Haven’t blogged on the Holiness Manifesto in a while, because this next chapter was pretty long, and deserved a full reading. The chapter is called “Integrated Streams of Holiness”, and was written by Don Thorsen, Professor of Theology at Azuza Pacific.
It was a really well written, though admittedly not exhaustive summary of all the branches and movements that have woven through the tapestry of the church and holiness over thousands of years. The ancient church, martyrs, apologetic writings, the Roman Catholic church, Protestant Reformation, Augustine, Calvin, Arminius, Wesley, Orthodoxy movements, Pentecostal connections, the “Holiness Movement”, etc. He then goes into several different understandings of “Spiritualities” (i.e. Richard Foster’s categories, etc.).
He briefly touches on each of the areas above, and how they all flow from and into this same stream of Christianity. How so many various branches of Christianity have so much in common. Enough, indeed, to unite in this discussion/pursuit of a living holiness that transforms the world by the Spirit of God. I’ll leave you with his final paragraph about uniting the many aspects of Christianity that need integration:
I like that.
words from wick 