This paper on the transforming power of the story of Jesus was presented by James Purves as a guest lecture on April 9, 2003, at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague. The full title was “Pursuing the glory and goodness: Christomorphism: Where neopentecostal and anabaptist meet?”

Introduction

The approach here offered is dogmatic rather than systematic: our method lies in identifying the essential ‘building blocks’ of Christian theology, not designing a complete system. The propriety of constructing a contextualised, narrative theology is allowed for; but subject to it having, as prolegomena, an adequate dogmatic foundation. It is the nature of that dogmatic foundation that we seek to address.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Part 1: The Story

The glory

At the age of 19 the realisation of a living Jesus impacted me, during a student outreach meeting, six months prior to my conversion. The sense of God’s glory, at variously times since described by me as ‘being born again’, ‘filled’ or ‘baptised’ by the Holy Spirit, overwhelmed me at conversion. It seemed that God’s presence came down with an experience of energy, of presence and power passing in and through my body. Involuntary shaking filled the room when I met with another in prayer. Convictions formed within me that God was saying certain things. A hunger for Scripture, prayer, fellowship and an appetite for witnessing gripped me. In the context of revival in the university’s Faculty of Law, I was inducted into a spirituality that embraces glossolalia, prophetic utterance, healing and deliverance ministry as normative to the Christian life.

At the same time, I was mixing with a peer group who were shaped by the Charismatic renewal movement of the mid-1970’s. Introduced to a biography of Edward Irving[1], a famous preacher whose sermons gripped London society in the early 1800’s, and whose reflections in Christology and Pneumatology prefigured those of both later Holiness and Pentecostal theologians, I also became involved in a sacramental and liturgical traditional of healing and deliverance ministry, connected with the Scottish Iona Community.

Two years after conversion, I was a ministerial candidate for the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, already trying to deal with a tension between:

1. A Federal Calvinism, emphasising Atonement through Christ’s propitiatory, substitutionary Sacrifice. This was allied to an Augustinian anthropology, emphasising Christ potest non peccare, set over against the mass of sinful humanity, non potest non peccare. Christ’s sinless humanity was presented as essentially different to ours. I was taught that, through the atoning power of the Cross, we receive the benefits of Christ, specifically through salvation imparted through my credal confession of the revelation of Christ as Saviour, grace for this life dispensed through the continuing ministry of Word and Sacraments.
2. An understanding and ownership of the implication of the assumed humanity of Jesus Christ, as explored by Edward Irving, focussing on the Incarnation as the wellhead of atoning power, as expressed in Athanasius’ De Incarnatione, further looking to the Irenaean model of recapitulation, which emphasised that Christ shared the whole experience of our own humanity.

There was, in these early days of my theological formation and, indeed, throughout the period of preparation for ministry, no consolidated, ontological understanding of what it means for us to share in the life of Christ. Expectation of sharing in the experience of Christ was diminished by a stress, arising out of Bezan Calvinism, of Atonement properly understood as propitiatory sacrifice. Sacramentalism, in the Reformed as well as the Catholic setting, had domesticated the modus operandi of the empowering, purposeful presence of God. My ministerial mentors impressed upon me, as a young pastor, that it was through the faithful, weekly exercise of the ministry of Word and Sacraments that the means of promoting Christian witness and fulfilling the Church’s missional purpose was pursued. As one of my predecessors in my present charge, Bristo Baptist Church (founded 1765) was fond of saying, ‘we are evangelical but not evangelistic’. This was not meant as a confession of shame: it was a positive affirmation of a philosophy of ministry that validated the weekly ministry of Word and Sacraments.

The Goodness

Goodness? Apart from seeking to be pleasant and caring as occasion required, it was only of real concern if it would help lead a person into wanting to know more about Jesus, a prelude to their conversion.

Part 2: Questions

What if ‘glory’ and ‘goodness’ are, in fact, integrally related components? What if this is something that God has ordained as necessary for us, in order to share in His missional purpose for a renewed humanity, sharers in the divine nature? What if the essence of Christian faith and living is not, in fact, related to an individualistic ownership of Cartesian, propositional truths; but more foundationally related to our engagement with the substance of the glory and goodness of God, alone through which we come to a proper engagement with his very great and precious promises?

Can we not encourage this dual axis of awareness, that is captured in 2 Peter 1:3 – the glory (ontological awareness) and the goodness (ethical awareness) – in the reading and application of Scripture? Before looking to how we might do this, let us first clarify the dogmatic basis on which we would seek to build our hermeneutic.

Part 3: Dogmatic foundations

1. Truth is found in the context of God’s relating to people and the responding relating of people to God and, consequentially, people to people. Jesus is this truth, because He prototypical and paradigmatic of all these relationships.

We can only engage in theology out off this relationship, which is a process of our moving out off subjective, existential perceptions regarding ourselves and God, into relational dynamic anchored in Jesus Christ. Both the catalyse and paradigm for this is Jesus. In Jesus, we meet with mankind truly relating to God. In Jesus we meet with the One who is fully embraced in God’s relating becomingness to us and man’s responsive desire for God. In Jesus we meet with our humanity embraced and saturated in the glory and goodness that comes from God alone. This reciprocity of God’s becomingness to man and man’s response of surrender, in his desire for God, is founded for us in the vicarious humanity of Jesus Christ.

3. This God who, through Christ, enrols us in His dynamic relationships defines Himself in relational terms. The key passage of Exodus 34.6-7a, is seminal here. As with Moses, we can only know God in and through seeking relationship with Him and His glory; and in being confronted with the self-disclosure of God in His goodness: And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in merciful love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

The truth of the One who declares ‘I am who I am’ is found only when we are arrested and constrained by these dynamic characteristics of His goodness; and it is when these dynamic characteristics of His goodness are combined with the presence of His glory, the weight of His presence met with and embraced, that we enter into and are enabled by God in a manner true to His revelation in Jesus. All we need for life and godliness are this glory and goodness (2 Peter 1.3-4). Indeed, the full nature of the vicarious, atoning death of Christ can only be sufficiently grasped when we view it terms predicative of our humanity’s engagement with the relational intent of God’s character, in terms of compassion, grace, merciful love, faithfulness and forgiveness.

5. My relationships with others will be decisively shaped by my grasp of this identify that God invites me to embrace in Christ, recipient of and participant in His glory and goodness. Where my identity and self-understanding is firmly grounded in Christ, this will decisively shape the priority I give to seeking the presence of His glory and, at the same time, responding to His call to reflect the character of God’s goodness towards others.

Part 4: The hermeneutical challenge

To encourage people to engage with this dual axis that is captured in 2 Peter 1:3 – the glory (ontological dynamic) and the goodness (ethical dynamic), we need to engage with the Scriptures in a way that draws people into the process of discipleship that is centred on the vicarious humanity of Jesus Christ. For this, we would want to apply a condensed, prognostic question that addresses the basic, Biblical hermeneutic:

• Who were the people this Scriptural passage was first delivered to? Why was it addressed to them? What could this Scripture have meant to them?

However, in order to apply the dynamic of a Christomorphic life, we must go further than that. We have to look for a contextual application that allows for the glory and the goodness of God to be outworked in and through our ministry.

One way of doing this might be in asking the following questions.

‘Through the reading of this passage, in what way does the Word of God:

• confront me with our heavenly Father’s intent to bring the fullness of His glory and goodness to earth?
• challenge me to give myself more fully into the life of God’s Son, “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”?
• encourage me to recognise or further seek, as one among God’s people, the enabling presence of the Holy Spirit?’

It seems no accident that so much early preaching of the Scriptures was heavily allegorical, or that early, pre-Nicene formulations of the Trinity were emphatically economic. What mattered was the pursuit of Christomorphism: becoming more like Christ. In reading the Scriptures, it was the presence and pattern of Christ that was constantly looked for, the enabling of the Holy Spirit that was sought, the glory and goodness of Father that was acknowledged.

Where neopentecostal and anabaptist meet?

Neopentecostals have alerted the world afresh to the glory of God come to earth in and through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Unashamedly experiential, they look with expectancy for God’s glory to come among them; and many of us have witnessed, participated in the reality of God’s present glory through the power of the Holy Spirit and been blessed by God because of it.

Image: Yuriy Bogdanov

PR

Notes

[1] [Editor’s note: For more on Edward Irving see Derek Vreeland, “Edward Irving: Preacher, Prophet and Charismatic Theologian” and Trevor W. Martindale, “Edward Irving’s Incarnational Christology,” along with many other resources at PneumaReview.com.]

As a writer of both fiction and non-fiction (and an English teacher), I have read countless books on writing, but I’ve never read one quite like Jen’s (full disclosure: I know Jen from various conferences and as a recipient of a grant from a foundation that I am an officer of).

As I was saying, Jen’s book is unique. Several things make it so: first, it’s a book on writing, yet it doesn’t touch on grammar or style (she admittedly leaves that for others, some of whom she recommends); second, it is not just a book, it’s a workbook—so expect some interacting exercises (one criticism: the exercises could be a bit more vigorous and challenging; perhaps they were written for a seminar she teaches, which might require more abbreviated exercises); third, the book is written from a thoroughly Christian perspective (one might even say a Charismatic perspective); fourth, Jen, although an academic, becomes a coach, and waxes pastoral at times.

The genius of Jen’s approach is attributable to the third and fourth items, as Jen becomes to the reader the Charismatic coach, full of passion and inspiration, driving the reader to, well, write!

But first, a physical description of the contents: Writing in the Glory is composed of eight parts (counting the Introduction and Epilogue), which are composed of 34 chapters. Most chapters are very short; some with only one paragraph before getting to the “Activation” section, which is Jen’s term for exercises, yet the term means so much more to the Christian writer. For example, in the first chapter, “Writing in the Anointing,” the reader is advised to “Take a few minutes now to surrender your book to the Lord” (20). We are urged to invite the presence of the Holy Spirit, not just on our writing but on us! This technique/perspective transforms the book into a person-centered rather than product-centered workbook.

Of course the product is important, but it is subservient to the servant of God who is bowed to His will and anointing. A wonderful product does not issue from a producer who has no intimacy with and knowledge of his/her Creator. Or, in Jen’s words, “greater anointing and power will come when that book is birthed from a place of intimacy with God” (21).

Perhaps no chapter focuses as much on the writer as the chapter titled “You Were Born for This” (29-33). Here, Jen passionately coaches, “There is destiny in the message you carry. Nothing is by accident. … God has been preparing you to write and release the masterpiece inside of you. You are simply embarking on the journey of discovering what He has already formed within you” (29).

In Formed for the Glory of God: Learning from the Spiritual Practices of Jonathan Edwards, Kyle Strobel aims to set forth an evangelical understanding of spiritual formation as inspired by Jonathan Edwards, an eighteenth century Puritan. Spiritual formation is “how Christ forms us by his Spirit that we may live a life for his glory” (p. 14). It is a continual journey that is focused on God, rather than a quick fix that is focused on self. Strobel divides his book into two parts. Part one paints the big picture of the path down which we travel as we aim to live for God’s glory. Part two describes the tools that are given for this journey.

In part one, Strobel identifies the destination of spiritual formation, the path to this destination, and how to walk this path well. The destination of this path is heaven, which is not the end of growth but rather a place where we continue to grow in our relational knowledge of God by seeing him more clearly. Seeing him makes us perfectly happy because the purpose of our lives is to know and love him.

The path to this destination is salvation, which goes beyond forgiveness to include continuous communion with God, in Christ and by the Spirit, as our glorious and beautiful Father. Since he is perfectly good and beautiful, his glory begins with glorifying himself, and extends to draw us into the love relationship within the Trinity. In Strobel’s words, “God knows and loves himself infinitely, enjoys and delights in his own life fully for eternity, and now calls us into that life,” which is a life characterized by beauty (p. 49). This beauty is “primarily a personal and relational reality” wherein we are “captivated, from the depths of [our] heart, by the other person” (p. 50).

Walking this path well involves orienting not only our minds towards God but also our affections because in salvation the Spirit changes our entire beings, not just a part of us. Orienting our affections to God means “having [our] heart inclined to [God] as beautiful” (p. 57). Edwards said that in order to walk in this way we must constantly see and taste God’s glory and beauty.

Overall, Strobel mines the depths of Edwards’s view of spiritual formation in a way that makes it accessible to readers today. Those wanting to begin or revitalize their devotional practices by grounding them in Scripture and learning from the saints of old (notably, those from a tradition that is known for its emphasis on the importance of spiritual formation as experiencing communion with God on a personal and practical level) would benefit from reading this work, regardless of denominational or academic background. In light of other contemporary books about spiritual disciplines that I have read, Edwards’s view and Strobel’s appropriation of Edwards regarding the topic at hand stands out as one that maintains a balance between God’s role and ours, Scripture and experience, and the mind and affections. Evangelicals today would do well to learn from the Puritans in this area and Strobel’s book provides an excellent starting point.

Reviewed by Jenny-Lyn de Klerk

Publisher’s page: http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=5653

Preview Formed for the Glory of God: https://books.google.com/books/about/Formed_for_the_Glory_of_God.html?id=PFjgAk_XxK0C

This chapter is from Paul L. King’s book Only Believe: Examining the Origins and Development of Classic and Contemporary Word of Faith Theologies.

Several years ago I read St. John of the Cross on mortification of self and at the same time read Robert Schuller on self-esteem. I learned from both, even though the writings of these two authors are poles apart. Both teach elements of truth, but both represent opposite extremes. The dynamic tension of the counter-polarities needs to be kept in balance. If self-esteem is taught without the cross, the believer’s thought and practice are skewed and become egocentric. If death to self is taught without understanding the believer’s exalted position in Christ, the believer’s thought and practice are again skewed and susceptible to self-centered spiritual flagellation. The key to healthy Christian living and faith is to hold these two truths in balance.¹ However, in relation to faith teaching, claiming the believer’s inheritance would seem to be at odds with dying to one’s self. How can the two seemingly contradictory concepts be reconciled?

In reality, healthy faith must maintain a healthy blend of both dying to self and claiming the rights and privileges of the believer. The message of the crucified life is the one element often missing from modern faith teaching and practice, thus breaking down the dynamic tension. Kenneth Hagin does not negate the cross, but believes it has been over-emphasized to the neglect of the abundant life in Christ: “The trouble with us is that we have preached a ‘cross’ religion, and we need a ‘throne’ religion. … The cross is actually a place of defeat, whereas the Resurrection is a place of triumph. When you preach the cross, you are preaching death, and you leave people in death. We died all right, but we’re raised with Christ.”² The classic faith leaders of the Keswick and Higher Life movements would agree that we need a throne religion, but not to the neglect of the cross. Without the cross life the emphasis on obtaining the promised blessings of God is out of balance and susceptible to egocentricism and distortion.

Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Via Wikimedia Commons.

Martin Luther distinguished a theology of glory (theologia gloria) from a theology of the cross (theologia crucis). The theology of glory “is concerned primarily with God and his glory, whereas the other sees God as hidden in his suffering.”³ According to Luther, man prefers the theology of glory or triumphalism because it exalts man: “He prefers works to suffering, glory to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly, and in general, good to evil.”⁴ In contrast, the emphasis of the New Testament exalts the humbling of Christ and denial of self: “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8, NASB).

A. B. Simpson (1843-1919), founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
Via Wikimedia Commons.

Luther further declared, in contrast to some modern faith thought, that “God can only be found in suffering and the cross. … Therefore the friends of the cross say that the cross is good and works are evil, for through the cross works are dethroned and the old Adam, who is especially edified by works, is crucified. It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his good works unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God’s.”⁵ Other mystics likewise emphasized the life of the cross. Fenelon avowed, “We are nothing without the cross.”⁶ Thomas a Kempis likewise observed centuries ago, “The Lord has many lovers of His crown but few lovers of His cross.”⁷

Darrell W. Johnson, The Glory of Preaching: Participating in God’s Transformation of the World (IVP Academic, 2009), 278 pages, ISBN 9780830838530.

With the massive growth in multimedia ministries, it might seem that preaching could go the way of vinyl LPs and telegrams. However, in The Glory of Preaching, Darrell W. Johnson not only aims to convince us that preaching has not lost any of its wonder but that, by standing up to preach, we have the opportunity to participate in this wonder each and every week.

In part 1, we are given the theoretical reasons behind the importance of preaching, based on his hypothesis that “When a human being … invites the gathered assembly into a particular text of the Bible … something always happens” (p. 7). The first two chapters of this part take the form of extended expositions of two key Bible chapters, Ezekiel 37 and Matthew 13. Taken together, these two chapters not only give us a glimpse of the redemptive power of preaching but of reasons why we may not see the expected results after every sermon. The fourth chapter takes a different angle by providing a useful and inspiring study of the Greek words used to refer to preaching and the dynamics of the preaching moment that they represent.

The only flaw in this section is that, whereas three of the four chapters rely on direct examination of the Word of God, the third chapter takes a more indirect route and focuses exclusively on the views of theologians. While theological reflection on preaching is welcome and necessary, it would have been useful to relate the theological positions to biblical examples. The thesis of this chapter is that expository preaching, where a sermon examines a single biblical text, rather than a theme or principle, is superior to other preaching methodologies such as narrative and topical preaching (pp. 53-55). Such a position is surely hard to defend scripturally, given the wide variety of preaching styles used by both Jesus and His disciples.

For a number of readers, part 2 will be welcomed as one of the most straightforward sections of the book to apply to the practice of preaching. Here the author deals with the mechanics (his term, see pp. 103-104) of creating a sermon from a Biblical text and backing up your words with Biblical integrity.

In the first chapter of this section (chapter 5), the author walks us through the broad steps of sermon creation from scripture selection to finding the right ways to express the sermon’s content. For each step in the process, we are given a number of questions to guide our thinking. Of course, some of these will be more relevant to some texts and even congregations than others. For instance, the precise nuances of the prepositions used in a text may be less relevant when preaching to a church with a large proportion of new believers. However, these guides, if used wisely will give any preacher an excellent foundation for text study.

Chapter 6 moves us to the ordering of the sermon by providing a wide range of sample structures that can be used. These will be useful for both inexperienced and mature preachers alike and, when combined with the study methods outlined in the previous chapter will form a powerful addition to a preacher’s toolkit. We are also reminded of the oral nature of preaching and the effects this might have on preparation and on the creation of the notes that are taken up to the pulpit.

Peter Hocken, The Glory and the Shame: Reflections on the 20th-Century Outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Gildford, UK: Eagle, 1994).

The Glory and the Shame is perhaps the most outstanding piece of Christian historical interpretation produced in recent decades. It covers the major outpourings of the Holy Spirit in the recent century, from Azusa Street to the charismatic movement, to the contemporary expansion of the “non-denominational,” Spirit-filled churches. Father Hocken rightly sees them all as manifestations of the same Holy Spirit. In this he continues the theme developed in his earlier work on the charismatic renewal One Lord, One Spirit, One Body (Gaithersburg: The Word Among Us, 1987) which dealt with the charismatic movement as an ecumenical force.

Fr. Hocken is one of the pioneer scholars of the Catholic charismatic renewal, entering the movement in 1971. He helped edit the Catholic ecumenical journal One In Christ, and also served as Secretary of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. He has written many scholarly articles for its journal, PNEUMA. A devout Roman Catholic, Fr. Hocken has been a long time resident at Mother of God covenant community in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

However, Hocken’s Catholicism does not obscure the deep respect he has for other Christian denominations, nor does it blind him to some of the extremes of Catholic piety. In a passage in The Glory and the Shame that must have been particularly difficult for him to write, Fr. Hocken chides some of the Catholic charismatics:

One particular danger [of the Catholic charismatic renewal]…is the combination among some Catholics of a charismatic emphasis on contemporary revelation and a Marian devotion of a strongly apocalyptic character. In some places, this combination has almost taken over and displaced Catholic charismatic renewal. Its fruits appear to be highly questionable…Instead of their renewal experience opening them to the saving work of Jesus on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit to transform, they have majored on revelations and messages. (p.188)

Hocken’s gentle by effective critical/prophetic attitude is evident throughout the entire work. He writes in the opening chapter:

It is important to reflect with open hearts and critical discernment upon this extraordinary phenomenon [i.e., the Pentecostal outpourings]. Simply to be critical is to risk missing the glory and the grace; but to be enthusiastic without discernment risks welcoming the viruses that obscure the glory and sully the grace. (p. 11)

Father Peter Hocken, pictured here at the Society for Pentecostal Studies convention in March 2014, has been active in the charismatic movement since 1971.

Most Christian histories of the Pentecostal revival or charismatic renewal have been apologetic. Their purpose has been to explain the Spirit-filled movements to a skeptical Christian public, or supply basic histories to Spirit-filled readers. Recently I eagerly purchased a new volume by a noted Charismatic historian (best left unnamed) which dealt with an important Spirit-filled para-church ministry. It was embarrassingly hagiographic in spite of the fact that the organization was undergoing considerable decline, and suffering from internal divisions. It was as if the Bible told of King David’s rule without the story of his adultery or the rebellion of his son. Christian historians could do no better than to follow Hocken’s example which evenhandedly describes the grace (glory) of the renewal, but shows also its sin (shame). Glory and the Shame is especially welcome to those us who have been long time charismatics and have been embarrassed by the excesses and scandals of the 1980s.