Reflections on The Great Emergence

Phyllis Tickle’s book The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why is a relevant book to read because it speaks of an issue that the church is currently facing. This issue is, in part, the idea of a postmodern church. While this issue is relevant, Tickle does a rather poor job executing the conversation. She brings up a lot of good points, but she does not do a good job overall. One obvious example is simply in the conversational way she presents her ideas. While this makes for an easy read, this also allowed for many grammatical errors. A conversational-style approach can be very helpful, but Tickle was not entirely successful in her attempt. Also, she claims to be a scholar, and yet she does not give any real sources in her bibliography. Most of her footnotes are simply extra comments or ideas that she had. There is little evidence of extensive research.

The emergent and the emerging church are the focus of this book, but Tickle does more than simply speak of the shape the church is taking in the present day. She also speaks of how the church has been formed and shaped since it was conceived. Tickle claims that every five hundred years or so the church has what one might call a rummage sale of sorts where the church takes into consideration where it is heading and what it thinks should be kept as far as beliefs and practices are concerned and what should be thrown out. The author states that there have been four “greats” that have coincided with this rummage sale. The first was Gregory the Great who kept the church from dividing itself completely and led the way for the next five hundred years of church history. While this first example works for Tickle’s five hundred year cycle, it could easily be argued that other events in church history were just as important, or perhaps even more important, than this example. It seems as though she decided to talk about Gregory the Great simply because he fit into her five hundred year pattern. The second period she mentions is The Great Schism in which the church split in a way because of differing theological views. The church split between the East and the West. The third was The Great Reformation in which the Protestant church was formed because of the mishandling of the church by the Catholics, which led in part to the age of enlightenment where science was exalted, but also where the Bible tended to be seen as the sole authority of Christianity. The fourth is what some are now calling The Great Emergence in which the postmodern church has clashed with the modern church. Fundamentalism is on its way out as a postmodern generation takes control of the church. While this book is very fascinating and brings up a number of different relevant issues regarding the church of today as well as the past, its author is not a trained historian and is an independent researcher. This could indicate some lack of credibility to the book. However, Tickle seems to have done at least some research and she does indeed speak words of insight and truth concerning the situation the church is facing today.

Tickle begins her book by discussing the “rummage sale” idea of how the church reconfigures itself every five hundred years or so. This reconfiguration occurs most often because of Christianity becoming established in a certain way that may not necessarily be the best way for Christianity to exist. The church becomes institutional to such an extent that the church does not know why they believe what they believe, or the beliefs of the church have come to include various ideas that are not central to the church. These beliefs can creep towards the center of the church’s core-beliefs without even being necessary to the faith at all. A number of people within the church begin to recognize that the church has come to believe in things that are not necessary to the faith, and yet many believe that these things are necessary to the faith. Those who recognize that the church has taken a hold of many unnecessary and even wrong beliefs begin to take a stand, saying what they believe to be the true and pure purpose of the church. This can cause conflicts within the church, because those who hold onto these unnecessary and even wrong beliefs truly think that these things are central to what being a Christian is all about. So the church begins to split over these certain issues.

Tickle gives examples from the past two thousand years of the different rummage sales that have taken place within the church. She shows how the most significant ones occur approximately every five hundred years and she gives the examples of Gregory the Great, The Great Schism, The Great Reformation, and then concludes that we are due for another rummage sale in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She refers to this present rummage sale as The Great Emergence. It is interesting to note, however, that the idea of the church realigning itself every five hundred years actually goes further back than the existence of the church. Christianity emerged out of Judaism and within Judaism there is also seen this idea. The most obvious example of this would be five hundred years before Gregory the Great in the occurrence of the founding of Christianity. In this event, the Jews became split between those who were Christ-followers and those who did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah. This event concurred with the destruction of the second Jerusalem temple by the Romans. Five hundred years before these events occurred is seen the destruction of the first temple by the Babylonians which led to a new way of thinking within Judaism as portrayed in the Babylonian exile and the Second Temple period. Five hundred years before the re-alignment of thought caused by the Babylonian exile is seen the establishment of the monarchy in Israel in which Jewish theology changed in the transition from the rule of the judges to the rule of the kings. So Tickle concludes that this concept of a religious “rummage sale” is not limited to Christianity. She also points out that it was during these times before the rise of Christianity in which human thought in general began to change among other groups of people, not just those of the Judeo-Christian traditions. She uses Plato and other Greek philosophers as examples of how people across the world tend to go through five hundred year cycles where they sort through the things they believe in order to see what should be kept and what should be discarded. This transitional time period in the centuries before Christ is referred to as “The Great Transformation.” [1] Tickle’s conclusion is that all of humanity tends to readjust the way they perceive the world about every five hundred years. They examine what they believe to be true about the world, embracing that which rings true to them and throwing out whatever no longer fits. This interpretation of history, however, appears to be rather subjective in that Tickle appears to be reading her own ideas into history. Even her own theory of five hundred year cycles falls apart when she tries to apply it to humanity as a whole because when she speaks of the Greeks she acknowledges that these patterns did not follow five hundred year cycles among them.

Tickle goes on to ask the question of how The Great Emergence came into existence and concludes that the best way to go about studying The Great Emergence and how it is coming into being is by studying the last great rummage sale of the church, The Great Reformation, and how it came into existence. She then proceeds to describe how The Great Reformation came to be. She points out how during the time leading up to The Great Reformation there was a great deal of conflict already within the church. Papal authority had been split between two separate Popes – one, French and one Italian. Eventually, a third pope was added to the mix, all three warring against each other. This event and other disheartening events are what led to the reformation of the church which is most often associated with Martin Luther and his nailing of his Theses to the door of Wittenberg’s church. At this time, people were beginning to recognize that these three Popes and the church leadership as a whole were not true to the spirit of the church itself, or at least the spirit they felt the church was supposed to have. A number of people, including Martin Luther, tried to reform the church in order to bring it back to the way it was supposed to be. Enough people jumped on with this thought of reforming the church that Rome panicked and fought against them. This event is what led to the dividing split of the church between the Protestants and the Catholics. Tickle points out that something similar to this is occurring and will continue to occur within The Great Emergence of today. There are enough people today who recognize how the church is not always as it should be, and they are seeking to reform the church into the way they believe it ought to be, or the way they believe the Holy Spirit intended it to be. However, like the Catholic church of the Reformation, there are many within the church of today who believe that the church ought to continue in the way that it has the past two hundred years. These people will continue to fight and will continue to break themselves off from those others in the church who do not agree with their way of “doing church.”

One of the key battles between the Protestants and the Catholics of The Great Reformation was over authority. The Popes claimed to have ultimate authority over church beliefs and doctrine, while the Protestants established the idea of the priesthood of all believers, claiming that Scripture alone was the sole authority of the church and that all individual believers had the right to interpret Scripture personally by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Protestants also believed that the Pope was indeed capable of making errors. Not only were the Popes capable of this, but they had done so.

Social reformation also took place during the time of the Protestant Reformation. City-states began to emerge and feudalism began to be done away with. Tickle refers to these important changes, saying, “The processes which began and solidified in the decades surrounding the Great Reformation became our new common illusion, our new shared imagination as Westerners about how the world works and how the elements of human life are to be ordered.” [2] The way people looked at and perceived the world around them was changing during this time period, and this change is seen in the way people understood the function of the church. The Great Reformation and the changes it brought about are deeply connected with the other changes seen during this time. Tickle continues, “There is […] a very good reason why most general lectures about the Great Reformation today commence with the […] observation that as a hinge time, it was characterized by the rise of capitalism, of the middle class, of the nation-state, and finally of Protestantism.” 2 This list of ideals have come to be associated with the Christian way of life over the past couple of hundred years, as though these things that are a part of Western life are also foundationally Christian. It is against this way of thinking that the Emerging Church has come to speak. While the Catholics of the Reformation believed that the Pope had ultimate authority of the church and was infallible in what he spoke regarding Scripture, doctrine, and the church, the church of today has embraced such Western thoughts of capitalism, the middle-class, and the nation-state as though these were all Christian and necessary beliefs of the church. The Great Emergence is then a questioning of this positioning of these Western ideals as also Christian ideals. The Emerging Church is not necessarily opposed to these “ideals” at all times, but it is opposed to these “ideals” if they are imposed upon the greater Christian population. The church must not be associated with certain Western opinions which are not center to the Christian faith. Capitalism, the middle-class, the nation-state, and even Protestantism itself may not in fact be central to Christianity as it was intended to be lived. The Sola Scriptura concept of the Reformation may in fact be a limited perspective because authority may be found in other places as well.

With The Great Reformation, power also came to be associated more so with wealth and money. Those who were rich had the power. The balance of power has shifted again during this time of The Great Emergence. Money has become less of a factor as far as power is concerned. The new power of today’s world is that of information. Those who have knowledge, have power. Also, just as The Great Reformation was influenced by the technology of the time, so also The Great Emergence has been influenced by the technology of this time. The Great Reformation was able to come into being because of such inventions as Gutenberg’s movable-type printing press. The Great Emergence has been able to come into existence because of the invention of the internet and the World Wide Web. Both the printing press and the internet served as a means of drawing people together through the bond of shared knowledge. The difference is that in Gutenberg’s time, it was those who had money who could be heard by the masses. In this time of the internet, virtually everyone who wishes to be heard may be heard regardless of their economic status.

The time since The Great Reformation has been very modern in its approach to the way it perceives the world. Within The Great Emergence is the idea that modernism is not a necessary part of Christianity. Those who are in support of The Great Emergence or at least in the re-shaping of the way the church thinks about certain things tend to be more postmodern in their understanding of the way the world works. Some of the influences upon the way this generation views the world are in fact rooted in some of the ideas formed during the time of The Great Reformation. One of these contributing factors has been the founding of scientific thought and reasoning. It is ironic then that the advance of science was one of the main contributors to the re-thinking of Sola Scriptura. Charles Darwin’s writings on biological evolution and Sigmund Freud’s understandings of dreams and psychology helped to pave the way for new ways of understanding the world, the way the world works, and the ways in which people interact with the world in which they live. Tickle also says that one of the most important breakthroughs in scientific history which altered the course of church history came with Einstein and his “special theory of relativity.” It came to be recognized by the scientific community and eventually the general public that there were certain things about the universe and the way it worked that simply did not make sense or that went against the way people from a modernist perspective had tended to view the universe. Along with Einstein’s theory came Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle which stated that one may study the speed and position of something, but it becomes very difficult for one to study both the speed and the position of something at the same time. [3] The idea given was that the act of observing actually changes the thing being observed. When applied to everyday life and Christianity specifically, this idea sounds very postmodern. This is because it indicates that the truth of something depends upon the one observing, which would mean that truth could vary from person to person. With this specific application to Einstein’s special theory of relativity began to emerge the idea of relative truth and the uncertainty of everything. Many truths could in theory be possible.

Also through science came the uncovering of such documents as the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as the Quest for the Historical Jesus. Through the studies of ancient documents, the church found itself wanting to know from where its faith had come. Also, Pentecostalism came into being and influenced the church in another way. One of the ways it influenced the church was in its emphasis upon the Holy Spirit. It was believed by the Pentecostals that whatever the Holy Spirit personally said to an individual outweighed whatever Scripture said. Also, spirituality came to be emphasized in culture more than Christian spirituality in particular. Tickle points to Alcoholics Anonymous as an example of this, where recovery comes through the help of a “higher power,” and not necessarily the Christian God. Another key influencer which led culture to emerge from modernism into postmodernism was the “drug age” of the 1960 and 1970s. People who experimented with drugs were opening themselves up to new ways of viewing and experiencing the world. People began to believe in other or alternate realities.

Towards the end of her book, Tickle brings out a number of diagrams in order to show which groups of which the church of today is made up, and to show where these different groups within the church are heading and how they interact with each other. She uses research which supports the idea of the church as a whole being divided into four separate groups in a quadrilateral of sorts. These four separate groups are referred to as Liturgicals, Social Justice Christians, Renewalists, and Conservatives. [4] The Social Justice Christians were originally called “Mainline” Christians, and the Conservatives were originally known as “Fundamentalists,” but it was thought that these names were no longer reflective of the groups. [5] These different groups originally had distinct denominations contained within them. The liturgicals, for example, were mainly Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and a number of Lutherans. However, it has come to pass that these different categories are no longer limited to certain denominations. It is coming to be seen more and more that certain denominations are no longer limited to certain kinds of people. Liturgicals, Social Justice Christians, Renewalists, and Conservatives can be found in nearly every denomination. Many groups within the church have begun to join together even as many have split apart. The distinctions between many denominations have begun to blur because this generation is discovering that Christians as a whole have more similarities with each other than they do differences.

Near the close of her book, Tickle describes Emergents as people who are not afraid of paradox. [6]They are postmodern, and are opened to truths which appear to be outside of the realm of possibility. They are distrustful of meta-narratives because they are based upon “humanity’s human thinking and explaining.” 6 They believe in narrative though, because narrative is a reflection of the heart of humanity. She says that the future church as shaped by the Emergents will be one that has sought to go back to the way the church was intended to be. The church will be “de- Hellenized” and will most likely appear be something very Jewish in its origins since the original church was Jewish. She says, “[The Great Emergence] will rewrite Christian theology – and thereby North American culture – into something far more Jewish, more paradoxical, more narrative, and more mystical than anything the Church has had for the last seventeen or eighteen hundred years.” [7] Many of the beliefs that the church has had since the Reformation and even since the time of The Great Schism may be subject to change. This will all be done, however, in order to make the church purer than it is now. This will be done in order to bring the church back to the way it was originally intended to be, without the contamination of Western systems of belief.

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[1] p. 31.

[2] p. 51.

[3] p. 79.

[4] p. 126.

[5] pp. 126-7.

[6] pp. 160.

[7] pp. 162.

“Christian Theology for the Church of the Nazarene”

In chapter four of his book A Century of Holiness Theology Dr. Mark Quanstrom writes that the first doctrine that H. Orton Wiley felt was alien to an authentic Wesleyan-holiness theology “was the fundamentalist dogma concerning the inerrancy of the Scriptures.” He was against the “Dictation Theory,” which says “the authors were mere amanuenses and which lent itself most easily to an inerrant view of Scripture…” Wiley wrote, “this theory is…out of harmony with the known manner in which God works in the human soul.” Quanstrom says that Wiley preferred the “Dynamical” method. “This theory allowed Wiley to state that the Bible has a human element. ‘Not only did the Holy Spirit speak through David, David also spoke.’” Wiley believed that “the Scriptures were not necessarily free from all error,” but that “they were free from essential error.” Quanstrom goes on to say that “Another critical doctrine that Wiley felt was alien to an authentic Wesleyan-Holiness theology concerned the doctrine of free moral agency…” Wiley disagreed with Miley and Hills on the ability of mankind to obey God without the grace of God. Quanstrom says, “As a result, the ‘official’ position of the Church of the Nazarene was that salvation was dependent on free grace and not on moral ability.” Quanstrom also writes that “One of Wiley’s intentions was to make certain that entire sanctification was understood in the church as an instantaneous act, a second work of grace.” Wiley believed that sanctification was instantaneous. He believed this because “when the verb to sanctify was used in the New Testament, it was most often used in the aorist tense. This is a tense that indicated a ‘momentary, completed act, without reference to time.’” Wiley understood “progressive sanctification” as not something to replace instantaneous sanctification. Wiley rejected the idea that gradual sanctification meant that one would gradually become more and more holy. Wiley believed that progressive sanctification was “the temporal aspect of the work of grace in the heart, as it takes place in successive stages. Each of these stages is marked by a gradual approach and an instantaneous consummation in experience, and the stages together mark the full scope of sanctifying grace.” Quanstrom writes, “Progressive sanctification was to be strictly understood as the gradual approach in time toward the instantaneous sanctifying experience. Gradual sanctification, according to Wiley, was simply the growing awareness of the need for the instantaneous work of entire sanctification. […] Progressive sanctification was simply a term used to describe the successive instantaneous acts of God in the life of the believer. […] While much terminology, like initial, gradual, partial, or continuous seemed to indicate otherwise, there was only one way to be sanctified wholly and that was to be sanctified instantaneously.” Wiley uses the words “entire sanctification” to describe the complete removal of all sin. He describes this as “the utter destruction of the carnal mind.” Wiley also describes other positive results of being entirely sanctified, saying “While entire sanctification considered from the negative point of view is a cleansing from all sin, from the positive standpoint it is the infilling of divine love.” Quanstrom says that “According to Wiley, there were primarily three important distinctions that needed to be made in order to preserve the doctrine from some of the more popular misconceptions. The first was the distinction between purity and maturity.” Wiley wrote that “Purity is the result of a cleansing from the pollution of sin; maturity is due to growth in grace. Purity is accomplished by an instantaneous act; maturity is gradual and progressive, and is always indefinite and relative.” Wiley’s second distinction was the difference between infirmities and sins. Quanstrom says Wiley believed, “Intentional and voluntary sin brought guilt and condemnation and, as such, required repentance. Infirmities, however, were understood as involuntary and unintentional transgressions of the divine law and were a result of ignorance and weakness as a consequence of the fall of man.” The third distinction Wiley made was on the possibility of temptation. “Wiley held that all Christians, sanctified and not, were subject to temptation and that it was entirely consistent with Christina perfection since Christ himself was tempted.” Quanstrom concludes chapter four by saying, “As might be expected, the early Nazarene church was not too interested in defining their glorious doctrine in limiting terms. They were primarily interested in proclaiming the wonderful possibilities of this second work of grace. With Wiley, that had begun to change.”

Fundamentalism and the Early Nazarenes

Introduction

In studying the differences and the similarities between the beliefs of the early members of what came to be known as the Church of the Nazarene and those of what was labeled as the Fundamentalist movement of that same time period, one may come to recognize that while both groups were in agreement on many issues, perhaps even more similar than dissimilar, there were a number of issues, as evidenced in the writings of the early Nazarenes, on which the two groups differed drastically. Among these issues are seen six in particular that stand out among all the others and perhaps have caused the greatest amount of contention between the two groups.

Dr. Shelby Corlett listed five of these six issues in his April 1935 article titled “Nazarenes and the Fundamentalists” in the Herald of Holiness magazine. The first five to be addressed here are in the following issues: The “spirit” of Fundamentalism, verbal inspiration versus plenary inspiration of the Bible, the issue of eternal security, the influence of radical Calvinistic Pre-millennial positions, and the allowance made for “sin in the flesh” versus entire sanctification.[1] These five are the list that Corlett provides in regard to the major areas in which the early Nazarenes and the Fundamentalists differed. A sixth element may be added to this list for consideration, that being the issue of women in ministry.

The Spirit of Fundamentalism

One of the issues addressed by some of the early Nazarenes in regard to the differences between them and those within the Fundamentalist movement was that of the spirit of Fundamentalism in general. In the 1930s, Corlett recognized that the attitude to which many within the Fundamentalist movement were prone was one of defensiveness. They felt as though they were under attack and that one of the primary callings was to defend the fundamentals of the faith no matter what. This led to many Fundamentalists who would engage in debates and arguments of defense with those who had what was deemed more of a “modernist” perspective. This attitude tended to be rather negative and failed to produce the sort of work the Spirit that many early Nazarenes wished to see in the church. The Fundamentalists were arguing as though they were on the verge of being destroyed, almost as if they were making their last stand. This general spirit was something that a number of the early Nazarenes had an issue with. Corlett wrote in his April 1935 article titled “Nazarenes and the Fundamentalists” in the Herald of Holiness magazine, “We are not in accord with the methods of the Fundamentalist group. They are ‘Defenders’ and assume an attitude of defense in all of their endeavors. The church that is driven to a position of defense already admits defeat.”[2] Corlett argues against this posture, saying that this was not the position of the early church, and that the early church would not have made a lot of progress among the unbelievers if they had spent all their time defending their beliefs against the differing mindsets of nonbelievers.[3] He says, “They were proclaimers of the truth which to them had become real by an actual experience. They waged an offensive warfare. They attacked the enemy in his strongest positions and placed him on the defensive side.”[4] Corlett goes on to say that “The Church of the Nazarene has nothing to defend.”[5] He uses some similar language to the Fundamentalists, however, when he refers to some of the reasons why the Nazarenes are different than the Fundamentalists. He falls first upon the authority of the Bible, a Fundamentalist tendency. He says, “We have a whole Bible given by inspiration of God to present to a bewildered generation.”[6] This shows that while not being Fundamentalists, the Nazarenes still held strongly to the authority and the teachings of the Bible. Corlett also shows one of the differences between the Nazarenes and the Fundamentalists when he says, “We have a gospel to preach that not only saves a person from actual sins, but which also cleanses his nature from indwelling sin.”[7] In saying this, he is presenting his case against the teaching of the Fundamentalists that made room for sin in the life of the believer. Corlett holds to the position of the early Nazarenes by saying that the Nazarenes truly believed that one could be cleansed from sin to the point that the sinful nature or the desire to sin could actually be removed from the life of the believer so that they would no longer be conflicted in regard to the life of sin and the life filled with the Spirit. Corlett hearkens back to the position of John Wesley, saying that the goal of the Nazarene church is that of the Wesleyan position “to spread scriptural holiness over these lands.”[8] He adds that this objective will be quite difficult to accomplish if we are constantly distracted with “defending our positions.” He adds, referring to the Fundamentalists, “Let others be ‘defenders’ if they choose.”[9] He believed that the people of the Nazarene church were called to be proclaimers, rather than defenders of the faith.

While the Church of the Nazarene is not traditionally a part of the Fundamentalist movement but rather the Holiness movement, it still came into contact with and was strongly influenced by the spirit of the time in which it was conceived where the broad scope of Evangelicalism leaned towards Fundamentalism and the defense of the faith. The Nazarene church held in common many of the beliefs of those within the Fundamentalist movement, however, the church also recognized in general that what had become the Fundamentalist movement was a reaction to the modernism that was prevalent at the time.

One may see how the Fundamentalist movement came to have some significant influence over the Church of the Nazarene by reading the early literature of the church, especially the Herald of Holiness magazine during the time in which B.F. Haynes served as general editor for the publication.[10] Starting in 1913 up until the early 1920s, a number of articles ran that seemed to be in line at least in part with Fundamentalism, especially in the defense of the inerrancy of the Scriptures and in the rejection of modernism.[11] However, Haynes himself constantly criticized other elements that came to be associated with Fundamentalism, such as their rejection of the second blessing and other Calvinistic tendencies.[12] However, by the 1920s, growing support for Fundamentalism is evident, as the magazine began publishing more frequently articles which tended to use “hypostatic” language in regard to the Bible and which also insisted on the scientific accuracy of the Bible while at the same time recognizing that the Bible was not a science book.[13] Between 1923 and 1928 both the Herald of Holiness and the Preacher’s Magazine were constantly publishing articles with outright Fundamentalist messages.[14] J.B. Chapman had become the editor of both publications during this time and was a key contributor to this “Fundamentalist leavening” which began to appear.[15] He had been growing significantly in popularity within the Church, showing how the general church had begun to fall more into the Fundamentalist camp at this time, and was elected as a General Superintendent in 1928.[16]

So great was the alliance of the church with the Fundamentalist movement during this time period that at the 1928 General Superintendent Address to the Assembly, it was spoken:

Every man in this body is a fundamentalist… We believe the Bible and accept it as being the revealed Word of God, immutable, unchangeable, infallible and sufficient for every human need. A modernist would be very lonesome in this General Assembly… We stand for the Bible; we stand for the whole Bible, an immutable Bible.[17]

The church at large considered itself to be Fundamentalist, however, what was meant by this is debatable in that while the church at the time generally stood for the inerrancy of the Bible and the rejection of modernism, the church still differed from most Fundamentalists by holding to the Wesleyan belief in entire sanctification and standing against Calvinism.[18]

This Fundamentalist influence can further be seen in the change made in the wording of the Manual in the Article of Belief on Scripture. In 1928, the assembly voted without debate to add the word “inerrant” to the Article.[19] The Article now read:

We believe in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures by which we understand the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation; so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.[20]

However, it appears to have been the influence of H. Orton Wiley which caused the words “plenary inspiration” of the Bible to be used instead of “verbal inspiration.”[21] Wiley took over as editor of the Herald of Holiness upon Chapman’s election as General Superintendent.[22] He held this position from 1928 to 1936, during which time no more articles were published which spoke against modernism and leaned towards what seemed to be an idolatry of Biblicism.[23]

It was in this context that H. Orton Wiley began to emerge as a key influencer in the church who desired to help keep the Fundamentalist influence on the church under control and to remind the church of its Wesleyan roots. Although A.M. Hills had already begun writing his own systematic theology for the Nazarene church at the suggestion of his students,[24] H. Orton Wiley was commissioned in 1919 to write his own systematic theology to be officially used in pastoral education across the denomination.[25] At the time, he was president of Northwest Nazarene College, while Hills was president at Pasadena.[26] The choosing of Wiley over someone like Hills shows how while many within the church saw themselves as Fundamentalists (even within the ranks of the Generals), there was still significant leadership that felt uneasy aligning themselves completely with them. While Hills was not completely in line with Fundamentalist thinking, especially in his belief in postmillennialism,[27] he was still apparently too much of a Fundamentalist to write the church’s official theology.[28] [29] This is evidenced when he joined with Chapman in endorsing the Nazarene church’s first real case against modernism in a book by Basil Miller, published in 1925 by Nazarene Publishing House, titled Cunningly Devised Fables: Modernism Exposed and Refuted.[30] With Wiley’s Theology added to the course of study for ministers one can see an attempt by church leadership to bring the people back from Fundamentalism. Paul Bassett writes, “It remained to H. Orton Wiley both to offer a genuine Wesleyan alternative to Fundamentalism and modernism and to place the official theology of the Church of the Nazarene, if not the grass roots, back on truly orthodox turf.”[31]

Verbal versus Plenary Inspiration of the Bible

One of the most central issues in regard to the differences between the early Nazarenes and the Fundamentalist movement and one which Wiley addressed in Christian Theology was in regard to the authority of the Scriptures. Over time the early Nazarenes had to deal with how to approach the concept of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. The Nazarenes church always held to the plenary understanding which says that all of the Scriptures are inspired and contain the message of salvation, but they hesitated to say how exactly they came to be inspired. Overall, they did not feel it necessary to side with the Fundamentalists who pleaded for verbal inspiration. The Nazarene church had considered itself an ally with the Fundamentalist movement early on, but slowly began to distance itself from them because of a growing recognition of the distinct differences between the two groups. Many Fundamentalists seemed to elevate the Bible too much, to the point of perhaps deifying it. Wiley spoke out against this Biblicism, saying that the words of God must not be placed on the same level as the Word of God, which is Christ.[32] He wrote, “Not from themselves do the inspired books give forth light. The original source of the Christian knowledge of God must ever be, the Lord Jesus Christ.”[33]

Wiley went on to say that it was not just the Bible which had at times been deified throughout history, but also the Church and Reason. Wiley believed in the importance of all three, but held that at times people had used them to replace Christ himself. The modernists had deified Reason, while the Fundamentalists had deified the Bible.[34] [35] Wiley also wrote that the two warring positions on the inspiration of the Bible by the Modernists and Fundamentalists both made inadequate assumptions.[36] He believed there to be a middle ground between the two camps. The Scriptures came into being by the will of both God and man, not just by man’s intuition as the modernists tended to believe, and not just by God’s dictation as the Fundamentalists tended to believe.[37] Wiley firmly held to plenary inspiration. He wrote, “By plenary inspiration, we mean that the whole and every part is divinely inspired. This does not necessarily presuppose the mechanical theory of inspiration, as some contend, or any particular method, only that the results of that inspiration give us the Holy Scriptures as the final and authoritative rule of faith in the Church.”[38] Many, however, within the church wished to see a greater alliance with the Fundamentalists. This was mainly in regard to the understanding of the Scriptures. On some other issues, such as the issue of entire sanctification, almost all early Nazarenes disagreed with the majority Fundamentalist stance which contradicted the idea of entire sanctification.

Issue of Eternal Security

Wiley discusses the Keswick Movement in Christian Theology and some of the issues that emerged from this time period within the church. He says that, “The Keswick Movement was founded for ‘the promotion of scriptural holiness’ as stated in the invitation to the original meeting, held in Oxford in 1874.”[39] He points out that in the following year the wording was changed to the "promotion of practical holiness."[40] He indicates that the development of this idea of practical holiness rather than Scriptural holiness was how this group came to be separated from Wesleyanism. While Wiley believes that these individuals have been sincere Christians and have done good work for the church towards the salvation of souls, he also recognizes some of the more subtle differences between the groups. He says that while they condemn sin in the life of the believer and call for the abandonment of sin and the living of a holy life, they do not recognize that freedom from sin may come through a second work of grace.[41] He says, “They emphasize the necessity of an appropriation by faith, of the power of God through Christ, for both holy living and Christian service.”[42] He is saying here that this group sees holy living and abandonment of sin as something that one does because God has saved them and that holiness is seen in acts of Christian service. In other words, one shows that they are saved by doing good deeds and this is somehow equated with holiness. Wiley writes, “This enduement for service is known among them as the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and is generally regarded as being subsequent to conversion. It is not, however, in the strict sense, a work of grace, for there is no cleansing from inbred sin.”[43] He goes on to say that what they refer to as the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not to be understood, however, “in the strict sense, a work of grace, for there is no cleansing from inbred sin.”[44] In regard to inbred sin, Wiley states that this group believes that it is always present until death. He says, “It is regarded as a part of the believer's humiliation, and in a sense defiling his best deeds. It involves continuous suppression, and will continue to exist until death delivers from its defilement.”[45] Wiley says that while this group believes that “The enduement of the Spirit counteracts in some measure, the carnal mind, and assists the believer in repressing its manifestations” they do not believe in entire sanctification in the sense that the sinful nature is eradicated.[46] They believe that “the power of sin is merely broken, which Wesleyanism maintains takes place in conversion,” leaving no room for the second work of grace.[47]

Wiley states that their belief is in that of positional holiness where “The believer is holy in his ‘standing’ but not in his ‘state.’ Holiness is thus a matter of imputation instead of impartation.”[48] Wiley says that the idea that someone may experience an actual cleansing from all sin goes against the principles that this group teaches. He writes, “Actual cleansing from all sin is rejected as being out of harmony with their general principles. The ‘standing’ is eternal, and […] logically issues in the so-called doctrine of ‘eternal security.’”[49] In this way, one may see how the early Nazarenes stood in contrast to those within the Fundamentalist movement who tended towards Calvinistic understandings of salvation and who were in wide support of the Keswick Conferences because of their active stance against modernism. Nazarenes were different from Fundamentalists because Nazarenes were Wesleyan rather than Calvinist. They believed that one could be completely cleansed of all sin in this life, so that holiness was imparted rather imputed. If holiness is an impartation within the individual rather than eternally imputed position, then doctrine of eternal security has little bearing because eternal security rests solely on a positional relationship and does not adequately fit into a Wesleyan understanding of salvation or of holiness.

Even those within the Nazarene church who tended to lean towards Fundamentalism, did not fully embrace much of the Calvinism that was also associated with Fundamentalism. Bud Robinson is an example. Robinson spoke of his thoughts on the issue of eternal security, saying, “Beloved, don't you forget that when the eternal security man is telling you that nothing can separate you from God, that Old Bud said if your religion won't keep you out of sin in this world, it will not keep you out of hell in the world to come.”[50] One can see how the issue of eternal security is linked to the disagreement among Nazarenes and Fundamentalists over whether one could be freed from sin in this life or not. The defining belief of the Nazarene Church was in entire sanctification. Those who held to belief in eternal security often allowed for people to continue living in sin while believing that God would still let them into heaven anyway simply because they had prayed a prayer of salvation. Robinson continues, “There is nothing can put you in heaven but holiness. And as far as I have been able to see, the eternal security man takes no stock in holiness. Ridicule and scorn are his complete stock. What a pity!”[51] This shows a consistency among Nazarenes in the belief that only those who had been made holy by the cleansing from sin by the work of God would be able to enter into heaven. Robinson’s words also hearken back the issue of the general attitude and spirit of the Fundamentalist movement, which was an attitude of defense. Robinson recognizes here that those who have disagreed with the Nazarenes in this regard have done so defensively and by means of scorn and ridicule.

Radical Calvinistic Pre-millennial Positions

One of the issues which guided the perspective of the first members of the Nazarene church and a perspective on which most Fundamentalists differed with them was the belief in postmillennialism. Most early Nazarenes believed that the work of God in people’s lives through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in entire sanctification had the power to completely change the course of world history and bring about the establishment of Christ’s kingdom fully on earth as in heaven.[52] With the growth of the Nazarene church in the Midwest and the rise of Fundamentalism in America with strong influence over Southern and Midwestern Evangelicals entered into the Nazarene church the belief by many in pre-millennialism.[53] This perspective was not nearly as optimistic in nature and saw that the world would continue to get worse until the return of Christ. Essentially, the root of this pessimistic outlook was in the Calvinistic doubt of the ability to live a life in this world free from the power of sin through entire sanctification. The Midwestern Nazarenes clung to pre-millennialism, but they also still believed in entire sanctification, or the second blessing.[54] The belief in both positions led to a perfectionist or pietistic understanding of entire sanctification throughout the region[55] which bordered on a belief in the eternal security of salvation for those who had been entirely sanctified. From this rose the belief that once sanctified entirely it was impossible to ever sin again. One can see how this is a far cry from the original stance of the Nazarene church. According to Nazarene historian Timothy Smith, it was from this growth in the Midwest that the church began to see the influence of “Fundamentalist Wesleyans” grow in the church, especially in leadership from Texas, including future General Superintendent J.B. Chapman.[56]

In 1919, the year he was commissioned to write the official theology of the Church, H. Orton Wiley asked Olive Winchester to serve at NNC as “professor of biblical literature, academic dean, and vice-president.”[57] Matthew Price writes that “She rejected the fundamentalist notion of pre-millenialism”[58] and that she saw how faith and science could work together without reacting out of fear towards modernism.[59] In this move, Wiley showed how he was in line with the teachings of the earliest Nazarenes who also rejected pre-millennialism, but who also believed that women ought to be able to serve in positions of leadership. Wiley also showed in this act that he had no need to fear the science of modernism even if he did not agree every modernist position. Also in keeping with tradition, Winchester “held to the instantaneousness of entire sanctification.”[60]

In regard the millennium, the Nazarene church never advocated for one position over another, but allowed for people to form their own opinions on such matters contended as minor debatable issues.[61] In fact, the Manual of the Church contained the following footnote in the article of faith on “The Second Coming of Christ” from 1915-1923:

We do not, however, regard the numerous theories that gather around this Bible Doctrine as essential to salvation, and so we concede full liberty of belief among the members of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene.[62]

The church had always considered itself neutral on this issue, but it was a postmillennial perspective that was the driving force behind the mission of the earliest Nazarenes. A dispensationalist and escapist attitude which the Fundamentalists later brought into the church was not at all present.[63] The entrance of pre-millennial dispensationalism was linked with the era between the world wars in which many people, especially in the Midwest, began to lose hope that Christ’s kingdom could ever be established on earth without Christ first physically returning to reign.[64] People began to become more disillusioned with the world in general and with the establishment in particular, which led to a rise in suspicion against science and educational institutions.[65] The suspicion in regard to science and pre-millennial leanings was paired with the Fundamentalist tendency towards neo-Calvinism and verbal inerrancy of Scripture.[66] People believed that Christ’s return was imminent and that it was foolish to work towards the establishment of the millennial kingdom until he returned.[67]

“Sin in the Flesh”

As previously addressed, the perspective of the Fundamentalists was different than the early Nazarenes in regard to entire sanctification. This was the greatest difference between the two groups. One can see how a distancing from belief in this doctrine may lead one to conclude that true holiness in the believer is not possible in this life. This belief also leads to issues of the eternal security of salvation and the pessimism that drove pre-millennial dispensationalism. The key difference in opinion which may lead to such a wide difference in other beliefs has to do with the nature of sin and what place sin has in the life of the believer. The Nazarenes held that sin had no place in the life of the believer, and that with the second blessing the sinful nature itself might be removed from individuals and one might be given power from the Holy Spirit to live a life without willful sin. Wiley quotes from General Superintendent Orval Nease, saying, “Holiness is cleansing. It is that will of the Father, that provision of the Son, that act of the Holy Ghost, whereby the believer's heart, that is, his motive, his affections, his will - his entire nature, is cleansed from the pollution and the tendency to sin.”[68]

Wiley also quotes from Chapman who understands the distinction between purity and maturity which people tended to have difficulty understanding. Chapman says, “Purity may be found in the earliest moments after the soul finds pardon and peace with God. But maturity involves time and growth and trial and development.”[69] While the purity received in entire sanctification is understood as instantaneously given, there is still growth overtime as one becomes more mature as a Christian.[70] The Church of the Nazarene as a whole refused to stand down on its belief in entire sanctification even in the light of the Fundamentalist leavening at the time. Even the Fundamentalist Nazarenes held to this belief. While some Fundamentalist Nazarenes misunderstood it and began preaching perfectionism,[71] many still held on to the belief of the church, such as Bud Robinson, who wrote, “To teach that a man could not sin if he wanted to is unscriptural and unreasonable, for we all know that if a person wants to sin, he can sin. But it is scriptural and reasonable to teach that a man can have so much of the grace of God in his heart that he has no desire to sin.”[72] This perspective differed from the Fundamentalists who believed that one could only attain this kind of perfection upon death and entrance into heaven. This belief that one could never be truly holy in this life is probably the most important difference between the two groups and is key to understanding the other differences.

Women in Ministry

Early on in the history of the Church of the Nazarene, it was common for women to be serving as ministers. Much of the work done in the early 1900s in Los Angeles to people groups such as the Mexicans and the Chinese was handled by women in ministry.[73] This work was going on at the same time as P.F. Bresee’s work in Los Angeles and within the timeframe of the Azusa Street revival.[74]

While women were always accepted into ministry early on in the church’s history, a change took place over time where one is able to chart a significant decrease of women in ministry in the Nazarene Church. It has been argued that the reason for this decline was due to the influx of people from a more fundamentalist standpoint entering into the Nazarene church over time.[75] These people over time came to influence the church at least in part with their projections of a more literalist hermeneutic when it came to the Scriptures and what Paul had to say about women in the church.[76]

While the Fundamentalist leavening began to take its toll on the number of women entering into the ministry and the number of churches who accepted women as pastors, the denomination overall held strongly to the belief that women had the right to preach. Four times, between the years 1922 and 1943,[77] did individuals within the general assembly attempt to point out a conflict with the church’s position and the position of Paul in the New Testament, and “[e]ach time, the official answer declared that the calling of the Spirit is not limited by gender or race and that the historical position of ordaining women is faithful to the gospel.”[78] According to Stan Ingersol, the intentions of P.F. Bresee when he started the Church in Los Angeles were “that women's right to preach and pursue ordination was sufficiently safeguarded so long as apostolicity was the hallmark of the church's ministry.”[79] Even J.B. Chapman, who at times strongly leaned toward Fundamentalism, always believed that women should be allowed the right to preach. He wrote, “The fact is that God calls men and women to preach the gospel, and when He does so call them, they should gladly obey Him and members of the church and of the ministry should encourage and help them in the fulfillment of their task.”[80] This support for women in ministry was a very important difference between the early Nazarenes and the more mainline evangelical fundamentalist groups. Ingersol again writes, “The inclusion of women was not simply an add-on to traditional notions of Christian ministry but represented an altogether radically different doctrine of ministry held by the more progressive Holiness churches.”[81]

Conclusion

In conclusion, Dr. Corlett’s assessment of the differences between the early Nazarenes and the Fundamentalists appears to be accurate. While there was a Fundamentalist leavening that began to take place in the decades after the church began and to a certain extent still holds influence over the church to this day, the Nazarene Church managed to officially hold to the spirit of the beliefs which saw the Church at its beginning, mainly on the issue of entire sanctification, but also in regard to the authority of the Scripture, general rejection of Calvinistic tendencies, neutrality on the Millennial perspectives, and irrepressible support for the ordination of women in the Church.




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[1] Dr. Shelby Corlett. “Nazarenes and the Fundamentalists,” Herald of Holiness, (April 1935).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Paul Merritt Bassett. The Fundamentalist Leavening of the Holiness Movement, 1914-1940. The Church of the Nazarene: A Case Study. The International Church of the Nazarene Website. <http://www.nazarene.org>.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Paul Bassett writes:
“To be sure, Hills is outside the camp of the Fundamentalists, generally speaking, with respect to the millennium, for most of them were pre-millennialists and he was unabashedly post-millennial, and he admits that ‘we no longer have an absolutely inerrant Bible.’ But his mode of argument, ‘proofs’ of inspiration and authority, and theological method all mark him off as belonging among them.”
[30] Ibid.
[31] Ibid.
[32] H. Orton Wiley. Christian Theology. Nazarene Publishing House, Kansas City, Missouri, 1940, ch. 6.
[33] Ibid.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Wiley argues that it was the Church that had been elevated during the Roman Catholic era.
[36] Wiley., ch. 7.
[37] Ibid.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Wiley., ch. 29.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Ibid.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Ibid.
[44] Ibid.
[45] Ibid.
[46] Ibid.
[47] Ibid.
[48] Ibid.
[49] Ibid.
[50] Bud Robinson. Religion, Philosophy, and Fun. Beacon Hill Press, Kansas City, Missouri, 1942.
[51] Ibid.
[52] Dr. Mark Quanstrom. A Century of Holiness Theology. Nazarene Publishing House, Kansas City, Missouri, 2004.
[53] Timothy L. Smith, Ph.D. Called Unto Holiness. The Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years. Nazarene Publishing House, Kansas City, Missouri, 1962.
[54] Ibid.
[55] Timothy L. Smith, Ph.D. Nazarenes And the Wesleyan Mission: Can We Learn from Our History? Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, 1979.
[56] Smith. Called Unto Holiness. The Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years.
[57] J. Matthew Price. We Teach Holiness: The Life and Work of H. Orton Wiley (1877-1961). Holiness Data Ministry, Digital Edition, Sept. 29, 2006.
[58] Ibid.
[59] Ibid.
[60] Ibid.
[61] Quanstrom.
[62] Ibid.
[63] Smith. Nazarenes And the Wesleyan Mission: Can We Learn from Our History?
[64] Smith. Called Unto Holiness. The Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years.
[65] Ibid.
[66] Smith. Nazarenes And the Wesleyan Mission: Can We Learn from Our History?
[67] Smith. Called Unto Holiness. The Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years.
[68] Wiley., ch. 30.
[69] Wiley., ch. 29.
[70] Ibid.
[71] Smith. Called Unto Holiness. The Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years.
[72] Robinson.
[73] Dr. Charles Perabeau. “Scholar Week Presentation: The Church of the Nazarene in the U.S.: Race, Class, and Gender and Aspirations Toward Respectability.” (presented at Olivet Nazarene University, Bourbonnais, Illinois, April 19, 2012).
[74] Ibid.
[75] Ibid.
[76] Ibid.
[77] Richard W. Houseal, Jr., B.A. “Women Clergy in the Church of the Nazarene: An Analysis of Change from 1908 to 1995. A Thesis in Sociology.” (Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of arts Kansas City, Missouri, 1996.)
[78] Ibid.
[79] Stan Ingersol. “Your daughters shall prophesy.” Holiness Today, (March 2000).
[80] Dr. Janine T. Metcalf. “From Rhetoric to Reality: Putting into Practice Our Century-Old Polity of Gender Partnership in Ministry.” The International Church of the Nazarene Website. <http://www.nazarene.org>.
[81] Ingersol.