classes, and would force the Wesleys to see than Methodism was not wanted, not needed, and not to be tolerated by men of reason. In addition, a host of pulpit orators, satirists, and literary hacks broadcast the Establishment position against Methodism through scurrilous tracts published separately and in anti-Methodist periodicals spawned for the occasion. Although John Wesley could not ignore this opposition, he maintained a position of selective reaction: he responded principally to high ranking officers of the Church and in periodicals and tracts with a wide readership. Although by 1780 there appeared, especially in London and Bristol, a relaxation of the tensions between Wesley and the Anglican bishops, a lasting peace between him and the established institutions in Britain never really occurred during his lifetime. Further, there continued to exist
Wesley
could
never
aspect of anti-Methodist sentiment that really understand, essentially because it bore the one
seal of government sponsorship, the imprimatur of the nation's courts, and the blessings of the Church of England. No matter what
accusations may have been hurled
Samuel
Holmes 24
against him, Wesley viewed
Rogal teaches in the Department College in West Point, Mississippi.
of
English
at
Mary
John
and the
Wesley
himself and each
Press-Gangs of his followers
loyal Britons and equally loyal Anglicans. Why, then, should they be harassed and even a system devised persecuted by agents of a most inhuman system by a supposedly sophisticated, enlightened, and human government one
as
ďż˝
of reasonable men? As
the
of
1739, John Wesley experienced first hand the evils of the press-gang system, employed then in various parts of the island-kingdom as a form of irregular constabulary to carry off obnoxious characters against whom no real legal charges could otherwise be brought. Naturally, in the minds of certain town magistrates, Wesley's preachers and society members took on the identities of obnoxious characters, and were thus
early
as
summer
expeditiously and most often illegally impressed into His Majesty's service. On Sunday, July 22, 1739, at 7:00 a.m., Wesley addressed a crowd estimated (by his count) at 3000 gathered on the bowling green in Bristol. ".
.
.
had
we
of
manner
fair
a
spirit
opportunity
we were
of
English liberty
property?
one
Magna
while, any pretence, there is such a thing suffered in the land?); all the rest standing his mouth
or
men
lifting
what
sermon
of the hearers
(ye
Charta, and of
Are not these
on
opening
all
of; for in the middle of the
the press-gang came, and seized on learned in the law, what becomes of and
showing
mere
as a
sounds,
press-gang
still, and
none
up his hand to resist them."'
spring and impress summer, the press-gangs scoured the cities war with for landsmen into the services in preparation Spain a war precipitated by an (declared on October 4, 1739) incident of the previous year when Robert Jenkins, a master mariner, produced to a committee of Commons his ear! Jenkins claimed that his appendage had been cut off by a Spanish captain at Havana exercising the right of search, which the Spanish claimed so that they might prevent English trade with Spanish America. Thus, as Wesley must have viewed the affair, a Bristol Methodist lost his freedom, in July 1739, and was forced to fight in a war supposedly brought on by a Spaniard's violation of a British freedom. Little wonder, then, that he found himself directing The
irony
of the situation
was
that
throughout
the
and towns to
ďż˝
questions
to the
"learned in the law." 25
The
Asbury Seminarian
The
parenthetical from the journal entry ("ye learned in the law") was thrown back at John Wesley 10 years later. In a tract entitled The Enthusiasm of Methodist and Papists Compar'd (1749), George Lavington (1684-1762), bishop of Exeter, draws forth the case against the Methodists' "undutiful behaviour to the civil powers,"^ citing Wesley's outburst about impressment being against English liberty and property. "The legislature," claims the Bishop, ".
.
no
.
has at several times made Acts for
matter
perish,
for
this;
touch but
rather than
pressing men.
Methodist
.
.
.
soldier be
.
.
.
But
and all may He who had
pressed speak a tittle of worldly things is bawling for liberty and property" ( Works, H, 407). a
before bound himself not now
a
to
In his response to that specific point Letter to the Author of the Enthusiasm
ďż˝
as
set
forth in A Second
of Methodists and Papists Cock, 1751) Compar'd (London: Wesley identified the key issue in the debate over both the legaHty and the morality of impressment: "The legislature six years ago did not appoint pressgangs, but legal officers, to press men. Consequently this is no proof (and find another if you can) of our undutiful behaviour to the civil powers'' ( Works. II, 407). There exists Uttle doubt that although Wesley disliked the entire idea of impressing men into the military services, he saw the system (as did the majority of his contemporaries) as a necessary evil, especially during periods of emergency. What he and others objected to, of course, were the outright violations upon that system. According to the format set down by the Admiralty for press warrants, a naval commander was to give H.
.
.
.
ďż˝
impressed one shilling for press money; hereof that neither yourself nor any officer
unto each man so
and in execution
authorized by you do demand or receive any money, gratuity reward, or other consideration whatsoever for the
sparing, exchanging, or discharging of any person or persons impressed, or to be impressed, as you will answer it at your peril. You are not to intrust any person with the execution of this warrant but the Commission to
invest his
name
and office in the
deputation
side hereof, and set your hand and seal 26
Officer, and on
thereto. ^
the other
John
Wesley
and the
Press-Gangs
The press-gangs, instead of acting under warrants, were often hired thugs in the employ of town magistrates; the press money never reached the
victims, but
instead, divided between the magistrate example of the extreme to which violations seen by an instance in 1770 (an occasion documented in the Annual Register, 1770, p. 161) when a press-gang burst in upon a marriage ceremony at St. Olave's Church, Southwark, struck down the incumbent, and managed to arrange a was,
and his press-gang. An were enacted may be
substitute union between the unfortunate
Majesty's
bridegroom and
one
of His
men-of-war."*
In two tracts
An Enquiry into the Practice published in 1770 and Legality of Pressing by the King's Commission and An Enquiry into the Nature and Legality of Press-Warrants John Almon (1737-1805), a political pamphleteer, publisher, and bookseller, argued against the entire concept of impressment. He wanted to know why, if press warrants were legal, those who committed murder during the execution of those warrants never came to trial. Further, he inquired why the practice of press warrants applied to seamen, but were not authorized for or by the Army. Impressment, according to Almon, had never been legalized by Parliament, nor was it part of the ďż˝
ďż˝
law; in fact, he claimed that there was no mention of ^ impressment by commentators on the King's prerogatives. The final word on the issue, however, rested with Chief Justice Lord William Mansfield, who ruled, on November 28, 1776, that "The power of common
pressing is founded upon immemorial usage" and exists solely for "the safety of the state. "Nonetheless, Lord Mansfield did state, in the clearest of terms, who could and who could not be impressed. The Royal Navy could not "press landmen, or persons of any other description of life, but such men as are described to be sea-faring men. ."^ Despite the clarity of language, the Chief Justice's argument did contain an obvious loophole, as he declared "that there is in fact no other exemption stated or alluded to, which rests upon the common law. There are many exemptions by statute: But they are grounded upon considerations of public policy at the particular ." (p. 589). times of their being made If indeed the Royal Navy proved the most active practitioner of impressment, the Army engaged in the custom only upon those occasions of dire emergency. In other words, the Navy was .
.
.
.
considered the first line of defense, and its needs came first. In fact, impressment into the Army without the individual's consent was 27
The
considered
Asbury
Seminarian
par with
kidnapping. According to the political climate and the particular state of a regiment, a recruit might recei\ e from one guinea to forty shillings in levy money, while a good citizen responsible for bringing in a qualified recruit would earn himself a quinea for his services. By an Act dating from William and Mary, a recruit had to be presented before a justice of the peace or a high constable of the area in which he resided, at which time and place he was
on
a
declare his
to
consent. Not
citizen transformed
private Welles,
J. P.,
vicar of
until the
to soldier. In
moment
of declaration
was
the Rev. Francis
April 1727,
Prestbury, Gloucestershire,
declared any violation of the recruitment acts to be "such treatment as could not be endured
by Englishmen, who always glorified in their liberties and in the excellency of their Constitution."^ The degree to which Methodists who gloried in their liberties to no less an extent than the good Establishment people of Gloucester shire were forced to endure the press-gangs and magistrates may be viewed from several instances, all of which violated both the spirit and the letter of the impressment system and the recruitment acts. On Thursday, June 20, 1745, after arriving in Redruth, John Wesley learned that Thomas Maxfield one of his most devoted lay had been preachers, whom he had converted in May 1739 at Bristol impressed in Cornwall for service into the Army. He had been taken at Crowan, but then removed to the house of one Henry Tomkins, �
�
�
�
two
some
miles outside the town. "It
seems
the valiant constables
timely notice that a body of five ."^ hundred Methodists were coming to take him away by force. Wesley, in the company of Rev. George Thompson, \icar of St. Gennys (Cornwall), rode to Tomkins'house, saw Maxfield, and then who
guarded
him
.
.
.
received
.
demanded to
see
the warrant for his seizure. The document ordered
the constables and
"apprehend
.
overseers
of several
all such able-bodied
men
parishes as
had
in West Cornwall to
lawful
no
calling
or
Marazion on sufficient maintenance, and to bring them [to] Friday the 21st, to be examined whether they were proper persons to serve His Majesty in the land-service." The warrant contained "the .
.
.
eight persons, most of whom were well known to have lawful callings and a sufficient maintenance thereby. But that was all one: they were called Methodists; therefore soldiers they must be."^ As Wesley and Thompson left the house, they were accosted by a crowd of anti-Methodists; the two challenged the mob, whereupon the latter retreated, hurling stones as they ran. The next day (June names
28
of
seven or
John
Wesley
and the
Press-Gangs
21), Wesley and Thompson rode to Marazion to attend Maxfield's hearing; the magistrates kept them waiting from 2:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., at which time they finally determined to hear Maxfield's case. Not surprisingly, the poor man was sentenced to the Army and ordered immediately to be placed on a boat for Penzance. The pressgang "had first offered him to a captain of a man-of-war that was just come into the [Penzance] harbour; but he answered, "T have no authority to take such men as these, unless you would have me give him so much a week to preach and pray to my people.'""^ Maxfield was then thrown into a dungeon, where he remained until his release early in July 1745. The spring and summer of 1745 proved to be trying times for the British nation: the Spanish war of 1739 had expanded into the War of the Austrian Succession; intended invasion of England by Comte de Saxe's fleet in March 1744 had been repulsed only by stormy seas; and in July 1745, Charles Edward landed in Scotland. Thus, the people of Cornwall and adjacent counties, obviously on edge and never really friendly toward Methodism, required little encourage ment to turn on John Wesley and his followers. On Tuesday, June 25, 1 745, at the completion of a sermon at St. Just, Wesley witnessed the impressment of Edward Greenfield, a 46-year-old tinner with a wife and seven children. On July 2, Wesley, himself, was arrested by a constable of St. Just; however, when on the next morning the impressment officer attempted to deliver his prisoner to the magistrate, he found that the jurist had gone off to church. "Well, sir, I have executed my commission. I have done, sir; I have no more to say."" And so, Wesley proceeded on his way! That very afternoon (July 3), at Gwennap, the sheriff of Cornwall led the press-gang into the midst of the Methodist service, at which point the congregation struck up a hymn. In a fit of temper, the sheriff ordered his men to "'2 For whatever reason, "seize the preacher for his Majesty's service. the men were unwiUing to lay their hands on Wesley, whereupon the sheriff "leaped off his horse, swore he would do it himself, and caught '"'3 hold of my cassock, crying, T take you to serve his Majesty. Instead of
Wesley
for
delivering a
his
prize
to the
magistrate,
walk; after three-quarters of a mile, he
the sheriff took set the
Methodist
leader free. We may note, finally, another instance during this period concerning the impressment of a Methodist. In its issue of Saturday, June 8, 1745, the Westminster Journal; or, New Weekly Miscellany an
organ of
Anglican
clerical
opinion
hostile to Methodism
ďż˝
29
The Asbury Seminarian
reported that
Methodist
preacher by the name of Tolly had been taken in Staffordshire by an Army recruitment detachment and brought before the magistrates. Accompanying him was a group of his "deluded followers of both sexes, who pretended he was a learned and holy man; and yet, it appeared that he was only a journey-man joiner, and had done great mischief among the colliers." Apparently, Tolly had been pressed once before, but the members of his society had subscribed �40 to obtain his freedom; they were prepared to do so again. However, the magistrates ordered the man bound for Stafford jail, thus obviously pleasing the correspondent of the a
Journal, who remarked that "such wretches nation.
.
.
.
.
."'"^The W^e5/mm5/er/owr�a/ is the
in
termed
.
are
same
incendiaries in
a
news-sheet that,
Methodism "an
January 1761, ungoverned spirit of enthusiasm, propagated by knaves, and embraced by fools." Because of the people called Methodists, "the decency of religion has been perverted, the peace of families has been ruined, and the minds of the vulgar darkened to a total neglect of their civil and social duties. "'^ The turbulent year of 1745 proved not to contain the last instances of John Wesley's encounters with the King's press-gangs. In fact, one later episode seemingly worked in his favor. On Sunday, July 10, 1757, he preached to and then met with the society at Normandy, a small village in Yorkshire. Observing "more than ever the care of God over them that fear Him," he paused to reflect upon the renewed piety of those assembled. Apparently, one William Manuel, "a wellwas inflaming them more and more against the meaning preacher clergy. Not could he advise them to attend the public ordinances, for .
.
.
either to church of sacrament himself. This I knew not; but God did. and by His wise providence prevented the consequences he
never
went
Wesley's concern, during this period, focused upon the attempts of a significant number of his an followers to separate themselves from the Church of England the their founder act against which fought successfully throughout last 45 years of his life. Thus, we have little difficuhy sensing the note of relief in Wesley's tone as he records in his journal that Manuel had been pressed into the Army, "so the people go to church and which would
naturally
have ensued."
ďż˝
sacrament as
before."'^ William Manuel and William into the 11th
of Foot
Thompson
December 24, The latter survived the
Regiment impressed in the North Strand, Riding. Whitby experience to become an assistant in the Manchester circuit in 1784, was named in Wesley's will to preach at the New Chapel in City were
1756 at
30
on
John
Wesley and the Press-Gangs
Road, London, and
to
the committee for
appointing chapel at Bath; further, he served as president of the first Methodist conference held after Wesley's death. John Wesley's final recorded encounter with the press-gangs came on Wednesday evening, July 4, 1759, at Stockton-upon-Tees. Immediately after the opening hymn, the service (held in the market place) was interrupted by the arrival of a lieutenant from a man-ofwar leading a Navy press-gang. The officer instructed his men to seize Joseph Jones and William Alwood, two of Wesley's itinerant preachers. Jones cried out, "Sir, I belong to Mr. Wesley,"'^ and was in the
preachers
free
serve
on
new
the spot; the lieutenant held Alwood for three hours until he determined him to be a licensed preacher and thus exempt from
set
the
on
impressment
handed,
warrant.
Not
wishing
the officer then ordered his
townsman
in the
congregation,
but the
charges women
the occasion and rescued the intended victim.
account, those so
same women
stoned him and his
men
his vessel empty to seize a young
to return to
in the group
rose to
According to Wesley's
"Also broke the lieutenant's head, and that
they
ran
away with all
speed. "'^
Young Alwood would have another opportunity to witness the workings of the press-gang system. Early in 1 760, he sat in a meeting of the Scarborough society as a Navy detail impressed three of its leaders Thomas Brown, George Cussons (ironically the founder of the Naval and Military Bible Society), and William Hague; the gang herded them aboard a man-of-war lying off shore. Because of unfavorable winds, the vessel could not sail; the delay allowed Brown to send a message to General Lambton, M.P. for Durham, informing ďż˝
him of his
plight.
The
parliamentarian
secured their immediate
release.'^
military press-gangs against Wesley and the Methodists demonstrate the degree to which the government and its The actions of the
institutions feared Methodism. For instance. Church strategy was clear. From their pulpits and within the pages of their journals and
bishops alike sought to drive Wesley and his societies outside the Church of England; if Methodists could be regarded as Dissenters, then they might be officially legislated against and persecuted. However, John Wesley would never lead
pamphlets,
vicars and
Methodism away from the Church, for he saw no solution to the problems besetting Anglicanism within the fragments and often irrational as
an
tenets
of Protestant Dissent. Instead, he stood his ground reformer, harassed by institutions that he
outspoken
31
The
desperately
from their
strove to save
own
Asbury Seminarian
weakness and
corruption.
For 50 years he faced the assaults of angry mobs, sent forth by government and blessed by Church. For almost the same length of
time, he and his subordinates shook off the clutches of the pressgangs, they, also, sent by government and blessed by Church. In the end, Wesley achieved for Methodism the kind of victory reserved for the
managed to endure the most serious and formidable types of harassment. Through personal example, Wesley and his preachers secured legitimacy for British Methodism because they proved its strength and its ability to survive. On Sunday, February 14, 1790 approximately one year before his
significant figures
of
history
�
those who
�
death
�
the founder of the Methodists addressed the children at
West Street
Chapel, London: "They flocked together from every quarter, and truly God was in the midst of them, applying those words [Psalms 34: 1 1], 'Come, ye little children, barken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord."'2o At the risk of ending this discussion upon a note of evangelical fervor, we may, nonetheless, understand why an Oxford don, slightly over five feet in height and weighing but 1 26 pounds, held no fear for the stones or the garbage of country rioters, or for the shackles of his sovereign's press-gangs. Certainly no less than the leading philosophers, theologians, and literati of 18th-century Britain, John Wesley cast forth the steady light of peace and gentleness onto an age made tense by its own �
violence and controversy.
Footnotes 'Nehemiah Curnock (ed.), The Journal Kelly, 1909-1916), II, 244-245.
of the
Rev. John
Wesley,
A.M.
(London:
Charles H.
in Gerald R. Cragg (ed.), The Works of John ^Quoted in A Second Letter Wesley (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), XI, 407. ^Quoted in James Fulton Zimmerman, Impressment of American Seamen (New York: Columbia University, 1925), p. 12. "See William Edward Hartpole Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1883-1890), III, 536. .
,
^Zimmerman, pp. 15-16. ''D.B. Horn and
(New
English �
(eds.), Egnlish Historical Documents, 1714-1783 University Press, 1957), pp. 588-589.
Mary
York: Oxford
Historical Documents, p. 613.
Journal, III, 182.
Journal, III, 183. ^�
Journal, III, 184. ^^Journal, III, 187-188.
32
Ransome
John
Wesley
and the
Press-Gangs
''-Journal. Ill, 188. '^Journal. Ill, 188. '�?See Luke
Tyerman. The Life and Times of the Harper and Brothers, 1872), I, 473. '5See Tyerman, Life of Wesley, 11, 397.
Rev. John
Wesley,
M.A. (New
York:
'^Journal. IV, 223.
Journal, IV, 328-329. '^Journal, IV, 329.
'''Tyerman, Life of Wesley. II,
410.
Journal. VI II, 42.
33
John Wesley and the
Plurality by
I
of Worlds
Ivan L. Zabilka
reassured when I find my theological mentors accurate and sensible relating to a topic about which I have some am
always
specialized knowledge. This tends to lend weight to the mentor's thought in areas with which I am less familiar. This type of confirmation recently came to me in connection with John Wesley, whose
sermons
I have admired.
"plurality of worlds" is the pre-twentieth century name for the idea that there are other planets with intelligent inhabitants. The idea has an ancient history running all the way back to the fifth century The
B.C. Greek atomists.' The idea remained obscure until the 16th
century
Copernican
Revolution in
scientific revolution in
general.
and the 17th century Seventeenth century scholars found
Astronomy,
useful to promote knowledge of the "New Astronomy," and many other scientific works discussed the plurality. ^ The new literary form, the novel, also conveniently included the plurality as a the
plurality
theme. In the 1 8th century the plurality proved useful for social and political criticism, as well as its earlier scientific use.^ The
popular
promoted a strong desire among Christians to make the idea of a plurality compatible with the Christian faith. An ancient Aristotelian concept, the Principle of Plenitude, provided a means of accomplishing this objective. The Principle of Plenitude
popularity
of the idea
the concept that the "world" was a full one, that Christians associated fullness with God's goodness,
was
is,
not
barren.
leading to the position that a barren planet would imply incompleteness and a failure to measure up to God's goodness. There was a problem attendant upon this argument, however, for there was an immediate soteriological complication. Were the inhabitants of other planets pure? This seemed to contradict the Fall. Were they sinful? This created problems with regard to how they Zabilka, a 7965 alumnus of Asbury Theological Seminary, is Assistant Registrar at the University of Missouri Columbia. Ivan
ďż˝
34
John
Wesley
and the
Plurality of Worlds
would know about Christ's sacrifice here. If other
beings
did not
know of the salvation Christ
provided here, the ultimate fear was that Christ would have to go to each planet to provide salvation. This logical possibility seemed to conflict with the idea that Christ's sacrifice here was complete and once-for-all. The most
of
avoiding
all these
problems prior simply emphasize plenitude, or to do as Bernard de Fontenelle did. Fontenelle was probably the most influential of all early writers upon the plurality.'' A French scientific gadfly, Fontenelle had no particular love for the Church, but he did not want to be bothered with controversy, so he simply proposed that the inhabitants were different in every way from humans. This position rather ineffectually to
common means
Wesley's time
sidestepped
to
was
avoid them and
the issue.
Some of the
more
belligerent
foes of the Church
were
not so
kind.
They believed that Christian doctrines could be made foolish by proposing a horrible scene of Christ endlessly dying on planet after planet. Thomas Paine's Age of Reason was the culmination of this trend, but his work appeared a few years after Wesley's death. ^ Wesley related to the earlier writers prior to Paine. The only other theologian contemporary with Wesley who wrote upon the plurality was Emanuel Swedenborg, who published a work in 1758 that purported to be accounts of personal trips to other ^ planets where he conversed with the inhabitants. Interestingly enough, he travelled to none of the outer planets that had not been discovered in his day. Swedenborg fit with the general Christian atmosphere which favored the plurality. In the midst of this environment, Wesley saw no visions but gave a straightforward rational presentation of the significance of the plurality. In his sermon "What is Man?" Wesley sought to resolve what he regarded as a standard philosophical rejection of the Atonement on the basis that it made the Earth the object of special regard.^ Wesley understood that the popular belief was in thousands of worlds, many of them much larger than ours, but for Wesley not necessarily more important. Despite the existence of these worlds, Wesley doubted that they had to be inhabited until stronger proof was given. If the pluraHty hadio be granted, then Wesley retreated to the position that in the unfathomable mind of God there might be a reason why ours was the world selected for special attention. As support for his skeptical position with regard to life, Wesley 35
The
Asbury Seminarian
drew upon Christian Huygens, the Dutch scientist, who had expressed doubt about the habitability of the Moon. Wesley
this
at
and
point was referring scientifically sound
to the author
of the most
treatise upon the
comprehensive plurality of worlds
8 up to that time.
Wesley further asserted that there was no positive proof with regard to the other planets, a statement that remains true to our own day. Wesley contended that the burden of proof rested with the believers in the plurality. Here he contested with Huygens who sought to place the burden of proof on the disbelievers. Of course, physical proof on either side of the question was impossible in the 1700's.
Wesley
also claimed that God could create what he
pleased,
and
by the Principle of Plenitude. Whatever the moral situation on other planets, undue attention to those conditions could distract from God's intention to deal with sinful men on this planet. For Wesley, the plurality was a vain speculation, and the needed debate was how to apply Christian principles to the problem of sin need not be bound
and its social consequences. In a second work, which
compendium of science in the popular style of the self-educating books of the day, Wesley was less negative toward the plurality.^ Wesley exhibited his wide reading in was
a
the current astronomical works. In his summary of the ideas of the ancients, which included comment on the plurality, Wesley let the
ancient ideas stand without
Wesley
was
not
implication was that plurality except as it served as
comment.
hostile to the idea of a
The
agnosticism toward the work of God in the world, which was more important than anything else to Wesley. Following Paine's attack, early 19th century Christian writers proposed several alternatives to the ugly picture of Christ on thousands (and now millions) of crosses. They suggested that knowledge of Christ's death here was somehow transmitted to other planets; that perhaps the Fall was a local phenomena. But in the end, a
basis for
some
conceded that
even
if Christ has to die
over
and over, there
was
accomplish it.'o Almost strangely. Christian thought about the plurality has advanced little since Wesley's time. No adequate answer to the soteriological problems is possible if there are indeed intelligent beings "out there." Modern thought about extra-terrestrial life is based upon planetary environments, cosmological theory which is in an
36
eternity
for him
to
John
Wesley and the Plurality of Worlds of
flux, evolutionary theory which is being investigated more critically even by its friends, and probability studies of the likelihood of planets around stars. The study of extraterrestrial life forms (exobiology) is the only "science" known where the existence of the a
state
subject matter is uncertain. Wesley's skepticism seems appropriate for us as well. We can wisely wait for a bit more evidence before we firmly cast our opinions about the soteriological problems that would result. Wesley's concern that the plurality distract us from the issue of man's sin here seems almost prophetic. All around us we can find the messianic that alien creatures will be benign, superior, and helpful in hope the ills of this world. But occasionally in science fiction, and solving even when radio telescopic messages are considered, there lurks the fear that the aliens may be evil, superior, and destroy us. The residual traces of our Christian past linger in secular writings as both an extraterrestrial millenial longing, and a burning. Earth-ending cataclysm. Why not wait just a bit longer with Wesley for a little more ďż˝ convincing evidence? Footnotes 'Democritus and others beheved
a
"world"
was
all that
was
visible
to
the eye.
They,
therefore, believed in a plurality of worlds that were invisible to us. Uohn Wilkins, a founder of the Royal Society, and an Anglican Bishop wrote upon
plurality. Christian Huygens and other "naturalists" considered it. Popular writers as Cyrano de Dergerac were a third type of author interested in the plurality. ^The great satire was Jonathan Swift's Travels of Lemuel Gulliver. At least seventeen copies of Gulliver followed which involved journeys to remote planets. the
such
Most
were
unsuccessful satires.
"Bernard de Fontenelle,
Conversations
on
the
Plurality of Worlds (London:
Thomas Caslon, 1767). Second ed. Trans, by a gentleman of the Inner-Temple. 5 The Age of Reason was first published in 1 794 and has since gone through dozens of editions, printings and reprintings. ^Emanuel Swedenborg, Arcana Coelestia and
a
derivative work entitled The Earths
in Our Solar
System (London, 1758). Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, VII (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, n.d.). Reprint of the 1872 London edition of the Wesleyan Conference, p. Uohn
172.
^Christian
Huygens, The Celestial
Worlds Discovered
the Inhabitants (London, 1698). pp. 128ff. 'John Wesley, A Survey of the Wisdom
of God
Paunder, 1816). 2 Vols., Second American ed.,
knowledge on
Conjectures Concerning
(Philadelphia: Jonathan by B. Mayo. Examples of his .
Ptolemaic, Copernican and Cartesian systems appears on page 1 14 Awareness of Bradley, Molyneauxand other contemporary astronomers
of the
of Volume I. appears
notes
.
or
pages 134-135.
37
The
Asbury
Seminarian
ďż˝"The most comprehensive of these was Thomas Chalmers, Discourses on the Christian Revelation Viewed in Connextion with Modern Astronomy (London: Religious Tract Society, n.d.). This book sometime in the 1820's.
appeared
38
Book Reviews God
Work in Israel, by Gerhard Von Rad, trans. John H. Marks. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1980. 223 pp. $6.95. at
The late Gerhard Von Rad will
long be
known
as
the German Old
Testament scholar Testament
who, along with Walter Eichrodt, recovered Old theology for the Church.
From the 1870's onward the made it
impossible Testament theology.
to
speak
triumph of
a
of
Higher Criticism
had
unified and consistent Old
But first Eichrodt in the
1930's and then
Von Rad in the 1950's showed that whatever one's critical perspec tive, it was still possible to see in the Old Testament a revelation of
God to the
peoples
of the earth.
Although Eichrodt did not pubUsh a great deal beyond his Theology, Von Rad was very prolific and this book is a testimony to that fact. It is a compilation of lectures and addresses delivered under various circumstances between 1934 and 1970, but mostly during the 50's and 60's. The kinds of materials included range from rather popular interpretations of some of the BibUcal stories as delivered on
German radio to
thought-provoking discussions of the nature of monotheism, Israel's approach to history and the reality of God in more
the Old Testament.
compilation the content of the interpretations of Biblical ac counts are somewhat flat, often spending more time on technical details than on the meaning of the ideas. It is when Von Rad comes into the broader topics that his great gift for synthesis comes into play. Here too some of the richness of his thought is evident. Perhaps it is because conservatives think they understand Because of its nature
book is somewhat
as
uneven.
a
The
God too well that their works
are
often rather one-dimensional
unstimulating. Von Rad can never be accused of this. He is not tempted to play down the inner contradictions of the Scripture. Yet he is able to see in them the multiple aspects of the one tremendous Being who cannot be encompassed by the human mind. It is a testimony to the richness of his thought that there is very little repetition in these lectures covering some and
30 years. Those who have read the
Theology
will
appreciate
this book
as a
39
The
refresher, while those who have introduction
to
the
thought
of
a
not can
Asbury Seminarian
find here
significant
a
wide-ranging
scholar. John N. Oswalt
Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature
Asbury Theological Seminary Ministry in America, David S. Schuller, Merton P. Strommen, and Milo L. Brekke, Editors. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980. 581 pp. This volume is a summary of the six year ( 1 973-79) intensive study of ministry conducted by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada in
Institute of
conjunction with the project was funded by
Search
a grant Minneapolis, MN. The from the Lilly Foundation. The study was limited to clergy who were seminary educated and to laity in congregations served by seminary educated ministers. The study was also limited to denominations that have seminaries or
whose ministerial educational institutions
Association of Theological Schools. A third
are
members of the
limiting factor is that the gathered single, sampling taken in the mid-70's and therefore does not provide longitudinal information. Therefore, the study is less than a total picture of ministry. The Association of Theological Schools identified the study as the Readiness for Ministry Project. The purpose of the project was to try to assess the professional skills a graduating seminary senior needs to begin an effective ministry. Over 12,000 people participated in some aspect of the project. Their involvement included describing con temporary ministry, choosing and refining items for the Readiness questionnaire, ranking the descriptions of ministry in terms of their importance, naming clusters, developing and testing criterianreferenced instruments, and preliminary drafts of this volume. The early chapters of the book provide a quick overview of the "Basic Issues in Defining Ministry." In the mid to late '60 's some evidence suggested a crisis relating to ministry was underway. Ministers were leaving the ministry for a number of reasons. The role models for ministry were becoming blurred between a traditional, biblically centered pattern and a pattern oriented to contemporary society with an emphasis upon the professional approach to ministry. The goals of ministry were being torn between a ministry in the public sphere and a ministry focused on the inner life of people. In response to the perceived ambiguities, the Readiness for data
40
were
in
a
cross
sectional
Book Reviews
Ministry Project was generated. The first stop was to identify an act of ministry through description of critical incidents. Over 12,000 people across a broad spectrum of the church were asked to recall a specific moment when an ordained clergy person ministered to them, either
effectively or ineffectively. Out of these descriptions and a review of the literature, thousands of criterion-of-ministry state ments were
developed. preliminary questionnaire of 850 items was prepared and distributed to over 2000 people, randomly selected, and a balance between clergy and laity was achieved. The clergy sample included active in seminary professors, clergy ministry, denominational leaders, and senior seminary students. Minority and women clergy were especially invited to participate. The respondents were asked to rank the degree of importance of each of the items for the specific situation in which they were experiencing ministry. Out of the preliminary survey a revised questionnaire of 444 items best able to describe ministry and reveal patterns was chosen. The individual items were arranged into 64 dimensions of ministry or core clusters. The core clusters were then combined into 1 1 specific characteristics of ministry of basic factors. Of these eleven, 9 are positive factors as follows: open, affirming style; caring for persons under stress; congregational leadership; theologian in life and thought; ministry from personal commitment of faith; development of fellowship and worship; denominational awareness and collegiality; ministry to community and world; priestly-sacramental ministry. The above list is in rank order from most to least importance relating to effectiveness in ministry. There are two other factors identified as detrimental to ministry: privatistic, legalistic style; and disqualifying personal and behavioral A
characteristics. In this brief review it is
specific items for each of the major factors; however, the "disqualifying personal and behavioral factor" merits inclusion of the individual descriptive items: i.e., self-serving ministry characterized by undisciplined living, irresponsibility, professional immaturity, and pursuit of personal advantage. These behavioral traits were identified emphatically by both clergy and laity as the kind of behaviors perceived as detrimental to the effectiveness of one's ministry. Forty-seven denominations are related to the Association of Theological Schools. They vary greatly in size; therefore, the impossible
to
include the
41
The
denominations
Asbury
Seminarian
grouped into denominational families. A preliminary grouping was made by the staff members of the Associa tion of Theological Schools and then checked by factor analysis. As a were
result of this process, 17 denominational families were finally identified. The key element which identifies these denominational family
groupings is their particular model of ministry. One model is that of "Spiritual Emphasis," a second model is a "Sacramental-Liturgical Emphasis," a third model is a "Social Action Emphasis," and a fourth is noted as a "Combined Emphasis," which incorporates elements of the prior three models. The balance of the book is devoted to profiling each of the 64 dimensions (core clusters) in reference to how significant that particular cluster is to denominational families. These profiles then provide the basic data from which an individual, thoroughly acquainted with the denomination or denominational family, could write an interpretive chapter. The data provided makes it possible to make comparisons and contrasts between sub-groups within the denominational respondents: e.g. clergy-laity, active attendersinactive, age-youth, highly educated-limited formal education. The final section of the book provides a detailed description of the research methodology. Overall the book gives the reader a detailed and factually documented description of a major segment of ministry in America. The reader is familiarized with the variety of responses to ministry among the denominations included in the study. One can also examine a specific denomination or denominational family to note the distinctive characteristics of ministerial models within that group.
The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus, An Exposition of John 14-17, by D.A. Carson. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980. 207 pp. $9.95. D.A. Carson holds the Ph.D.
from
Cambridge University at Trinity Evangelical professor Divinity School. The Gospel of John is his major area of study. This book grew out of a series of addresses given at several conferences in North America. It is primarily written for laymen. and is associate
42
degree
of New Testament
Book Reviews rather than scholars.
Dr. Carson
specific
sees
situation
the Farewell Discourse ďż˝
to encourage
the
designed to meet a disciples preceding the as
crucifixion of Jesus. However, it is not a mere word of consolation. It is first and foremost an exposition of the significance of Jesus"'going
away" to his Father by way of the cross. It is elemental theology. And only as such, does it offer encouragement and consolation to the disciples. The author presents a clear and sensible outline of these four chapters in the Gospel of John. For each section he points out its
with the
preceding and the following sections. He clearly indicates the major points in a given section. This makes it easier for the reader to follow the flow of thought of John. In the exposition Carson gives due considerations to the context. Often he lets the context shed light on the particular passage. Even though he does not treat the passage exegetically in this book, often he does share insights from his own exegetical work published elsewhere. For example, he shares the result of his more technical study in a scholarly journal when he maintains that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of its "righteousness" (self-righteousness), just as Jesus convicted the world's self-righteousness when He was on the earth (John 16:8). In general, Dr. Carson does a good job in this exposition. However, one wishes he had done more thorough exposition on some key words, such as "glory" which occurs many times and is very important in this section of John. At the various places in the book, Dr. Carson deals with some theological issues derived from the text of John. On the issue of the relationship between the Son and the Father Carson maintains that the Son is ontologically God, divine in his very being. Yet in his mission as a man, he most reflects God by hiding his own glory and, in perfect response to his Father, by showing forth, by his words and deeds, his Father's glory. On the basis of John 14:15-24, Dr. Carson emphasizes the importance of discipleship. Those who profess to be believers have the responsibility to love, obey and trust the Lord. This is healthy. Yet in connection with his exposition on divine election, the author writes "I do not doubt for a moment that men are responsible to repent and believe; but it is to recognize that no believer will have legitimate grounds for claiming, throughout all eternity, that he
relationship
43
The made it and his
(p. 107).
neighbor
There must be
avoids this
Asbury Seminarian
did not because he made the
some
alternative
theological
right
choice."
contrast
which
inconsistency.
In connection with John
writes, "The question must then be squarely faced: can true believers lose their salvation, or not? Can a person be a branch in the vine, and then subsequently be cast off and destroyed?" In the process of answering, he writes "there is much biblical evidence to suggest that a person's spiritual condition should (emphasis added) be addressed more phenomenologically (emphasis added) than ontologically: that is, more according to his behavior and responses than according to what is going on in his very being" (p. 97). Then, referring to certain people, he writes "To all who are limited by the phenomenological (emphasis added) that person is a Christian, a brother. He is a branch; he is a seed that is sprouting and growing. But if at that point he rejects the truth, he could not possibly remains fruitless, or wilts before opposition, have been a true believer in the first place. "(p. 98-99). Dr. Carson, on 15:1-16,
Dr. Carson
...
the
one
hand maintains that one's
spiritual condition
should be
phenomenologically, on the other hand indicates that phenomenological observation can be erroneous. Dr. Carson wants to say that if a person apostatizes, this is proof that he has never been a true believer. A true believer can never apostatize. Yet Jesus says, in John 15:2, "Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away." In spite of some minor weaknesses noted above, this is a useful book. It helps laymen to come to a better understanding of John Chapters 14-17, and provides a good example of exposition for addressed
ministers and teachers.
Joseph
S.
Wang, Ph.D.
Professor of New Testament
Asbury Theological Seminary
of Reviews of New Testament Books Between 1900-1950, Perspectives in Religious Studies, Special Studies Series No. 2, by Watson E. Mills. Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, 1977. 69pp.. $3.50. Order from "Special Studies Series," Box 2190,
An Index
Danville, VA 24541.
degree from Baylor University. He is associate Professor of Religion and Departmental Coordinator at Averett College in Danville, Virginia. Presently he serves as editor of Perspectives in Religious Studies, a scholarly Watson E.
44
Mills received the Ph.D.
Book Reviews
journal containing articles and reviews of the widest interest for the professional scholar-teacher. It is a publication of the Association of Baptist Professors of Religion. The research for this index was done as partial fulfillment of requirements for the Ph.D. degree at Baylor University. The books indexed
are
those listed under the classification "F" in the Shelf List
of the Union
Theological Seminary in New York. Thus it includes virtually significant books in New Testament Studies published between 1900 and 1950. Most of the periodicals of academic nature all
in the field of New Testament studies
are
covered.
New Testament Abstract which reports critical reviews of signi ficant books in the field of New Testament studies appeared in
1956. In many cases,
some
years
lapse before a given book is reviewed
scholarly journal. Chances are New Testament Abstract abstracts many reviews of significant books published in the period 1950-1956. In Mills' index the periodicals reserched are indexed through 1 956 to give continuity with New Testament Abstracts. It is true that in many cases several years lapse before a given book is reviewed in a scholarly journal, yet it is also true that some books are reviewed immediately. For the sake of completeness, it might be wiser to cover the period, 1900-1956 or 1900-1960 if one thinks in
in
of decade, than to cover 1900-1950. The present index is a very useful tool for scholars.
terms
Joseph
S.
Wang,
Ph.D.
Professor of New Testament
Asbury Theological Seminary The Radical A.
Snyder.
Wesley,
Downers
and Patterns for Church Renewal,
by Howard
Grove, Ilhnois: Inter- Varsity Press, 1980. 189
pp. Howard
Snyder has, with considerable success, articulated a major contribution of Wesley which has received little attention from Wesleyan scholars. Much has been written about Wesley's view of the Church, the sacraments. Christian experience, and his role as a reformer. But precious little has been said about his concept of discipleship, expecially about his stress upon the importance of class meetings and bands as means of Christian nurture and Church renewal.
This past year the Association of Theological Schools emphasized the theme of spiritual formation. Asbury Theological Seminary 45
The
Asbury
Seminarian
cooperated with this emphasis. This concept of spiritual formation took shape to some extent with Vatican II, and Protestant seminaries have profited much from this Roman Catholic theme. However, Wesley's concept of renewal has been in place for 200 years, and as Snyder has noted, it has largely been neglected within the Wesleyan tradition. Perhaps now with Snyder's clarion call to re-capture
Wesley's view
of Church renewal
contemporary
concern
for
spiritual
we
can
consolidate it with
our
formation.
Snyder's work has ecumenical relevance. He particularly writes for: (1) "mainline" Christians who hold Wesley in high admiration but have not seriously studied his thought; (2) "immobilized heirs of the Holiness Movement who still see Wesley through the lens of his
19th-century interpreters," (3) "non- Wesleyan evangelicals who like Wesley's results but not his theology," and (4) "Charismatic sisters and brothers who (often unknowingly) stand in one branch of the Wesleyan tradition and to whom Wesley would speak both encour agement and caution." This book will undoubtedly have wide appeal to the evangelical communities because of the contemporary interest in Church renewal. While Snyder does not break any new ground, his skill in
popularizing Wesley's thought will help to introduce Wesley to nonWesleyan circles. Hopefully his suggestion for "Patterns for Church Renewal" (the book's subtitle) will be taken seriously and imple mented.
of central
importance to the value of the book, some aspects of Snyder's interpretation of Wesley are problematic. His assumption that Wesley stands "in the free church or Radical Protestant tradition" needs more qualification than Snyder seems to provide (p. 7). Snyder also seems to be embarrassed by Wesley's belief in infant baptism (pp. 116-117). He considers Wesley not to be "a good guide on social and political questions" because he was a "political conservative in the face of more democratic currents" (p. 157). On the other hand, Snyder sides with the Anabaptist's political and social radicalism, noting especially their views on pacificism as opposed to Wesley's. He also faults Wesley for not making a "fundamental critique of the free enterprise system" (p. 138). Snyder laments "that Wesley changed his opinion more regarding the church than regarding politics and the state" (p. 157). Some Wesleyan scholars will take issue with Snyder's apparent Though
46
not
Book Reviews
Wesley's doctrine of the Church more akin to justifiable. It is also questionable for Anabaptist him to suggest he knows what Wesley "felt" as opposed to what Wesley "said" about the Church (p. 116). Snyder also too easily assumes that his understanding of ministry is more bibhcal than Wesley's or that an episcopal form of Church government is not bibhcally allowable (p. 156). It is also questionable to identify one's own social and political positions with what is bibUcal. Perhaps Wesley serves as a better model in this regard than Snyder allows. Wesley espoused certain social and political viewpoints (many of which we would not accept such as his belief in monarchy), but he did not try to make them evangelical requirements. It is also too idealistic to suggest the idea that Wesley could have saved the world from Marxism and a communist revolution if Wesley had adopted "a more social ethic," presumably by espousing a Christian social democratic kind of philosophy (p. 158). Despite his obvious sympathies with Anabaptist beliefs at points which differ from Wesley and his attempt in places to reinterpret Wesley too much in line with Anabaptist themes than he really was, Snyder's overall analysis of Wesley is fair and stimulating. attempt
to
make
belief than what is
Laurence W. Wood
Associate Professor of
Systematic Theology Asbury Theological Seminary
47
Book Briefs Contemporary Witness: Historical Antecedents and Contemporary Practices, by Donald P. Ellsworth. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979. 201 pp + Appendix, Bibliography Christian Music in
and Index.
graduate thesis, and provides both historical background (e.g., Wesley revival hymns) and suggestions in the light of the contemporary situation. The book speaks to interested parties, such as ministers of music, and wrestles with major musical expressions. The book reads like
TTie Teacher,
by
a
D. Elton Trueblood. Nashville: Broadman Press,
1980. 131 pp. Earlier published essays now appear in this collection made b\ Dr. Trueblood himself. Preachers will want to read the chapter on the minister's
study,
as
well
as
the other materials rich in ideas and
Clergy and laity alike will find themselves grateful to the author for sharing himself with such integrity, the hallmark of the man. Read this book with pencil in hand, marking its pages freely, underscoring lines, circling key words and expressions. "We often use the word contagion, "says the doctor, "onl\ for what is evil, but the truth is that goodness is like a disease which must be caught from another who has it" (p. 92 from "Ethical Contagion"). The images of this little book have about them the quality of contagion. Catch the disease! intellectual stimulation.
Expect
to
Glass
Win, by Bill Glass. Waco: Word Books, 1981. 11 9 pp. his positive-thinking messages both in sound
roots
psychology
and
the
stimulates faith for
Scriptures. ln\igorating to read, the book overcoming problems, and will help preachers to
encourage strong belief in their hearers. Donald E.
Granger
48
Demaray Preaching Asbury Theological Seminary
E. and Anna Fisher Professor of
About First Fruits Press
Under the auspices of B. L. Fisher Library, First Fruits Press is an online publishing arm of Asbury Theological Seminary. The goal is to make academic material freely available to scholars worldwide, and to share rare and valuable resources that would not otherwise be available for research. First Fruits publishes in five distinct areas: heritage materials, academic books, papers, books, and journals. In the Journals section, back issues of The Asbury Journal will be digitized and so made available to a global audience. At the same time, we are excited to be working with several faculty members on developing professional, peer-reviewed, online journals that would be made freely available. Much of this endeavor is made possible by the recent gift of the Kabis III scanner, one of the best available. The scanner can produce more than 2,900 pages an hour and features a special book cradle that is specifically designed to protect rare and fragile materials. The materials it produces will be available in ebook format, easy to download and search. First Fruits Press will enable the library to share scholarly resources throughout the world, provide faculty with a platform to share their own work and engage scholars without the difficulties often encountered by print publishing. All the material will be freely available for online users, while those who wish to purchase a print copy for their libraries will be able to do so. First Fruits Press is just one way the B. L. Fisher Library is fulfilling the global vision of Asbury Theological Seminary to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world.
asbury.to/firstfruits