Wendy J. Deichmann and Scott T. Kisker, ed., Heirs of Pietism in World Christianity: The 19th to the 21stCenturies. Wilmore, KY: First Fruits Press, 2024. Pp. 180.
In Suffering, New Testament scholar Craig Keener takes up the challenging matter of Christians and churches who suffer for the sake of Christ. Known for his commentaries on Matthew, Galatians, and Revelation, this Pentecostal-Charismatic scholar has also published popularly on a wide range of Christian life and practice (see his bibliography on pages 244-46). In this work, Keener combines a detailed reading of biblical texts on suffering with both coverage of suffering churches around the world and many personal anecdotes. He underlines the importance of this topic as he foregrounds his marriage to Congolese theologian and refugee survivor Médine Moussounga (146-47, 158-160, 172).
The book is divided into twelve chapters. The first three chapters ground the text in biblical study, beginning chapter one: “Jesus is worth everything”—faithfulness to Jesus comes above job security, financial security, residential security, family ties, social obligations, and even “life itself” (2). Chapter two describes the suffering of apostles, as Jesus predicted in Matthew, and as Paul experienced, described in both his letters and in Acts. In chapter three, we are reminded of the suffering of prophets such as Elijah and Jeremiah.
Chapter four makes clear that even “ordinary” Christians can expect to face suffering for our faith. Chapter five describes suffering as participating with Jesus. Keener declares that “opposition is the norm” for Christians (48). Chapter six, “Learning from the persecuted church,” seems to be where Keener’s heart is in this book. Indeed, throughout the entire work, he intermingles biblical references with anecdotes from persecuted Christians, whether behind the Iron Curtain or in places where Christianity is the minority faith, such as India and Nigeria. He acknowledges that “at least 70 percent of the world’s population lives in countries with significant restrictions on religious freedom,” but asserts that “at least numerically, this is particularly true for Christians” (77).
Chapters seven, eight and nine address questions that arise in the midst of illness and the hope for healing; for the poor and those who dream of wealth; and in the face of enslavement, family conflict, and challenges to popularity and success. I found Keener particularly helpful in addressing how to think about faith healing, and how to respond to prosperity gospel preaching. He outlines the historical evolution, in the United States, of Christian understandings about healing (105-106), and comments that while Jesus’s ministry was full of healing, yet the Apostle Paul referred to illnesses that were not healed (110). For contemporary Christians, he exhorts: “We may not individually receive every miracle that we would like, but anyone else’s miracle is a gift to all of us [as] a kingdom foretaste” (113).
Considering Christian approaches to wealth, Keener affirms the appropriateness of relying on God’s provision. Then he declares that “most of the Western church practices rampant, selfish materialism without caring what Scripture actually says about [prosperity]” (119). Further, he emphasizes the biblical demand to share possessions, and quotes Ron Sider summarizing John Wesley: “earn all you can, keeping for oneself only the bare minimum, ‘plain, wholesome food, clean clothes, and enough to carry on one’s business,’ giving the rest to the poor” (129).
The concluding chapters offer theological reflection and exhortation. Keener proposes this way to think about God’s will in relationship to suffering: “We may see [some evil] in terms of limited divine permission for free choices of human and extrahuman forces” (170). He offers a list of examples of Christians who have rejoiced in suffering (190-192). And he concludes: “Whatever our respective tests, all of us are called to overcome” (205).
I found Suffering somewhat difficult to read, as it darts from biblical teaching to historical or personal anecdotes. However, my bigger critique is that Keener barely addresses the suffering of faithful Christians who have opposed political oppression and “those who destroy the earth” (Rev. 11:18). While both Corrie Ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are in his bibliography, their suffering in response to fascism and genocide is not profiled. Keener could also have mentioned Anglican Bishop Janani Luwum, murdered in 1977 by Idi Amin for protesting the Uganda’s violent security crackdown, or American Sister Dorothy Stang, murdered in 2005 for protesting against the depredation of Brazilian loggers.
Certainly, we Brethren in Christ need at least to remind ourselves of our own stories of suffering for righteousness’ sake. I offer, for example, that of Bishop E. J. Swalm, imprisoned for refusing military orders during World War I: E. J. Swalm