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What Is a Nazarene?: Understanding Our Place in the Religious Community
You probably meet them every day. At the grocery store. On the highway. In your neighborhood. They come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. But they are a global community, and they are held together by a bond of faith. They are Nazarenes. And they share a dream. Around the turn of the 19th century, the Holiness Movement blossomed in America. Wesleyan-Holiness denominations sprang up all over the country. In 1907-08, five of these joined together to form the Church of the Nazarene. The dream that drew the founders together was a believers’ church in the Wesleyan tradition. It is the same dream that guides the Church of the Nazarene today. But how does that translate into a world where denominational lines don’t seem to matter as much as they used to? How is a Nazarene different from a Presbyterian, Baptist, or Pentecostal brother or sister in Christ? What Is a Nazarene?, the abridged version of the book Here We Stand, answers those questions in concise, easy-to-understand terms, as it examines the similarities and differences between the Church of the Nazarene and other mainline Christian denominations. With refreshing insight and candor, What Is a Nazarene? will acquaint you with the heritage that birthed a vision that made a dream come true. Paper.
172 pages, Paperback
First published April 13, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 20, 2021
Every so often I ask myself that most Protestant of questions - "Alex, are you in the right church?" And while many of my evangelical friends wade into the Tiber or go down the Canterbury Trail, lately I have been reconsidering some of the less fashionable Christian denominations because I believe their lack of trendiness testifies to a solid stability and self-confidence. Sometimes Christians - particularly intellectually-minded believers - can fawn under the influence of prominent theologians (What does Hans Urs Von Balthasar say? What does Robert Jenson say? What does N.T. Wright say?) but I'd wager the most famous Nazarene theologians (within the boundaries of mainstream evangelicalism) have been H. Orton Wiley and Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, both long dead (the historian Timothy L. Smith was also an important Nazarene scholar). The Church of the Nazarene is not sexy and maybe that's a good thing.
Wes Tracy and Stan Ingersol begin "What Is A Nazarene?: Understanding Our Place in the Religious Community" by explaining Nazarene distinctives. According to the authors, the Church of the Nazarene has been the most consistent of the Holiness groups in living out Wesleyan teachings, including entire sanctification (this can be a befuddling doctrine to comprehend but the Nazarenes assert that a Christian can attain entire sanctification whereby they are able to become so holy that they no longer carry out intentional sins). The Church of the Nazarene holds to an Arminian-Wesleyan view of salvation, permits both infant and adult baptism, has long-ordained women, and has been dedicated to the practicalities of social service.
The rest of the book contains chapters on various Christian traditions - Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Baptists, Pentecostalism/Charismatic Christianity, etc...and how these compare with the Church of the Nazarene. Some denominations, like the Methodists, are more naturally related to Nazarenes that other traditions (e.g. the Quakers). Each chapter begins with the brief summary of its main contents.
I really commend the idea of this book - much of evangelical Christianity is a generic and amorphous movement but a book such as this helps to winsomely set out denominational distinctives while showcasing similarities and differences between various churches. However, I only give this book 2/5 because of the extensive repetition and, more importantly, because even a book that's as cursory as this seems to contain some inaccurate portrayals of non-Nazarene denominations. For instance, Tracy and Ingersol assert that James Arminius believed that salvation could be lost but scholars of Arminius tend to think the Dutch theologian was agnostic about this. The Church of England's founding is attributed to King Henry VIII's desire to divorce but many Anglicans would disagree with this creation story. There are very few notes and not all of the sources are scholarly. In a book that only runs 222 pages, it's impossibly to be comprehensive but I was surprised that the authors left some very important things out; for instance, they don't mention the Anglican Church of North America at all and though they include a short paragraph on Free Will Baptists, they don't mention foot washing, one of the denominations' unique practices. They mention the Shepherding Movement under Pentecostalism/Charismatic Christianity's "Fanatical Fringe" but they don't clearly explain the movement and they refer to four, rather than five leaders, only identifying Bob Mumford by name. Due to these errors and omissions, I sometimes doubted if the authors were being entirely accurate in their descriptions and explanations.
Wes Tracy and Stan Ingersol begin "What Is A Nazarene?: Understanding Our Place in the Religious Community" by explaining Nazarene distinctives. According to the authors, the Church of the Nazarene has been the most consistent of the Holiness groups in living out Wesleyan teachings, including entire sanctification (this can be a befuddling doctrine to comprehend but the Nazarenes assert that a Christian can attain entire sanctification whereby they are able to become so holy that they no longer carry out intentional sins). The Church of the Nazarene holds to an Arminian-Wesleyan view of salvation, permits both infant and adult baptism, has long-ordained women, and has been dedicated to the practicalities of social service.
The rest of the book contains chapters on various Christian traditions - Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Baptists, Pentecostalism/Charismatic Christianity, etc...and how these compare with the Church of the Nazarene. Some denominations, like the Methodists, are more naturally related to Nazarenes that other traditions (e.g. the Quakers). Each chapter begins with the brief summary of its main contents.
I really commend the idea of this book - much of evangelical Christianity is a generic and amorphous movement but a book such as this helps to winsomely set out denominational distinctives while showcasing similarities and differences between various churches. However, I only give this book 2/5 because of the extensive repetition and, more importantly, because even a book that's as cursory as this seems to contain some inaccurate portrayals of non-Nazarene denominations. For instance, Tracy and Ingersol assert that James Arminius believed that salvation could be lost but scholars of Arminius tend to think the Dutch theologian was agnostic about this. The Church of England's founding is attributed to King Henry VIII's desire to divorce but many Anglicans would disagree with this creation story. There are very few notes and not all of the sources are scholarly. In a book that only runs 222 pages, it's impossibly to be comprehensive but I was surprised that the authors left some very important things out; for instance, they don't mention the Anglican Church of North America at all and though they include a short paragraph on Free Will Baptists, they don't mention foot washing, one of the denominations' unique practices. They mention the Shepherding Movement under Pentecostalism/Charismatic Christianity's "Fanatical Fringe" but they don't clearly explain the movement and they refer to four, rather than five leaders, only identifying Bob Mumford by name. Due to these errors and omissions, I sometimes doubted if the authors were being entirely accurate in their descriptions and explanations.
September 21, 2012
What Is a Nazarene explores the meaning and distinctive beliefs of the Church of the Nazarene. Tracy and Ingersol firmly root the book in its Wesleyan and Methodist background and affirm the current denomination as an expression of historical, orthodox Christianity.
A strength of the book is that it compares the Nazarenes with other Christian denominations and traditions and points out areas of agreement and disagreement. I appreciated the catholic, ecumenical spirit of the book and its recognition of the diversity in the Christian body.
And yet What Is a Nazarene? also has limitations because of it's intended audience. It's a book for small group discussion (i.e. a Sunday School class) among Nazarenes as they consider the core beliefs of their denomination. The book is less successful at describing Nazarenes to outsiders. The descriptions of Nazarene belief, polity, culture and history are rather surficial and assumes that the audience already has some experience or knowledge of the denomination. The book makes a number of references to people or places significant to the Nazarenes that are relatively unknown outside of those circles. While this assumption is fine for the book's intended audience, it's not as accessible to non-Nazarenes.
A strength of the book is that it compares the Nazarenes with other Christian denominations and traditions and points out areas of agreement and disagreement. I appreciated the catholic, ecumenical spirit of the book and its recognition of the diversity in the Christian body.
And yet What Is a Nazarene? also has limitations because of it's intended audience. It's a book for small group discussion (i.e. a Sunday School class) among Nazarenes as they consider the core beliefs of their denomination. The book is less successful at describing Nazarenes to outsiders. The descriptions of Nazarene belief, polity, culture and history are rather surficial and assumes that the audience already has some experience or knowledge of the denomination. The book makes a number of references to people or places significant to the Nazarenes that are relatively unknown outside of those circles. While this assumption is fine for the book's intended audience, it's not as accessible to non-Nazarenes.
February 17, 2022
Informative. However, there is mostly “we say, they say, we think, they think” with no Scriptural support on either side. Of all books to perhaps reference the Bible...maybe this would have been a good one? The study of the different theologies and denominations is a fascinating one, but books like this one don’t sustain the conversation long-term if we can’t take it back to the Bible, which is really the book we should be relying on in the first place. But it was a decent enough overview to warrant 4 stars. I did learn things. :)
July 18, 2016
A good read for a history book. The chapters on comparing what Church of the Nazarene believes and what other major denominations (Catholics, Orthodox, etc.) believe were really useful and presented the information well.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews