RIP Grandpa (Sort of), or maybe Uncle

I learned that, on the same day I posted the entry about my readings for January, one of my theological influences died in his sleep. Dr. John Allan Knight, former General Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene (roughly equivalent to bishop, but not considered a third order of ministry), former educator and university president, historical theologian, passed away during the night on February 1.

Dr. Knight was part of a great shift in Wesleyan/holiness theology, the implications of which are still being felt. He contributed, along with Dr. Mildred Bangs Wynkoop(†), Dr. William Greathouse, Dr. H. Ray Dunning, Dr. Rob Staples, and a few others the idea that sin and holiness are relational, not substantival terms. That is, the sin that is "removed" in entire sanctification is not a thing that is cut out by the Divine Surgeon as would a human surgeon remove a cancerous tumor or a wart. Or, as I expressed it in Doctrine of Holiness class yesterday, sin is not a microchip that is removed by the Divine IT Guy. Rather, sin is a perversion of relationship (to God, to other humans, to the earth, to the self) and holiness a restoration of that relationship which was marred, but not lost, not totally depraved, in the fall of humanity. The restoration of the Imago Dei is a reorientation of the relationship of freedom, such that a person can be free for God, for the Other, for the earth, and from self-domination.

Alternatively, if sin is a thing, a substance, then this renders both the Incarnation and salvation logically impossible. The Incarnation becomes impossible since, if sin is a thing that defines the essential quality of humanity then Christ could not have become fully human. (Aside: The objection could be raised that Christ did not take on fallen human nature, but human nature as it was supposed to be, in its "pre-fall" state; but this is Docetism.) It further renders salvation impossible because the removal of something that is absolutely definitional of humanity, then salvation would leave behind something less than a human; a biblically abhorrent idea.

Well, anyway, we pray for the family of Dr. John Allan Knight, and the church that misses him.