Keswick Theology

Last week I was honored to give the 2008 William R. Rice Lecture Series at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary on “Keswick Theology: A Survey and Analysis of the Doctrine of Sanctification in the Early Keswick Movement.”

The manuscript for this lecture series is scheduled for publication in the fall 2008 Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal. It distills my first dissertation (“Keswick Theology: A Historical and Theological Survey and Analysis of the Doctrine of Sanctification in the Early Keswick Movement, 1875–1920,” Ph.D. dissertation, Bob Jones University, 2006; xxiv + 387 pp.) from about 100,000 to 20,000 words.

Detroit Seminary is hosting the following resources from the lecture series:

1. Handout (five-page PDF)
2. Power Point presentation as a PDF (eighty slides with lots of pictures) [12.1 MB]
3. MP3s:

• A Historical and Theological Survey of the Early Keswick Movement (1:10:32)
• A Theological Analysis of the Early Keswick Movement – Part 1 (57:20)
• A Theological Analysis of the Early Keswick Movement – Part 2 (with Q & A) (49:24)

(photos by Dr. Robert V. McCabe)

Update (June 2, 2010): This analysis of Keswick theology is updated and now available as a book.

1. 

   Daniel Brier says:

   March 24, 2008 at 7:00 pm

   Fine job on the lecture. While I had clarified a lot of these things in my mind previously, it is great to be reminded how dangerous this teaching is to living the Christian life.
2. 

   samuel sutter says:

   March 25, 2008 at 8:38 am

   cool… i’ll put it on my ipod.
3. 

   Jon Watson says:

   March 25, 2008 at 6:48 pm

   Thanks for posting! I went to the site right after and they only had the mp3s. I really wanted to attend, but with BJ Bible Conference I was somewhat restricted. Looks Good, Thanks again.
4. 

   Ken Pierpont says:

   March 27, 2008 at 10:05 pm

   Dr. Andy; I attended the lecture. Thanks for your very helpful work on the Keswick Movement. I noticed profound parallels between the Keswick Movement and Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles. Can you comment on that?
5. 

   Andy Naselli says:

   March 27, 2008 at 10:19 pm

   Hey, Ken. I’m afraid I’m not familiar enough with Bill Gothard’s view of sanctification to comment. Based on the very little I do know about Gothard, one possible comparison comes to mind: both Keswick and Gothard use lots of lists. (Cf. my “Critique 10: Methodology: Superficial Formulas for Instantaneous Sanctification.”) Feel free to share some parallels you see.
6. 

   Bob Roberts says:

   April 13, 2008 at 12:09 pm

   Andy,

   I’m staying home sick from church today and I found your MP3 page. After listening to some Minnick, I started listening to your lecture on Keswick theology. I’m devouring it.

   Thanking the Lord I’m sick today!! Praising God for your good work!

   Bob

   P.S. I would like to talk to you about the Welsh Revival and Evan Roberts sometime.
7. 

   Wesley Handy says:

   July 30, 2009 at 8:54 pm

   Dr. Naselli,

   I am a PhD student in Christian Missions at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I listened to your presentation in following some leads on Keswick Theology as I researched a paper on the East Africa Revival.

   Your presentation was great and very helpful for me in understanding the background for many of the evangelical Anglicans serving in East Africa in the 1930s-40s. However, you cut things off at 1920, which I understand. Can you recommend some resources for understanding the changes in Keswick theology post-1920? Or are there sources on Keswick theology and the CMS that are must reads?

   I appreciate any feedback you are able to give. Thanks.
8. 

   Andy Naselli says:

   July 30, 2009 at 9:13 pm

   Thanks, Wesley. Probably the most helpful book for understanding the theology in the post-1920 Keswick movement is Charles W. Price and Ian M. Randall’s Transforming Keswick: The Keswick Convention, Past, Present and Future (Carlisle: OM, 2000). Hope that helps!
9. 

   Wesley Handy says:

   August 3, 2009 at 3:35 pm

   Thank you! I just received a copy of your dissertation from Bob Jones via ILL and will check into the work you mention above by Price and Randall. I greatly appreciate it. This has been very helpful for me!
10. 

    Steve Cowden says:

    January 29, 2010 at 8:10 am

    Thanks for your labors in this area. About five years ago I presented a series on personal holiness to our church body which involved research on Keswick. Tracking things down was near impossible. I could find little material on Keswick that was not sympathetic; Pollock’s book was interesting but seems to whitewash the Smith’s while giving no helpful critique of the theology. A few years later I bumped into a seminary professor who also lamented the lack of critical material. With tongue in cheek, I suggested he commission one of his phd students to fill the void. Through your presentations, the Lord has now provided far more than I hoped.

    Looking at some of the future publications you are involved with, I can see that you are quite busy. My hearts desire is that someone will do an evaluation of the current Prophetic Movement (Vinyard, Joyner, etc. & especially IHOP) similar to your Keswick material. This stuff is eating up churches across the world and is only growing in influence. The movement is reaching outside its Pentecostal circles into traditional conservative Christianity by heavily promoting deeper life revivalism while masking its neo-gnostic heresies. A good brother at our church, with leanings toward deeper life, is now drifting away into the movement. Many others outside our church body are falling prey. (btw, it might interest you to know that we are in Greenville, SC where IHOP has just opened shop using a Vinyard church building).

    As shepherds/teachers/pastors we are here in the trenches having to slug it out with this stuff and we often feel outgunned by their sophistry, misinformation and outright lies. There is some helpful material on the internet but it is intermittent and lacks the credibility of disciplined scholarly study. We need some reliable and comprehensive research that can actually nail their aberrant jello to the wall and can be presented to the younger generation being swept up in these prophetic movements by the tens of thousands.

    Thanks again, my brother!
11. 

    Daniel Kuhlwein says:

    April 12, 2010 at 1:14 am

    WOW! As I listened to your lectures the second time through light bulbs were going off. These lectures were extremely helpful. Thank you so much.
12. 

    James Steinbach says:

    July 7, 2010 at 10:13 am

    I just listened to the lectures while driving back from Chicago yesterday and found them very helpful. From your blog posts and interviews, I had a pretty good idea of the main identifiers and erros of Keswick, but the lectures assembled a historical big picture for me.

    I was especially intrigued by how widespread the Keswick influence is, particularly in our hymnody. Apparently, I’ve sung quite a few hymns with little/no regard for authorial intent (in this sphere and others)!

    As one who spent far too many summer camps / retreats / altar calls “re-dedicating” his life to the Lord in hope of “gaining the next big step of victory,” I very much appreciate your work. Thanks!
13. 

    Josh Bennett says:

    July 25, 2010 at 10:10 am

    Hey, Andy, long time no see! Your involvement in the school was a big influence on me during my freshman year at Bible college. Anyway, I just found this site and have been taking a better look at this theology.

    Going back to Mr. Pierpoint’s question about the correlations between the Keswisk Movement and Mr. Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles: Just today I was chatting with a friend of mine that used to be in the IBLP programs with me years ago. My comment to him was basically that the continual use of lists by the IBLP was very influential in my earlier belief that sanctification was achieved by works. It took years of study and the work of the Holy Spirit to open my eyes to the truth. While this certainly doesn’t fully answer Mr. Pierpoint’s question, it may shed some light on the perspective of a former IBLP student.