{"id":21891,"date":"2015-12-14T16:42:34","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T16:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/william-de-arteaga-agnes-sanford-and-her-companions-reviewed-by-jon-ruthven\/"},"modified":"2015-12-14T16:42:34","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T16:42:34","slug":"william-de-arteaga-agnes-sanford-and-her-companions-reviewed-by-jon-ruthven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/william-de-arteaga-agnes-sanford-and-her-companions-reviewed-by-jon-ruthven\/","title":{"rendered":"William De Arteaga: Agnes Sanford and Her Companions, reviewed by Jon Ruthven"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>William L. De Arteaga, Agnes Sanford and Her Companions: The Assault on Cessationism and the Coming of the Charismatic Renewal<\/a><\/em> (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015),<\/strong> ISBN 9781625649997 <\/strong><\/p>\n

William De Arteaga<\/a> has created a ground-breaking, major contribution that is foundational to the evolving understanding of the Pentecostal\/charismatic movement projected to reach 811 million in only four more years.<\/p>\n

The author offers a surprisingly sympathetic narrative of one whom he regards as the foremost, and ultimately, most influential theologian of the charismatic renewal, a woman nonetheless maligned as a \u201cnew age\u201d heretic, Agnes Sanford.<\/p>\n

De Arteaga\u2019s work employs two metaphors to express its thesis that Sanford\u2019s ministry overcame cessationism (the \u201cGalatian bewitchment\u201d 3:1-3, replacing the miracle power of God with human effort), by a series of \u201cMarcion shoves\u201d (a reference to a heretic pushing a truth into error in order to bring that truth to the attention of the mainstream). In Sanford\u2019s case, hers was a trial-and-error sampling of various contemporary positions on healing, being dialectally \u201cshoved\u201d into a thoroughly biblical understanding.<\/p>\n

In the early 1930s, the loudest voice against healing, however, was the heretical consensus doctrine of Protestantism of that time: cessationism, that is, miracles of healing simply do not happen today. Sanford began her God-given quest by having to reject the \u201cGalatian bewitchment\u201d of her cradle faith, Protestantism. In this De Arteaga showed how Sanford, in the total vacuum of Christian biblical scholarship on healing, was compelled to search a variety of fringe groups for any possible insight into the truth about the healings she had received from God. Through all this, Sanford held to the centrality of Jesus and his scriptures, but only gradually, with no help from the church, discovering how central was healing to the biblical mission and message of Jesus and the New Testament.<\/p>\n

Agnes was the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries in China, educated in the US, who as an adult continued their ministry back in China briefly until she met and married an Anglican missionary, Ted Sanford. Against the growing destabilization of China by competing warlords in the 1920s and by the insurgent communists, the new family moved to the USA to minister in Anglican churches near Philadelphia. Upon the healing of her baby son of a severe ear infection and of her own deep depression by a fellow Anglican clergyman, Agnes Sanford\u2019s life course was set. It was discerned that her depression derived from \u201cviolating her God-given nature\u201d by trying to be an excellent housewife instead of the writer and minister of healing that God had called her to be.<\/p>\n

At this point, since the Christian tradition at that time was unanimously cessationist (the \u201cGalatian bewitchment\u201d) Sanford decided to test (ever alert to the \u201cMarcion shove\u201d) the variety of competing ideologies on healing, Christian Science, occult \u201cscience,\u201d spiritism, \u201cNew Thought,\u201d New Age, etc. against the \u201cstandard\u201d of Jesus described in the four Gospels.<\/p>\n

Since she had personally experienced such miracles, Sanford\u2019s curiosity was drawn to the only voices of the time, who seemed to affirm what she had seen so clearly. She skimmed Mary Baker Eddy\u2019s Science and Health<\/em> but found \u201cit did not make sense.\u201d She twice attended a \u201cChristian\u201d spiritist s\u00e9ance, \u201ccarefully keeping an open mind,\u201d but discovered the leader himself was plagued by spirit-induced headaches. When Sanford prayed for the spiritist\u2019s sick mother, she found herself in \u201cdeep depression\u201d and \u201ccould taste in [her] own mouth\u201d the foul odor on the breath of the spiritist. On top of that the spiritist\u2019s mother immediately died. Sanford promised the Lord that she would \u201cnever go near a s\u00e9ance again.\u201d Unwittingly, she came to understand that her prayer was mixing the \u201cenergy\u201d of the demonic with that of the Holy Spirit. Thereafter, she would screen out for special attention and prayer anyone who admitted to involvement in spiritism. Despite her strict and clear repudiation of her experiment with \u201cChristian\u201d spiritism, critics pounced on her account as evidence of her \u201cdemonic\u201d ministry, instead of it serving as a \u201cMarcion shove\u201d toward biblical truth. Sanford\u2019s \u201cscientific\u201d and biblical process of \u201cDo not quench the Spirit . . . test all things, hold fast to that which is good\u201d (1Th 5:19-20) proved inflammatory for her critics.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Agnes Sanford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

De Arteaga points out that even Sanford\u2019s use of the terms, \u201chealing light\u201d or \u201cenergy\u201d of God for healing precipitated criticism because the terms were associated in the indiscriminate, foolish consistency of Fundamentalist cessationist critics as demonic \u201cNew Age\u201d expressions. Actually, the terms, in the context of Christian behavior and healing, occur in the New Testament as binding on believer\u2019s action: \u201cFor you were once\u00a0darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>(for the fruit\u00a0of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)\u00a0and find out what pleases the Lord.\u201d Certainly, one could argue that obeying the commands of Jesus to practice healing, is an expression of \u201cliving as children of the light\u201d which produces \u201call goodness, righteousness, and truth\u201d! (Eph 5:8-9). Indeed, Jesus himself gives the \u201clight of life\u201d (Jn 8:12). In speaking of God\u2019s divine energy bestowing healing into a weaker, physical energy of a sick person, Sanford was right in line with the universal principle about all spiritual gifts: \u201cThere are varieties of \u2018energy things\u2019 [Greek: energ<\/em>\u0113mat<\/em>\u014dn<\/em>] and it is the same God who energizes<\/em> [energ<\/em>\u014dn<\/em>] all [charismata<\/em>] in all [everyone]\u201d (1 Cor 12:6). Again, \u201cAll these [charismata<\/em>] are empowered [energei<\/em>] by the same Spirit\u201d (vs 11). These, and 15 similar verses necessarily vindicate as thoroughly biblical, Sanford\u2019s term, \u201chealing energy\u201d\u2014hardly a term proving \u201cNew Age\u201d influence.<\/p>\n

According to De Arteaga, Agnes Sanford was not only a trail blazer for the charismatic renewal in the older mainline churches for the practice of healing, but she appeared as the most outstanding and definitive biblical theologian as well. Following her lead, Francis MacNutt wrote the<\/em> book on healing that later completely shaped the theology and practice of John Wimber and the broader Pentecostal and charismatic movement.<\/p>\n

Agnes Sanford and Her Companions: The Assault on Cessationism and the Coming of the Charismatic Renewal<\/em><\/a> has now taken its place as the definitive study on the one who probably is the most seminal and influential figure in the early charismatic renewal. De Arteaga has provided a powerfully insightful study, not only of an original charismatic theology and its development, but a cautionary tale for critics of a Godly, highly intelligent woman, surrounded by conflicting heresies\u2014including mainstream Christianity\u2014who finished well by faithfully following \u201cJesus, the author and finisher of our faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Jon Ruthven<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further Reading:<\/p>\n

Does Agnes Sanford offer something for Post-Christian Europe?<\/a> by William L. De Arteaga<\/p>\n

Agnes Sanford: Apostle of Healing and First Theologian of the Charismatic Renewal, Part 1, by William L. De Arteaga<\/a><\/p>\n

Agnes Sanford: Apostle of Healing and First Theologian of the Charismatic Renewal, Part 2, by William L. De Arteaga<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William L. De Arteaga, Agnes Sanford and Her Companions: The Assault on Cessationism and the Coming of the Charismatic Renewal (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015), ISBN 9781625649997 William De Arteaga has created a ground-breaking, major contribution that is foundational to the evolving understanding of the Pentecostal\/charismatic movement projected to reach 811 million in only…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2875,"featured_media":21892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3291],"tags":[3577,2955,3579,2748,3866,2848,3867,3582,2959],"ppma_author":[4623],"class_list":["post-21891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-history-2","category-fall-2015","tag-agnes","tag-arteaga","tag-companions","tag-featured","tag-jon","tag-reviewed","tag-ruthven","tag-sanford","tag-william","author-jonmruthven"],"authors":[{"term_id":4623,"user_id":2875,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jonmruthven","display_name":"Jon Ruthven","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/JonRuthven_email201510-202x202-150x150.png","url2x":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/JonRuthven_email201510-202x202-150x150.png"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21891"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=21891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}