An Unpredictable Gospel: American

Book Review:

AN UNPREDICTABLE GOSPEL

by Isaiah Jeong

Case, Jay Riley. An Unpredictable Gospel: American Evangelicals and World Christianity, 1812-1920. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2012. 328 pp. Paperback: $8.94.

In contemporary scholarship, many argue that the colonialist wolf hid under the sheep’s clothing of evangelism and that Christianity is a “white man’s religion.” Challenging both of these notions, Jay Riley Case provides a nuanced thesis: First, Christianity often emerged when the privileged abdicated their powers to empower the marginalized. Second, Christianity, and by extension Evangelicalism, was never solely a western religion due to its global influences. In order to solidify his thesis, Case employs four interpretive lenses: (1) Karen Christianity, (2) William Taylor, (3) African-American Christianity, (4) and Pentecostalism.

First, in the early 19th century, an age-old question manifested in a missiological form: “Does the civilizing egg come first or the evangelizing chicken?” Karen Christianity will provide a surprising answer. Drawing from the formalist tradition, many Baptist missionaries argued that civilizing must precede evangelism. Living in the shadows of the Enlightenment, the educated Baptists could not imagine how the unrefined Karen people could grasp the intellectual rigor of Christianity. Thus, the indigenous must first be educated or civilized.

The Baptist soon realized this was a failed endeavor. While the missionaries were merely responsible for a few converts, “uncivilized” Karen Christians like Ko Tha

Byu spread Christianity to the indigenous like wildfire. Karen evangelists not only had the cultural and linguistic advantages, but they also digested Christianity into their particular culture. Understanding the value of contextualization, the missionaries were forced to relinquish their racial and educational superiority, and let the Karen Christians take control.

While the Baptists went to Burma to shape their Christianity, paradoxically, Karen Christianity molded American Evangelicalism. The effectiveness of the “native-ministry model” within the Karen Christians was the same method the Baptist used to reach out to the postbellum slaves and also the advent of African-American colleges in the south.

Second, Case explores another world Christianity that gained vitality through native partnership. In South Africa, Methodist missionary William Taylor and native Charles Pamla started revivals converting the mass population in thousands. The relationship between Taylor and Pamla was beyond an innocuous one—it was a revolutionary symbol of breaking down cultural and racial barriers. The “sophisticated” Wesleyan missionaries initially could not swallow their pride, refusing to accept that the “semi-civilized” native was better equipped for evangelism. Contra formalists, Taylor wittingly once said, “Do not let the car of salvation stand still while we are waiting for the schools to turn out such agents as [Pamla]” (123). Pamla’s display of rhetoric drenched in the Xhosa vernacular provided a bridge for the Gospel message to be smoothly transferred into the hearts of the native audience.

While Taylor ventured to become an itinerant global missionary, nothing matched the fruits that were labored with Pamla. Taylor’s most influential yet surprising legacy will not be the numbers of his conversions or his missiological methodology (155). But rather, the anti-formalist vision that enabled his confidence in the native populist will be cut from the same theological cloth as the holiness movement, and later Pentecostalism. Third, just as native Christianity grew when missionaries restricted their power, African-American Christianity exploded when white hegemony subsided. The timeline of the Emancipation Proclamation and the African-American Great Awakening is not a coincidence. However, as African-American Christianity was still maturing, it raised unresolved questions of its relationship between the African and American identity within themselves. Formalists like Daniel Payne critiqued enthusiastic revivals that seemed like barbaric Africanism and called for a faith that was more civilized. By contrast, anti-formalist like Henry McNeal Turner sought to redeem African qualities, claiming that the enthusiastic revivals were an avenue in which the Holy Spirit moved the AfricanAmerican community (177).

Although brief yet crucial, it must be noted that formalists and anti-formalists shared a paradoxical relationship. While Turner’s anti-formalist vision empowered ordinary uneducated black men and women, it was “Payne and his fellow elite ministers [who] provided the institutional structures… and educational resources” (173). Also, while the African Methodist Episcopal Church will initially ignite from a populist impulse, it will inevitably become an organized institution ARTICLES | ART | INTERVIEW | BOOK REVIEW | MOSAIC SPOTLIGHT

itself. The formalist-anti-formalist tension cannot be easily categorized.

In sum, looking at the prevalence of racism, Turner once asked if America was hell or Christendom. African-American Christianity challenged American Evangelicalism whether it solely pledged to the American flag or to the cross.

Fourth, the same anti-formalists reservoir that fueled the Karen, Xhosa, and African-American Christians will be shared by another historically marginalized group—women. In an age where women were best seen as “domestic wives,” the holiness movement and Pentecostalism simply overlooked the dominant stereotypes of race, gender, socioeconomic status, and culture. Agnes McAllister led revivals, preached, and worshipped in the Kru village; Amanda Smith, a former slave, while not always successful, testified in front of white men; Pandita Ramabai, an Indian prodigy, became a key leader in global revivalism. Not only did these women challenge the gender biases, they also contradicted the naturalistic worldview of their time. In an era where Newtonian physics, mechanism, and human causality seemed to be the final answer, they found comfort in the unpredictable ways of the Holy Spirit. It is not hyperbolic to say that women were the backbone of the holiness movement and Pentecostalism.

To conclude, while the Azusa Street revival in California is often seen as the phoenix of Pentecostal revivals, global radical-holiness revivals gave the movement its wings. We see the Holy Spirit rush down like a torrent of wind through Korea, China, India, England, and Australia, igniting spirit-filled revivals. Christianity, a global network, was never merely a western religion.

ANALYSIS Case’s seminal work demands much attention and response. For the sake of brevity, while still being wholesome, this section will explore its strength, weakness, and a personal reflection.

Understanding the dangers of contextual bias, one cannot help but appreciate Case’s desire to be objective with his analysis. Whether it is a theory, movement, or person, Case provides both a critical and charitable ethos. For instance, Case illustrates how William Taylor’s anti-formalist Evangelicalism was both his greatest strength and hindrance—empowering individual natives while also creating cultural blind spots (127).

Moreover, Case masterfully interweaves historical context and its consequence. For example, he effectively juxtaposes the relationship between Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and white supremacy, the end of the Civil War and the African-American Great Awakening, and philosophical modernism and Pentecostal thinking. He wonderfully sets the historical stage for the reader to fully

appreciate the significance of each character.

However, although an appealing work, some shortcomings must be noted. First, Case does not sufficiently explain how Taylor was a sine qua non for the holiness movement. Taylor’s populist impulse seems to merely reinforce the democratization that is already present with Phoebe Palmer. Thus, more analysis may be necessary before claiming that Taylor laid the foundation of the holiness movement (104). Second, one of Case’s theses is that global influences shaped American Christianity. A lacuna appears in his argument when AME churches provided the main institutional structures for South African Christians. Third, William Harris’ appearance seems abrupt in a chapter that is flooded with female success in Pentecostalism.

Lastly, to my particular context, this book challenged me to think how Asian Americans are contributing to the mosaic of Evangelicalism. Still in its infancy, Asian American theology unfortunately is indistinguishable from its white-counterparts. Like African-Americans, I pray that Asian-Americans will find their distinct color to contribute to the Kingdom of God. ARTICLES | ART | INTERVIEW | BOOK REVIEW | MOSAIC SPOTLIGHT