 THE CRUCIFORM CHURCH (a review)
C. Leonard Allen issued this book in 1990. It is important because it is one of the earlier books promoting the change agenda. It continues the project that began with his two previous books, Discovering Our Roots: the Ancestry of Churches of Christ and The Worldly Church; A Call for Biblical Renewal (p. ix). Bro. Allen was at the time of writing, an associate professor at Abilene Christian University's College of Biblical Studies. Thoughts, phrases and expression from this book echo in many of the speeches and books of other change agents that have followed him. I think it fair to say that Bro. Allen is a chief theoretician and architect of the change movement that is ravaging our churches. The author dedicates his work to Dr. Thomas Olbricht of Pepperdine U., father of the New Hermeneutics. It is a veritable handbook for seducing unwitting Christians and churches away from their biblical roots and into the camp of the change movement. Allen and other change agents hide behind a mask of pretended piety and concern for the church while, chipping away at her foundations to effect her collapse. He gives lip service to his "debt to Churches of Christ" yet he acknowledges that he questions and critiques "some aspects of (his) heritage..." He wants to "stand free from the influence of tradition" (i.e. his heritage in the Church of Christ jhw)(p. ix). He concludes that his faith, learned in the Church of Christ, needs "careful alterations" (p. x). In this book he attempts to ingraft those alterations to faith upon his readers.
The word "cruciform" means "a cross-shaped church." It is a picturesque term borrowed from the denominational world and likely was intended to disarm readers who would think it was a positive, constructive attempt to bring the church closer to Christ. For many, by the time they grasp its true intent, the damage will have been done.
Allen critiques the way we read Scriptures; the way we view God; the place we give to the cross of Christ; our stance towards the world; our portrayal of Christ-like character and gives us failing marks in each category (p. 14-15). If I were a member of church that I found so flawed, I would be looking for a different body with more promise. Hopefully Bro. Allen and his tribe will do just that.
Having read some 15 books by various change agents, I am impressed that all of them must read the same books or listen to the same thought leaders. They use the same examples, make the same criticisms and propose the same changes!
Change agents, like Allen, like to identify with illustrious teachers of the past to validate their specious claims. Allen, claims Bro. G. C. Brewer as the icon whose ideas he is promoting. For the unknowing, the sacred name of Brewer may give them credence, but those familiar with G. C. Brewer's life and work know that he would not have given these false teachers the time of day. Brewer's two books, "As Touching Those Who Were Once Enlightened" and "A Medley on the Music Question" belie their claims. Brewer chastened those who left the church for the charms of denominationalism and those who vainly tried to justify the use of instrumental music in their worship.
He opens by telling us that "we..face a kind of identify crisis" (p 3). But it is not those of the "traditional" churches who are suffering from an identity crisis, it is the change agents and their converts who having abandoned the guiding principles of New Testament Christianity are blindly searching for meaning and direction in the realm of denominationalism and subjectivism.
Rather than faithfully preaching the sacred Word, he tells us, "we must learn to tell stories" (p. 4). Lacking scripture for what they believe, a story promotes their change doctrine well.
Allen dismisses the historical studies of other brethren as flawed and self-serving (p. 6). It is necessary for men of his tribe (i.e., change agents) to correctly interpret the past and debunk the things we believe and in which we trusted. He says, the historical approach our brethren have taken "has inhibited and dislocated our theological efforts" (p. 6). He assures us that his criticism of the church and her members past and present is not to be taken as carping, cutting down or fault-finding, but that is exactly how it impress this reader! He acknowledges that we might interpret his criticism as "bashing the pioneers" (p. 10). That is precisely what he is doing! Like all liberals, he seeks to build his case by discrediting great teachers of the past; men whose shoes he is unworthy to tie! Behold how the brass doth shine! What has Allen done to win the lost, plant new congregations and defend the church and the faith of Christ from those who are His mortal enemies?Allen contrasts his highly educated professorial peers with the humble, preachers of the past who were largely self-trained and pronounces his team the winner. But the proof is in the pudding. It was precisely those humble men who went forth with minds filled with the Word hearts aflame and brought multitudes to Christ. They planted the churches and even established the schools the change agents now occupy and use for their new brand of religion. Even today it is not the professors and those with the doctorates that go forth seeking and saving the lost! To Dr. Allen, of all the thousands of preachers and teachers among us for 200 years, only a handful of recent change agents, principally at Abilene Christian U and Pepperdine U have correctly understood the bible and its doctrines.
The author dismisses past brethren such as N. B. Hardeman with the wave of his hand, charging him with a "serious dislocation of the past" (p. 8). Of course Bro. Allen assumes he is wiser and a better historian than Bro. Hardeman. The fact is, his biblical knowledge, his ability as a teacher and preacher and most especially his usefulness to the Cause of Christ pales as a dim shadow beside Hardeman!
He says, we must "face the challenge of rethinking our traditional way of reading the Bible" (p. 19). "Some (namely change agents, jhw) have consciously rejected their (traditional jhw) methodology of interpretation and begun casting about for new ones" (p. 19). He assures us that "the traditional view" (i.e. of biblical interpretation, jhw) is in decline. While this is true of change agents and the schools they control, it is not true of the vast majority of our preachers and teachers. He warns that those who reject the traditional approach are "susceptible to theological fads" (p. 20). "The Bible becomes the self-help manual par excellence, a book containing just the things we like to hear. This current secularizing and psychologizing of Scripture provides another compelling reason we must rethink the role of the Bible in Christian faith" (p. 20). Rather than the way "traditional" churches handle scripture, this is a perfect portrait of how change agents such as Allen use it. He criticizes the way our preachers have studied and interpreted Scripture, yet most of them studied and were trained in schools like Abilene. So his indictment includes his own professional peers in our Christian Universities. It is true that some of our preachers did not have a good working knowledge of hermeneutics and some did not always rightly divide the more difficult parts of the Word, but one need not be a highly trained exegete to understand the basic lessons of salvation, the worship and the church. If such were so, how few would be able to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Allen charges that, "Our traditional approach violated the historical and literary character of the Bible" (p. 32). "Among Churches of Christ, the effect of the Baconian method was to shut down serious attention to Scripture's historical or cultural settings" (p. 33). I have always sought to discover the historical and cultural context and the literary style of the particular text I was studying. Maybe his early Biblical education failed him in this respect. It is true that we have not made our interpretation conform to the rationalistic canons of liberal theologians. Perhaps it is this he really objects to.
He says, "Our traditional way of reading the Bible has restricted our Spiritual resources for dealing with the advanced secularization of our time" (p. 35). Does he suggest that the "new hermeneutic" produces a stronger, more courageous disciple who can better resist the temptations of our secular society? Are the students and graduates of Abilene and Pepperdine thus more godly and victorious than their peers from Freed Hardeman or Faulkner U? He asserts that our "traditional' hermeneutic hinders our compassion (pp. 174-175). What a wild unfounded assumption. Does he claim that his change churches exhibit more compassion and benevolence than the traditional churches? He treats us to pages of theological gobbledegook and insists that, "the traditional approach....fostered a kind of spiritual self-reliance, proves theologically inadequate to address an individualistic, self-indulgent secularized age. How we might ask can a self-help Christianity direct increasingly self-indulgent people away from self" (p.37). But it is precisely the change agents who are preaching the self-help gospel!
This book is a promotional piece for the "New Hermeneutics." This new method of interpreting God's Word is an essential tool to create a mind-set willing to accept their innovations without question or dissent. If they can get novice Christians to read the Word through the tinted lenses of denominationalism, they can lead them anywhere with ease. With their new hermeneutic, they would create a religion without commands and ordinances that must be obeyed; one without obligations or accountability. He sees his approach to Bible interpretation as "more faithful" than the method used by the rest of us (p. 11). Many of the alleged principles of their new hermeneutics are not really new. Much of what they claim to have discovered are basic principles of interpreting Scripture, known by all serious students of the Word for hundreds of years. Preacher students at their Christian universities may not have been taught these basic tools of information, but students in schools of preaching routinely receive this instruction. His critique of our methods of interpretation is flawed because it is built upon a mistaken premise that no one knows how to properly interpret Scripture but the he and his fellow change agents. "Given our familiar, traditional way of reading the Bible, however, such a move may well mean breaking with tradition and entering a strange and unfamiliar world" (p. 71). Change agents are the ones "breaking with tradition and entering a strange and unfamiliar world!"
Dr. Allen's view of Scripture is revealing. He says the "canonical list containing exactly the twenty-seven books we accept today appeared only by the fourth century, though even then there was not unanimity among the various Christian communities" (p. 56). Perhaps he could tell us who wrote those books of our Bible, not accepted until the fourth century after Christ. He should tell us if he believes all the 66 books of the Bible are equally inspired of God, as for example the Gospels
The arrogance and smugness of the change agents is illustrated in his discussion of our understanding of God. He writes as though he has discovered something new that all the rest of us "traditionals" have failed to grasp: that God is transcendent, omnipotent and capable of doing wondrous, stupendous things (p. 98). It is interesting to see him evaluate the Christian's view of God through the lens of atheistic philosophers such as Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872), Karl Marx (1818-1881) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).
Change agents like Allen delight in labeling the truths we hold dear as mere traditions that need to be abandoned for the new truths they have discovered. Allen favorably quotes F. J. A. Hort who wrote, "the air is thick with bastard traditions which carry us captive, unawares while we seem to ourselves to be exercising our freedom and instinct for truth" (p. 11). While harshly criticizing our traditions, he insists that we must "take Christian traditions other than our own with great seriousness" (p. 11). He describes the impact his agenda will have on some Christians: "The effect of such an engagement might best be described as a theological loss of innocence" (p. 12). A "loss of innocence" suggests an experience like a seduction or rape, and in a spiritual sense, that is an apt description of occurs when change agents steal into a congregation.
Bro. Allen implies that all but his group of preachers and churches have "lost the word of the cross" (p. 113). The author is totally out of touch with reality! Only the theological liberals, whose works he cherishes, have lost the word of the cross! The preachers of the change movement, who resort to entertainment and drama to nourish their congregants are the ones who have lost the precious message of the cross. Other brethren continue to preach Christ today as always!
For Allen it is not enough that we believe in the omnipotent, transcendent God, the atoning death of Christ and that we preach those truths; we must plumb the mystery which is incomprehensible (p. 115-120). Allen bases his program on the premise that the true meaning of God's will is an incompressible mystery (p. 118). That being the case, how can we know anything for sure about God, Christ, the Bible and the Church? The very definition of a mystery is that which is not understood.
Bro. Allen has a huge misconception regarding Churches of Christ. He builds his case on the faulty assumption that the Old Testament is universally neglected in our preaching and teaching, that we fail to appreciate and teach its great themes. Allen and other change agents have not actually found points of doctrine we have overlooked or neglected. They have an elitist attitude of superiority and smugness towards their brethren who are not their academic peers and who do not share their appetite for change.
The author says that the church must be "a withdrawing community," yet change agents are the champions of mega churches with their elaborate social, recreational and entertainment programs. They routinely make common cause with the world about us. Does the administration and staff of ACU or Pepperdine U live "withdrawn" from the world? One need only visit the campus of either school to get the answer. Are the churches the change agents serve free from worldly influences? Behold they say and do not!
Among his many criticisms of the church is that as a whole (specifically, we leaders, jhw) act as though we have no human history; that we have only the Biblical history of the early church. This is but one of the baseless assertions on which he erects his flimsy structure. A multitude of our preachers had courses in church history and restoration history while in our colleges and in virtually all did who attended our schools of preaching. Books of brotherhood history and biography have enjoyed wide circulation among us over the years. While encouraging his readers to study our past he says, "One may become so keenly aware of the humanness of the tradition that one is tempted to reject it" (p. 13). This is precisely what he and other change agents have done! Allen paints what he imagines one might conclude about us as our history is studied. His description well describes the liberal change agents: "One may perceive serious theological distortions...or discern narrowness and intolerance. One may find overwhelming ironies in the movement (for example, the grandiose plan for unity, yet the runaway fragmentation that ensued). One may be frustrated by institutional intransigence" (p. 13). He confesses that he has felt a longing to start all over again, abandoning the church as she presently exists (13).
Chief among his criticisms are the following: "The central irony that has dogged our movement since its inception: the tendency to creedalize the absence of creeds, to make nonsectarian claims a centerpiece of one own sect, to make rejection of all human tradition a fixture of one's own robust tradition..." (p. 24).
He faults our understanding of the world and consequently our understanding of the Bible...blaming us for seeing the world through the eyes of Isaac Newton's view of nature rather than as did our predecessors in the Dark Ages. I wonder if Bro. Allen prefers that superstitious, medieval view of the world and the Word over that which he grew up with? He faults us for using the inductive method to determine the meaning of Scripture. He prefers the uncertain approach of subjectivism and relativism. He indicts our way of studying Scripture, "The traditional approach elevated inorganic, impersonal, and mechanistic models of the Bible, the church and the Christian life" (p. 31). "The Bible became an inert object, a compendium of separate facts and commands rather than a unified, personal story of God's acts and character" (p. 31). I don't know just where he has spent his life or which congregations he has been associated with, but his experience is totally atypical. I have visited at least 300 of our churches over the years and not found such to be the case. Perhaps he is just repeating an urban legend circulating among his peers. He and other change agents have a hundred criticisms but no positive construction suggestions for the church. Like termites they eat away at the foundation and structure of congregations leaving only ruin.
On page 46 he tells us Alexander Campbell failed to properly interpret Scripture because "He drew upon a modern western, ‘social compact' theory widely held in the political thought of his day." My what arrogance from a would be scholar not qualified to hold light for Alexander Campbell. Allen is like an armchair critic who deigns to criticize the general who lead a great army to victory.
Bro. Allen bases his program on the premise that the real and correct understanding of the Bible is an incomprehensible mystery. He exalts the incomprehensible mystery and then faults those who do not dwell on the incomprehensible (p. 118). He says "we do not solve true mysteries, we engage them..." He bemoans the fact that gospel preachers commonly cite Eph. 3:2-6 showing that the mystery is now made known in Christ. If Scripture is an unfathomable mystery, then none can know what God's will for us is and all are left to their own ideas and opinions. This uncertainty is the basis of Postmodernism. All of his multi-syllabic discourse about mystery of religion says nothing significant or new. All mysteries that were pertinent to our salvation and faith were revealed to us by revelation. Other mysteries, things unrevealed, belong to God and we must be content with what he has shown us (Deut. 29:29).
He insists that we must "enlarge our canon," meaning "recovering the Jewish Scriptures as a vital and functional part of our Christian life" (p. 52). This falsely implies that we do not recognize the 39 Old Testament books as divine Scripture. He really want to convince the unknowing that Old Testament Scripture is equally authoritative for doctrine and practice of the church today. Principally he wants them to accept those Old Testament passages authorizing the Hebrews to use instrumental music in their worship as giving approval for its use in our worship today. He says, "We must embrace the whole canon of Scripture and thereby become a more biblical people" (p. 57). This is pure puffery. Everyone accepts the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. He posits a false impression (that traditional preachers do not accept the Old Testament books), then proceeds to attack and destroy the imaginary situation he has created.
In the same vein, Allen says we must "elevat(e) the Gospel accounts to equal status with the Epistles as authoritative documents for the church" (p. 52). This falsely implies that we elevate one part of the New Covenant over the other, thus neglecting the Gospels. For our preachers, he says, "The Gospels, in short, play a somewhat minimal role when it comes to preaching the gospel or instructing the church about its life together in Christ" (p. 52). False charge! Note that he acknowledges "It exaggerates only a bit (better, a lot, jhw), to say that the Old Testament and to some degree the Gospels- dropped out of the theology of Churches of Christ" (p. 55). False again. He labors to prove that the early church loved and honored the Old Testament (p. 56). But no one believes otherwise! This, like much of his book, is relevant. He tells us "Neglect or eclipse of the Old Testament, for this reason makes us more vulnerable to misalliances with secular or naturalistic world views (p. 57). This statement better describes the change agents who warmly embrace the anti-Christian views of pluralism, relativism and post-modernism!
Much of this book is filled with "theo-babble" i.e., heavy, obtuse, paragraphs fill with the cloudy language of the denominational theological seminary. Such lines make no sense to the average reader. For example: "Parables are not illustrations; they do not support, elaborate, or simplify a more basic idea. They are not ideas at all, nor can they ever be reduced to theological statements...They contain a surplus of meaning that beckons us beyond ourselves to discover something new...They have hooks all over them; they can grab each of us in a different way..." (p. 61). This dear reader, is the scholarship of the new hermeneutic.
Allen says, "Life in the kingdom involves a shattering for the settled, predictable, well-managed, "possible world" (p. 102). While eulogizing the mighty power of God, he hints at the idea that God will still works miracles today as in Biblical times (p. 102).
He charges that "the ‘word of the cross' has been significantly displaced in the history of Churches of Christ...we have tended to push the cross into the background and thus to proclaim an anemic and distorted gospel" (p. 113). "The most pressing question facing Churches of Christ today is the question; Can we recover ‘the word of the cross' in its biblical fulness?" This is an arrogant assumption on the part of a professor whose view of the Church and the world is the insular campus of a university. Before he could honestly make such an indictment of a brotherhood of some 15,000 preachers (here and around the world), he would have to interview each, review all the sermons and classes they have taught to see how much emphasis they placed on the ‘word of the cross!' Perhaps he views the whole church through the prism of his ACU classroom where theological liberalism holds sway! "In light of our own theological tradition and our present culture, then, can we truly proclaim- or even -hear the New Testament ‘word of the cross'" (p. 114). This is arrogant presumption. He looks at the faith of the liberal Protestant bodies in our society and then blames us with their malady! It is fair to ask, while he dabbles in his mysticism, ecumenism, and criticism of his brethren, is he himself proclaiming ‘the word of the cross?' Whatever our failures to place appropriate emphasis on the cross, the change agents with their entertainment, feel good message are in no way superior.
On page 63, Allen tells us "We must remember however that torah was not ‘law' in our often narrow usage of the word. It was not simply divine commands and human obligations. It was not legalism. Rather it was the story of God's love and might, of divine graciousness and deliverance. "Strange, the Jews did not understand it as does he. On the previous page he discusses the various "law codes" of the Torah. Which way shall it be? Is it the law of God or a narrative of God's love and might. In fact it combines both, but it most certainly contains hundreds of rules and regulations that God expected the Hebrews to obey "For if ye shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to do it..." (Deut. 11:22).
He repeatedly implies that the advent of the Age of Reason caused modern man (us jhw) to have a view of God inferior to that of medieval man (p. 81). Does he really believe that the medievals in their ignorance and superstition had a better understanding or a closer relationship with God than he does! "Our tradition among Churches of Christ makes it easy for us to think this way. For we have not focused on the biblical doctrine of God" (p. 82). Have any change preachers done a better job of focusing on God? Which ones? He hints that we whom he labels "traditional" have such a distorted view of God that it borders on idolatry (p. 85, 90).
Like all true liberals, whether political or theological, Allen see all thing through a racial prism, Blacks against Whites, harkening back to the slavery of a century ago, setting the faith, even the concept of God between the two races in opposition to each other. Do liberal changes agents form God in their own image? "The God of slaves is the commendable liberator who identified with their suffering. The God of middle class White Americans views America as Number One, or perhaps as the elect nation chosen to lead the world in the paths of righteousness. God sanctions the American work ethic where prosperity and affluence becomes sign of divine favor and poverty becomes a sign of moral failure. God becomes an ardent capitalist, a support of the nuclear arms race..." (p.93). These lines sound like they are borrow from CNN television! Of conservative congregations, he alleges, "A church can be ‘sound' while excluding black people from its midst" (p. 174). No one approves of such conduct today. All would condemn it. He would be hard pressed to find such a congregation in our nation. Does his broad brush condemnation include his liberal congregations?
The change agents are determined to make the thought of Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone the basis of our faith! No doubt it is the basis of theirs but the rest of us will rest our faith on the foundation of the New Covenant of Christ. No preacher or church is as neglectful of the cross as the liberal who disregards the will of the crucified one who expects his disciples to "obey all things whatsoever (he) commanded" (Matt. 28:20).
He faults A. Campbell for assuming that most of his contemporaries understood the atonement of Christ and that the major challenge at hand was restoring the ancient order of things–and focusing energies on calling people into Christian union on the basis of the ancient order (p. 116).
Allen asserts that our "mindset sought hard facts and precisely stated propositions. It sought formulas and equations whereby on might exercise ever greater control over the world" (p. 117). Would he tell us the name of one person in the church of the last two centuries who sought this!
He faults us for our desire to understand metaphorical language, but does he not attempt to explore obscure and poetic and symbolic language? Of course he does.
He cites Bill Love who claims to have surveyed hundreds of books of Restoration sermons over five generations. (Being very familiar with the literature of our brethren, I wonder where he found hundreds of books of sermons?) Bro. Love selected five preachers of five generations (25 in all) and exploring their published sermons, he concluded that "in general our movement has failed to preach the ‘word of the cross.' Love's survey is not scientific. The average preacher normally preaches upwards of 100 sermons per year. Most influential preachers may well have preached 200 or more times per year. Few preachers publish their sermons in books and most who do only publish a handful of the sermons they preach, some 20-30 in a book. Few preachers have more than one or two books of sermons published. In addition to sermons, preachers usually teach two or more Bible classes per week and many have newspaper, radio or television lessons which also are occasions for teaching fundamental themes of the faith such as the ‘word of the cross' Before Love or Allen can conclude that all preachers have failed to preach on this theme, they must be have analyzed the content of every sermon preached, every class taught, every article written. Not just the title, but the contents. This seems to be an assumption he first made and then selected some evidence to try to prove his assumption. What kind of record do Love and Allen have? Has anyone analyzed their preaching, teaching and writing to see just what percentage of it focuses on the ‘word of the cross?'
Allen has a low and critical estimate of his brethren in the Churches of Christ. He finds his message and his delight in the liberal theologians and philosophers of Protestantism and the world.
He says that to follow the way of the cross, "We will require a community that stands in sharp contrast to the dominant social order." Do ACU or the mega Churches of the change agents live in sharp contrast to the dominant social agreement? He says, "Jesus' way calls in short, for character traits and moral skills that appear either incomprehensible, foolish, or impossible to a world schooled only in the ethic of self-advancement' (p. 163). But the change agents strive to build their worldly mega churches by making common cause with the world!
He tells us that, "By dwelling in Christ's body, which is the church, the Spirit continues Christ's incarnation" (p. 165). Could he please give us a Scripture for this statement....a favorite of the change brotherhood. Perhaps he found that in "The Second Incarnation" by Shelly and Harris.
He repeatedly cites J. S. Lamar's Organon of Scripture, written and published in 1859 as having profoundly warped the ability of our brethren to properly understand scriptures. It is not likely that a hundred of our preacher have heard of, much less read Bro. Lamar's book. I happened to have read it. When one first assumes his point and then seeks for supporting evidence he is liable to say anything!
Allen and his fellow change agents are "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (II Tim. 3:7).
I am pleased to report that Dr. Allen is now a visiting professor at Biola University in California, a Baptist school. There his theology fits his benefactors. It is a blessing for the church and the young Christians who would be under his blighting influence were he still teaching in one of our schools. If he cannot find his way back to the simple faith and practice of New Testament Christianity, we should pray that he will stay there.
JHW |
