Mickey Crews, The Church Of God A Social History. (Knoxville, TN University Of Tennessee Press, 1990), 252 Pp. ISBN 0 87049634 4

Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars

Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected

Mickey ville, ISBN Crews, The Church TN: University 0-87049634-4. of God: A Social of Tennessee 91 History. Press, 1990), (Knox- 252 pp. Reviewed by Michael T. Girolimon All denominational (social-cultural, intellectual-theological, controversial selection methodological histories, regardless has emphasized the ways and political thought) helped Crews, History and written a concise denomination of their specific emphasis institutional, etc.), are especially nor Crews has of to explain how the because not everyone will be pleased with the author’s of historical data (“facts”) will agree with his or her explanations (“interpretations”). Mickey Crews’s The Church of God: A Social History is clearly no exception. chosen many unflattering facts from the Church of God’s past (e.g., snake handling and organizational separation of its black members) and in which American culture (e.g., economics, to shape the denomination’s beliefs and practices. a professor of history and chairman of the Department Social Science at Troy State University in Georgia, has and convincing account concerning the origins and development of the Church of God from an obscure, small Holiness sect in southern Appalachia in 1886 to a prominent, international Pentecostal in the latter part of the twentieth century using a blend of historical and sociological analysis. As a complement and, in places, a revision of Charles W. Conn’s institutional history, Like a Mighty Army (1955, rev. ed. 1977), Crews’s work attempts to move steadily from an originally of religious and cultural separatism ever closer toward Protestant evangelicalism and middle- While giving some attention to the internal religious motivations within the Church of God, the author shows that has been strongly influenced as often a reflection of society’s was a rejection of them. As Crews summarizes the Church of God was a product of Church of God has continued staunch position the mainstream of conservative class American society. this progression environment, various countercultural patterns … its times” (p. 18). The book’s seven chapters by the group’s cultural values and mores as it the issue: “Despite its approach, focusing in the late nineteenth- prevalent social and practices follow a thematic respectively upon the group’s ideological origins century South, its institutional bureaucratization, political taboos for its members, the two socially-controversial of prayer for healing and snake handling, the place and status of women in its ranks, its official positions on militarism, and a sampling of the separated by the changes and continuities myriad of changes which took place after 1940. But Crews basically schematizes two “chronological” portraits of one denomination, roughly the Second World War. These two portraits illustrate both in the Church of God which Crews argues 1 92 only pealed procedures against healing, many time, including preaching, throughout previous picture. As a result of and/or modifying the the pre-World War II Church which ap- forced of social and political taboos; the softening of proscriptions but prohibitions despite legal restraints in continuities with the its code of morality” began to were the result, in part, of embracing, rejecting, dominant cultural ethos. In the first picture, Crews characterizes of God as intellectually confined, highly regionalized, tightly controlled, and culturally isolated. Ideologically, the early Church of God was not a product of its religious environs (mainly the Holiness move- ment), but also its political milieu, specifically Populism, to the identical socioeconomic groups as the nascent denomina- tion. The two shared the concerns of social isolation and insecurity, the sense of cultural crisis, and a dismay at the effects of rapid industrializa- tion. The organization also slowly added administrative agencies and in response to internal crises and geographic expansion. Members submitted to an encyclopedia economic and societal pressures trade in tobacco and “worldly” personal habits, against such matters as alcohol, political parties, and labor unions per- sisted. Medical treatment was often spurned in favor of prayer for God’s and snake handling, officially repudiated in 1928, continued well into the 1930s throughout the movement, southern states. Unlike many Protestant denominations at the the Church of God gave select opportunities to women in ministry, but denied them ordination after 1909. And both World Wars, the group advocated strict pacifism- despite the antagonisms by the govemment but permitted non-combat service for its members in World War II. Crews’s second depiction of the Church of God after the War evinces great changes and only some (albeit significant) the general economic boom of the 1950s, many members ascended into the middle class, adopting values and mores. Membership likewise grew steadily, continuing the growth of bureaucracy. The “puritanical erode quickly in the face of societal pressures of the 1960s and 70s (p. Political involvement was officially encouraged in light of impend- cultural evils (e.g., a Roman Catholic president). Snake handling had long since disappeared as well as the denigration of medicine. The after the end of World War II, the denomination officially lifted its ban against combat service for its members, allowing for personal con- science. One glaring continuity with the past was the denomination’s adamant refusal to ordain women. In addition, Crews notes other separated organizationally denomination since 1912 and often placed under all white male supervi- sion, were integrated fully by 1966, the result of progressives within and the Civil Rights movement without. Education became a greater priority and members began earning advanced degrees. The Church of God dramatically furthered its evolution into the conservative Protestant in the postwar 38). ing day changes. Blacks, mainstream as its “sectarianism from whites within the mellowed” (p. 138) 2 93 years, joining forces in the 1940s with the National Association of Evangelicals, the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America, and the World Pentecostal Fellowship, warmly embracing the Healing Revivals of the late 1940s and early 50s, and cautiously supporting the Charis- matic Renewal of the 1960s and 70s. Writing as an insider who might be tempted to sanitize and/or to cele- brate the object of his study, Crews has, quite the contrary, penned a courageous and balanced account marked by disciplined objectivity and sensitivity. Unlike some other previous socio-historical analyses of Pentecostal groups, Crews’s work uses its argument as a controlling metaphor to organize its data rather than as a bulldozer to plough through other plausible explanations. Chapter three is a good example of this, where Crews attributes the Church’s rigorous external behavior codes both to theological convictions and social and economic status, albeit choosing to emphasize the latter. In sum, Crews has contributed significantly to our understanding of the social and historical develop- ment of the third largest American Pentecostal denomination. Finally, a model bibliography and a marginal index complete the work. Michael T. Girolimon is a Ph.D. student in Church History at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ 08540. 3 94 Georgio Rochat, Reoime fascista e chiese-Evangeliche (Col- lana della Societa di Studi Valdesi, 12; Torino: Claudiana, 1990) 349 pp. 38,000 Lira = $29.80. ISBN 88-7016-130-7. Reviewed by David Bundy This volume examines the political stance of the Italian fascist regime toward the evangelical churches as it is documented in general police archives, archives of the prefects, and other archives especially, the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a ministry directed person- ally by Mussolini from June 1924-November 1926. It is not a history of the interaction between the non-Catholic churches and the fascist gov- ernment. The author carefully and skillfully limits the scope of the volume to analysis of policy decisions taken by that government regard- ing these churches. Unfortunately, as the narrative evolves, access to Roman Catholic archives was not achieved, and so issues raised regard- ing the role of the Roman Catholic church in the formulation and imple- mentation of these policies remains to be examined. As it is, this magnif- icent volume is an essential source for the history of the YMCA, Methodists, Baptists, Mennonites, Waldensians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Salvation Army as well as Pentecostals in Italy during the period 1920-1943. The volume begins by surveying the juridical situation of the Evangelical churches in the early 1920’s. Rochat sketches the evolving Italian nationalism and the tenuous legal situation reflected in British and American governmental intervention. The Roman Catholic Church was conceived by the active and somewhat successful evangelistic efforts of the new churches (as well as the established indigenous Waldensians). Into this charged atmosphere came the first Bocchini Circular (13 April 1927) which signaled official interest in the limiting of the Evangelical Churches. It should be noted that the political/religious issues were complicated by the fact that a significant number of Evangelical pastors were members of the Communist Party, including Baptist Pastor Saccomanno Liutprando di Pietro whose trial and imprisonment (1927- . 1928) attracted international attention. Chapter 6 (pp. 113-126) is devoted to the Pentecostal communities of Rome and southern Italy, describing briefly their development before focusing on the impact of the Bocchini circulars in each region. Especially illuminating are the Internal Security documents appended (pp. 121-126) which illustrate the approaches of the Internal Security Police and the Roman Catholic bureaucracy to the Pentecostal churches. The second chapter that is devoted to the Pentecostals, Chapter 13 (pp. 241-256), describes and documents the increasingly repressive stance of the fascist government culminating in the Buffarini Guidi Circular of 9 April 1935 which prohibited Pentecostal worship. It is observed that pressure came first upon the Pentecostal churches because these 4 95 which could be bent to the will of was concerned with their fate. Interestingly disenfranchised persecuted without raising governments. and social structures indistinguishable. churches had no central organization the State and no foreign government Jehovah’s Witnesses who also had success among the in both Italy and the U.S.A. could similarly be the concern of the American or other foreign And to the Italian police, the liturgies, theologies, praxis of Pentecostals and repression on and Jehovah’s Witness were and The Bocchini Circular of 22 August 1939 brought new police attention the Pentecostal churches (ch 14, pp. 257-273). Num- bers of pastors and laity were imprisoned, harassed by authorities, Worship services were raided. An appendix (pp. 321-329) Witnesses and including 47 Pentecostals, faith. An index of names facilitates use of the socially disenfranchised. lists 146 Evangelical imprisoned volume. for their response churchmen, the majority Jehovah’s who were brought to trial and Professor Rochat of the University of Torino has added another semi- nal work to his numerous contributions to the study of the history of modern Italy. It presents for the first time an in-depth look at the of the Italian state to Pentecostal and other Evangelical Churches during the fascist period. As such it supplements the work of W. J. Hollenweger [The Pentecostals (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1965) and J.-D. Plfss [“European Pentecostal Reactions to Totali- tarianism : A Study of Ethical Commitment in the 1930’s,” EPTA Bulletin ( 1985) 40-55, 88-100]. 251-266] David Bundy is Associate Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Professor of Church History at Christian IN 60637. 5 96 Pétur Pétursson, mission pd öarna Ecclesiastica Ludensis 1990). 296 pp. Frdn väckelse till samfund. i Nordatlanten (Bibliotheca Lund University ISBN 91-7966-120-3. 22; Reviewed by David Bundy significant contributions Lund: Svensk pingst- Historica- Press, of Pentecostalism through- The mission efforts of the Swedish Pentecostal churches have made to the development out the world. The Swedish Pentecostal churches number about 100,000 members (1987) and support about 840 missionaries; as 1940, the 160 Pentecostal 16% of all missionaries 50% of all Swedish missionaries. missionaries comprised Swedish Pentecostal missionaries bution that is, more than As early sent from Sweden. have made major contributions in well as the Petursson of Pentecostalism from mis- Brazil, Africa, Asia, the U.S.A. and southern Europe as islands of the North Pacific. However, minimal scholarly attention has been given to this phenomenon. makes an original contri- in his analysis of the development sionary driven “movements” to churches in Iceland, Greenland and the Faeroe Islands. It is a context in which factors of colonialism, menism, cultural disjunctions, linguistics and community development national identity in each area is an impor- are raised. The development of tant feature of the investigation. Petursson, who has established devoted to a detailed historical the role of T. emphasis throughout throughout Scandinavian ecu- himself during the last decade as a The He describes the missionary to mission which developed The results of this mission Interpretative traditions from prolific and insightful scholar of Icelandic religious history and culture, divided his project into two parts. The first section (pp. 35-174) is descriptive analysis of the Swedish Pentecostal missionary enterprise in the North Atlantic. The second (pp. 177-269) provides an analysis of the social and institutional structures. It also reflects on the transition from “movement” to “community.” introduction traces the early spread of Pentecostalism from Los Angeles to Oslo, emphasizing B. Barratt in its success in southern Sweden (G6teborg) and then Stockholm. of Barratt and the commitment Pentecostalism. the world are documented. Troeltsch to Niebuhr are discussed, with a focus on the work of Hjalmar Sunden [Religionen och rollerna; Ett psykologiskt studiwn av fromheten Kyrkans 1966)] before the work of L. P. Gerlach and V. H. Hine [“Five Factors Crucial to the Growth and Spread of a Modern Religious Movement,” are nuanced by Church Growth theory (espe- cially the work of P. Wagner.) is presented as the theoretical structure of (4th ed.; Stockholm: Svenska JSSR 7(1968), 23-29] Diakonistyrelses Bokforlag, informs us, the first free church the investigation. Pentecostals were not, Peturrson missionaries to arrive in Iceland. From 1855 onward, Roman Catholics, 6 97 Mormons, Adventists, and Plymouth Brethren arrived to compete with the established-State supported Lutheran church. They profited from the underlying cultural pietism which was generally no longer cultivated by the established church. These religious minorities, supplemented by a Pentecostal presence after 1907, provoked an ecclesial and ecumenical debate which has continued throughout the twentieth century. It is significant for all three countries that Pentecostalism came not from Denmark, part of which kingdom all had been, but from Sweden. In Iceland, the movement received considerable attention from the peri- odical Bjarmi, edited by Sigurborn Gislason, a missionary of the Dansk Indre Mission (Danish Inner Mission), who corresponded with T. B. Barratt who in turn published reports in his periodical, Byposten. The first viable center began, circa 1920, at Vestmannaey jar through the efforts of local women believers who accepted the spiritual and organi- zational guidance of Erik Asb6, sent from the Salemforsamlingen in G6teborg, Sweden. The church in Raykjavik received a renewed foun- dational impetus from a visit by T. B. Barratt in 1936 who drew together various individuals and groups to form the Filadelfia Church and helped resolve leadership issues and problems which had hampered work in the city since the 1920’s. From these churches, but especially from Reykjavik, Pentecostalism spread throughout Iceland. In the Faeroe Islands, the colonial experience had been particularly onorous. Here also there were competitors for the state supported Lutheran Church and a deep pietist instinct which was no longer being generally fostered by the established clergy. From 1923 there were Pentecostals on the islands. Among the early foreign Pentecostal visitors was Erik Asbo who preached (1925-1926) in a Plymouth Brethren Church in T6rshavn which had become a center of Pentecostal activity. Several Plymouth Brethren along with the Danish Inner Mission adher- ents were among the first Pentecostal believers. The Pentecostal mis- sionaries quickly adapted to the nationalist and cultural drives within the Faeroe Island context. Entire extended families were converted. The movement grew quietly until after World War II when it developed more quickly, but splintered into a number of competing groups, especially during the 1950’s and 1960’s. More recently there have been efforts to reunite these fragmented groups. Greenland, a colonial dependency with minimal competitive natural or human resources, was from 1927 the scene of intense activity by Swedish missionaries. Growth was slow until the arrival (1952) of Erik Martinsson who pioneered the development of indigenous language materials including a periodical. The competing efforts of different Swedish pentecostal churches and movements hindered development. The Pentecostal church in Greenland has never become a viable entity. It is still dependent upon the efforts of individual missionaires and/or ecumenical cooperation with other free church denominations. Petursson argues that Greenland has remained so dependent on Denmark for its 7 98 cultural and economic identity, that missionaries from Sweden have had little impact. Petursson examines the social and institutional structures of both the Swedish Pentecostal missionaries and the targets of their mission activ- ity, focusing on the experience in Iceland (pp. 177-270). These struc- tures are juxtaposed at each stage of the development of the national church from groups of disenfranchised workers with only personal and local interests to a fully indigenous united denomination with all the structures of a fully developed church. Six phases are discerned in this development: (1) Local revivals, heavily influenced by social depriva- tion, religious fellowship and underlying Lutheran pietism; (2) opposi- tion which fostered the development of social identifiers; (3) building of local church buildings, continued isolation; (4) establishment in society and development of ties to the national culture as well as development of internal leadership structures; (5) internal tensions stemming partly from the arrival of the Charismatic movement; and, (6) clear structuration as the “Islandic Pentecostal Movement” during the 1980’s, typified by the writing of its own creed and increased tolerance of and interaction with other denominations. Petursson’s volume is a magisterial analysis of a complex story, which he approaches neither as an apologist nor as a destructive critic. It is based on extensive research in unpublished sources and interviews from throughout Scandinavia and the North Atlantic islands as well as on the published primary and secondary literature. The extensive use of periodical literature is exemplary. It is to be hoped that other scholars will push the issues raised in this volume in two directions. Firstly, it is hoped that more detailed studies will be made of the history and devel- opment of Pentecostalism in Iceland and the Faeroe Islands as well as record and analyze the work in Greenland. Critical biographies are needed of several of the principles in the narrative. And more signifi- cantly, it is to be hoped that more scholarly case studies will be under- taken which examine the history and evaluate the results of Pentecostal missions. Only then will we begin to understand the origins, develop- ment and present identity of the multifaceted tradition which is arguably the third largest branch of world Christianity … in its own right with fewer simplistic assumptions about the supposed American origins. David Bundy is Associate Professor of Church History at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN 60637. 8 99 Raniero Cantalamesa, Spiritual Commentary New Evangelization. Translated (Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, (paper) Life on the Letter to the Romans Reviewed by Robert P. Meye ference ; claimers as much as exegetes. spiritual go straight to the heart of sion are guided by Cantalamesa, the Charismatic Renewal journey catechesis of reality author quickly reminds the reader Christian experience by Christian experience must credible” (viii). Thus in the Lordship of Christ: A for a by Frances Lonergan Villa. 1990). Xii + 296 pp. $14.95 on Romans with a dif- and Life in the Lordship of Christ is a commentary it is more like the works of Adolf Schlatter and Karl Barth, which stand on the ramparts of scholarship and take the position of pro- Indeed, this is the direction announced from the very start: “This work presents a way of re-evangelization renewal based on Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is therefore neither an exegetical comment nor a theological treatise, but an attempt to what animated the Apostle when he wrote this letter” (v). But what follows is a declaration whose stages and progres- the text of Romans as well as its language. a priest of the Cappucine order, and a leading fugure in within the Roman Catholic Church, likens the on which he seeks to take the reader to “the mystagogical ancient Christianity” (vii); it is an effort “to place Christian at the centre as being even more important than Christian truth.” By this he indicates that the emphasis is not so much upon “concepts, definitions and demonstrations” as upon “experience” (viii). Here the that insistence on this reality of no means loses sight of Christian truth, but rather “support it and make it effective and does Cantalamesa set the stage for “commentary” on Romans with a difference. This difference is given further specificity impetus for the book arose from a “seminary “was later developed during the lenten sermons given to the Papal Household in the years that followed and was gradually tested in course of spiritual exercises and retreats given to different groups of from cloistered communities to lay people engaged in secular activities” (p. 11). The “Index of Documents and Authors Quoted” gives good evidence of a further difference already noted in the introduction; (rather than Spirit”-and people, recourse to contemporary exegetes cially when we learn that the [sic] on new life in the of Romans) there is frequent recourse in these pages to the renowned exponents of modem culture and to Church tradition. He reminds us that “Secular geniuses, espy- if they are strong believers, render an incomparable service to the word of God. They cause the level of conscience of humanity increase and thus help to create ever more stimulating and deeper to 9 100 questions and challenges author and is a boon to the reader. The proclamatory to God’s word” (xi). All this animates the stance of this “commentary” by no means dimin- ishes its substance or utility. It will be well-placed on the shelf of com- mentaries on Romans-and on the Gospel, and the Christian pilgrimage from and toward the Gospel. kerygmatic, truth, the truth about Christian Yourselves”) and proach of God. Those who know headings Think Too Highly of (“The good news of as truth”), to a than by “textual The volume consists of fourteen chapters, each of which arises from a succession of passages in Romans; at the same time, the comments arise from the letter as a whole, and reach out to the rest of the canon, not to mention the treasury of Christian faith and tradition through the cen- turies. Standing over each chapter are two headings, the first more the second more didactic-if we can so divide the invisible experience Romans can often draw a line from both the more kerygmatic (“Loved By God”-“All Have Sinned”-“Don’t their more didactic complements God’s love”-“The mystery of impiety”-“Humility textual unit of the epistle. Cantalamesa divides each chapter thematically-rather units.” Two examples will both illustrate his pattern and also his ap- to Romans. Cantalemesa’s seventh chapter finds its focus in Romans 6, and bears the dual (kerymatic/didactic!) headings, “Let Not Sin Reign in Your Mortal Bodies!/Freedom from sin.” There are five of several or more pages in length: (1) Acknowledge Your Sin; (2) Repent of Sin; (3) “Cease from sin”; (4) “Destroy the sinful “Whoever has suffered in the flesh….” Clearly, Cantalamesa ranges beyond the confines of a given passage, but as an artist who sees the relationship between the object before him and its larger context. sub-headings body”; (5) This is no ordinary “commentary.” In consequence, as already inti- with expectation that it pro- vide a continuous mated, one should not turn to this volume of the text. No, Romans is always out exposition preted there as a “whole piece” rather than a succession of texts, each inter- in turn. To be sure, the standard commentary is a necessary and blessed instrument for the interpretation of scripture. But one feels also that Cantalmesa is doing a work of necessity, which has the power to bless the Church and the interpreter. There are other losses in this approach. I mention only two: Entire units of Romans, remarkably chapters 9-11, are not really brought into our field of vision. And given the critical role of obedience in the thematic statements of 1:5 and 16:26, and the great emphasis upon the obedience of Jesus and the disobedience of Adam in Romans 5:12-21, it surprises one to see the heading “By One Man’s Obedience” over chapter 13: lff.-although the horizon is quickly these are small matters when placed alongside the great gain that issues from Cantalamesa’s The sub-title of this book, again, is “A most immediately expanded beyond it. However, Back to the beginning! standing approach. 10 101 Spiritual Commentary on the Letter to the Romans for a New Evan- gelization.” This is indeed a spiritual commentary, and one which- everywhere in the Church of Jesus Christ-provides the clearest call toward a “New Evangelization.” Robert P. Meye is Associate Provost for Church Relations and Christian Community and Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA 91182. 11