Gavin Wakefield: Alexander Boddy

 

Gavin Wakefield, Alexander Boddy: Pentecostal Anglican Pioneer (London, UK/Colorado Springs, USA: Paternoster, 2007), 245 pages, ISBN 9781842273463.

Wakefield’s text is well placed as part of Paternoster’s Studies in Pentecostal and Charismatic Issues series. For one thing, Boddy was unarguably a most important founder and leader in early Pentecostalism in Great Britain, and he also had vital international significance including the United States. Even more, his life and ministry intersected with and addressed at one point or another most of the main issues that arose during that time, many of which are still relevant—and controversial—in the movement and beyond. Thus, this scholarly and readable historical biography of A. A. Boddy has interesting applications for the present. Its emphasis on Boddy’s personable leadership style, wide travels, mediating theology, and pastoral heart suggest it may be most helpful for church leaders and pastors, but there is also much for scholars and students. As a special point of interest, Boddy, a Church of England clergyman who also interacted with many cultures and traditions, is a Pentecostal model of ecumenism and egalitarianism. Oddly enough, he has been understudied, probably because after the interruption of World War I, younger men began to lead the movement. Yet his influence continued (and continues) to be significant in subtle ways. For example, Boddy’s motto, “unity is not uniformity,” is often quoted without credit. Accordingly, Wakefield’s work is a welcome look at this important figure and leader in early British Pentecostalism and beyond. In a helpful Forward, acclaimed New Testament scholar and Bishop of Durham N. T. Wright said, “Those who pray for a fresh work of the Spirit on our own day will do well to learn from such earlier events.” I agree.

The heart of Alexander Boddy is probably several central chapters analytically laying out his leadership in early Pentecostalism regarding forums for literature and conventions, internationalization, and developing theology. Earlier, Wakefield recounts Boddy’s family background and ministry beginnings, and gives special attention to his role in first bringing Pentecost to his parish and then in promoting it nationally. Boddy’s testimony of how he, as a busy and dedicated Anglican clergyman already in his fifties, received Spirit baptism and openly spoke in tongues is both inspiring and instructive. The book closes with a look at how WWI contributed to his gradual withdrawal from national and international prominence, although he continued quite active in ministry into ripe old age, and with an Epilogue reviewing Boddy’s legacy.

Wakefield does a good job of concisely summarizing the most salient features of Boddy’s characteristics and contributions. He speculates that Boddy’s upbringing in a poor area with heavy immigrant population and mixed religious faiths may have been formative for later years of social concern and ecumenical and inter-religious understanding. He underscores Boddy’s evangelical orientation prior and subsequent to his Pentecostal experience. He suggests wide traveling and wide ranging relations with Christians of many different denominations and even with people of non-Christian religions helped him attain an unusually inclusive outlook that nevertheless did not diminish constant commitment to his own faith or to his sense of the Church’s evangelistic mission. Boddy seems to have been an adventurous spirit who, though perhaps not a great scholar, was a careful observer and learner, and became a prolific speaker and writer.

 

 

Older than many of his contemporary Pentecostal peers in leadership, Boddy strove to bring balance and achieve unity in the vast and diverse movement. He staunchly defended speaking in tongues (and other spiritual gifts), including what came to be known as “initial evidence,” though he preferred terms for tongues such as “seal” or “sign,” or even “confirmatory token”. Yet he always maintained the revival was about glorifying Jesus not tongues; and, he insisted that, though he himself spoke in tongues, he did not feel called or qualified to judge others on their experience. For him, tongues were the sign of Spirit baptism but Christian love was the ultimate evidence of Spirit-filled living. He always seemed to aim for a pastoral tone of appreciation and openness. Thus, though certainly a citizen of his time, he also worked for racial integration among Pentecostals, especially during visits to the US. Additionally, he argued in behalf of women’s rights to a role in ministry. Significantly, Boddy’s wife Mary was his full partner in life and in faith, in marriage and in ministry. Indeed, Mary’s own dramatic divine healing from asthma was an important step in preparing the family to receive Pentecost later.

Wakefield displays an obvious predisposition to a pro-Boddy bias at times. However, he carefully tempers this tendency with rigorous research and critically engages other scholars on disputed points. Wakefield did not write naïve hagiography. He hints that Boddy’s inflexible leadership style ultimately may have been his own undoing. In retrospect, certain ideas and methods of his were perhaps self-defeating. Boddy could be caustic too, and sternly criticized what he saw as unacceptable fundraising practices in some circles in North America, especially when they were connected to the ministry of healing. In fact, divine healing was often a point of tension. He firmly believed in healing and had many healing testimonies in his meetings. Moreover, Mary and he continued to conduct healing services into the last years of their lives. But they sought to avoid excesses, and that was not always easy. Other tensions are noted by Wakefield. Boddy strove for unity in his beloved Church of England even while promoting the Pentecostalism that became divisive to it. (One is reminded of the Wesleys and Methodism.) He sought to be consistent in his thinking but had difficulty admitting change. He taught faith in God regarding finances and healing but struggled with insufficient funds and physical illness. Yet in the final analysis, Boddy’s legacy of ministry is a model of moderate Pentecostalism, with deep roots in the larger Christian family and wide branches reaching around the world.

Indeed, Wakefield’s text is well placed as part of Paternoster’s Studies in Pentecostal and Charismatic Issues series. It suggests the contemporary relevance of his life and ministry. Issues such as the proper understanding of speaking in tongues, the role of women in ministry, faith and financial integrity, responsible teaching and practice in divine healing, relations with other Christians and even other religions, and so on, are still with us today. Although Wakefield occasionally indulges in speculation, he usually supports his claims well and is upfront when making educated guesses. All in all, he has written a first rate work on a first rate figure that will be a first rate blessing to readers everywhere who are interested in early Pentecostalism. The ardent hope of this reviewer is that as contemporary Pentecostals rediscover such valuable early voices we will also recover something of the substance of their seasoned wisdom.

Reviewed by Tony Richie

 

Publisher’s page: http://www.authenticmedia.co.uk/search/product/spci-alexander-boddy-pentecostal-anglican-pioneer-gavin-/1842273469.jhtml [updated Oct 29, 2014]