The Women of the Reformation, Part IV

Reformation historian Roland Bainton proposed that the Reformation had a primary effect on the role of women in society. The dropping of monasticism in Protestant lands “made for the exaltation of the home, the especial domain of the wife, as the sphere for exercise of the gentler virtues of the Sermon on the Mount. In Catholic thought these have been called the counsels of perfection to be observed by monks. Protestantism made no distinction between the counsels to be observed by the few and the precepts binding upon all. The entire Christian ethic was held to be incumbent upon every believer.”[i]

Reformation Wives: Daughters of the King of Kings

Ruth Tucker explains the impact of this titanic change upon marital relationships. “For the first generation of Protestants, marriage was a far more significant decision than it was in the generations that followed. Renouncing celibacy was viewed by the Catholics as giving in to the sin of lust.”[ii] For the leading male Reformers, the decision whether or not to marry was thus mired in complexity, culture, and conflict. For the women who married them, the nature of their husband-wife relationship was equally multifaceted.

Katherine von Bora Luther: Sticking to Christ and Ministering to Christians

Katherine von Bora is the best known of all the women of the Reformation because she was Martin Luther’s wife. However, she was much more than that. Katherine was born in January 1499 in a little village near Leipzig. Her parents enjoyed a degree of financial security and unlike most girls her age she received an education, studying at a Benedictine school beginning at age six. At age ten, when her mother died and her father remarried, they sent Katherine to a Cistercian convent to prepare for solemn vows, eventually taking them when she was sixteen.[iii]

In the early 1520s, Luther’s writings began to infiltrate monastic houses. “The sisters at Nimschen, nine of them, disquieted in conscience, sought his counsel. Luther advised escape and undertook to make the arrangements.”[iv] Luther turned to a highly trusted layman, Leonard Kopp, who delivered barrels of smoked herrings to the nuns. Hidden in the covered wagon, they rumbled into Wittenberg. A student there wrote to a friend, “A wagon load of vestal virgins has just come to town all more eager for marriage than for life. May God give them husbands lest worse befall.”[v]

Luther felt responsible that worse should not befall. All were placed either in teaching posts, in homes, or in matrimony. Katherine spent two years working in a home while Luther sought a husband for her. Finding no match, and at her initial suggestion, Luther agreed to marry Katherine because his marriage “would please his father, rile the pope, make the angels laugh and the devils weep, and would seal his testimony.”[vi] She was twenty-six; he was forty-two.

Though initially a marriage of convenience, they grew to love and depend upon each other profoundly. In fact, Luther would say of her, “In domestic affairs, I defer to Katie. Otherwise I am led by the Holy Ghost.”[vii] When he thought her at the point of death, he pleaded, “Don’t die and leave me.”[viii] Thirteen years after their marriage, Martin would say of Katherine, “If I should lose my Katie I would not take another wife through I were offered a queen.”[ix]

What was it about Katherine’s character and ministry that so endeared her to Luther? She “ministered to her husband’s diseases, depressions, and eccentricities.”[x] Her son, later a physician, praised her as half a doctor. He could not have survived his depression, which he interpreted as satanic temptations to doubt God’s forgiveness, without her sustaining and healing ministry. At night he would turn over and plead with Katherine, “Forbid me to have such temptations.”[xi] Based upon Luther’s own methods of soul care for such depression, we can surmise that Katherine responded by ministering sustaining empathy and healing encouragement through spiritual conversations and scriptural explorations.[xii]

Luther’s own testimony further describes Katherine’s empathic care. Speaking from the experience of their marriage and parenting he writes, “Marriage offers the greatest sphere for good works, because it rest on love—love between the husband and the wife, love of the parents for the children, whom they nourish, clothe, rear, and nurse. If a child is sick, the parents are sick with worry. If the husband is sick, the wife is as concerned as if it were herself. If it be said that marriage entails concern, worry, and trouble, that is all true, but these the Christian is not to shun.”[xiii] Undoubtedly, Martin frequently experienced Katherine’s as if compassion numerous times in his battles with depression.

Katherine was unafraid to lovingly rebuke Martin. When his language was too foul, she would say, “Oh come now, that’s too raw.”[xiv] Luther’s Table Talks also disclose that Katherine at times prodded her husband to respond forcefully to unfair attacks and doctrinal error.[xv]

As with Idelette Calvin, Katherine’s ministry was not exclusively to her family. The Augustinian Cloister where Luther had lived as a monk was first loaned and then given to the couple by the Elector. It had on the first floor forty rooms with cells above. Eventually not a single room was unoccupied. A friend described the scene. “The home of Luther is occupied by a motley crowd of boys, students, girls, widows, old women, and youngsters.”[xvi] Katherine “came to be a mistress of a household, a hostel, and a hospital.”[xvii]

Luther recognized and appreciated her versatility and creativity. “To my dear wife Katherine von Bora, preacher, brewer, gardener, and whatsoever else she may be.”[xviii] On other occasions he referred to her as “my kind and dear lord and master, Katy, Lutheress, doctoress, and priestess of Wittenberg.” Yet again, ten years after they married, he had this description. “My lord Kate drives a team, farms, pastures, and sells cows . . . and between times reads the Bible.”[xix]

But for Katherine, reading the Bible was insufficient. She longed to apply it. “I’ve read enough. I’ve heard enough. I know enough. Would to God I lived it.”[xx] Such was her testimony to her dying day. Ill for three months after an accident landed her on her back in a ditch filled with icy water, Katherine died on December 20, 1550, at age fifty-one. The final words from her lips depict how she lived her entire life. “I will stick to Christ as a burr to a top coat.”[xxi] The last words of Idelette and Katherine each communicate that they were not simply wives of Reformers, but more so daughters of the King of King.


[i]Bainton, Women of the Reformation in Germany and Italy, 7.
[ii]Tucker, Private, 40.
[iii]Bainton, 23.
[iv]Ibid.
[v]Ibid., 24.
[vi]Ibid., 26.
[vii]Ibid., 27.
[viii]Ibid., 26.
[ix]Ibid.
[x]Ibid., 29.
[xi]Ibid., 29-30.
[xii]Kellemen, Spiritual Care in Historical Perspective, 45-56.
[xiii]Bainton, 42, emphasis added.
[xiv]Ibid., 37.
[xv]Ibid., 38.
[xvi]Schwiebert, Luther and His Times, 584.
[xvii]Bainton, 30.
[xviii]Ibid., 39.
[xix]Tucker, Private, 27.
[xx]Bainton, 37.
[xxi]Ibid., 42.

The Hidden Tradition: Women of the Reformation, Part III

The Hidden Tradition:
The Women of the Reformation, Part III

Reformation historian Roland Bainton proposed that the Reformation had a primary effect on the role of women in society. The dropping of monasticism in Protestant lands “made for the exaltation of the home, the especial domain of the wife, as the sphere for exercise of the gentler virtues of the Sermon on the Mount. In Catholic thought these have been called the counsels of perfection to be observed by monks. Protestantism made no distinction between the counsels to be observed by the few and the precepts binding upon all. The entire Christian ethic was held to be incumbent upon every believer.”[i]

Reformation Wives: Daughters of the King of Kings

Ruth Tucker explains the impact of this titanic change upon marital relationships. “For the first generation of Protestants, marriage was a far more significant decision than it was in the generations that followed. Renouncing celibacy was viewed by the Catholics as giving in to the sin of lust.”[ii] For the leading male Reformers, the decision whether or not to marry was thus mired in complexity, culture, and conflict. For the women who married them, the nature of their husband-wife relationship was equally multifaceted.

Idelette Calvin: The Unfading Beauty of a Gentle and Quiet Spirit

Idelette Calvin (1510-1549) met John Calvin when she and her first husband fled persecution in their native Holland. Coming to Strasbourg, they connected with Calvin’s church and converted to the Reformed faith. When Idellete’s husband died in a plague, Calvin conducted the funeral. He was impressed with how she had cared for her dying husband as well as for her two children. He also noted that she was an intelligent woman who was unafraid to speak her mind.[iii]

Calvin communicated his idea of the ideal wife in a letter written to his friend William Farel even before he met Idellete. “But always keep in mind what I seek to find in her; for I am none of those insane lovers who embrace also the vices of those with whom they are in love, where they are smitten at first sight with a fine figure. This only is the beauty which allures me, if she is chaste, if not too fussy or fastidious, if economical, if patient, if there is hope that she will be interested about my health.”[iv]

Though unlike the modern ideal of romantic love, Calvin saw in Idellete the unfading beauty of her gentle and quiet spirit. She ministered soul care to her husband through her patient love, and that was exactly what Calvin needed to counter his own “impatience and irritability.”[v]

Since Calvin’s mother died when he was three, and he had received little love from his stepmother, Calvin had modest experience of a loving home. His best model was Martin Bucer’s family life. “In his family during the entire time I saw not the least occasion of offense but only ground for edification. I never left the table without having learned something.”[vi]

Calvin saw Elizabeth Bucer as a good mother, a hospitable homemaker, and her husband’s best critic. Idelette played a similar role. Calvin called her “the faithful helper of my ministry” and “the best companion of my life.” Calvin’s biographers speak of her as a woman “of some force and individuality.”[vii]

From the beginning, Idelette’s marriage to John was filled with complications and frustrations. In addition to his pastoral ministry, Calvin was a teacher and houseparent at his own boarding house, governed by a domineering housekeeper with a sharp tongue. To make matters worse, sickness would plague them both throughout their marriage.[viii]

External circumstances improved when Calvin was called back to Geneva. Idelette had become “first lady” of the parish, and she could have enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. Instead, she chose to extend her soul care ministry beyond her home. “Idelette, if she had chosen, might have passed her time in presiding over brilliant social gatherings. But like her unostentatious husband, she devoted her time and energy for the most part to the performance of charitable duties. She often visited the sick, the poor, and the humble folk. On many occasions she entertained visitors from communities who sought inspiration from her husband.”[ix] Like so many feminine soul care-givers before her, Idelette cared for the body as well as the soul, living out Christ’s call to care for the least of these (Matthew 25:35-40).

John and Idelette endured traumatic personal grief together. Idelette became pregnant three times, but none of the children lived beyond infancy. Soon after coming to Geneva, Idelette gave birth to a boy, but baby Jacques lived only two weeks. At his birth, Idelette became quite ill. His death piled sorrow on top of her physical anguish. The next month, Calvin wrote a friend, sending greetings from his wife, who was unable even to dictate a letter due to her heartache. Calvin added, “The Lord has certainly inflicted a severe and bitter wound in the death of our infant son.”[x] Coming from a man like Calvin, known more for his head than his heart, these words are vital reminders of the normalcy of grief for all Christians.

Working through her grief, over time Idelette became known throughout the first-generation Protestant world. “Your hospitality in the name of Christ is not unknown to anybody in Europe,” wrote an acquaintance.[xi]

After only nine years of marriage, Idelette succumbed to her frequent illnesses. On her deathbed, she and her husband prayed together. He witnessed and wrote of her peaceful composure, and recorded her final words of tribute to God. “She suddenly cried out in such a way that all could see that her spirit had risen far above this world. These were her words, ‘O glorious resurrection! O God of Abraham and of all our fathers, the believers of all the ages have trusted on Thee and none of them have hoped in vain. And now I fix my hope on Thee.’ These short statements were cried out rather than distinctly spoken. These were not lines suggested by someone else but came from her own thoughts.”[xii] As Idelette lived, so she died—choosing to exalt God by encouraging others.

After her death, Calvin shared his profound sorrow, offering insight into what Idelette had meant to him. “I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life, who, if our lot had been harsher, would have been not only the willing sharer of exile and poverty, but even of death. While she lived she was the faithful helper of my ministry. From her I never experienced the slightest hindrance.”[xiii]

Soul care historically and currently takes many forms. Idelette Calvin epitomizes soul care in the home through loving, caring, patient empathy and encouragement, as well as soul care outside the home through holistic ministry to “the least of these.”


[i]Bainton, Women of the Reformation in Germany and Italy, 7.
[ii]Tucker, Private, 40.
[iii]Peterson, 25 Surprising Marriages, p 73.
[iv]Van Halsema, This Was John Calvin, 113.
[v]Peterson, “Idelette: John Calvin’s Search for the Right Wife,” 13.
[vi]Peterson, 25 Surprising Marriages, p 77.
[vii]Ibid.
[viii]Tucker, Private, 40-41.
[ix]Hyma, Life of John Calvin, 85.
[x]Van Halsema, 147
[xi]Ibid., 148.
[xii]Peterson, “Idelette,” 15.
[xiii]Walker, John Calvin: The Organizer of Reformed Protestantism, 1509-1564, 236.

The Hidden Tradition: Women of the Reformation, Part II

The Hidden Tradition:
The Women of the Reformation, Part II

Many readers are familiar with the names associated with the male leaders of the Reformation era. Few, however, recognize the unheralded names of the women of the Reformation. By unveiling their hidden tradition, we gain insight not only into Protestant feminine soul care and spiritual direction, but also into the roles, self-concept, value, and worth of women in the early Protestant tradition.

Many of the women of the Reformation had a share in the public controversies it unleashed. Given the dynamic tensions of the day, they were not only accused of doctrinal heresy, but also of behavioral and relational sin for usurping their supposed proper role. They did not stand silently by when so indicted.

Katherine Zell: Afflicting the Comfortable and Comforting the Afflicted

Katherine Zell (1497-1562) likewise defended her right to minister in Christ’s name, though always doing so in a spirit of humility. Speaking of her relationship to her husband, she describes herself as “a splinter from the rib of that blessed man Matthew Zell.”[i]

Matthew Zell was a celibate Catholic priest turned married Lutheran pastor. Marrying Katherine Schult, he found a life partner with courage and conviction. As she portrays herself, “Ever since I was ten years old I have been a student and sort of church mother, much given to attending sermons. I have loved and frequented the company of learned men, and I conversed much with them, not about dancing, masquerades, and worldly pleasures but about the kingdom of God.”[ii]

Protestant leaders concurred with her self-assessment. Church historian Philip Schaff noted that the well-known Reformers of her day who frequented her home said that she “conversed with them on theology so intelligently that they ranked her above many doctors.”[iii] The admiration and the ministry were mutual. “I honored, cherished and sheltered many great, learned men, with care, work and expense. . . . I listened to their conversations and preaching, I read their books and their letters and they were glad to receive mine.”[iv]

To her ministry in her home, Katherine added a public ministry—often in defense of her husband and their ministry. When Matthew was excommunicated for marrying her, opponents of the Reformation circulated the tale that she had caught him with their maid and that, when she protested, he had thrashed her. She published a refutation, saying, “I have never had a maid. . . . And as for thrashing me, my husband and I have never had an unpleasant 15 minutes. We could have no greater honor than to die rejected of men and from two crosses to speak to each other words of comfort.”[v] Katherine exemplifies a rare and worthy-to-be-followed balance of confronting enemies while comforting loved ones.

In the same tract, she not only refutes this particular slander, but provides a vigorous defense of her ministry. “You remind me that the Apostle Paul told women to be silent in the church. I would remind you of the word of this same apostle that in Christ there is no longer male nor female and of the prophecy of Joel: ‘I will pour my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters will prophesy.’ I do not pretend to be John the Baptist rebuking the Pharisees. I do not claim to be Nathan upbraiding David. I aspire only to be Balaam’s ass, castigating his master.”[vi] Thus with wit and wisdom she offers shrewd biblical confrontation based upon the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers—male and female.

At her husband’s funeral, Katherine assures her listeners that she did not seek to become “Doctor Katrina” as rumor had it. “I am not usurping the office of preacher or apostle. I am like the dear Mary Magdalene, who with no thought of being an apostle, came to tell the disciples that she had encountered the risen Lord.”[vii]

Such courageous boldness might mistakenly cause us to think that Katherine was above suffering and grieving. However, the ceaseless criticism along with her overwhelming grief after Matthew’s death exposed her human neediness. Friends arranged for her to stay in the home of a pastor in Switzerland, and the renowned Reformer Martin Bucer sent a letter of introduction. “The widow of our Zell, a godly and saintly woman, comes to you that perchance she may find some solace for her grief. She is human. How does the heavenly Father humble those endowed with great gifts!”[viii] It truly is normal, human to hurt.

Even in her ongoing grief, Katherine ministers to others. In less than a year she was back in the parsonage in Strasbourg. To one of the displaced Protestant leaders she wrote, “I have been allowed to keep the parsonage which belongs to the parish. I take any one who comes. It is always full.”[ix]

Yet she was able to candidly admit that she still struggled. In a letter to two Protestant Reformers, whom she helped to hide from authorities, she apologizes for what she perceived as a lack of hospitality. “I wish I could have done better for you but my Matthew has taken all my gaiety with him.”[x]

Out of Katherine’s grief, she was able to comfort other grieving wives, offering them both sustaining empathy and healing encouragement. At Kensingen in Breisgau, the minister was forced to leave by those enforcing the Edict of Worms against Luther and his followers. They evicted one-hundred-fifty men of the parish along with the pastor. One man was executed. The rest fled to Strasbourg where Katherine housed eighty in the parsonage and fed sixty for three weeks, while finding shelter and provisions for the rest.[xi]

Katherine pens a letter of scriptural exploration to the wives left behind. “To my fellow sisters in Christ, day and night I pray God that he may increase your faith that you forget not his invincible Word. ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, saith the Lord’ (Isa. 55:8). ‘Whom I make alive I kill’ (Deut. 32:39). The Lord would wean you from the world that you may rely only on him. Has he not told us that we must ‘forsake father and mother, wife and child’? (Luke 14:26). ‘He who denies me him will I deny in the presence of my father,’ (Matt. 10:33). ‘Those who would reign with me must also suffer with me’ (2 Tim. 2:12).

Katherine continues with healing words of spiritual conversation. “Had I been chosen to suffer as you women I would account myself happier than all the magistrates of Strasbourg at the fair with their necklaces and golden chains. Remember the word of the Lord in the prophet Isaiah (54:8) ‘In overflowing love I will have compassion on you.’ ‘Can a woman forget her suckling child? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you’ (Isa. 49:15). Are not these golden words? Faith is not faith which is not tried. ‘Blessed are those that mourn.’ Pray, then, for those who persecute you that you ‘may be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect’ (Matt. 5:4, 44, 48).”[xii]

Katherine did not limit her soul care ministry to other women. In 1558, though ill herself, she ministers to Felix Ambrosiaster, the chief magistrate of Strasbourg who had been diagnosed with leprosy and quarantined. Her letter to Felix depicts a sensitive awareness of his level one external suffering. “My dear Lord Felix, since we have known each other for a full 30 years I am moved to visit you in your long and frightful illness. . . . We have often talked of how you have been stricken, cut off from rank, office, from your wife and friends, from all dealings with the world which recoils from your loathsome disease and leaves you in utter loneliness.”[xiii]

Not stopping there, Katherine’s words also represent brilliant insight into his level two internal suffering—and how to face it with faith. “At first you were bitter and utterly cast down till God gave you strength and patience, and now you are able to thank him that out of love he has taught you to bear the cross. Because I know that your illness weighs upon you daily and may easily cause you again to fall into despair and rebelliousness, I have gathered some passages which may make your yoke light in the spirit, though not in the flesh. I have written mediations on the 51st Psalm: ‘Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness,’ and the 130th: ‘Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord,” and then on the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed.”[xiv]

One would hope that such ministry to others would always lead to ministry from others. However, Katherine’s last days were filled with strife and betrayal. Ludwig Rabus, a former resident in her home and indebted to her for spiritual counsel, preached against her, calling her a “disturber of the church.”[xv]

Bold to the end, Katherine responds with the light of truth. “A disturber of the peace am I? Yes indeed, of my own peace. Do you call this disturbing the peace that instead of spending my time in frivolous amusements I have visited the plague infested and carried out the dead? I have visited those in prison and under sentence of death. Often for three days and three nights I have neither eaten nor slept. I have never mounted the pulpit, but I have done more than any minister in visiting those in misery. Is this disturbing the peace of the church?”[xvi] Like the Apostle Paul throughout 2 Corinthians, false accusations forced her to “the foolishness of self-defense,” but always for the purpose of defending a woman’s right to biblical ministry.

Her own words best summarize the nature of her lifelong ministry. In 1534, she issued a collection of hymns that she had compiled, publishing them in four pamphlets that sold for a penny each. Her ministry goal was to inspire lay people of all ages, all walks of life, and both genders toward greater spirituality. “When I read these hymns I felt that the writer had the whole Bible in his heart. This is not just a hymn book but a lesson book of prayer and praise. When so many filthy songs are on the lips of men and women and even children I think it well that folk should with lusty zeal and clear voice sing the songs of their salvation. God is glad when the craftsman at his bench, the maid at the sink, the farmer at the plough, the dresser at the vines, the mother at the cradle break forth in hymns of prayer, praise and instruction.”[xvii] In all her ministry endeavors, spiritual equality in Christ motivated Katherine Zell.


[i]Bainton, 55.
[ii]Tucker, Daughters of the Church, 182.
[iii]Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 7, 633.
[iv]MacHaffie, 92, emphasis added.
[v]Bainton, 55.
[vi]Ibid.
[vii]Tucker, Private Lives of Pastor’s Wives, 33
[viii]Ibid.
[ix]Ibid., 34.
[x]Ibid.
[xi]Bainton, 61.
[xii]Ibid., 62-63.
[xiii]Ibid., 69.
[xiv]Ibid.
[xv]Ibid., 72.
[xvi]Ibid.
[xvii]Ibid.

The Hidden Tradition: The Women of the Reformation, Part I

The Hidden Tradition:

The Women of the Reformation, Part I

Many readers are familiar with the names associated with the male leaders of the Reformation era. Few, however, recognize the unheralded names of the women of the Reformation. By unveiling their hidden tradition, we gain insight not only into Protestant feminine soul care and spiritual direction, but also into the roles, self-concept, value, and worth of women in the early Protestant tradition.

Many of the women of the Reformation had a share in the public controversies it unleashed. Given the dynamic tensions of the day, they were not only accused of doctrinal heresy, but also of behavioral and relational sin for usurping their supposed proper role. They did not stand silently by when so indicted.

Argula von Grumbach: Refusing to Bury Her Talent

Argula von Grumbach (1490-1564) was a Bavarian noblewoman from the house of Hohenstaufen. Following in their tradition of dissent and scholarship, in the early 1520s she became a serious student of the Bible and Lutheran doctrine. In 1523, the University of Ingolstadt tried a student, Arcasius Seehofer, for his Lutheran sympathies and extracted a humiliating recantation from him. Von Grumbach took up pen on his behalf, arguing with university and secular officials in a series of letters in which she insisted that the Bible was on his side and that she would prove it.[i]

In her letters, Argula proclaims the importance of Scripture and her right to determine faith and practice thereby. “I beseech you for the sake of God, and exhort you by God’s judgment and righteousness, to tell me in writing which of the articles written by Martin or Melanchthon you consider heretical. In German not a single one seems heretical to me.”[ii] She continues by quoting Luke 7, 1 Corinthians 9, Psalm 36, John 2, 8, 9, 10, 14, 16, Matthew 24, and Isaiah 40 highlighting the Word of God and illumination.

Argula then defends her source of authority and commitment to it. “I have always wanted to find out the truth. Although of late I have not been reading any [information published by the Reformers], for I have been occupied with the Bible, to which all of Luther’s work is directed anyway. . . Ah, but what a joy it is when the spirit of God teaches us and gives us understanding, flitting from one text to the next—God be praised—so that I came to see the true, genuine light shining out. I don’t intend to bury my talent, if the Lord gives me grace.”[iii]

She certainly was tempted and confronted to bury her talent. Argula’s husband was fired because of her and he mistreated her as a result. Her family reviled her, others wrote against her. In a letter to her cousin, Adam von Torring, she explains, “I hear you have heard that my husband has locked me up. Not that, but he does much to persecute Christ in me. At this point I cannot obey him. We are bound to forsake father, mother, brother, sister, child, body, and life. I am distressed that our princes take the Word of God no more seriously than a cow does a game of chess.”[iv] Bury her talent she did not!

Responding to rebuke for not remaining silent, she retorts, “I am not unacquainted with the word of Paul that women should be silent in the church (1 Tim. 1:2) but, when no man will or can speak, I am driven by the word of the Lord when he said, ‘He who confesses me on earth, him will I confess and he who denies me, him will I deny,’ (Matt. 10, Luke 9), and I take comfort in the words of the prophet Isaiah (3:12), ‘I will send you children to be your princes and women to be your rulers.’”[v]

And speak she did. “When I heard what you had done to Arsacius Seehofer under terror of imprisonment and the stake, my heart trembled and my bones quaked. What have Luther and Melanchthon taught save the Word of God? You have condemned them. You have not refuted them. Where do you read in the Bible that Christ, the apostles, and the prophets imprisoned, banished, burned, or murdered anyone?”[vi]

As was typical of the women of the Reformation, Argula based her confidence upon Christ and His grace, not upon herself. “I do not flinch from appearing before you, from listening to you, from discussing with you. For by the grace of God I, too, can ask questions, hear answers and read in German.”[vii] Here we detect Argula boldly applying to her life as a woman the Lutheran doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.

Of her, Martin Luther reported to Spalatin, “I am sending you the letters of Argula von Grumbach, Christ’s disciple, that you may see how the angels rejoice over a single daughter of Adam, converted and made into a daughter of God.”[viii] To another friend, Luther wrote of Argula, “The Duke of Bavaria rages above measure, killing, crushing and persecuting the gospel with all his might. That most noble woman, Argula von Stauffer, is there making a valiant fight with great spirit, boldness of speech and knowledge of Christ. She deserves that all pray for Christ’s victory in her . . . . She alone, among these monsters, carries on with firm faith, though, she admits, not without inner trembling. She is a singular instrument of Christ. I commend her to you, that Christ through this infirm vessel may confound the mighty and those who glory in their strength.”[ix]

Since her confidence was neither in herself nor in Luther, but in Christ, Argula adds these final words. “And even if it came to pass—which God forbid—that Luther were to revoke his views, that would not worry me. I do not build on his, mine, or any person’s understanding, but on the true rock, Christ himself, which the builders have rejected.”[x] Thus Argula von Grumbach offers all women, and men, the biblical reminder that we base our ministry upon Jesus, the ultimate Soul Physician and Spiritual Friend.


[i]MacHaffie, Her Story, 99-100.
[ii]Ibid., 119.
[iii]Ibid, emphasis added.
[iv]Bainton, 105-106, emphasis added.
[v]Ibid., 97-98.
[vi]Ibid., 97.
[vii]MacHaffie, 120.
[viii]Bainton, 106.
[ix]Ibid.
[x]MacHaffie, 120.

Common Themes in African American Acceptance of Christ

Common Themes in African American Acceptance of Christ

Note: Excerpted from Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, by Kellemen and Edwards

During slavery, if spiritually famished African Americans were going to convert to Christianity, then they had to convert on the basis of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as revealed in the Bible, not on the basis of Christianity revealed in the lifestyles of the Christians they knew. Ironically, to find redemption in Christ, African Americans had to redeem Christianity as they saw it practiced. “By some amazing but vastly creative spiritual insight the slave undertook the redemption of a religion that the master had profaned in his midst.”[i]

Christ’s suffering for humanity’s sin was the key that unlocked their hearts and enlightened their eyes. “Jesus quickly became the ardent personification of the slaves’ own suffering.”[ii] Their suffering at the hands of Christians caused them to identify with a suffering Savior who suffered at the hands of religious leaders.

At the same time, African American Christians clearly recognized and constantly emphasized the difference between Christ’s sinlessness and their personal need for forgiveness from sin. The recurring theme of the conversion narratives was salvation from sin, not from suffering. Yes, Christ shared with them the experience of unjust suffering. But more importantly, they shared in Christ’s suffering for their sins.

The Sin of Slavery and the Slavery of Sin

Pastor James W. C. Pennington, reflecting on his conversion, seamlessly expresses his understanding of suffering and of sin. Without minimizing for a moment the evils of slavery, he maximizes for all eternity the horrors of his own enslavement to sin and Satan.

"I was a lost sinner and a slave to Satan; and soon I saw that I must make another escape from another tyrant. I did not by any means forget my fellow-bondmen, of whom I had been sorrowing so deeply, and travailing in spirit so earnestly; but I now saw that while man had been injuring me, I had been offending God; and that unless I ceased to offend him, I could not expect to have his sympathy in my wrongs; and moreover, that I could not be instrumental in eliciting his powerful aid in behalf of those for whom I mourned so deeply" (Pennington).[iii]

Rejecting the “slaveholding gospel” of the institutional Church of that era, the enslaved African Americans gave birth to a regenerated Christianity that reflected fundamental Christian doctrine while maintaining compatible African traditions. Their cultural practice of biblical Christianity provided the new orientation toward existence that they needed given their shattered external circumstances and sinful internal nature. It created the new narrative of present resilience made possible by a Savior who suffered with them because they were sinned against. It also created the new narrative of future hope made possible by a Savior who suffered for them because they were sinners.

Their focus offers an indispensable caution for all soul physicians. While we are called to sustain and heal people in their suffering, if we neglect to address their sinning, if we fail to offer reconciling, then we may enable people to become more self-sufficient sinners. Such one-sided ministry attempts to empower people to live this life more successfully while giving them little incentive to turn to Christ’s resurrection power for eternal life later and abundant life now. We should shudder at the thought.


[i] Thurman, Deep River, p. 36.
[ii] Andrews, Practical Theology, p. 18.
[iii] Pennington, “The Fugitive Blacksmith,” in Katz, Five Slave Narratives, p. 52, emphasis added.

The Invaluable Legacy of the Invisible Institution

The Invaluable Legacy of the Invisible Institution

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in his now famous, or infamous, depending upon your perspective, speech to the National Press Club on April 28th, declared that attacks on him are attacks on the black church “by people who know nothing about the African American religious tradition.”

Rev. Wright also stated, “Maybe now we can begin to take steps to move the black religious tradition from the status of invisible to the status of invaluable for all the people in this country.”

To that, I stand and shout a hearty “Amen!”

The True Invisible Institution

Of course . . . that requires that we provide historically accurate analysis of the “Invisible Institution.” Historians coined the term “Invisible Institution” to describe the secretive worship services that African American Christians held under slavery. Without these, enslaved black Christians were forced to endure message after message by white preachers telling them repeatedly, “Slave obey your Master. Slave don’t steal from your Master. Slave don’t cheat your master.”

In order to enjoy true worship and biblically relevant preaching, slaves had to slip away into the woods or quietly worship in their cabins—away from the ever-watching eye of the Master or overseers.

Here’s the point relative to Rev. Wright’s insistence that the Invisible Institution must become invaluable. What message was preached? Was it a message of hatred, vitriolic anger, and resentment? Or, was it a biblically-based message of hope through mutual reliance upon Christ and the Body of Christ? Perhaps some eye-witness accounts might help to answer these essential questions.

Eye-witness Accounts

One ex-enslaved African American Christian known to us as “the Preacher from a God-fearing Plantation,” offers us our first glimpse of the Invisible Institution. “Meetings back there meant more than they do now. Then everybody’s heart was in tune, and when they called on God they made heaven ring. It was more than just Sunday meeting and then no more godliness for a week. They would steal off to the fields and in the thickets and there, with heads together around a kettle to deaden the sound, they called on God out of heavy hearts.”[1]

What occurred during these covert worship services? Pastor Peter Randolph, himself an ex-slave, provides the details we seek. “Not being allowed to hold meetings on the plantation, the slaves assemble in the swamps, out of reach of the patrols. They have an understanding among themselves as to the time and place of getting together. This is often done by the first one arriving breaking boughs from the trees, and bending them in the direction of the selected spot.”[2]

Once there, then what? “Arrangements are then made for conducting the exercises. They first ask each other how they feel, the state of their minds, etc. The male members then select a certain space, in separate groups, for their division of the meeting. Preaching in order by the brethren; then praying and singing all around, until they generally feel quite happy. The speaker usually commences by calling himself unworthy, and talks very slowly, until feeling the spirit, he grows excited.”[3]

But that’s not all. Randolph elaborates on the inner condition and the interpersonal consolation they experience. “The slave forgets all his suffering, except to remind others of the trials during the past week, exclaiming, ‘Thank God, I shall not live here always!’ Then they pass from one to another, shaking hands, bidding each other farewell, promising, should they meet no more on earth, to strive to meet in heaven, where all is joy, happiness and liberty. As they separate, they sing a parting hymn of praise.”[4]

The Visible Institution

Of course, in the North, and later after Emancipation in the South, there arose the great African American churches. Historically, what type of preaching of the Word do we uncover? Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne, the great pastor, educator, and historian of the African Methodist Episcopal Church speaks about the Word preached in the Church. “So that whensoever the Gospel is preached in this house, it may descend with all its purity, power, and demonstration upon the hearts of the unrepentant, turning them from darkness to light, and from power of sin and Satan unto God; that its sanctifying influences may be felt in the souls of all believers, lifting their desires, their hopes, and their affections, from earth to heaven, and leading back the wandering sheep of the house of Israel, into the fold of eternal life.”[5]

According to Bishop Payne, the Word preached in the church was then to be lived out and depended upon in every day life during the week as daily nourishment and spiritual direction. “An individual man or woman must never follow their own conviction in regard to moral, religious, civil, or political questions until they are first tested by the unerring Word of God. If a conviction infringes upon the written Word of God, or in any manner conflicts with that Word, the conviction is not to be followed. It is our duty to abandon it. The only safe guide for man or woman, young or old, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, pastor or people is the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.”[6]

Celebrating the Historic Value of the Black Church

Absolutely—the Invisible Institution of the historic Black Church is invaluable—when we understand with historical accuracy the nature of the Invisible Institution. These brief glimpses can only whet one’s appetite. For a full course meal, you may want to consider my work, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

Throughout this book we learn that African American Christians—pastors and lay people—unlike the caricature displayed in Rev. Wright’s recent comments, lived Word-based lives that focused upon applying biblical truth to their horrific suffering. Never minimizing their suffering; instead they maximized God’s grace and the healing power of salvation from sin and the hope-giving power of a caring Savior and a connected congregation. Indeed, these are invaluable lessons of the Invisible Institution!

[1]Johnson, God Struck Me Dead, p. 73.
[2] Randolph, From Slave Cabin to Pulpit, pp. 112-113.
[3] Ibid., p. 113.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Washington, James, ed. Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans, p. 36.
[6] Payne, Daniel Alexander. Recollections of Seventy Years, pp. 233-234.

Church Racism

Church Racism

Let’s be clear—there is no “typical” African American church. Just like there is no “typical” white church. Any statement coming from any person of any color that suggests there is one, monolithic, stereotypical style of “doing church” that represents and summarizes all black churches, is quite simply wrong at best, and racist at worst.

So, what has my dander up today? The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former Senior Pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago (Barack Obama’s home church), launched into a diatribe at the National Press Club on Monday, April 28. Now, lest someone label me “racist” for taking on the Rev. Wright, please realize that even Barack Obama, who until recently tried to give his former pastor the benefit of the doubt, has now expressed outrage at Wright’s recent comments.

My outrage is directed primarily toward one specific claim in Wright’s speech to the National Press Club—that his fiery denunciations of white America and his radical accusations against the American government (which Barack Obama disavows) are par for the course for the typical African American church, and that historically, the African American pulpit has always spewed such vitriolic, hateful, and angry messages.

As just one example of many that counter Wright's contention, consider Charles Babington's (of the Associate Press) interview with John Overton of Chapel Hill, NC. Overton noted, "I was the only white person" for about a year at a black church in Beaufort. "I never heard anybody talk like that."

Rev. Wright claims that disagreements with him are an attack on the black church. Such could be the case only if one viewed Wright as representative of the typical black preacher.

Having studied in detail the historical African American church (please see my book, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction), having worshipped and preached in scores of African American churches, having trained hundreds of African American pastors, and being friends with scores of faithful African American ministers, I can tell you authoritatively that many pulpits in black churches historically and today have focused on rightly dividing the Word of truth. When they have exhorted America and/or white Americans, it has been in a humble spirit of biblical and prophetic ministry, calling all Americans, including blacks, to salvation in Christ and social justice for all.

But the Rev. Wright is not the only man of color who has recently stereotyped the black church. In an otherwise excellent book (The Decline of African American Theology), the Rev. Thabiti M. Anyabwile declares that the stereotypical black church has moved from biblical faith to cultural captivity (for my full review go to: http://www.rpmbooks.org/labels/Anyabwile.html).

Again, while respecting the Rev. Anyabwile, I respectfully disagree with his stereotyped assessment. Many black pulpits historically and currently highlight the biblical preaching and teaching of the Word.

Honestly, I’m confused what value people think it may bring to offer one-sided, stereotypical, inaccurate views of the black church and the black pulpit. If we are ever to heal racial divides, then we must start with facts and with truth. And the facts are clear—the black church, just like the white church, comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors—many remain faithful to the Lord and to the Word. To say otherwise is, frankly, church racism.

Held

Held

This Sunday I spoke at the three morning services at Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, Indiana on 2 Corinthians 1:3-11. Before each message the song Held written by Krista Wells and performed by Natalie Grant was sung.

Here's the link to the powerful song and here are the words themselves.

Held, Written by Krista Wells, Sung by Natalie Grant
http://music.clevver.com/video/14229/natalie-grant-held.php

Held

Two months is too little. They let him go. They had no sudden healing. To think that providence would Take a child from his mother while she prays Is appalling. Who told us we’d be rescued? What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares? We’re asking why this happens To us who have died to live? It’s unfair. Chorus: This is what it means to be held. How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life And you survive. This is what it is to be loved. And to know that the promise was When everything fell we’d be held. This hand is bitterness. We want to taste it, let the hatred know our sorrow. The wise hands open slowly to lilies of the valley and tomorrow. (Chorus) This is what it means to be held. How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life And you survive. This is what it is to be loved. And to know that the promise was When everything fell we’d be held. Bridge: If hope is born of suffering. If this is only the beginning. Can we not wait for one hour watching for our Savior? (Chorus) This is what it means to be held. How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life And you survive. This is what it is to be loved. And to know that the promise was When everything fell we’d be held.

Bitter or Better?

Bitter or Better?

The “buzz” of late has focused on one presidential candidate’s statement that during times of hardship, bitterness leads people to turn to God. Whether taken out of context or not, perhaps it will be helpful to reflect on someone in Church history who faced hardship beyond imagination, and instead of turning bitter, turned better—by focusing on God’s-perspective.

Olaudah Equiano, a Christian and an enslaved African American, began his life story with these words, “I acknowledge the mercies of Providence in every occurrence of my life.” His words might seem trite until we realize that they introduce the narrative of his harrowing kidnapping and enslavement.

Equiano was born free in 1745 in the kingdom of Benin on the coast of Africa. The youngest of seven children, his loving parents gave him the name Olaudah, signifying favored one. Indeed, he lived a favored life in his idyllic upbringing in a simple and quiet village where his father served as the “chief man” who decided disputes, and where his mother adored him dearly.

At age ten, it all came crashing down. “One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both; and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, tied our hands, and ran off with us into the nearest woods: and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came on, when we reached a small house, where the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night.”

Bathed in Tears

His kidnappers then unbound Equiano and his sister. Overpowered by fatigue and grief, they had just one source of relief. “The only comfort we had was in being in one another’s arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears.”

Equiano and his sister were soon deprived of even the comfort of weeping together. “The next day proved a day of greater sorrow than I had yet experienced; for my sister and I were then separated, while we lay clasped in each other’s arms; it was in vain that we besought them not to part us: she was torn from me, and immediately carried away, while I was left in a state of distraction not to be described. I cried and grieved continually; and for several days did not eat any thing but what they forced into my mouth.”

It was during these evil circumstances, and many more to come, that Equiano acknowledged his heavenly Father’s good heart and Christ’s merciful providence in every occurrence of his life. He makes the sweeping affirmation that, even in the face of human evil, God is friendly and benevolent, able and willing to turn into good ends whatever may occur. He believed that God squeezes from evil itself a literal blessing.

By Observation We Become Better and Wiser

Equiano ends his narrative with these closing words of counsel. “I early accustomed myself to look at the hand of God in the minutest occurrence, and to learn from it a lesson of morality and religion; and in this light every circumstance I have related was to me of importance. After all, what makes any event important, unless by it’s observation we become better and wiser, and learn ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God!’”

Oluadah Equiano moved beyond the suffering. He faced his suffering candidly reminding us that it’s normal to hurt. He suffered face to face with God, recognizing that it’s supernatural to hope. He turned from bitterness because he choose a better perspective—God’s eternal perspective.

The Future of Biblical Counseling: Dreaming a Dozen Dreams, Part III

The Future of Biblical Counseling:
Dreaming a Dozen Dreams, Part III

Note: Please read my April 17, 2008 blog for Part II of this post.

Dream Number Eight: Biblical Counseling Will Be Holistic in Theory

Biblical counseling will focus on the full range of human nature created in the image of God (imago Dei). A holistic biblical understanding of the imago Dei includes seeing human beings as relational beings who desire (our spiritual, social, and self-aware capacities), rational beings who think, volitional beings who choose, emotional beings who experience, and physical beings who act. Biblical counseling models of change will focus on each of these areas, seeing the human personality as holistically united.

It will not deny the interplay or the complexity of our mind/brain and body/soul connection. Such biblical counseling will take seriously the role of the brain (in a fallen world in an unglorified body) and its impact on healthy human functioning.

Dream Number Nine: Biblical Counseling Will Be Holistic in Methodology

In Christian counseling today, there seems to be a great divide between models that focus on suffering and those that focus on sinning. Biblical counseling will treat both suffering and sin by recognizing that God’s Word is profitable for dealing with the evils we have suffered (soul care) as well as with the sins we have committed (spiritual direction). True biblical counseling offers comfort for the hurting as well as confrontation for the hardened. It provides sustaining and healing for those battered by life as well as reconciling and guiding for those ensnared by Satan.

Sustaining and healing (soul care for suffering) are classic terms in the history of Christian pastoral care.[1] Through sustaining and healing, biblical counselors will offer parakaletic care (called alongside to comfort—like the Holy Spirit our Divine Comforter, John 14:15-31; 2 Corinthians 1:3-11).[2]

Reconciling and guiding (spiritual direction for sin and sanctification) are equally historic terms.[3] Through reconciling and guiding, God will use biblical counselors to empower repentant and forgiven believers to apply principles of growth in grace.

Dream Number Ten: Biblical Counseling Will Be Holistic in Equipping

Many training models for biblical counseling tend to focus either on content (biblical truth), competence (relational skillfulness/counseling techniques), character (the counselor’s spiritual formation), or on community (connecting as the Body of Christ). Future equipping in biblical counseling will make no division between content, competence, character, and community.

Scriptural insight, learned in the context of intimate Christian community, and applied to the spiritual character development of the counselor-in-training will result in the relational competency necessary to interact soul-to-soul and deeply impact others for Christ. This holistic, four-fold model, applied in lay, pastoral, and professional Christian counseling training, will produce maturing wounded healers.

Dream Number Eleven: Biblical Counseling Will Be Universal

The Apostle Paul insists that all mature, equipped believers are competent to counsel (Romans 15:14). Therefore, biblical counseling is universal—it is what lay people do as spiritual friends, what pastors do as soul physicians, and what professional Christian counselors do as caregivers.

Put another way, biblical counseling and Christian counseling are synonymous. That thought is sure to surprise some and raise objections from others. However, biblical counseling is a mindset, a perspective, a worldview, a way of looking at life that informs how we understand people, problems, and solutions. It is universal in that it shapes our view of the universe based upon the view of the universe revealed by the Creator of the universe.

Sometimes we fail to grasp that all counselors counsel out of some worldview. The Bible provides the worldview out of which Christian counselors minister. It doesn’t imply an endless stream of Bible quotes thrown at a counselee or parishioner like a lucky charm from our toolbox of canned verses. Instead, it results in unique, person-specific, situation-specific, naturally-flowing spiritual conversations and appropriate, relevant, shared scriptural explorations built from a comprehensive worldview.

Dream Number Twelve: Biblical Counseling Will Be Multi-Cultural

The fact that biblical counseling is universal in no way excludes the truth that biblical counseling should be and will be multi-cultural—integrating into its universal worldview the unique Christian perspectives of both genders, all races, and all nationalities (Revelation 5:9).

The day of exclusive theory-building by white males (I am one) and of history-making by dead white males, thankfully, is over. Historical and contemporary insights and practices derived from Christian women and men from all people groups must be integrated into our biblical counseling worldview. Otherwise, it is hypocritical to call it a worldview.

Conclusion: Daring to Dream

I dream of the day when I speak on biblical counseling and someone says, “When you say ‘biblical counseling,’ do you mean lay, pastoral, and professional Christian counseling that is scriptural, theological, historical, positive, relational, relevant, transformative, holistic in theory, holistic in methodology, holistic in equipping, universal, and multi-cultural?” Together, let’s make that dream a reality so that when we place “biblical” in front of “counseling,” pastors, seminary students, professional Christian counselors, and lay spiritual friends respond with joyful anticipation.


[1]William Clebsch and Charles Jaekle. Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective. New York: Harper & Row, 1964, p. 8.
[2]See Tim Clinton and George Ohlschlager, Competent Christian Counseling: Foundations and Practice of Compassionate Soul Care. Colorado Springs, Waterbrook, 2002, pp. 54-61. See also, Robert Kellemen, Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 2007, pp. 39-57.
[3]William Clebsch & Charles Jaekle. Pastoral Care in Historical Perspective. New York: Harper & Row, 1964, p. 9.

The Future of Biblical Counseling: Dreaming a Dozen Dreams, Part II

The Future of Biblical Counseling:
Dreaming a Dozen Dreams, Part II

Note: Please read my April 16, 2008 blog for Part I of this post.

Dream Number Four: Biblical Counseling Will Be Positive

The modern history of biblical counseling has all too often become enmeshed with negativity, biting criticism, territory-protecting, camp-building, and “againstness.” Biblical counseling has often defined itself by being anti-this or anti-that. That’s not biblical counseling; that’s “Corinthian counseling” (1 Corinthians 1:10-17), a carnal caricature of the truth.

In the future, biblical counseling will be known as “Berean counseling” (Acts 17:11). Biblical counselors will have a critical mind minus the critical spirit. They will seek to focus positively on rightly understanding the Word (2 Timothy 2:15), on searching the Scriptures to evaluate human theory with discernment, and on graciously interacting with those with whom they disagree, while emphasizing the affirmative attitude that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).

Dream Number Five: Biblical Counseling Will Be Relational

In the future, the Trinitarian roots of our faith will blossom as biblical counselors will be known by their fruit—the fruit of compassion and passion. As the God of the Bible is the eternal Community of intimate Oneness, so biblical counselors will eschews aloofness in favor of what one African American friend describes as “real and raw counseling.”

While techniques, skills, and tools of competency will not be ignored, soul-to-soul relating will be emphasized. When put into practice, those skills will highlight neither directive nor non-directive counseling. Rather, they will birth collaborative counseling where the counselor, the counselee, and the Divine Counselor form a trialogical relationship.

Dream Number Six: Biblical Counseling Will Be Relevant

The pejorative stereotype of biblical counseling as “take two verses and call me in the morning” will be replaced with the constructive identity of “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). When people think of the biblical counselor, they will think of “Jesus with skin on” and be filled with words of hope like, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

It is not enough to promote the sufficiency of the Word if we do not also minister in such a way that demonstrates the relevancy of God’s Word. Problems in living that most people label only as psychological disorders curable only by psychological methodologies will be seen as spiritual, relational, mental, volitional, and emotional issues addressed in the Book of Life by the Author of Life so that we can live the abundant life (John 10:10).

Dream Number Seven: Biblical Counseling Will Be Transformative

Biblical counseling applies the principles of progressive sanctification to the daily lives of believers. It does so through spiritual formation which cultivates communion with Christ and conformity to Christ through the practice of the biblical/historical individual and corporate spiritual disciplines. Historically these two fields of biblical counseling and spiritual formation were one. It is our dream that they once again become synonymous—hence our BCSF Network name and mission.

Such transformative biblical counseling will highlight God’s role and our responsibility in spiritual growth through its emphasis on the cultivation of the disciplines that connect us to Christ’s resurrection power. It will underscore the inner life through its emphasis on forming the character of Christ in us—our inner life increasingly mirroring the inner life of Christ. It will accentuate the Body of Christ by encouraging the corporate spiritual disciplines and by equipping believers in the individual spiritual disciplines.

Transformative biblical counseling will require the development of a comprehensive biblical theology of the spiritual life that provides the basis for a relevant biblical methodology for spiritual growth. Biblical counseling and spiritual formation will offer a theological and practical approach to sanctification that is effective in the “real” world where people hope, dream, stumble, fall, and live everyday.

The Future of Biblical Counseling: Dreaming a Dozen Dreams, Part 1

The Future of Biblical Counseling:

Dreaming a Dozen Dreams, Part 1

As I speak around the country on biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m frequently asked the question. “When you say ‘biblical counseling,’ you don’t mean ___________ do you?” Various people fill in that blank with different labels—all negative to them. What a shame that placing the word “biblical” in front of “counseling” causes so many in the church to recoil in fear. Something has gone terribly wrong.

What Makes Biblical Counseling Biblical?

But there’s good news—the tide is turning. Warped caricatures of biblical counseling are being replaced by scripturally and historically accurate portraits of counseling that are truly biblical—and attractive (Titus 2:10). While no one can provide the final, authoritative definition of biblical counseling, I offer for your consideration this summary understanding.

Biblical counseling depends upon the Holy Spirit to relate God’s inspired truth about people, problems, and solutions to human suffering and sin to empower people to glorify God by cultivating conformity to Christ and communion with Christ and the Body of Christ.

Given this working definition, envision with me the nature and shape of the future of biblical counseling—twelve dreams of one possible future for biblical counseling as practiced by lay spiritual friends, pastors, and professional Christian counselors.

Dream Number One: Biblical Counseling Will Be Scriptural

Biblical counseling will cling tenaciously to the supremacy, sufficiency, and profundity (depth of wisdom) of the Scriptures. God has provided us with all that we need for godly living (2 Peter 1:3). The Scriptures, rightly interpreted and carefully applied, offer us all-encompassing insight for life.

The Bible provides us with the interpretive categories for making sense of life experiences from God’s perspective. By building our counseling models on Christ’s gospel of grace, we obtain wisdom for bringing people healing hope, the stimulus for change (God’s glory), and the understanding of human motivation that energizes these God-honoring changes.

Dream Number Two: Biblical Counseling Will Be Theological

Too often, current models of biblical counseling start and end at the Fall—focusing almost exclusively on human depravity. As a result, they often counsel Christians as if they are still unsaved—apart from the justifying, redeeming, regenerating, and reconciling work of Christ.

Biblical counseling will unite Creation, Fall, and Redemption. In studying a biblical theology of Creation, biblical counseling will examine people—God’s original design for the soul (anthropology). In probing the Fall, biblical counseling will examine problems—how sin brought personal depravity and suffering (hamartiology). In investigating the Bible’s teaching on Redemption, biblical counseling will examine solutions—the gospel of Christ’s grace which offers eternal salvation and provides us with daily victory in our ongoing battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil (soteriology).

Creation, Fall, and Redemption also have psychological correlates. Creation is biblical psychology—the biblical study of the soul. The Fall is biblical psychopathology—the biblical study of the sickness of sin. Redemption is biblical psychotherapy—the biblical study of God’s healing of the soul through Christ.

In the minds of some, the use of these psychological terms is invalid. How sad that we have allowed the world to steal these solidly biblical, theological, and historical terms. It is time that we took back our heritage and redefined these terms. Franz Delitzsch, writing in 1861 (before the advent of modern secular psychology), noted that “biblical psychology is no science of yesterday. It is one of the oldest sciences of the church.”[i]

Psychology is native to our faith. Not secular psychology, but biblical psychology—understanding and ministering to the soul designed by God, disordered by sin, and redeemed by grace.[ii]

Dream Number Three: Biblical Counseling Will Be Historical

The future of biblical counseling is the past. During the last twenty years we have witnessed the Christian community returning to its proper respect for that “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1-3). History, Chesterton reminded us, is “the democracy of the dead.”[iii]

I vividly and sadly recall the “counseling wars” that occurred while I was in seminary—wars pitting competing modern counseling “camps” against each other. I also recall thinking, “Surely the Church has always helped hurting and hardened people.” That sentence sent me on a quarter-century search for the legacy of Christian soul care and spiritual direction. Simultaneous to that, God’s Spirit was moving many others along the same path.

Biblical counselors of the future will return to the ancient paths (Jeremiah 6:16). They will seek and apply the ancient legacy and consensual wisdom for living found in the writings of great historic Christian soul physicians.

Note: Future Blog posts will continue sharing further dreams for the future of biblical counseling.


[i]Franz Delitzsch, A System of Biblical Psychology. Second edition. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1861, p. 3.

[ii]See Eric Johnson, “Christ: The Lord of Psychology,” Journal of Psychology and Theology 25(1), 1997, pp. 11-27. See also, Robert Kellemen, Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 2007, pp. 131-141.

[iii]G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2004, p. 3.

American Idol Shouts to the Lord . . . Without Jesus . . .

American Idol Shouts to the Lord . . . Without Jesus . . .

Last night the most viewed TV show in America, American Idol, hosted its second annual "Idol Gives Back" in hopes of raising over 100 million dollars for world-wide charities.

The shocker? The show's grand finale featured the eight remaining Idol contestants singing the Christian praise song, Shout to the Lord. America was shocked. Check out blogs and YouTube, etc., and you'll see quite the discussion. Much of the discussion relates not simply to Idol highlighting such an overtly Christian song, but to the Idol producers' decision to change the lyrics from "Our Jesus, Our Savior," to "Our Shepherd, Our Savior."

What to Make of This?

On the one hand, searches for Shout to the Lord are up exponentially on the Net. And, from the buzz, most people are finding the version with the original lyrics. On the same hand, clearly the One who is Shepherd and Savior is Jesus. Still on the same hand, the discussion alone is causing enough of a stir that millions are having conversations they otherwise would never engage in.

On the other hand, the song was written about Jesus. If the producers wanted to share a generic song, they could have chosen from any number of "inspirational ballads." What a blatant watering down and seeking to appeal to the masses.

Still, all hands considered, I'm glad the song was sung. Millions know exactly who was being praised. Millions of others are now hearing about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the only exalted Savior.

As Idol judge Simon Cowell might say, "Well, other than offending millions of Christians by blotting out the name of Jesus in a song written to worship Jesus, I think . . . (pause for theatrical effect and said with a heavy English accent and a heavy dose of sarcasm) . . . artistically, this was . . . amazing!"

Ammas: Spiritual Mothers

Ammas: Spiritual Mothers

Admittedly, hearing the word “Amma” can be puzzling. We’re more familiar with the word “Abba” from Romans 8:15 where we learn that through the Spirit of sonship we cry, “Abba, Father.” “Amma” comes from the same cultural context. Both Abba and Amma were terms of family endearment conveying honor and closeness. Calling a woman “Amma” communicated that she was a spiritual mother loved and respected by all her spiritual children.

Desert Spirituality: Experiencing the Geography of the Heart

Hearing the phrase “Desert Mother” or “desert spirituality” can also sound odd, ancient, foreign, and irrelevant to anything we experience today. And for some, these terms can even seem “unbiblical.” Yet, we will find that the desert spirituality of these Desert Mothers was scriptural and is relevant.

“Desert” did not necessarily mean a barren wasteland. Some of the Desert Mothers that we learn from in this chapter simply moved away from the city to rural, less-inhabited areas. Others did not move at all, instead selling most of their possessions in order to acquire enough land and lodgings to house a spiritual community of women and to accommodate the frequent spiritual pilgrims who sought them.

Regardless of location, the motivation remained the same. The Desert Mothers believed that the greatest enemies of the inner journey were hurry, crowds, and noise. They sought to create an environment that quieted the inner noise which kept them from hearing God’s Spirit speaking to their spirit through God’s inspired Word.[i] Desert Mothers like Amma Syncletica focused on the geography of the heart. “There are many who live in the mountains and behave as if they were in the town, and they are wasting their time. It is possible to be a solitary in one’s mind while living in a crowd, and it is possible for one who is a solitary to live in the crowd of his own thoughts.”[ii]

To further understand and relate to their movement toward desert spirituality, we have to understand two characteristics of the early Church—it was a city-centered faith and a home-centered faith. The book of Acts tells us that the Apostles shared the message of Jesus in the urban centers of the day. The Apostles targeted the mass of hungry, hurting people in thriving cities like Jerusalem, Antioch, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Rome.

The destruction of the temple in 70 AD and the persecution of the church in ensuing years resulted in domestic dwellings becoming the place for community meetings. Local believers gathered in homes for the Lord’s Supper, baptism, worship, and teaching. Lay men and women were involved in personal evangelism and works of mercy to the poor, the orphaned, and to prisoners.[iii]

Desert spirituality sprung from this city-centered and home-centered culture. The movement away from urban centers was motivated by the belief that the church in the city was compromising with the culture of the secular world. The Desert Mothers and Fathers believed that the church was losing its prophetic voice as it yielded to cultural and political pressures and became organized more like the government than like a living organism.[iv] Sound familiar? Sound relevant?

As patriarchs and matriarchs of extended families became more and more disenchanted with the political correctness of the church and the spiritual expediency of its leaders, they left the cities (or at least the secular attitude of the city), but rarely did they leave alone. The first “desert communities” usually included relatives, dependents, and household slaves (then considered family members). This inclusiveness had a deep impact upon desert spirituality. Life was centered around times of communal prayer, the group study and application of Scripture, joint ministry to the poor, and the collaborative application of the writings of the leaders of the movement.[v]

The Desert Mothers based their decision to leave the worldliness of the secular city upon Christ’s model. They read and desired to apply passages like Luke 4:1, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert” (see also Matthew 4:1). “At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place.” (Luke 4:42). “Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35). “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place” (Mark 6:31-32). “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone” (Matthew 14:23).

The Desert Mothers noticed and applied at least two major lessons from passages such as these. They saw the need for God’s people to find a respite from the worldliness of the world. Reading the verses that followed the ones quoted above, they also recognized the call for God’s people to return from their rest refreshed and renewed to be Christ’s servants in the world. The Desert Mothers that we study in this chapter were not secluded hermits. They were remembered as much for their public ministry to the poor and hurting as they were for their private spirituality. Their communal retreat away from secular urban centers was for the purpose of growing closer to Christ so that they could be empowered to share Christ’s truth in love to a lost and lonely world. While we might respond to our increasingly secular culture differently, while we might apply these passages differently, at least we can relate to their social motivation and biblical conviction.

[i]Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers, 15.
[ii]Kraemer, Maenads, Martyrs, Matrons, Monastics, 121.
[iii]Swan, 6-9.
[iv]Ibid., 9.
[v]Ibid., 8-9.

The VineLine 1:1

RPM Ministries: The VineLine

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the first “edition” of The VineLine: the e-newsletter of RPM Ministries.

The VineLine is not your normal ministry mailer that says, “Pray for me and send me money!” It’s not wrong to ask for prayer and financial support, and I will ask for prayer (see below), but I want The VineLine to be different. I want to connect and give.

Connecting:

I’m wanting The VineLine to connect you to each other. If you have a prayer request that you want me to pray for privately or that you want me to share publicly in the next emailing of The VineLine, then please send me your request (rpm.ministries@gmail.com).

Giving:

I’m wanting The VineLine to give—to provide you with resources. So, each email “issue” I will highlight a link to my free resources and a link to one of my Truth for Life blogs.

What Is RPM Ministries?

You’ll see those links just below. But first, some of you may be wondering, “What in the world is RPM Ministries?” Well, for the “full version,” go to www.rpmbooks.org (we’re in the process of changing the address to www.rpmministries.org).

Here’s the Readers’ Digest version: RPM is an acrostic for Resurrection Power Multipliers, based upon Paul’s prayer in Philippians 3:10. “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.”

RPM Ministries exists to equip you “to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth” through the ministries of soul care and spiritual direction.

I seek to fulfill this calling through my writing (books, articles, free resources, book reviews, and my blog) and speaking (seminars, conferences, preaching, and teaching) ministries.

Links to Free Resources:

Now, for your free resources:

1. To read about Olympias—truly a champion in the “spiritual Olympics,” go to: http://www.rpmbooks.org/2008/03/spiritual-sister-to-church-father-much.html.

2. To enjoy four detailed PowerPoint presentations on Beyond the Suffering go to: http://www.rpmbooks.org/free_resources.html. Then move down to Beyond the Suffering documents and look under “All-Day Seminar PowerPoints.”

Prayer Partners and Spiritual Friends

Once again, if you have prayer requests, either public or private, please email me at rpm.ministries@gmail.com.

Here are a few ministry prayer requests and updates.

1. Please pray for tonight’s broadcast on CDR Radio of my radio interview about Soul Physicians—that people would be excited and encouraged about biblical counseling.

2. Please pray for the March 31 radio interview with KGFT Radio about Soul Physicians—that people would be excited and encouraged about biblical counseling.

3. Please pray for my April 10 American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) Pre-Conference (Three Hour) Presentation on “What Makes Biblical Counseling Biblical?”

4. Please pray for my April 12 AACC Presentation on “Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.”

5. Please pray for my April 20 Sunday message (three services) at Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, IN on 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 on “Biblical Sufferology.”

6. Please pray for my April 27 Sunday message at New Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Gary, Indiana on Psalm 1:1-6 on “Blessed Is
the Man.” This is the sixth anniversary service for Pastor Charles Floyd, II.

7. Please pray for Susan Ellis and me as we are co-authoring Sacred Friendships: Listening to the Voices of Feminine Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors. Our research is complete, and the first three (of thirteen) chapters have been written.

Thanks for being my spiritual friend.

If you know of others who you think would enjoy The VineLine, please forward it to them and/or ask them to email me to be placed on the group email list.

If you would, for any reason, prefer not to receive The VineLine, I understand. Please simply email me back with a subject line of “Please Remove.”

In Christ’s Grace,

Bob

A Spiritual Sister to a Church Father

A Spiritual Sister to a Church Father

Much of our knowledge of Olympias comes from an anonymous fifth-century document composed by someone who knew her well (The Life of Olympias) and from the Church father John Chrysostom, who poured out his heart to her in seventeen letters he wrote from his exile. Olympias’ grandfather, Ablabius, was a Christian and a senator in Constantine’s Roman government. He had a daughter who married Secundus, one of the emperor’s “companions,” a noble order created by Constantine. Olympias was born to this pair between 360 and 370 AD. She was orphaned early in life, after which Procopius, the prefect of Constantinople, served as her guardian.[i]

She married Nebridius in 384, but was widowed just days later around age 20. Pressured to remarry, she instead chose a single life, explaining her position to the emperor Theodosius. “If my King, the Lord Jesus Christ, wanted me to be joined with a man, he would not have taken away my first husband immediately”[ii]

The Loving Deaconess: Providing Spiritual Direction through Spiritual Example

By now a rich, pious widow, Olympias gave of her immense wealth to those in need and to many religious leaders. By age 30 she was named a deaconess, which usually did not occur until age 60. The Didascalia of the Apostles mentions deaconesses assisting at baptisms, discipling new believers in the faith, teaching women, visiting unbelievers and believers in their homes, and serving the sick.[iii]

During this time she took on the task of spiritual leadership for fifty young single women in Constantinople. Of them, Olympias’ biographer noted, “One was struck with amazement at seeing certain things in the holy chorus and angelic institution of these holy women: their incessant continence and sleeplessness, the constancy of their praise and thanksgiving to God, their ‘charity which is the bond of perfection,’ their stillness.”[iv] As spiritual directors of these female spiritual friends, Olympias led them in the consistent practice of life-changing spiritual disciplines.

Summarizing her life and ministry among them, Olympias’ biographer poetically recalled her Christlike character. “She had a life without vanity, an appearance without pretence, character without affection . . . a mind without vainglory, intelligence without conceit, an untroubled heart, an artless spirit, charity without limits, unbounded generosity . . . immeasurable self-control, rectitude of thought, undying hope in God, ineffable almsgiving; she was the ornament of all the humble.”[v]

She was so humble that she readily invited Chrysostom to take over the spiritual leadership of her small community when he arrived in Constantinople in 398 after having been appointed Bishop. He and Olympias became close spiritual friends and he became spiritual director for these women. He “visited them continuously and sustained them with his most wise teachings. Thus fortified each day by his divinely-inspired instruction, they kindled in themselves the divine love so that their great and holy love steamed forth to him.”[vi]

The Spiritual Warrior with Spiritual Courage: Standing Strong against Wrong

One could assume, falsely, that such a humble, servant-hearted woman might lack commensurate courage and conviction. History tells a markedly different story. Olympias’ loyalty to her spiritual leaders caused her great persecution and immense suffering. “And due to her sympathy for them, she endured many trails by the actions of a willfully evil and vulgar person; contending eagerly not in a few contests on behalf of the truth of God, she lived faultlessly in unmeasured tears night and day.”[vii] In fact, her biographer, in one breath, spoke both of what he called “her manly courage,” and of how “she cultivated in herself a gentleness so that she surpassed even the simplicity of children themselves.”[viii]

Throughout Sacred Friendships you will find this theme saturated everywhere. Godly women of old integrated into their Christlike character both humble care and bold courage. They saw no dichotomy between the two; they experienced no contradiction between tender soul care and tough spiritual direction.

Olympias faced the greatest test of her courage when Chrysostom’s enemies slandered him in respect to his relationship to her. Chrysostom sent into exile, one might expect an accused woman in this time period to meekly retreat. Not Olympias. Forced to appear before the city prefect for interrogation, she refused to recant her innocence and her defense of Chrysostom. Sent into exile herself, “she, strengthened by the divine grace, nobly and courageously, for the sake of the love of God, bore the storms of trials and diverse tribulations which came upon her.”[ix]

Chrysostom, using the language of spiritual warfare, extolled the virtues of her steadfastness. “You are like a tower, a haven, and a wall of defense, speaking in the eloquent voice of example, and through your sufferings instructing either sex to strip readily for these contests, and descend into the lists with all courage, and cheerfully bear the toils which such contests involve.”[x]

He then contrasts Olympias’ resilience with the weakness of others. He notes that she deserves “superlative admiration” because “so many men” when facing trails “have been turned to flight” but “you on the contrary after so many battles and such a large muster of the enemy are so far from being unstrung, or dismayed by the number of your adversities, that you are all the more vigorous, and the increase of the contest gives you an increase of strength.”[xi]

In exile, she maintained both her care for those under her direction and the courage of her convictions. “Victorious in the good fight, she crowned herself with the crown of patience, having turned over the flock to Marina, who was her relative and spiritual daughter. . . . Having done this, she escaped from the storm of human woes and crossed over to the calm haven of our souls, Christ the God.”[xii]

The Soul Physician’s Soul Physician: Vulnerably Receiving Spiritual Care

One might also falsely think that a woman of this era such as Olympias was so pious, or perhaps even so pretentious, that she never felt deeply the pangs of despair. Again, history paints a truer, more humane portrait. We learn of this human, vulnerable, real and raw side of Olympias from the letters of spiritual consolation Chrysostom penned to her. While we only have his side of the correspondence, his words give us a glimpse into her soul. In his first letter to her, he responds to her previous correspondence with him by saying, “Come now let me relieve the wound of thy despondency, and disperse the thoughts which gather this cloud of care around thee.”[xiii]

Chrysostom precedes to sketch a lengthy litany of “fierce black storm” clouds engulfing Olympias. Yet he realizes that words do not suffice. “But how much further shall I pursue the unattainable? For whatever image of our present evils I may seek, speech shrinks baffled from the attempt.”[xiv] He shifts instead to worthier imagery—the imagery of Christ—to offer his hurting spiritual friend hope. “Nevertheless even when I look at these calamities I do not abandon the hope of better things, considering as I do who the pilot is in all this—not one who gets the better of the storm by his art, but calms the raging waters by his rod.”[xv]

In his second letter, we learn again of her humanness. He refers to Olympias having received his letter of consolation and yet having “sunk so deeply under the tyranny of despondency as even to desire to depart out of this world.”[xvi] He responds with a prolonged second attempt to comfort her. Finally, in his third letter, he rejoices that her spirits are lifted. “And now I am exceedingly glad and delighted to hear, not only that you have been released from your infirmity, but above all that you bear the things which befell you so bravely . . .”[xvii]

Though in Chrysostom’s words we do not hear the soul physician ministry of Olympias, we do learn about Olympias the soul physician. Her lesson is a lesson that every soul physician must heed. While some quote the proverb, “Physician, heal thyself!” Olympias applied the proverbial wisdom that in much counsel there is great wisdom. She understood what all soul care-givers and spiritual directors must understand: soul physicians need soul physicians! Though a skilled, mature spiritual director herself, she humbled herself to receive soul care and spiritual direction from Chrysostom. She did not feel the modern/post-modern need to be a “super woman,” independent, self-sufficient. She understood that she could be strong and simultaneously admit her need. Women, and men, in leadership today, would be wise to follow her example.

[i]The Life of Olympias, in Elizabeth Clark, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Friends,127-128.
[ii]Ibid., 128-129.
[iii]Swan, 107.
[iv]The Life of Olympias, 132-133.
[v]Ibid., 137.
[vi]Ibid., 133.
[vii]Ibid., 139.
[viii]Ibid.
[ix]Ibid., 134.
[x]Saint Chrysostom, Letters, 9:297.
[xi]Ibid., 9:298.
[xii]The Life of Olympias, 134-135.
[xiii]Saint Chrysostom, Letters, 9:289.
[xiv]Ibid.
[xv]Ibid.
[xvi]Ibid., 9:293.
[xvii]Ibid., 9:297.

An Amazing Sister in an Amazing Family

An Amazing Sister in an Amazing Family

Macrina the Younger (327-379 AD) came from one of the most amazing families in all of Church history. Her paternal grandmother was Macrina the Elder, her mother was Emmelia, and her brothers were Peter, Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. It is from Gregory’s work The Life of St. Macrina that we learn of her skill as a soul physician.

Spiritual Friend to Her Physical Family: Drawing Her Family to Christ

Although Macrina had no desire for marriage, she acceded to her father’s wishes, who arranged for her to marry a noted lawyer. But before the wedding ceremony, her fiancé died unexpectedly. Soon thereafter, her father also died, leaving her mother Emmelia with ten children. Macrina, as the eldest, took over the care of the youngest, the infant Peter. Even more, she became her mother’s soul care-giver and spiritual director. “In all these matters she shared her mother’s toil, dividing the cares with her, and lightening her heavy load of sorrow. . . . By her own life she instructed her mother greatly, leading her to the same mark, that of philosophy [Christian theology] I mean, and gradually drawing her on to the immaterial and more perfect life.”[i]

Macrina’s brother, Basil, returned to the family home after a long period of education, already a practiced rhetorician. “He was puffed up beyond measure with the pride of oratory and looked down on the local dignitaries, excelling in his own estimation all the men of leading and position.”[ii] Macrina would have none of that. “Nevertheless Macrina took him in hand, and with such speed did she draw him also toward the mark of philosophy [Christian theology] that he forsook the glories of this world and despised fame gained by speaking.”[iii] With deft guiding, Macrina changed the course of Basil’s entire life, swaying him from the torrents of self to the current of Christ.

Sustaining and healing care were also a major focus of Macrina’s ministry to her family. The second of her four brothers, Naucratius, died unexpectedly in an accident. Grieving herself because her “natural affection was making her suffer as well. For it was a brother, and a favorite brother, who had been snatched away.” Yet now Macrina displayed her selflessness. Facing the disaster, “she both preserved herself from collapse and becoming the prop of her mother’s weakness, raised her up from the abyss of grief, and by her own steadfastness . . . taught her mother’s soul to be brave. . . . She so sustained her mother by her arguments that she, too, rose superior to her sorrow.”[iv]

Here we view Macrina practicing classic historical Christian sustaining. She allowed grief, and even embraced it. However, her sustaining drew a line in the sand of retreat. Through it, she forestalls despair by the infusion of hope and by the sharing of sorrow.

An Invincible Athlete: Coaching Others in the Spiritual Olympics

Approximately a decade later, Macrina’s brother Basil also “departed from men to live with God.” When Macrina heard the news of the calamity in her distant retreat, “she was distressed indeed in soul at so great a loss—for how could she not be distressed at a calamity, which was felt even by the enemies of the truth?” Though grieving greatly, she never surrendered hope. “So she remained, like an invincible athlete in no wise broken by the assaults of troubles.”[v]

Her brother Gregory, pained by his own sorrows, traveled to Annesi where Macrina led a spiritual community of women. Upon his arrival, he discovered that Macrina herself is on her deathbed. Yet once again, her focus is on the pain of others. “I journeyed to her yearning for an interchange of sympathy over the loss of her brother. My soul was right sorrow-stricken by this grievous blow, and I sought for one who could feel it equally, to mingle my tears with. . . . Well, she gave in to me for a little while, like a skillful driver, in the ungovernable violence of my grief.”[vi]

After engaging in sustaining through this skillful interchange of sympathy, Macrina slowly shifted their focus to healing hope. “And in every way she tried to be cheerful, both taking the lead herself in friendly talk, and giving us an opportunity by asking questions. When in the course of conversation mention was made of the great Basil, my soul was saddened and my face fell dejectedly. But so far was she from sharing in my affliction that, treating the mention of the saint as an occasion for yet loftier philosophy, she discussed various subjects, inquiring into human affairs and revealing in her conversation the divine purpose concealed in disasters. Besides this, she discussed the future life, as if inspired by the Holy spirit, so that it almost seemed as if my soul were lifted by the help of her words away from mortal nature and placed within the heavenly sanctuary.”[vii]

Macrina is dying, yet she is consoling her brother. How? She seamlessly moved from sustaining empathy to healing encouragement. She drew him out by giving him a chance to talk, and then used his human emotions as a starting point for erecting a biblical way of thinking about loss. In classic healing fashion, she unfolded God’s eternal plan in the midst of sad human events, focusing on heavenly hope. The result? Gregory’s spirit soared because he now could view this life through the lens of the life to come.

Returning the next day, Gregory opened up about his troubles. “First there was my exile at the hands of the Emperor Valens on account of the faith, and then the confusion in the Church that summoned me to conflicts and trials.” Perhaps expecting sympathy, he instead received reconciling confrontation. “Will you not cease to be insensible to the divine blessings? Will you not remedy the ingratitude of your soul? . . . Churches summon you as an ally and director, and do you not see the grace of God in it all? Do you fail to recognize the cause of such great blessings, that it is your parents, prayers that are lifting you up on high, you that have little or no equipment within yourself for such success?” Rather than being floored by her chastisement, he “longed for the length of the day to be further extended, that she might never cease delighting our ears with sweetness.”[viii] Her capacity to exude love while speaking truth enabled Gregory to hear her words as the faithful wounds of a friend.

The next day would be her last . . . on earth. She had her couch turned toward the East, facing the sun and symbolically facing the Son. She then prayed her own benediction. “Thou, O Lord, hast freed us from the fear of death. Thou hast made the end of this life the beginning to us of true life. . . . Thou hast shown us the way of resurrection, having broken the gates of hell, and brought to naught him who had the power of death—the devil. . . . But when she had finished the thanksgiving, and her hand brought to her face to make the sign had signified the end of the prayer, she drew a great deep breath and closed her life and her prayer together.”[ix] As with Gorgonia, even in death, Macrina speaks words of life to those yet living.


[i]Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Saint Macrina, paragraph 966b.
[ii]Ibid., paragraph 966c.
[iii]Ibid.
[iv]Ibid., paragraph 970b.
[v]Ibid., paragraph 974c.
[vi]Oden, In Her Own Words, 48.
[vii]Gregory of Nyssa, paragraphs 978a-c.
[viii]Ibid., paragraphs 982a-c
[ix]Ibid., paragraphs 984c-986b.

A Spiritual Friend to Her Physical Family: Gorgonia

Spiritual Friend to Her Physical Family: Gorgonia

Nonna and her husband Gregory the Elder were the parents of Gregory of Nazianzus and Gorgonia (325-375 AD). Gorgonia and her husband Alypius lived in Iconium where they raised two sons who became bishops and three godly daughters.

All that we known of Gorgonia we derive from her brother Gregory of Nazianzus’ funeral oration on her life. Gregory went to great extremes to convey the historical accuracy of his eulogy of Gorgonia. “In praising my sister, I shall pay honour to one of my own family; yet my praise will not be false, because it is given to a relation, but, because it is true, will be worthy of commendation, and its truth is based not only upon its justice, but upon well-known facts. For, even if I wished, I should not be permitted to be partial; since everyone who hears me stands, like a skilful critic, between my oration and the truth, to discountenance exaggeration”[i]

An Empowering Heroic Narrative: Applying the Life Lessons of the Great Cloud of Witnesses

Gregory is practiced in the soul physician art of producing a heroic narrative for the purpose of empowering others. “Come, let me proceed with my eulogy . . . performing, as a most indispensable debt, all those funeral rites which are her due, and further instructing everyone in a zealous imitation of the same virtue, since it is my object in every word and action to promote the perfection of those committed to my charge.”[ii] Like the author of Hebrews in chapters 11 and 12, Gregory shepherds his living flock by reminding them of the faithfulness of the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before them. Though dead, their lives still speak.

Gorgonia’s life spoke from heaven because while on earth she was so heavenly minded that she was of great earthly good. “Gorgonia’s native land was Jerusalem above, the object, not of sight but of contemplation, wherein is our commonwealth, and whereto we are pressing on: whose citizen Christ is, and whose fellow-citizens are the assembly and church of the first born who are written in heaven, and feast around its great Founder in contemplation of His glory, and take part in the endless festival . . . which is produced by reason and virtue and pure desire, ever more and more conforming, in things pertaining to God, to those truly initiated into the heavenly mysteries; and in knowing whence, and of what character, and for what end we came into being.”[iii]

Gorgonia lived with spiritual eyes focused on her native land—heaven. Her life teaches us how to find our where, what, who, and why. By focusing on eternity, we learn our origin, our identity, and our purpose. We do not find the answers to the great philosophical, existential questions of life by focusing exclusively on this life, but rather by focusing intensely on the next life.

Godly Character Leading to Godly Counsel

Her godly character provided the firm foundation necessary for her godly counsel. In fact, Gregory directly links her “prudence and piety” when speaking of her fame as a wise counselor. “What could be keener than the intellect of her who was recognized as a common adviser not only by those of her family, those of the same people and of the one fold, but even by all men round about, who treated her counsels and advice as a law not to be broken? What more sagacious than her words? What more prudent than her silence? . . . Who had a fuller knowledge of the things of God, both from the Divine oracles, and from her own understanding? . . . Who so presented herself to God as a living temple?”[iv]

Gorgonia, like all biblical counselors, based her counsel upon the Word of God filtered through the discernment that develops from a lifelong commitment to God. She practiced the competency of using her human reason redeemed by grace to prudently listen to the specific situations of each unique individual in order to provide a timely, insightful word fit seamlessly for the exact occasion.

Gorgonia’s soul care was not of the “professional/office variety,” but earthly, real, and practical. “Who opened her house to those who live according to God with a more graceful and bountiful welcome? . . . Whose soul was more sympathetic to those in trouble? Whose hand more liberal to those in want? I should not hesitate to honour her with the words of Job: Her door was opened to all comers; the stranger did not lodge in the street. She was eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, a mother to the orphan. Why should I say more of her compassion to widows, than that its fruit which she obtained was, never to be called a widow herself? Her house was a common abode to all the needy of her family; and her goods no less common to all in need than their own belonged to each.”[v]

In the spirit of 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Gorgonia practiced holistic ministry. “And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” In the spirit of James 1:27, she practiced true spirituality. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” In the spirit of Acts 2:44-45, she practiced sacrificial giving. “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”

Her counsel and care rang true and pure because she walked the talk. Her maddened mules ran away with her carriage, overturning it, and dragging her along, causing serious injuries to her bones and limbs. Gregory records her response to her suffering, a response that teaches us much about biblical sufferology. “. . . the suffering being human, the recovery superhuman, and giving a lesson to those who come after, exhibiting in a high degree faith in the midst of suffering, and patience under calamity, but in a still higher degree the kindness of God to them that are such as she. For to the beautiful promise to the righteous ‘though he fall, he shall not be utterly broken,’ has been added one more recent, ‘though he be utterly broken, he shall speedily be raised up and glorified.’[vi] Reflecting back upon her silence during the recovery period, Gregory concludes, “. . that was the time to be silent, this is the time to manifest it, not only for the glory of God, but also for the consolation of those in affliction.”[vii]

Gregonia’s sufferology provides a lasting lesson for all to learn: we must mingle enduring patience with deep faith in the goodness of God during the badness of life. Such faith not only brings God glory, it also offers comfort to those now facing hardships.

As she lived; she died. On her deathbed, she offered words of healing hope and guiding direction as she spoke God’s truth in love. “After many injunctions to her husband, her children, and her friends, as was to be expected from one who was full of conjugal, maternal, and brotherly love, and after making her last day a day of solemn festival with brilliant discourse upon the things above, she fell asleep, full not of the days of man, for which she had no desire, knowing them to be evil for her, and mainly occupied with our dust and wanderings, but more exceedingly full of the days of God.”[viii] In serene calmness she whispered her final benediction, “I will lay me down in peace, and take my rest.”[ix]

[i]Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations, Sermons, Letters; Dogmatic Treatises, translated in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, ed. P. Schaff and H. Wace. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955, Vol. 7, p. 238.
[ii]Ibid, p. 239.
[iii]Ibid., pp. 239-240.
[iv]Ibid., p. 241.
[v]Ibid.
[vi]Ibid., p. 242.
[vii]Ibid., p. 243.
[viii]Ibid., p. 244.
[ix]Ibid.

To Glorify God and Comfort the Saints

To Glorify God and to Comfort the Saints

*A review of Anthony J. Carter, “On Being Black and Reformed: A New Perspective on the African American Christian Experience”

With one succinct sentence, Anthony Carter integrates historical Reformation theology and historical African American experience. “Our primary goal as theologians is to glorify God and to comfort the saints.”

Some may wonder what’s so novel about that declaration. A careful reading of most modern presentations of Reformed theology exposes the truth that God’s glory is always emphasized (rightly so), while the saints’ comfort is often minimized (sadly so).

Reformation theology has historically offered great treatises on anthropology (human creation and God’s design), hamartiology (human sin and depravity), and on soteriology (Christ’s salvation and human deliverance). Historically, what has been lacking is a biblical sufferology—a theology of suffering that brings comfort to human misery, that brings hope to the hurting.

Throughout “On Being Black and Reformed” Carter’s subtext reverberates. Reformed theology has much to offer African American Christians. And, African American Christians have much to offer Reformed theology. When separated from Reformed theology, African American Christians, according to Carter, are tempted toward a lower view of God, truth, and theology. When separated from African American Christianity, Reformed theology, according to Carter, is tempted toward a lower view of comfort, love, and contextual experience. Reformed theology and African American Christianity need each other equally.

Nowhere is this juxtaposition more clearly revealed than in the Reformed African American theological interpretation of American enslavement. How could a good and sovereign God allow an entire people group to be enslaved for centuries? African American pastors like Lemuel Haynes, Richard Allen, and Absalom Jones, and writers like Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, and Quobna Cugoano all offer the “Joseph Answer.” “You meant evil against me, but God intended it for good.” In God’s affectionate sovereignty, He shepherds good from evil, He creates beauty from ashes.

Anthony Carter’s retelling of this historical merging of African American Christian experience and Reformed theology is a gift to all people of all races.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of “Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction,” “Soul Physicians,” and “Spiritual Friends.”

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood

Nominated for eight academy awards, “There Will Be Blood” plays like a modern-day version of Genesis 4. Though many Christians may resist seeing it, and many who do may wish they hadn’t, “Blood” is replete with themes of biblical proportions. It is certainly not a “Christian movie,” but Christianity thoroughly addresses the issues it raises: greed, envy, hypocrisy, rage, lying, manipulation, selfishness, self-sufficiency, and a plethora of other sins of the flesh and idols of the heart.

The movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview whose sin is in plain view for all to see, despise, and be haunted by. Not a single word is spoken in the first fifteen minutes of the movie. Yet the scene speaks volumes. Daniel falls down a mind shaft severely hurting his leg. Rather than crying out to God or to anyone else for help, Daniel wordlessly and arrogantly works his way out of the pit rug by rug, dragging his lifeless limb behind him. The metaphor has been written: “I am my own Savior.” Daniel in the lion’s den refuses to pray to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

In the next scene, this sinner who thinks he can save himself learns from a mysterious stranger that there’s oil in those hills of New Boston. Traveling to the California oil fields at the turn of the 20th Century, Plainview brings his young son, H. W. (played by Dillon Freasier), who serves as a prop to provide the image of a congenial family man. Upon arrival in New Boston, CA, Daniel meets the Sunday family, headed by patriarch Abel (remember Genesis 4). Abel’s son Eli (played by Paul Dano) is a young faith-healing evangelist-pastor who turns out to be as consummately evil as Plainview, and a tad bit slimier.

Neither man displays a single redeeming quality. Both men play games with the Redeemer. Eli uses God to amass a following. Daniel uses God to manipulate God’s followers into signing land over to him, even to the point of feigning acceptance of Christ. In “There Will Be Blood,” blood is shed, but the shed blood of Christ is never received with a sincere heart.

The darkness of Daniel’s life is suffocating. As he ages (the movie spans nearly forty years in its nearly three-hour run), Daniel’s evil ripens. Where he once at least feigned love for H. W., by the end of the movie Daniel disowns him. In perhaps the only sign of grace in the entire movie, H. W., mute due to an earlier drilling accident, signs to his father “I love you” right after his prodigal father disowns him. Off H. W. goes with his wife Mary (yet another biblical allusion) to make a different life for himself in Mexico.

Christian theology sees life as a three-act play of creation, fall, and redemption. God designs humanity with dignity (creation), sin mars humanity with depravity (fall), and Christ restores and rescues humanity with salvation (redemption). There will be blood is an accurate portrayal of what our world would be like if there were no creation and no redemption--only fall. There is nothing redeemable in humanity because there is nothing human to redeem. We are, in the eyes of “Blood,” devolved animals seeking to devour one another.

You leave “Blood” feeling bloody, dirty, filthy. But “Blood" doesn’t leave you. It preoccupies your mind, disturbs your soul, and troubles your spirit. You ask yourself, “Is that all there is?”

And the answer is, “Without Christ, that is indeed all that there is.” Self. Self-sufficiency. Evil. Hatred. Rage. Hopelessness. Helplessness.

This decidedly un-Christian movie about the first decades of the 20th century has perhaps the strongest evangelistic message of any film of the first decade of the 21st century. Certainly unintended, “Blood” depicts exactly why every human being needs the blood of Christ. It is an amazing picture of the amazing sin that requires amazing grace.

Our worst sin is not our greed, evil, rage, hatred, drinking, womanizing, etc. Our worst sin, and the only unforgivable sin, is our refusal to acknowledge our sinfulness, the refusal to ask for forgiveness. We are sick undo death and in denial about our deadness, thinking that we can raise ourselves.

What can wash away our sin of self-sufficiency? Nothing but the blood.

Olaudah Equinao: Born Free

Olaudah Equinao: Born Free

“I . . . acknowledge the mercies of Providence in every occurrence of my life.”[i] These words from the pen of the Christian Olaudah Equiano might seem trite until we realize that they introduce the narrative of his harrowing kidnapping and enslavement.

Equiano was born free in 1745 in the kingdom of Benin on the coast of Africa, then known as Guinea. The youngest of seven children, his loving parents gave him the name Olaudah, signifying favored one. Indeed, he lived a favored life in his idyllic upbringing in a simple and quiet village where his father served as the “chief man” who decided disputes and punished crimes, and where his mother adored him dearly.

Bathed in Tears: Weeping with Those Who Weep

At age ten, it all came crashing down. “One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both; and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, tied our hands, and ran off with us into the nearest wood: and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came on, when we reached a small house, where the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night.”[ii]

His kidnappers then unbound Equiano and his sister. Overpowered by fatigue and grief, they had just one source of relief. “The only comfort we had was in being in one another’s arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears.”[iii]

Equiano and his sister model a foundational principle of sustaining empathy: weeping with those who weep. Far too often we rush in with words, and far too often those words are words of rescue. Our hurting friends need our silence, not our speeches. The shed tear and the silent voice provide great enrichment for our spiritual friends.


[i] Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, p. 4.
[ii] Ibid., p. 24.
[iii] Ibid., p. 25.

Is This All There Is?

Is This All There Is?

Tom Brady.

If you know anything about sports, then the name Tom Brady jumps out at you.

NFL MVP.

Starting quarterback for New England Patriots.

A 60 million dollar contract.

Dating whatever super model he wants to date.

Well, watch this interview and seem Tom Brady struggle with life's core question: "Is this all there is?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHSfiKAtPzk&NR=1

Use the video to reach others who long to know if there's more than fame and fortune.

Changeless Truth for Changing Times: Discerning How to Be Discerning

Changeless Truth for Changing Times: Discerning How to Be Discerning

Looking at African American History through the Spirituals

Looking at African American History through the Spirituals

*A Review of: Nikki Giovanni, “On My Journey Now.”

With her opening words, author Nikki Giovanni imparts truth needed by all readers as a context for the spirituals. “We say that the slavers went to Africa to get the slaves, which is far from true. The slavers went to Africa to get Africans to make them slaves.”

How did free people, with their own cultures, their own families, their own everything survive and remain sane when overpowered and raped of everything? Captured and ruptured, how did they survive and even thrive?

Giovanni, award-winning author of “Rosa,” and University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, provides a core answer. It was through the co-created, spontaneous spirituals by which African Americans proclaimed, “I’m a child of God!”

As her aptly chosen subtitle suggests, “On My Journey Home” looks at African American history through the spirituals. Giovanni takes her readers on a journey from capture, to auction block, to daily hardships, escape, community building, the Invisible Institution, Sunday worship, heavenly hope, Emancipation, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the present, and even to the future.

Giovanni makes the vital point that we sing the slave spirituals as “cute children’s songs,” forgetting the depth, the pain, the passion, and the meaning that drove their creation and their singing. Build through the blending of Old Testament deliverance themes, New Testament redemption themes, and the pressing need for shared hope, these songs of Christian faith were anything but cute, though they did evidence the trusting faith of a child in a good Father.

Nor were these songs “polite.” Often, subtly so, they challenged the hypocrisy of their Christian masters with words such as “Everybody talkin’ ‘bout heaven ain’t going there.”

Giovanni has it right. The African American Christians “didn’t just write the songs, they lived them.” To understand African American history is to understand the slave spirituals and to understand the slave spirituals is to understand African American history. This is the gift of “On my Journey Now.”

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of “Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction,” “Soul Physicians,” and “Spiritual Friends.”

God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life

God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life

*A Review of, Paul Kengor, "God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life."

Let's state this clearly from the beginning. Whether you embrace Hillary Clinton's politics or not, whether you embrace Hillary Clinton's beliefs or not, her beliefs are a critically important issue, for they deeply impact her political convictions.

Here's another fact to clarify. The author, Paul Kengor, is not an apologist for Hillary Clinton. He has written similar books on Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. His aim in all three books is to write an accurate spiritual history of these three important political figures.

In "God and Hillary Clinton," Kengor excels at revealing to readers the spiritual shaping factors that brought Hillary Clinton to embrace the beliefs and practices she does. If you want insight into who she is, what she believes, who influenced her personally, who she read, and why, then this is the book to read.

What's more, Kengor's writing style, his first-hand interviews, and his access to letters and other documents, make this a well-written, creative, captivating history book--no easy task.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians.

Discerning How to Be Discerning

Discerning How to Be Discerning

*A Reivew of: Tim Challies, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment

Tim Challies is well known to the blogosphere and to the world of Amazon.com Reviews. John MacArthur has it right when he says of Challies, “His weblog is a favorite stop for thousands of Christian readers every day.”

On his weblog and in his Amazon reviews, Challies seeks to assess how well or how poorly a book thinks biblically about life. In “The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment” he offers a practical theology of how to develop the spiritual discipline of discerning truth from error, right from wrong. Or, as he puts it, this book “is written for all those who believe that it is the duty of every Christian to think biblically about all areas of life so that they might act biblically in all areas of life.”

The current historical context for Challies’ work is vital. We live in a day and age where, because of information technology, everyone can write, and, everyone can write against everyone else. Thus, we find a plethora of counterfeit truth claims in Christianity today while at the same time finding an excess of self-proclaimed prophets of discernment whose main task in life seems to be exposing the supposed duplicity of false prophets, sheep-in-wolves clothing, and Trojan Horsemen sneaking heresy into the church.

Obviously, both of these extremes harm the cause of Christ. Counterfeit theology fails to speak the truth. Counterfeit “discernment ministry prophets” fail to speak in love, and, nine times out of ten, also fail to speak the truth about those they critique.

Into this vast wasteland Tim Challies speaks. His ten chapters should be required reading for both groups. Those who claim to teach newly emerging ideas of Christianity need to learn from Challies how to erect biblical theologies for their ministry models. Those who claim to have cornered the market on spotting counterfeits need to learn from him how to develop true, biblical, loving, humble discernment.

Chapter by chapter, Challies calls readers to guard the deposit of the pure Gospel of Christ’s grace. Quoting author J. C. Ryle, Challies notes that we spoil the Gospel through substitution, addition, interposition, disproportion, and by confused and contradictory directions.

The heart of the book addresses the question of how we really know truth. Challies challenges readers to the highest possible view of the sufficiency of Scriptures, which he defines as forsaking all subjective means of supposedly knowing God and instead founding spiritual discernment upon God’s objective revelation of himself in Scripture. While agreeing totally with this foundational concept, it would be interesting to hear Challies and the authors of “Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit” (Wallace and Sawyer) engage one another. While Wallace and Sawyer believe 100% in the sufficiency of Scripture, they eschew the idea among many Evangelicals who seem to make the Trinity: “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Scriptures.” This overly rational, Princetonian, modern, Enlightenment mindset often seems to eliminate the work of the Spirit in illuminating believers, replacing it with a mindset that seems to equate one’s interpretation of Scripture with the Scripture’s own inerrancy and inspiration. It confuses biblical, humble, openness and dependence upon the Spirit with “mysticism.” It confuses the use of God-given reason with the worship of rationalism. Saying that we believe in the sufficiency of Scripture is not enough. We must all acknowledge that we inevitably bring our self, our personality, our culture, and our experience to the text. How the Spirit works in the full human personality (relational, rational, volitional, and emotional) to help us to discern truth is perhaps a deeper issue that Challies might explore further in future works.

It is in chapter three that Challies defines discernment. “Discernment is the skill of understanding and applying God’s Word with the purpose of separating truth from error, and right from wrong.” Personally, I would add, “for the purpose of exalting and enjoying God by loving God with our whole heart and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.” This last part of the definition oft seems missing by some in the so-called modern “discernment” movement who seem to speak more to attack, than to attract, who seem to speak more to expose error without the commensurate motivation of restoring others to truth and reconciling relationships.

Challies further highlights our need to discern in the areas of doctrine and life: what is true about God and what is true about how we live for God. Spiritual discernment enlightens us to know who God is and to know the will of God for life—in terms of right and wrong behavior.

Since Challies states that discernment is a spiritual gift, in chapter seven he exegetes 1 Corinthians 12:10 and “the ability to distinguish between spirits.” He concludes that one cannot conclude whether this gift today is exactly the same as the gift of discerning of spirits in the early church. He concludes, based on a more expansive study of discernment throughout the Bible (rather than just based on 1 Corinthians 12:10), that there is a gift of discernment today. He notes, “People with this gift will have special ability to separate truth from error and to discern whether something originates with God or with Satan.” He further notes that even though not all have the gift, we all are to pursue this discipline.

One wonders if Challies were discerning this view from another author, if Challies might not chide that author somewhat. If we can’t demonstrate exegetically that it is a modern-day gift, then perhaps it is better not to call it a special spiritual gift given to certain saints, and rather do what Challies does in his last sentence of chapter seven and simply say it is a discipline that all should develop. It seems that some have jumped on this concept of a special, enduring spiritual gift for today (which may not be exegetically supportable), and concluded that they have been given the almost exclusive mantle of the prophet to expose error in a superior way to others in the Body of Christ.

Because of much current misuse of so-called “discernment,” I find chapters eight through ten the most crucial. In chapter eight, Challies exposes the dangers of discernment. Among these he lists items such as guilt by association and honor by association. These are two false, illogical, and ill-theological methodologies (mis)used extensively in the “discernment” movement. He also lists the error of failing to distinguish between the critical and the disputable. This is where “prophets of discernment” call others heretics because they disagree with them on an issue that the church has never labeled as one of the fundamentals of the faith. Witch hunting is another danger of discernment that Challies eschews. Challies rightly observes how “insufferable” such a process becomes and notes that “a person who continually stirs up anger and disagreement is committing an offense that the Lord hates.”

Challies also lists relying unduly on others, simplicity, pride, withdrawal, and truth without love as additional errors/dangers. This chapter is the proverbial “must read” for anyone who feels the subjective call to the ministry of “discernment.” Coming as it does from one of the young leaders in the area of true biblical discernment, it has a wonderful possibility of being heard and heeded.

Chapter nine is valuable for all readers—especially since God calls everyone to be discerning. Here Challies provides wisdom principles for developing wisdom. You can’t beat that.

While chapter nine highlights movement toward developing discernment, chapter ten emphasizes how to practice the ministry of discernment. Taken together, chapters eight through ten should become the manual for the discernment movement. Consecutively, they teach what not to do, how to mature in discernment, and how to practice the art of discernment: how to study the Bible, how to use the mind (reason), how to depend upon the Spirit, and how to read fairly other authors to discern truth from error. These three chapters are worth the proverbial price of the book.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of “Beyond the Suffering,” “Soul Physicians,” and “Spiritual Friends.”

African American Theology

African American Theology

*A Review of: Thabiti M. Anyabwile, The Decline of African American Theology: From Biblical Faith to Cultural Captivity

“The Decline of African American Theology” is an important contribution to the ancient/modern study of African American Christianity. Author Thabiti Anyabwile, Sr. Pastor at First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, writes from his perspective as a founding member of the Council of Reforming Churches (CRC).

The CRC is an association of churches subscribing to the historic five solas of the reformation, the core doctrines of grace commonly known as the five points of Calvinism, and the system of theology summed up in such catechism/confessions as the historic Baptist Confession of Faith 1689, The Westminster Confession of Faith, and Heidelberg Catechism. Their purpose is to see biblically reformed theology sown, take root in, flourish among and eventually become the dominant theology within the black church and African-American community. Understanding this framework is essential for understanding Anyabwile’s writing.

The book itself attempts something that has rarely been pursued: a full account of the course of African American Christian theology. Anyabwile organizes his historical survey according to six core theological/doctrinal categories: revelation (bibliology), God (theology proper), man (anthropology), Christ (Christology), salvation (soteriology), and the Holy Spirit (pneumatology). Additionally, each chapter is organized into five periods: early slavery era through abolition (1600-1865), Reconstruction to the “New Negro” movement (1865-1929), depression to WW II (1930-1949), the Civil Rights Era (1950-1979), end of century to post-modern era (1980-present).

The book’s premise is to trace the development of African American theology from its earliest manifestation to the present. The premise continues by stating that secularization overtook the Black Church replacing its evangelical and Reformed theological upbringing. Finally, the book purposes to call the black church back a proper theocentric (as defined from a Reformed perspective) view of itself and the world.

Each of Anyabwile’s chapters starts strong with in-depth, primary source material on a rather diverse group of African American believers from the North and South during the slavery era. Having examined the identical terrain in my book “Beyond the Suffering” related to African American soul care, I can attest to the thorough research work the author does. However, at times it seems that evidence that supports the premise of an early, almost exclusive Reformed theology among African Americans is presented in the absence of evidence for a less Reformed, more “Arminian-Wesleyan” early perspective.

As Anyabwile moves through each subsequent era in each of the six doctrinal categories, the coverage becomes somewhat less extensive and somewhat more selective. That is, examples from later areas are selected that exclusively highlight the movement away from the early, Evangelical, Reformed theology proposed in early African American church history.

While not disputing or doubting that the African American church has to some degree moved away from its early Evangelical roots, this selective presentation tends to minimize the many ongoing historical examples of stalwart Evangelical and/or Reformed theology in black church history. In other words, by a somewhat selective citing of negative examples, the reader is left with the impression that few if any African American churches/pastors/denominations have remained true to their Evangelical theological legacy. In fact, in these five later eras, and in the current era in particular, only one positive example (Tony Evans—and he is somewhat chided for his somewhat non-Reformed theology) is cited.

My own study of the current theological scene in the African American church, and my own engagement with a plethora of African American pastors, counselors, lay leaders, and churches indicates that there is no one monolithic non-Evangelical, non-Reformed stereotype of the modern black church. A countless number of examples of current black pastors, some well known and many others ministering in obscurity, could be provided to counter the sense that the typical modern black church has lost its theological moorings.

The final chapter does something that books like this often fail to do—it provides suggestions and solutions for moving forward. All too often historical books like this, especially those critical of the current scene, focus on the negative without any input on how to make positive changes. Anyabwile is to be commended for going far beyond that and offering a constructive agenda toward greater theological fidelity in the African American church.

“The Decline of African American Theology” should be read by anyone concerned with the current state of African American theology. In my opinion, it should be read with the realization that “another side” could be presented that perhaps provides a more balanced and fair perspective of the overall picture of black theology today. That said, this is still a well-written, necessary, engaging, and thought-provoking work.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.

Hillary, Huckabee, and Obama: Assessing Three Politicians' Use of Religion

Hillary, Huckabee, and Obama:

Assessing Three Politicians’ Use of Religion

Some of my more recent blogs may leave some of my readers scratching their heads. You may be asking, “How is the pro-life movement related to the purpose of this blog?” And you may ask today, “How are politics related to the purpose of this blog?”

Changeless Truth for Changing Times

The purpose for the blog “Changeless Truth for Changing Times” is to ponder how the ancient paths of biblical wisdom, and the wisdom gleaned from church history, can make a relevant difference in our lives today.

To date, many of my blogs have focused on applying ancient truth specifically to relational life—counseling, spiritual growth, multicultural relationships. I intend to keep this focus.

I also intend to expand my focus. The Bible and church history have relevance for how we view slavery, racism, abortion, and protecting the unborn. And, the Bible has relevance for how we view politics—which is people—how people are governed by other people.

Now, before you wonder if my blogs are going to veer off into political-speak or become focused on recommending a candidate—there’s no need to fear, balance is here!

My Purpose and Plan

This article will not be recommending a candidate for president or even a party for the presidency. Rather, I want to do three things:

1. I want to summarize quite briefly a few statements by Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, and Barack Obama about their view of religion and the political process.

2. Then I want to summarize how the media has covered their statements.

3. Finally, I want to critique the media for failing to be fair and balanced in their coverage and statements about these three candidates.

This is really the heartbeat of all my blog posts: presenting the best I can one biblical perspective (not the right perspective, but my current best attempt) that is as fair and balanced to the biblical, historical, and current realities as possible.

A Very Brief Summary of Some of Mike Huckabee’s Statements about Religion and Politics

Likely you have read political columnists and heard arm-chair pundits excoriate and rip to shreds Mike Huckabee for a statement that he made ten years ago at the National Pastors’ Conference explaining why he entered into politics.

“I got into politics because I knew government didn’t have the real answers, that the real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives. . . . I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ.”

Governor Huckabee was not making a political speech. He was not at a political event. He was making a religious speech at a Christian event—a pastor’s conference. And, he was not running for president in 1998. In fact, he was not running for anything when he spoke. He made a statement that most Evangelicals would identify with—final answers to life issues are not found in human political solutions but in the life of the Spirit brought by a personal relationship to Christ. Admittedly, the intent of this statement was to indicate that his views of politics and political answers were shaped by his Christian faith (more on this in a moment).

But . . . to read his critics, you would think that Huckabee wanted to be Pope Huckabee now instead of President Huckabee.

Yet, his critics refuse to hear his follow-up and refuse to examine his record.

Huckabee said on NBC’s Meet the Press in December, 2007,

“It was a speech made to a Christian gathering, and, and certainly that would be appropriate to be said to a gathering of Southern Baptist.”

Asked further about his comments, he stated in a December 30, 2007 issue of Time,

“The key issue of real faith is that it never can be forced on someone. And never would I want to use the government institutions to impose mine or anybody else’s faith or to restrict anyone,” Huckabee said. Those skeptical of the role of faith in his presidency, he said, should look at his record in Arkansas. “I didn’t ever propose a bill that we would remove the Capitol dome of Arkansas and replace it with a steeple. You know, we didn’t do tent revivals on the grounds of the capitol.”

Have you noticed that when people write and speak about Huckabee, they always introduce their words with, “Mike Huckabee, former Baptist Pastor . . .”

Mike Huckabee served as Lt. Governor and then as Governor (ten years) longer than Bill Clinton served as Governor of Arkansas, and longer than Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton served in the Senate. So why don’t the pundits introduce him as, “Mike Huckabee, long-serving Governor of Arkansas . . .”?

My point is not to support Huckabee’s statements or to endorse his candidacy. My point is to examine how the secular elite media respond to his views of politics and religion compared to how they respond to similar such statements made by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

A Very Brief Summary of Some of Hillary Clinton’s Statements about Religion and Politics

Biographer Paul Kengor has written a well-research spiritual biography of Hillary Clinton: God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life. In his book, Kengor quotes Hillary’s own words and the words of her spiritual mentors to demonstrate that her liberal United Methodist religious views thoroughly shape her political views.

Here’s one example. Note that it took place in a political arena, not in a religious arena as a religious speech. Mrs. Clinton gave a major address in April 6, 1993 (while Bill was President and while she was charged with the political role of developing a national health care plan), at the University of Texas at Austin, as part of the college’s annual Liz Carpenter Lecture Series.

It was at this speech that Hillary introduced the phrase to the public: “the politics of meaning.” Where did she learn this concept? From her liberal Christian spiritual mentor Don Jones who in turn learned it from liberal theologians like Tillich.

What did she mean by the “politics of meaning”? In her speech she noted that America was trapped between two great political forces: Republican market economics and Democratic governmental policies. She noted that missing in these equations was an adequate explanation for the challenges facing the nation.

What then, would provide adequate political answers? She was asked that question in an article written by Michael Kelly in the New York Times Magazine that ran on May 23, 1993. She eventually acknowledged to Kelly that her source for a “politics of meaning” arose out of her Christian Methodist heritage.

“The very core of what I believe (about the politics of meaning) is this concept of individual worth, which I think flows from all of us being creatures of God and being imbued with a spirit. Some years ago, I gave a series of talks about the underlying principles of Methodism. I talked a lot about how timeless a lot of scriptural lessons were because they tied in with what we now know about human beings. If you break down the Golden Rule or if you take Christ’s commandment—love your neighbor as yourself—there is an underlying assumption that you will value yourself, that you will be a responsible being who will live by certain behaviors that enable you to have self-respect, because out of that self-respect comes the capacity for you to respect and care for other people.”

At this point, Hillary then offered Kelly specific political examples and applications. These political solutions based upon Methodist biblical convictions included policies such as increasing the minimum wage, governmental run and paid for day care, and tax code changes. While Hillary, in a political forum, did not say, “Let’s take the nation back for Christ,” she surely was saying in this political forum, “My liberal Christian Methodist convictions lead me to suggest that we govern the nation according to my view of Christ’s Golden Rule.” How is that so different from what Mike Huckabee is crucified for by the media?

Again, this is not to criticize or to praise Hillary Clinton and her views. This is to raise a question. How is it okay for Hillary to base her political philosophy on liberal Christian Methodist positions presented in a political forum at a political speech, but it is wrong of Mike Huckabee to say in a religious forum in a pastoral sermon that his life views have been shaped by conservative Christian Baptist thinking?

Does anyone else see the unfairness here in the media’s responses to these two candidates and comments they made in the 90s?

And why is Hillary not introduced as, “The United Methodist Sunday School teacher who was mentored by the liberal Christian Don Jones . . .”?

A Very Brief Summary of Some of Barack Obama’s Statements about Religion and Politics

On January 21, 2008, the Associated Press reported on a political speech given by Barack Obama at a rally kicking off a weeklong campaign for the South Carolina primary. He tried to set the record straight from reports circulating on the Internet that he is a Muslim.

Here’s how the AP reported it.

“I’ve been to the same church—the same Christian church—for almost 20 years,” Obama said, stressing the word Christian and drawing cheers from the faithful in reply. I was sworn in with my hand on the family Bible. Whenever I’m in the United States Senate, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America . . .

His aides, according to the AP story, “decried an incorrect news report that Obama was educated in a Muslim madrassa.” Additionally, his “campaign representatives blanketed South Carolina churches Sunday with literature that touted Obama’s Christian faith.”

According to the AP, “One piece features photos of Obama praying with the words ‘COMMITTED CHRISTIAN’ in large letters across the middle. It says Obama will be a president ‘guided by his Christian faith’ and includes a quote from him saying, ‘I believe in the power of prayer.’”

A second campaign piece includes photos of Obama with his family and a caption that says they are active members of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. It explains how as a young man Obama “felt a beckoning of the spirit and accepted Jesus Christ into his life.”

Need I say it again? My point is neither to praise nor to criticize these statements by Barack Obama. Instead, my point is to contrast how his statements are reported compared to how those of Mike Huckabee are reported.

When Huckabee ran a commercial in Iowa that ran on Christmas day wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas” the media went nuts. You would have thought that he had just said, “If I am elected then every person must bow down and worship Jesus.”

And yet, in a political piece, Obama can say in all caps, “COMMITTED CHRISTIAN” and not once did the AP report this as a bad thing.

Obama’s campaign literature even touts that fact that if elected president he would be “guided by his Christian faith.” Imagine if Mike Huckabee said the same thing tomorrow!

The Point

Somehow in our society it is now all right for liberal Democrats to blatantly say in the political arena that their liberal Christian faith will guide their presidency and be the foundation for their governmental policy making. Yet, somehow in our society is it now all wrong for conservative Republicans to say in a religious arena that their conservative Christian faith will impact their thinking on answering the problems people face today.

Does anyone else think that there is something wrong with this picture?

A Scholar's Treasure Hunt

A Scholar’s Treasure Hunt

*A Review of, Thomas C. Oden, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity

Thomas Oden’s How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind was not the book I expected when I read the title. It was different, it was more, it was less, it was challenging, and it was and is important.

Oden, recently retired after a distinguished professorial career, is perhaps one of the most renowned Church historians of our day. His four-volume opus on the history of pastoral care is a classic, for instance.

Oden now sees as his life’s work, for the remainder of his life, the uncovering of the buried treasure of African Christianity. Of course, what one means by “African” is crucial. Oden wisely steers clear of much modern and post-modern imbalance here. He avoids the Euro-centric approach that diminishes anything African as being simply borrowed from European culture and thinking. On the other hand, he equally avoids an “Africa first” framework that presumes that everything has its roots in Africa.

For Oden, and for How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, the “Africa” he speaks of is anything that happened on the African continent and anyone who lived and ministered on that continent. This avoids the endless debate, for instance, about which Church Father was or was not “African.” How does one define that? By skin color? And by what amount of pigmentation? By nationality? Why wouldn’t any nation in Africa be by definition African? By ancestry?

The ancestry issue coupled with geographical/cultural impact is Oden’s most important contribution. In sum, he argues that even if Augustine, for instance, had a father whose ancestry was Greco-Roman, would that mean that Augustine, living his entire life in Africa was not African? Additionally, given that his famous mother, Monica, was almost definitely of Berber (north African) descent, would that not make Augustine African? And just as important to Oden, can we wipe out the impact on Augustine’s parents and on Augustine of living in the African geography and partaking of the African culture?

So, for Oden, “African Christianity” is the Christianity of any person who was born and/or lived on the African continent. Thus, for Europeans to claim Augustine, Origen, Tertullian, and others is a robbery of immense proportion in Oden’s thinking.

Given this perspective, Oden’s entire book is actually a call for others to build upon his small start. It is a call to take seriously the oral and written tradition of material spoken and penned on the African continent. It is then a call to explore the past, present, and future impact of that legacy.

For the past impact, Oden wants to examine how African Christian theology and practical Christianity shaped and interacted with non-African Christianity. For the present and the future, Oden hopes that such increased understanding of the enduring African Christian legacy will validate and encourage modern African Christians regarding their heritage, will open the doors for African seekers to understand that to convert to Christianity is not betraying their heritage, but returning to it, and to encourage all Christians to learn from and with modern day African Christianity.

Some will find in How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind more ecumenism than they find palatable. However, one does not have to agree with Oden’s entire perspective or agenda to learn from him and appreciate his fair and balanced historical perspective.

For anyone wanting to sort through the current debate in a scholarly way, Oden is the person to read. For anyone wanting to enliven their appreciation of the ancient African Christian faith, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind is the book to devour.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.

Who's Alive to the Holy Spirit?

Who's Alive to the Holy Spirit?

*Review of: Daniel B. Wallace, and M. James Sawyer, editors, "Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit?"

In 1993, Chuck Swindoll authored “Flying Closer to the Flame: A Passion for the Holy Spirit.” What that book was for the general non-charismatic Protestant lay person, “Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?” is for the scholarly non-charismatic Protestant pastor, professor, and student.

The co-editors, Wallace and Sawyer, along with the nine other contributing authors, all write from the cessationist theological camp. Cessationists believe that the Bible teaches that the sign gift ministry of the Holy Spirit ceased at the close of the New Testament canon. These sign gifts (such as the gift of healing, miracle working, speaking in tongues, prophecy, etc.) were given to authenticate the apostolic ministry and message of inspired Scripture and not meant to be ongoing aspects of the Spirit’s ministry in the believer throughout church history.

The purpose of “Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?” is not to provide theological support for that view. Instead, that view is assumed. Rather, the purpose is to stretch their fellow cessationists to consider the ongoing, active, powerful, personal presence and ministry of the Spirit today in the experiential life of the non-charismatic Christian.

Wallace and Sawyer launch their edited work with candid narratives of their personal experience in the cessationist camp. When life crisis struck, their personal, academic approach to the Spirit was found wanting. At the same time, their theological convictions did not allow for a charismatic experience of the Spirit. Out of that tension, this book was born. How does a non-charismatic cessationist experience the power and presence of the Holy Spirit?

The eleven assembled cessationist scholars address that question theologically, historically, and personally. As with any collaborative book, the linkage between various chapters can be choppy and the value of diverse chapters varies. However, over all, readers are exposed to a wide assortment of important theological examinations.

Before a summary overview, readers should understand, as noted in the opening paragraph of this review, that this book is not for those disinclined toward scholarly detail. Swindoll’s book, though fifteen years old, is still the place to go for the lay non-charismatic wanting a practical theology of the Holy Spirit.

One of the central issues addressed is summarized by several of the authors in the disturbing picture of the cessationist “Trinity”: Father, Son, and Holy Scripture.” Yes, you read that right—Holy Scripture. Wallace and his co-writers sense that for many non-charismatics the Holy Scriptures have replaced the Holy Spirit. The authors ask readers to consider what the role of the Spirit is in their lives now that the canon is completed.

Wallace’s chapter on the witness of the Spirit in Romans 8:16 is core to that discussion. In a nutshell, Wallace presents a joint ministry of Spirit and Scripture. Believers have confidence that they are Christians based upon the objective testimony of Scripture and the subjective witness of the Spirit. This dual, mingled role of Spirit and Scripture is emphasized throughout “Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?”

Richard Averbeck, in his chapter on “God, People, and the Bible,” does a fine job exploring the relationship between illumination and biblical scholarship. He also does an excellent job convicting the typical evangelical scholar of his/her failure to be dependent upon and open to the Spirit in the scholarly process.

“The Spirit in the Black Church” by Willie Peterson is one of those “worth the price of the book” chapters. For anyone wanting a handle on how black cessationist evangelicals handle the “tension” between the experience of the Spirit and the cessation of the sign gifts, this is the chapter to read. Peterson’s blending of history, theology, culture, and current ministry is example-setting.

David Eckman’s chapter on “The Holy Spirit and Emotions” should be required reading for all seminary professors, students, pastors, and Christian counselors. It provides the seeds for a much needed evangelical theology of emotions. Emotional intelligence has been a buzz word in secular writing for nearly two decades. Yet the Christian community still has not offered a practical biblical theology of emotionality. Eckman has laid the foundation.

Co-editor James Sawyer’s concluding chapter “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Scriptures?” powerfully encapsulates the message of the book. Sawyer journeys with readers on an important historical trek which opens eyes to why cessationists have become so afraid of the Holy Spirit. His fascinating and ironic premise is that the same evangelicals who decry how the Enlightenment influenced liberal Christianity, were themselves influenced by Enlightenment rationalism. Ouch. You have to read it to appreciate it.

Overall, “Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?” is a timely book that has already stirred up much needed conversation. Admittedly, a few chapters were uneven at times—seeming not to fit the overall flow of the book—as if they had been written for other venues (which is most likely true) and woven into the fabric of this book. Yet, that is minor in the overall scope of this important contribution to the field.

Perhaps the true “criticism” I have about this book is its failure to provide a “spiritual theology of the Holy Spirit.” Before I explain that, I should say that in fairness to the authors, that was not the full intention of this book. So, my encouragement would be that they rejoin to write “volume two.”

As I think about the theological process, I see at least four “types” of theologies: academic, historical, practical/pastoral, and spiritual. Academic theology (including systematic, biblical, exegetical, and lexical) explores the “What?” questions. As the label suggests, it is academic in nature. This book does a splendid job exploring the academic theology of the Holy Spirit from a cessationist perspective.

Historical theology explores the development of doctrine over time. It asks the “What then?” questions. This book also does an excellent job uncovering and presenting the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the evangelical tradition.

Spiritual theology asks the “So what?” questions. What are the implications for our lives of the academic truths discovered in the text? “Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?” did a commendable job challenging readers to consider such implications. It presented many categories for the cessationist Christian to think through.

Practical/pastoral theology asks the “What now?” questions. How do we personally apply and how do we disciple, mentor, and guide others in the application of the text? Here is where I felt a level of disappointment with the book. As a pastor/counselor/professor/soul physician, I wanted more practical direction. We learned what not to do. We even learned what areas to think through. But we readers were not given many pictures of what this actually looks like in daily existence. We were not given many models of discipleship ministry. What exactly does it look like to equip and empower cessationist Christians to be filled with the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, to express the fruit of the Spirit. While some of these topics were broached, the focus often failed to address fully the practical “what now?” questions. Again, no one book can “do it all.” But a book emphasizing how cessationists can and should experience the empowering presence of the Spirit could “go there.” I hope the next volume does so to a greater extent. That said, I still highly recommend this book. It deserves all five of its stars.

Sanctity of Life Sunday: The Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Slavery Movement, and the Pro Life Movement

Sanctity of Life Sunday:
The Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Slavery Movement,

and the Pro Life Movement

Yesterday in my blog I reminded people that this weekend is Martin Luther King weekend. A friend reminded me in return that this weekend is also Sanctity of Life weekend.

The Civil Rights Movement: A Voice for the Voiceless

I was struck by that confluence of events.

And I was reminded again that being a voice for the voiceless is a common thread in this joint remembrance. Martin Luther King was a voice for Civil Rights—a voice crying in the wilderness pleading that we all fight for the rights of African Americans in American society.

Sanctity of Life Sunday is a voice for the voiceless—a voice for the unborn human being who can cry, but who cannot yet speak. Sanctity of Life Sunday is a civil rights voice—a voice pleading that the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness be extended to all living beings.

The Anti-Slavery, Abolitionist Movement: The Pursuit of Happiness

In yesterday’s blog, I linked Martin Luther King, Jr. and his predecessors—people like the Reverends Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. Allen and Jones emphasized the biblical, universal truth that all people are created in the image of God and therefore have the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The pro-life movement is the modern anti-slavery movement. The identical arguments are and should be used to support both convictions. Every human being, including the unborn, has rights that the powerful must protect. The most powerless in society—unborn children—must be protected from the ultimate abuse and the ultimate denial of rights.

Somehow in some twisted, distorted thinking the argument has pitted women’s rights and unborn children’s rights against each other. How sad, tragic, immoral, and a-historical.

Historically, some of the greatest anti-slavery advocates, some of the greatest abolitionist voices, were the women’s rights activists. As an example, white women in the North during the days of slavery fought back to back with blacks for the dual rights of women and of blacks.

Today, women, of all people, resonate with the fight for the rights of the unborn. For women still know what it is to be voiceless and powerless—to have their rights trampled upon by men with louder voices and stronger bodies.

How did this travesty of pitting women’s rights against the right to life occur?

It occurred partly because of our modern reinterpretation of the right to “happiness.” We hear the phrase, “the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and we think of the modern definition of “happiness” which means to us some silly, misinterpreted right to be giddy, to feel good, to be “up” all the time.

Our founding fathers, steeped as they were in ancient Greek philosophy and ancient Roman political thought, had a very different view of “happiness.” For them, happiness was the right to pursue a purposeful life for the good of society.

Stop.

Please.

Ponder that definition: the right to pursue a purposeful life for the good of society.

That is not simply an individualistic right but a plural responsibility.

That is not the right to feel good, but the right to do good.

How Will History Judge Us?

Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights Movement, Richard Allen’s Anti-Slavery Movement, the Abolitionist Movement, and the modern day Pro-Life Movement all share the common denominator of speaking as a voice for the voiceless and insisting that the powerless be empowered and freed to live. All these movements share the insistence that all people be granted the same universal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—the right to pursue a purposeful life for the good of society.

We look back now and wonder how anyone could have ever supported the rights to slave ownership. The supposed right of the white slave owner to own blacks was pitted against the contested right of blacks to the same status as human, the same human dignity and equality, and, therefore, the same right to life, liberty (freedom), and the pursuit of happiness.

Even as I pen that previous paragraph I am sickened. Where in our constitution, where in biblical thinking, where in universal common law can anyone find a right for one person to own another person? Where can anyone find the right for one human being to enslave another human being? Where can anyone find the mentality that a human being’s skin color makes that human being a non-human being?

What outrage we should have as we reflect back on that hideous past way of thinking!

One hundred years from now will history look back and wonder in horrified bewilderment at how we could have been so cruel to so many unborn children? Will people of the 22nd Century be confounded when they try to figure out by what twisted logic millions of people were murdered every year—and unprotected by the powerful? Will they ask, “Where were the Civil Rights voices?” “Where were the Anti-slavery voices?” “Where were the Abolitionists voices?” “Where were the Pro-life voices?” “Where were the right to life voices?”

Will people of the distant future look back and be sickened by 21st century Americans? Will they wonder with righteous indignation and outrage where in our constitution, where in biblical thinking, where in universal common law anyone could find a right for one person to end the life of another person? Where anyone could find the mentality that a human being’s residence in a mother’s womb makes that human being a non-human being?

God’s Affectionate Sovereignty

Yes, it is no coincidence that we celebrate Martin Luther King weekend and Sanctity of Life weekend together.

In God’s affectionate sovereignty, He wants us to link civil rights and the right to life. He wants us to link the rights of African Americans, of women, and of unborn children. He wants us to be a voice for the voiceless, wherever and whenever the powerful attempt to silence their still, small voices.