Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Keswick theology

An Interview about Keswick Theology with the Director of Keswick Ministries

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I have spent a lot of time researching Keswick or higher life theology. I wrote a PhD dissertation on it (2006), and I condensed it into an article (2008) and revised it as an academic book (2010), which I recently condensed and updated into a more accessible book (2017).

Here is how I define two key terms in my 2010 book Let Go and Let God?

  1. The “early Keswick movement” refers to a movement from 1875 to 1920 that was (1) conservatively evangelical; (2) based on and distinguished by the belief that the majority of Christians are living in defeat and that the secret to living “the higher life,” “the deeper life,” or “the victorious Christian life” is consecration followed by Spirit-filling; and (3) stimulated by annual conventions at Keswick, England, and literature by its propagators.
  2. Keswick theology refers to the view of sanctification shared by the prominent propagators of the early Keswick movement.

Keswick is a small town in the Lake District in northwest England, and it recently became a World Heritage Site. Since 1875, it has hosted a meeting in July for the Keswick Convention. It started as a small one-week event, but now it runs for three weeks and attracts up to 15,000 adults and children. Its impact has extended all over the UK and the world. From 1875 to about 1920, those meetings featured higher life theology. Beginning in the 1920s, the Keswick Convention’s view of sanctification began to shift from the view that the leaders of the early Keswick Convention promoted from 1875 to 1920. William Graham Scroggie (1877–1958) led that transformation to a view of progressive sanctification closer to the Reformed view. More recently its speakers have included people like Don Carson, Tim Chester, Sinclair Ferguson, and Christopher Ash, whose views on the Christian life differ significantly from the early Keswick movement.

For the first half of 2018, my family lived in Cambridge, England, during my research sabbatical, and in June I was able to visit Keswick for the first time.

I also corresponded with some brothers who work for Keswick Ministries, and the Ministry Director, Dr. James Robson, kindly answered a few of my questions. [Read more…] about An Interview about Keswick Theology with the Director of Keswick Ministries

No Quick Fix: Where Higher Life Theology Came From, What It Is, and Why It’s Harmful

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My latest book attempts to survey and analyze “let go and let God” theology:

No Quick Fix

Andrew David Naselli. No Quick Fix: Where Higher Life Theology Came From, What It Is, and Why It’s Harmful. Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2017. xi + 123 pp.

(The book’s “Acknowledgments” page should mention three Faithlife employees: Elliot Ritzema for shepherding the book through the editorial process, Bryan Hintz for designing the clever cover, and my friend Mark Ward for writing the title’s black letters by hand.) [Read more…] about No Quick Fix: Where Higher Life Theology Came From, What It Is, and Why It’s Harmful

Kevin DeYoung’s “The Hole in Our Holiness”

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holeThis book is as good as advertised:

Kevin DeYoung. The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012. 159 pp. | 20 pp. sample PDF

DeYoung emphasizes what some who hold a Reformed view of sanctification tend not to emphasize: effort (i.e., Spirit-powered, gospel-driven, faith-fueled effort). And it helps that he can flat-out write.

I ordered the audiobook for my wife (who found Kevin’s T4G sermon so helpful that she listened to it three times). [Read more…] about Kevin DeYoung’s “The Hole in Our Holiness”

Six Videos and Related Resources

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When Alex Crain asked me some questions about Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism back in April, he also asked six other questions:

1. What is the gospel? How can God save me?

Related:

  1. “The Definition of the Gospel” (a talk I gave at a conference on April 8, 2011). Outline (3-page PDF).
  2. D. A. Carson. “The Biblical Gospel.” Pages 75–85 in For Such a Time as This: Perspectives on Evangelicalism, Past, Present and Future. Edited by Steve Brady and Harold Rowdon. London: Evangelical Alliance, 1996.
  3. ———. “The Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:1–19).” May 23, 2007. Text, audio, and video available. (A lightly edited manuscript of a sermon preached at The Gospel Coalition’s conference in Deerfield, IL.)
  4. ———.  “What Is the Gospel?—Revisited.” Pages 147–70 in For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper. Edited by Sam Storms and Justin Taylor. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.
  5. Greg Gilbert. What Is the Gospel? IX Marks. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.  (Foreword by D. A. Carson. Small, short (127 pp.), clear.)
  6. Milton Vincent. A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God’s Love. Bemidji, MN: Focus, 2008.  (Cf. my review.)

2. Are Mormons Christian?

Related:

  1. Ron Rhodes, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism),” in The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2631–32.
  2. The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 9:2 (Summer 2005) [Read more…] about Six Videos and Related Resources

Paul Would Have Nothing to Do with “Let Go and Let God” If He Were Here

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Kenneth Berding, Walking in the Spirit  (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 48–51:

[P]utting to death the deeds of the body is active. There is no passivity here.

I grew up in a church setting that was into “higher life” teaching. This teaching goes by many different names, including “victorious Christian living,” “the exchanged life,” and “the crucified life.” A particular stream of higher life teaching that continues to be influential is known as the Keswick Movement (pronounced KES-ik), named after an annual Bible conference that has been taking place in Keswick, England, each year since the late nineteenth century. One key aspect of higher life teaching is probably traceable even further back to a movement referred to as Quietism, which was popular in Italy, France, and Spain during the seventeenth century. If you aren’t familiar with any of these labels, it is still likely that you are familiar with a slogan that gets used in connection with various strands of this teaching: “Let Go and Let God.” Said differently, the key to the Christian life is to “let go of reliance on yourself and let God do the work in you.” [Read more…] about Paul Would Have Nothing to Do with “Let Go and Let God” If He Were Here

Free Class This Summer: Models of Sanctification

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That’s the name of a 4-credit class that I’m scheduled to co-teach this summer with Bruce Ware.

  • When? June 6–10, 2011
  • Where? Northland International University
  • For whom? Students in Northland’s graduate program (esp. DMin students)
  • How much? It’s free for first-time students in Northland’s graduate program (whether or not they wish to remain in the program).
  • Can the credit transfer to other schools? Yes.
  • What’s the workload? Check out the syllabus.
  • What’s the course’s general schedule? I’ll start off surveying and evaluating the Wesleyan, Keswick, Chaferian, and Pentecostal views of sanctification. Then Bruce Ware will survey and evaluate the contemplative view and explain and defend the Reformed view.

More info here.

I visited Northland’s campus for the first time last month to speak at their Heart Conference and then to teach a week-long grad course on the use of the OT in the NT. I was impressed. The faculty and administration are good folks, and the caliber of students is high. And they assure me that the weather in northern Wisconsin is nicer in June than February!

Update on 8/23/2017: My latest book attempts to survey and analyze “let go and let God” theology more accessibly:

No Quick Fix