Restore Unity, Recover Identity, and Refine Orthopraxy

The Believers' Priesthood in the Ecclesiology of James Leo Garrett Jr.

Peter L. H. Tie

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781610977890
  9781498262170
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630875862
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Doctrine divides! Not a few Christians dread doctrine, especially the doctrine of the church (ecclesiology) that allegedly causes much confusion, conflict, and controversy within the church. Many choose to avoid it, but James Leo Garrett Jr., Distinguished Professor of Theology Emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, is convinced that the much avoided and neglected ecclesiology is the place where the churches must begin to rediscover genuine unity, identity, and orthopraxy. Restore Unity, Recover Identity, Refine Orthopraxy examines Garrett's biblical notion of the universal priesthood. The priesthood concept, properly understood in a communal sense, integrates the mission, membership, ministry, and management of the church. This book is filled with intentional and direct conversations with more than twelve theologians or ecclesiologists from various Christian traditions (Reformed, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Mennonite, Baptist, and other Free Church) in order to shed light on Garrett's believers' priesthood doctrine, which eventually points toward a balanced, biblical, and baptist ecclesiology. An ecclesiology rooted in the biblical priesthood does not divide and extinguish but does unite and distinguish!

chapter 1

Introduction to Garrett’s Ecclesiology

Introduction to the Issue

Ecclesiology is allegedly one of the theological foci that brings much confusion, conflict, or controversy within the church. Ironically, James Leo Garrett, Distinguished Professor of Theology Emeritus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, perceives that the much neglected and avoided doctrine of the church is the place where the churches may restore unity, recover identity, and refine orthopraxy.

Garrett is known by his fellow theologians as the “most knowledgeable Baptist theologian living today,”1 or simply, among his students, as the “walking theological encyclopedia.” He is first and foremost a Baptist historical theologian seeking to discover or recover the Baptist identity vis-à-vis other Christian groups. His strength lies primarily in historical theology and secondarily in systematic theology and biblical exegesis. Although many of his works are historical in nature, his learned contributions cannot be ignored. He may not be considered as one of the most creative or innovative theologians, but his constant writing on ecclesiological themes, in particular, has been a significant and steady influence in the Baptist world.

Garrett has always been interested in various ecclesiological topics, initially due to his historical contexts and later due to his theological convictions. Prompted by the ecumenical movement, Garrett deems ecclesiology as the most crucial issue not just for theological scholarship but also for ecclesial praxis.2 Throughout nearly sixty years of teaching, Garrett explored and explicated at one time or another some much neglected as well as controversial aspects of the church, such as: the nature of the church; the unity of the Christian churches (i.e., Christian ecumenism); the concept of the believers’ church; believer’s baptism by immersion; regenerate church membership; church discipline; the church-state relations; Christian mission; and the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.

In 1991, a festschrift in honor of Garrett rightly perceived that the doctrine of the church is the primary focus of Garrett, who has led many Baptists back to this ecclesiological center. The festschrift appeared before the second volume of Garrett’s Systematic Theology (1995), and so his ecclesiology therein. It is, therefore, to their credit that the contributors of the festschrift identified correctly that ecclesiology is Garrett’s central interest. More than twenty-five prominent biblical, theological, and historical scholars contributed twenty-five chapters on a variety of topics pertaining to the church, but none seems to address why Garrett has been so concerned with ecclesiology, or even more importantly, what actually drives Garrett’s ecclesiology; namely, what is the unifying theme of Garrett’s diverse issues of the church?3

Garrett’s dealings with various ecclesiological topics at first glance appear to be indiscriminate in contents and indecisive in conclusions, but they, under a careful scrutiny, consistently revolve around a crucial theological principle. This book, therefore, attempts to demonstrate that the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is a unifying motif in Garrett’s ecclesiology, as will be seen in the major aspects of his ecclesiology. To identify his central theological motif is to integrate Garrett’s ecclesiology as expressed in his multifaceted treatments of the church. To discern and determine his unifying theme, on the other hand, may help discover a distinctively Baptist, biblical, and balanced ecclesiology.

Thesis Stated and Explained

This monograph will argue that the priesthood of all believers is a unifying motif that embodies Garrett’s ecclesiological themes as well as establishes his overall ecclesiology. The influence of Garrett’s doctrine of the Christian priesthood upon his general ecclesiology is palpably perceived in his writings on the mission, membership, ministry, and management of the church.

Retrospectively, the doctrine of the church was initially the place where Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin were divided, specifically, over the nature of the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist. All of them agreed on the fact that Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper for the church or Christians and all are to observe the event, but the Reformers parted on its meaning or nature and, subsequently, its pastoral implications.4 It was the earliest indication that, first, the disunity of the church begins within the doctrine of the church; and that, second, the tension between doctrine and practice becomes a crucial and perennial issue in ecclesiology.5 For Garrett, however, ecclesiology is the realm where Christian churches are supposed to restore unity, as well as where faith and life are to unite, a place where orthodoxy and orthopraxy become possible and real.6

The sixteenth-century Reformers were known more for the discovery of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith, but less for the recovery of the biblical teaching of the priesthood of Christians. In fact, the two doctrines are foundational to all Christians and churches. Justification by faith is the basis of soteriology, whereas the universal priesthood is the foundation of ecclesiology. The former emphasizes the individual life, the latter stresses the corporate life; the former is concerned with the faith in the true gospel, the latter with the common life of true disciples. Timothy George rightly notes that Luther’s greatest contribution to the churches was the doctrine of the royal priesthood of all believers, which, unfortunately through subsequent individualistic interpretations, has become a cause of great confusion among Christians.7 Some take the doctrine to mean the total abolition of church leadership; others the right of private interpretation of Scripture, doctrine, or practice; still others the right of individual voting in church business; and others the privilege of private worship, even the reason or excuse for omitting corporate worship. The doctrine of the royal priesthood has become the catalyst for “subjectivism, eccentricity, anarchy, and chaos.”8 The central element of ecclesiology seems to have become the greatest enemy to the churches.

Garrett is convinced, however, that the biblical understanding and appreciation of the universal priesthood is a potentially powerful means for church renewal, both in doctrine and practice. Throughout this book, one will see that the priesthood of all believers in Garrett’s ecclesiology is a theological foundation not only to unify his diverse ecclesiological topics, but also to unite spiritually, rather than institutionally, the worldwide Christian churches, as well as ultimately to bring together the matter of doctrine (believing) and discipleship (living). Stated concisely, Garrett’s doctrine of the church rooted in the universal priesthood is to unite and distinguish, rather than to divide and extinguish.

To argue that the priesthood of all believers is a central, guiding, unifying motif of Garrett’s ecclesiology does not mean that the priesthood doctrine is his “sole motif”9 or the “mother principle”10 in the sense that without it all other ecclesial themes disintegrate, or with it alone Garrett develops and interprets other ecclesial aspects. This monograph will primarily argue that the doctrine of the universal priesthood is an essential, foundational, or unifying concept for Garrett’s ecclesiology because, as the chapters will show, virtually all of Garrett’s ecc...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction to Garrett’s Ecclesiology
• Chapter 2: The Mission of the Church
• Chapter 3: The Membership of the Church
• Chapter 4: The Ministry of the Church
• Chapter 5: The Management of the Church
• Chapter 6: Garrett’s Important Motifs in Perspective
• Bibliography