by C. Leonard Allen & Danny Gray Swick

    This book is a very clear and relevant case study of the shaping impact of "secular" philosophies on Christian theology. With particular reference to the Churches of Christ ("Restoration") tradition, Leonard Allen and Danny Swick recall a crucial crossroads faced by this movement in the 1850s, a crossroads critical both then and now. The unfortunate decision then, according to these authors, was to favor a "modernist" philosophy that, while employed to support renewed biblical faithfulness, led to an essentially Spiritless Christianity. In varying degrees, much of establishment evangelicalism in the early twenty-first century suffers from a similar impoverishment, thus the significance of this book for more than the Churches of Christ.
    The authors urge the recovery of a biblical spirituality rooted in the triune nature of God. They are looking for the revitalization of their own tradition (Churches of Christ). It lies in a better balance that recognizes the biblical view of God's relational nature. With such balance people may be newly encouraged to actually participate in God's life by divine grace.
    This book builds on Leonard Allen's 1990 The Cruciform Church and is motivated by the observation that the Churches of Christ movement is approaching the two-century mark of its tradition in the midst of a momentous cultural and worldview shift. The shift is said to be away from antiquated and unbiblical "modernist" commitments. The authors rehearse the road not taken in 1857-60 and suggest that a similar crossroads--and a fresh opportunity--is being faced in 2001.
    Back in 1857 Robert Richardson, then associate editor of the Millennial Harbinger, had said wisely: "It is a cardinal feature of this religious reformation [the Stone-Campbell "restoration" movement] to direct the attention of men to words, even to the precious words of Holy Scripture. But it was never intended that these should be made a substitute for the things they reveal, or that mere grammar and logic should replace spiritual discernment and be permitted to establish themselves as a barrier between the soul and spiritual enjoyment." Nonetheless, a path different from this was chosen by the tradition's mainstream. It was to be a "Lockean heritage" path with its "distorted or neglected or hobbled doctrine of the Trinity" (56). This doctrine, says Allen and Swick, actually intends "not the passionless deity of Aristotle or the remote god of Enlightenment theism, but a God who is dynamic, demanding, personal and present" (56).
    Richardson's nineteenth-century fear was that later generations would reap the spiritual leanness of the Lockean vision of Christianity. This present book concludes that his fear has largely come true. A reverence for Scripture has been burdened by the philosophy of modernity. If a quest for intimacy is key for the postmodern world, then the pressing question for the Stone-Campbell restorationist tradition is whether it has the resources to create and sustain meaningful intimacy for believers in our time.
    This book answers this pressing question in the affirmative and outlines vital doctrinal features of the alternative way now urgently proposed. The call is for an arid rationality to be replaced by a warm relationality that features the living God who longs for us hungry and hurting humans to participate in the Divine life. The Trinity doctrine claims both that God forms relationships and is a relationship. We believers should see ourselves "not so much as foot soldiers following Divine orders but as active partakers of the Divine Nature" (166). The spiritual life of Christians is said to be a life "indwelt and empowered by the Spirit of God" (174). The bottom line is this: the Churches of Christ-and much of evangelicalism-face the considerable challenge of developing a Trinitarian doctrine of the Holy Spirit, somewhat in line with that of the Wesleyan/Holiness tradition. At its heart, says Allen and Swick, is the "perfect love" shared by Father, Son, and Spirit (186). Readers of the Wesleyan Theological Journal should applaud this work and pray for the success of its call to reform.

--Barry L. Callen, Anderson University, Anderson, Indiana.
From the Wesleyan Theological Journal, Spring 2002.

Reviews:

    One of the ironies of the Stone-Campbell movement is that many of its advocates have recently found themselves serving as the great defenders of certain tenets of modern philosophy. This irony is not lost on Allen and Swick, who suggest that this strange loyalty stems from a fateful decision a century and a half ago when pivotal figures in the movement took the churches down a path so committed to the "dirt philosophy" of Locke and Bacon that it unwittingly eclipsed the movement's commitment to biblical doctrine, especially with regard to the role of the Holy Spirit. The authors retrace that path, showing that the movement could have taken-and might once again take-a different path, one both more biblical and more open to the work that the Spirit of God desires to do in our lives. A must-read for all those in the Stone-Campbell movement who have long desired to welcome the Spirit back into the churches.

--Dr. Philip Kenneson, Professor of Theology, Milligan College, Johnson City, TN

"Postmoderns yearn for genuine spirituality. Are Churches of Christ prepared to respond to this cultural search? Building on Allen's earlier book, The Cruciform Church, this book recalls a missed opportunity in the 1850s, and then calls present-day churches to reconsider that road in the context of postmodern yearnings for authentic relationships. This is the first work to robustly explore the meanings of Trinitarian theology for Spirituality in Churches of Christ."

--John Mark Hicks, Professor of Theology, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN; author of Yet Will I Trust Him: Understanding God in a World of Suffering (1999).

"The authors, Allen and Swick, address a problem which evangelicals at large face. We have bought into the modern project and lusted after greater rational certainty than we have a right to. As a result, we have also fostered a somewhat Spirit-less kind of religion. This book indicates the way of healing and balance."

--Clark Pinnock, Professor of Theology, Hamilton Divinity College, Ontario, Canada; author of Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit (InterVarsity, 1996)

"One result of 'modern' thinking, with its emphasis on intellect and human autonomy, was the creation of a 'brass heaven' separating God from his creation. The rise of 'postmodernism' has seen the collapse of the "brass heaven" and a reawakening to Spiritual realities. Churches of Christ stand today at this crossroads-150 years after our forefathers chose the wrong trail. The authors of this book call us to relationship with the Living God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-in place of barrenness, boredom and isolation."

--Edward Fudge, co-author of Two Views of Hell (InterVarsity, 2000) and editor of GracEmail; attorney in Houston, Texas

"In an age marked by loneliness, estrangement and the vacuous "spiritualities" that are increasingly offered to fill that void, Allen and Swick offer us much-needed wisdom as they urge us to recover a biblical Spirituality rooted in the triune nature of God. They offer us not only a fully biblical view of God's relational nature, but also an equally biblical view of humans as relational beings, created in the image of God. These pages will be of enormous benefit to anyone seeking to discern the contours of a contemporary biblical Spirituality."

--Philip Kenneson, Professor of Theology, Milligan College; co-author of Selling Out the Church: The Dangers of Church Marketing (Abingdon, 1997)

About the authors:

C. LEONARD ALLEN is the author of The Cruciform Church: Becoming a Cross-Shaped People in a Secular World,Distant Voices: Discovering a Forgotten Past for a Changing Church, and other books. His book have been translated into Portugese, Korean, and Japanese. He holds a Ph.D. in Christian Thought from the University of Iowa, School of Religion, and presently serves as a professor at Biola University, La Mirada, CA.

DANNY GRAY SWICK is a Ph.D. candidate in Systematic Philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, Canada. He has served as a Christian educator and presently ministers with the Homewood Church of Christ, Birmingham, AL.