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TheHigher Life movement, also known asdeeper Christian life, theKeswick movement orKeswickianism (/ˌkɛzɪˈkiənɪzəm/KEZ-i-KEE-ə-niz-əm), is aProtestant theological tradition withinevangelical Christianity that espoused a distinct teaching on the doctrine ofentire sanctification.[2][3]
Its name comes from theHigher Christian Life, a book byWilliam Boardman published in 1858, as well as from the town in which the movement was first promoted—Keswick Conventions inKeswick, England, the first of which was atent revival in 1875 and continues to this day.[4][1]
The main idea in theKeswickian theology of the Higher Life movement (also known asdeeper Christian life) is that theChristian should move on from his initialconversion experience to also experience asecond work of God in his life.[5] This work of God is called "entire sanctification," "thesecond blessing,” “the second touch," "being filled with the Holy Spirit," and various other terms. Believers are encouraged to "let go and let God" in order to receive this.[6] Higher Life teachers promote the idea that Christians who receive this blessing from God can live a more holy—that is, a less sinful, or even a sinless—life. The Keswick approach seeks to provide a mediating and biblically balanced solution to the problem of subnormal Christian experience. The “official” teaching has been that every believer in this life is left with the natural proclivity to sin and will do so without the countervailing influence of theHoly Spirit.
With the rise of the Higher Life movement,Christian denominations largely accepting a form of Keswickian theology with unique distinctives, such as theChristian and Missionary Alliance, were founded.[7][8][9][10][11] The Keswickian view of sanctification became normative in "AmericanEvangelicalism of a more Calvinistic bent ... except confessional Reformed and Lutheran".[12][13]
The Higher Life movement was precipitated by the related but separateWesleyan-Holiness movement, which had been gradually springing up, but made a definite appearance in the mid-1830s.[13] It was at this time thatMethodists in the northeastern United States began to preach Wesleyan doctrine of Christian perfection or entire sanctification and non-Methodists atOberlin College inOhio began to accept and promote their own version of sanctification, withCharles Finney of Oberlin teaching that his doctrine was distinctly different from the Wesleyan one to whichAsa Mahan was more attracted. The American holiness movement began to spread to England in the 1840s and 1850s. Methodist evangelistJames Caughey, as well asPresbyterianAsa Mahan and Presbyterian-turned-CongregationalistCharles Finney began to teach the concept to churches in England and then inIreland andScotland.
Soon after these initial infusions of holiness ideas, Walter Palmer and his wifePhoebe Palmer ofNew York City went to England in the 1850s and 1860s to promote them. They were banned from ministering in Wesleyan churches, even though they were promoting Wesleyan doctrines and were themselves Methodist. During their time in England, many people experienced initial conversion, and many more who were already converted believed that they had received entire sanctification. Robert and Hannah Smith were among those who took the holiness message to England, and their ministries helped lay the foundation for the now-famousKeswick Convention, which differs from traditionalWesleyan-Holiness theology.
In the 1870s, William Boardman, author ofThe Higher Christian Life,[14] began his own evangelistic campaign in England, bringing with himRobert Pearsall Smith and his wife,Hannah Whitall Smith, to help spread the holiness message.[15]
On May 1, 1873,William Haslam introduced Robert Pearsall Smith to a small meeting ofAnglican clergymen held at Curzon Chapel, Mayfair, London.
The first large-scale Higher Life meetings took place from July 17–23, 1874, at theBroadlands estate ofLord andLady Mount Temple, where the Higher Life was expounded in connection with spiritualism andQuaker teachings.[15] The meetings were held primarily for Christian students at Cambridge University. At the end of these meetings,Arthur Blackwood, president of the Church Missionary Society, suggested that another series of meetings for the promotion of holiness be conducted atOxford later that summer.
A convention for the promotion of holiness was held atBrighton from May 29-June 7, 1875. The American evangelistDwight L. Moody told his London audiences that the Brighton meeting was to be a very important one. About eight thousand people attended it. T. D. Harford-Battersby attended this convention and made arrangements to have one in his parish in Keswick. He was the recognized leader of this annual convention for several years until his death.Robert Pearsall Smith was going to be the main speaker, but the public disclosure of his teaching a woman in a hotel bedroom that Spirit baptism was allegedly accompanied with sexual thrills led him to be disinvited from the meeting. Smith never recovered and having "lost his faith, withdrew from public gaze and spent most of the rest of his life as an invalid".[16]
A gradual distinction developed between traditional Methodists and the newer Keswick speakers. Keswick took on a more Calvinistic tone, as Keswick preachers took pains to distance themselves from the Wesleyan doctrine of eradication (the doctrine that original sin could be completely extinguished from the Christian soul prior to death). Keswick speakers began using the term "counteraction" to describe the Holy Spirit's effect on original sin, often comparing it to how air pressure counteracts gravity in lifting an airplane. ModernWesleyan-Arminian theologians regard the Keswick theology as different from their own dogma of entire sanctification.[13] Keswickians and Methodists differ on their view of sin, with Methodists viewing "sin as a voluntary transgression of the known law of God" and Kewsickians viewing "sin as any attitidue or action that falls short of the perfection of God." Keswickians and Methodists differ in that Keswickians do "not believe that the sin nature can be eradicated, but can only be suppressed" while Methodists affirm "the removal of the sin nature" in entire sanctification.[13]
Harford-Battersby organized and led the firstKeswick Convention in 1875 at Saint John's Church inKeswick, which gave the name to the Keswickian theological tradition.[1] Over four hundred people met under the banner of “All One in Christ Jesus.” British speakers includedAnglicans, such as the J. W. Webb-Peploe, Evan H. Hopkins, andHandley Moule, as well asFrederick Brotherton Meyer,[17] aBaptist, and Robert Wilson, aFriend. An annual convention has met in Keswick ever since and has had worldwide influence on Christianity.[18]
Columbia Bible College and Seminary (nowColumbia International University) was founded by one of the early leaders of the American Keswick movement, Robert C. McQuilkin. His son, Robertson McQuilkin, contributed the Keswick chapter to the book "Five Views of Sanctification."
Albert Benjamin Simpson, largely accepting a form Keswickian theology with his own distinctives, founded theChristian and Missionary Alliance denomination in 1897.[8][10][9][11][19] Albert Benjamin Simpson departed from traditional Keswickian beliefs, however, in his view of progressivesanctification and rejection of suppressionism.[20][21][22] It emphasizes the role ofJesus Christ as Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King.[23]
In the 19th and 20th centuries,D. L. Moody,Hannah Whitall Smith, andR. A. Torrey preached Keswickian theology.[24] It was a strong influence onE. J. H. Nash, who founded the influentialIwerne camps in the UK and cited Torrey as his theological mentor.[25][26]: 34
Denominations aligned with the Keswickian higher life movement, such as theChristian and Missionary Alliance, differ from theWesleyan-Holiness movement in that the Keswickian higher life movement does not seeentire sanctification as cleansing one fromoriginal sin, whereas adherents in churches espousingWesleyan-Arminian theology affirm this teaching ofJohn Wesley.[27][8] While Wesleyan-Holiness theology is taught in the Methodist tradition that is inherently Arminian, Keswickian theology flourishes among evangelicals of a Calvinist bent.[13][12]
However, Keswick doctrine has been sharply criticized as a disguised form ofentire sanctification (or "perfectionism") by other Christian traditions, particularly historicalCalvinism and Presbyterianism. Princeton theologianB.B. Warfield wrote a trenchant attack on the Keswick and Higher Life movement in his two-volume workStudies in Perfectionism, specifically in his articles"The Higher Life Movement" and"The Victorious Life." W. H. Griffith Thomas responded to Warfield and defended the Higher Life movement in two articles in the journalBibliotheca Sacra.[28] Another early opponent of Keswick wasJ. C. Ryle, who set forth the classic Protestant doctrine of sanctification in his bookHoliness as an alternative to Keswick. More modern defenders of Keswick theology include J. Robertson McQuilkin in the bookFive Views of Sanctification,[29] as well as John R. VanGelderen.[30] Modern Reformed criticism of Keswick has come fromJ. I. Packer, as well as from Andrew Naselli, who critiqued Keswick in his doctoral dissertation on the subject.[31] Charismatic and Pentecostal authors may critique the Higher Life movement also as not going far enough, but Pentecostal scholars[32] recognize and appreciate the groundwork laid by Higher Life advocacy of the continuation of the gifts of healing and miracle-working for the rise of the Pentecostal movement.[33]
The new evangelicalism embraced a variety of theological emphases including: classic orthodoxy (Lutheran and Reformed), Anglican thought, Pietism, Arminianism, Keswickianism, Fundamentalism, and others.
Keswickian theology teaches the fullness of the Spirit and the victory over willful sin that is characteristic of Wesleyan theology but incorporates the concepts and the basic definitions of Reformed theology.
Not included on this chart are denominations that emerged out of the Keswick wing of the Holiness movement. The most significant of these is the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
D. D. Bundy notes that A. B. Simpson (1843–1919)—Presbyterian founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance—who never accepted the Wesleyan doctrine of eradication of sin, accepted the Keswickian understanding of sanctification.
A.B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA), influenced by A.J. Gordon and W.E. Boardman, adopted a Keswickian understanding of sanctification.
It is the other christological strand, that of the indwelling Christ, that is the heart of the distinctive sanctification theology of A. B. Simpson. A Presbyterian who ultimately founded the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Simpson operates within a Keswick framework while also drawing upon Wesleyan ideals. Like Wesley, Simpson described sin as in the motive or intent of the heart most especially lack of love for God and neighbour. While he agrees with Keswick that we can't ever be freed from this sinful nature in this life, he insisted, as Van De Walle puts it, "the power of the resurrected Christ would more than enable the believer to consider the sin nature a vanquished foe and to behave as though it were.
Much of the Keswickian influence came through A.B. Simpson's Christian and Missionary Alliance, itself an ecumenical missionary movement
With Keswick one finds a different situation than with the Holiness Movement. Whereas Wesleyan holiness theology is traceable directly to Wesley and has clearly identifiable tenets, Keswick is much more amorphous and comes in many varieties from the strict Keswick of a Major Ian Thomas, John Hunter, Alan Redpath and the Torchbearers fellowship to the milder Keswick ofCampus Crusade For Christ andMoody Bible Institute and other respected Evangelical educational institutions. Whereas Holiness theology has tended to dominate in Arminian circles, Keswick has tended to dominate American Evangelicalism of a more Calvinistic bent. Indeed Packer asserts that it has become standard in virtually all of Evangelicalism except confessional Reformed and Lutheran.
The theological distinction between holiness proponents and Keswick arose from the fact that "adherents to the Keswick position are recruited for the most part, from those churches which accept the Calvinistic definiciion of sin. ... Since Calvinism looks upon those human weaknesses which produce a lack of conformity to the perfect will of God (mistakes, lapses of memory, ignorance, etc.) as sin, it is not conceivable that followers of Keswick could think of a perfect cleansing of the individual in the world."
... the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) ... accepted the Keswickian teaching over the Wesleyan-Holiness belief.
It is the other christological strand, that of the indwelling Christ, that is the heart of the distinctive sanctification theology of A. B. Simpson. A Presbyterian who ultimately founded the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Simpson operates within a Keswick framework while also drawing upon Wesleyan ideals. Like Wesley, Simpson described sin as in the motive or intent of the heart most especially lack of love for God and neighbour. While he agrees with Keswick that we can't ever be freed from this sinful nature in this life, he insisted, as Van De Walle puts it, "the power of the resurrected Christ would more than enable the believer to consider the sin nature a vanquished foe and to behave as though it were.
Evangelist D.L. Moody was a proponent of the Kewsick movement along with others, including Hannah Whital Smith, whose bookA Christian's Secret of a Happy Life is still read today by thousands. R. A. Torrey, an associate of Moody whose influence was rapidly increasing, championed Keswick's ideals and utilized the term "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" in reference to the experience.
