Martyn Percy, Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon and professor at King’s College and Heythrop College London, and the Church of England’s Oxford Ministry Course (for equipping ordinands), adds to his publications on theology and the Anglican Communion. Shaping the Church is presented as a sequel to his interdisciplinary ecclesiological proposal, Engaging with Contemporary Culture (2005). The earlier publication presents ecclesiology in conversation with anthropology, sociology and cultural studies whilst the book currently under review explores ecclesiology in relation to sacramentality, church growth, and ministry/practical pastoral theology particularly when these areas concern church missions, leadership formation and church polity within the Anglican Communion, especially in England. This book makes at least three important contributions to ecclesiology: Percy offers his insights on constructing an ecclesial theology (that listens to culture, theology, pastoral and congregations), on reframing church growth in a culture of consumerism, and on sustaining Anglican unity amidst problems that threatened to divide this global communion.

First, Percy argues for the importance of theologizing from the ground up (what he calls implicit theology) rather than the dominant approach of theologizing from official documents and texts, and with this proposal, he indirectly corrects a common perspective that theology is meaningful only when performed by clerics and/or professional theologians. According to Percy, “implicit theology … is deduced from operant religious practice rather than formal religious propositions” (p.6). Official theological statements often do not determine how churches engage culture. Percy rightly observes that beliefs and practices at the ground are often a result of theology lived in culture (albeit without passing the rigor of theologians’ processes) and as such the churches’ emergent experiences are “natural texts” for theological reflection. Implicit theology opens up vistas for examining the perplexing reality of church life, thereby providing possibilities for reconfiguring ecclesial life and a theology of the church. Simply put, practical theology has much to say to the systematic theological reflection of ecclesiology because culture interfaces with theology and church life more often than has been acknowledged by academic theologians. For instance, Percy traces three different views of baptism and shows that each position reveals a nascent theory of how churches shaped their own identity, which is not written in official documents. Percy also shows how culture influences churches’ views on the theology and practice of confirmation and/or conversion—which becomes crucial as churches think about their role in the process of discipleship.

Second, Percy reframes a theology of church growth against the backdrop of recent alternative church growth practices found in England (known by the name, “Fresh Expressions”). As secularity becomes the dominant character that defines society and as Christian signs and practices lose their grip on society (which is fast becoming secular), declining church attendance is to be expected. But the Principal suggests that the data is no cause for alarm. Even if people do not attend churches, they still relate to the church indirectly. While Grace Davie (1994) describes this ambivalent group as those in the camp of “believing but not belonging” (p.47), Percy calls them those who are “relating and mutating” (p.52). Even if people do not attend churches, they implicitly relate to the church; only very few people would choose to have absolutely no relationship with the church; and so the statistics of declining church attendance barely paints an accurate picture of membership and/or the organic growth of Christianity in these churches. He further demonstrates from the history of English Christianity that the English believe in God but are not active in the church—they support the church from outside and not as pillars of the church (p.60-61). On that note, Percy urges that churches should relax rather than to be uptight about employing aggressive church growth strategies; they should trust the resilience of religion to work itself out. He however reminds the churches that they must respond to society by offering ministry to those in need.

Martyn Percy, Power and the Church: Ecclesiology in an Age of Transition (London and Herndon, Va.: Cassell, 1998), xv + 239 pages, ISBN 9780304701070.

Widely published in the area of conservative religion in general and conservative Christianity in particular, theologian Martyn Percy turns in this book to questions concerning the nature of power in the church. Whereas chapter one discusses various models for understanding power in religion, chapters two and three proceed to analyze power in the New Testament. Two controversial arguments are advanced: first, that the healings and miracles of Jesus are intended not first and foremost as benefits for believers (as understood by upper middle class Euroamerican Christians in general and by Prosperity Gospelers specifically) but as signs of the gospel directed toward the outsider, the poor and the needy—the “politically, socially and religiously disadvantaged” (p. 28) as Percy puts it; and second, that apostolic power in the early Church is understood best in terms of wisdom and weakness.

Other chapters proceed to analyze the notion of power in as it operates in fundamentalistic Christianity (of which Percy includes—even if finally problematically in this reviewer’s perspective—Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement); the nature of power expressed as violence in new religious movements; the idea of pilgrimage as seen in the Toronto Blessing phenomenon, particularly the ways in which spiritual power becomes a commodity that is acquired through certain practices in this framework; the bureaucratization of power in Anglicanism (Percy’s own church); the embodied, somatic and even erotic nature of power as experienced in Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity in general and in the Pentecostal-charismatic worship experience in particular; the uneven and gendered distribution of power in the increasingly pluralizing Anglican tradition; and the perpetuation of power in experiential religion through the ideology of anti-intellectualism which discourages critical questioning in order to support the status quo.

An introduction and a conclusion round out this volume of previously published and collected essays. In the conclusion, Percy devotes a section to suggesting an alternative theological account of divine power than that discussed in the book: process theology’s emphasis on God working through luring rather than directly. But this complicates Percy’s task and raises questions about who his intended audience is. Mainline Protestants sympathetic to the process theological vision are going to have to work hard to get through all the chapters on the Pentecostal-charismatic movement, and Pentecostals and charismatics who may stand to gain something from Percy’s analyses will be put off by his recoursing to process theology at the end. The other critical question concerns the “ecclesiology” (doctrine of the church) in the book’s title and subtitle, which does not receive substantive elaboration. Percy’s focus ultimately falls on attempting to understand power in religion, and he does not set out a coherent statement about power in the Church as readers are initially led to believe. Hints in the conclusion are that Percy advocates embracing some sort of postmodern identity for Christianity, and hence also for ecclesiology. Is this simply because of the preference for plurality and diversity? What does this mean for the future of Roman Catholic Christianity, then (mentioned only in passing in a few places in the volume)? Here would be material for case studies which would have complemented the volume. But perhaps that could be the topic of a future book on religion and power.

It is clear that Percy is at home with sociological and phenomenological analyses as he is with theological assessment. But do not be mistaken: there is plenty of theological meat in these pages for perceptive theological readers. While readers of this journal will certainly note even from this brief summary that Percy’s perspective and agenda with regard to the Pentecostal-charismatic world is a critical one, they will benefit from it if they have some theological background and are willing to be learn from an outsider’s viewpoint. Of course, there is always the other side to any story, even if the other sides to Percy’s subjects are not sufficiently acknowledged. But if good books are discussion starters, then my guess will be that this book will prove to start many, given its provocative take on the wide spectrum of the Pentecostal-charismatic experience.

Reviewed by Amos Yong

Publisher’s page: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/power-and-the-church-9780304701056/