New - Handbook of Doctrine
What do you think?
There is a new Handbook of Doctrine available either in book form or via PDF download at http://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/www_sa.nsf/vw-dynamic-arrays/20ED848CF00D99E28025770400056C19?openDocument
We are currently preparing a series of commentaries on the new HOD but in the meantime here is a quick review by an Australian SA magazine:
17 Comments to New - Handbook of Doctrine
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My understanding is that this mildly critical review of the new Handbook of Doctrine provoked an executive order to have all copies of that particular issue of the Australian magazine (”On Fire”) destroyed - can anyone confirm this or is it just a Salvation Army urban myth?
Urban myths are generated and fed by the absence of verified communications and poor transparency on the part of titular leadership. The issue of the magazine in question has indeed been trashed. This is the most recent incident in the history of Salvation Army publications to be destroyed, not distributed or removed from shelves.
We should sell any remaining copies on eBay!
I personally wonder whether they’ve trashed the wrong publication… From my initial reading of the new Handbook of Doctrine I’m somewhat underwhelmed. More to come in a review I’m writing for theRubicon…
As for this review… a couple of things. Since when is “a clear set of rules, codes, or guidelines” the “only way to give consistency of belief and action”??? I also can’t agree with the writers hope that this will “be our guide for decades to come”. I’d rather have the Holy Spirit in that role myself. But perhaps that’s just me…
Congratulations to theRubicon for ensuring that the antiquated practice of “Bookburning” didn’t completely infiltrate The Salvation Army. At least this small, but significant, contribution made it out there. I wonder what other interesting articles are left in tatters from this issue?
Thanks ‘Ed’ for bringing this to our attention.
A few thoughts …
Scary! This is a big brother type move.
Anyone watch the show Pardon The Interuption? Two sports journalists, Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon, debate various topics from the world of sports. Mike accuses Tony of taking it easy on the NFL, Tony once worked for Monday Night Football, and says he’s always “protecting the shield,” a reference to the NFL’s logo. I’ve adopted the three words and thought for stuff like this and other Salvationisms that sometimes miss the point.
Do we really need to destroy publications/writings to protect the shield?
We could get real serious/theological/political about this. What does this say about us? TSA? Free speech? Freedom of thought? Honest reflection?
This also shows the importance of a place like theRubicon where we can be open and have free thought and important conversations with many different voices and ideas.
And when we need to, call out the Emperor for being naked.
MB
I would like to know what was on pages 12 and 13?
Surely OnFire wasn’t trashed just because of this review? Am I missing something here?
God help us.
Intriguing situation and one wonders whether the ‘executive order’ originated at home or not. However, as our concerned friend said this is not the first withdrawal of a publication in the last few years.
Hopefully, though it will be the last!
The critique of the new Handbook written in the Australian publication was very mild. Apparently it was not approved and the whole printing was trashed by an executive order! I can see the screws are being tightened more and more by the present regime. This response is silly, laughable, ridiculous….any other adjectives?
I think the Handbook of Doctrine approved by General Fred Coutts was the best version. It was the one in place when I became a soldier and I still look back to it for refreshment and relief when I have to endure literal fundamentalist preaching from pulpits.
LS
“Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.” (Potter Stewart - American Judge) We wouldn’t want that for the SA now would we?
ED
The only thing worse than being censored is being scared of the censor. Why not just say to the censor, ‘No, actually, we’re happy with the review; we’ll let it run.’
Clearly, the possible reaction from the censor is to be feared.
Who wants to print or even write for an Army mag in that sort of environment?!
Jack
Seems that old curmudgeon - Winston Churchill - best captures my sense of this:
“You see these dictators on their pedestals… yet in their hearts there is unspoken - unspeakable! - fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts! Words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home, all the more powerful because they are forbidden. These terrify them. A little mouse - a little tiny mouse! - of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”
Bram
It sounds as though the Salvation Army Handbook of Church Health - with the vital section on trustbuilding in postchristendom missional context - might have been more useful!
Eleanor
Upon reading the latest Handbook of Doctrine of The Salvation Army I found this book so fascinating and thought provoking as well. As Salvationist I am proud of how our statement of our faith is explained and discussed to the point that both Conservative and Liberal Salvationists can find it affirmative.
But there is one thing I found here that should be corrected. It is the information about the so-called “GOSPEL OF THOMAS.”
In page 15,Under B. Historical Summary, number “2″, after letter “c” category it says here:
“During and following the apostolic era, other writings which do not have the authority of Scripture were authored. Many were rejected as inauthentic – for example, the Gospel of Thomas, which contained some rather fantastic and dubious miracles attributed to the child Jesus.”
The Gospel of Thomas is not a record of any acts of Jesus, therefore it does not contain any information about the child Jesus. I think what our Handbook should be referring to, about the life of the child Jesus, is “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas” not The Gospel of Thomas. Because the Gospel of Thomas only contains “sayings of Jesus,” of the adult Jesus.
I hope this will clarify us.
EJU
German poet Heinrich Heine spoke of “book burning” and the control of thoughts, ideas, and opinions at its worst: “Where books are burned, they will, in the end, burn people, too.” This quote is on a plaque at the Berlin Opernpoltz at a site where 30,000 students gathered to burn books of un-German authors on May 10, 1933.
Obviously the above situation is no where near as heinous or criminal as the actions taken during Hitler’s time in power.
However, nothing good comes suppressing, controlling, and “burning” thoughts, ideas, and opinions.
Bookworm
I worked in a THQ and thought that all articles for publication were normally approved by leadership. So was this review approved first or not?
Jack
As the editor-in-chief of the publication that was officially withdrawn, I’ve followed the above dialogue with some interest but didn’t feel it was appropriate to become involved.
On seeing Jack’s posting, I will, however, intervene to clarify that our editorial department also has a policy of forwarding all articles to territorial leadership for approval prior to printing. The review of the HoD went through this process.
I chose to offer this clarification simply so that those following this dialogue didn’t assume that my staff had somehow been negligent and ignored due process in this instance.
We prepared articles for publication, they were approved and the magazine was printed. This was business as usual for us.
Jack, or others, please don’t begin to assume that the editorial department did something wrong here. My staff produce some of the finest Army magazines in the world and I’m very proud of them.
Mal Davies
I find a few things interesting about this article, and the responses that followed.
1- In a time where our Army is filled with Soldiers that posses a “sub-par” understanding of their faith, and the movement they’re a part of, we have articles being written saying that our new book, containing an in depth explaination of our beliefs, is not much more than an “addition to the book shelf”. This should raise concern.
2- The only concern that’s been raised here is that fact that “the man” censored the article.
To make myself clear, I don’t support the “burning” of this article. But, surely a responce to this article could have been something along the lines of:
If our, would-be Soldiers are too intimidated by the size of this book, that contains within it a deep look at the belief system of this great Army, then maybe those men and women are not the kind of Soldiers that we need. If our current Soldiers feel that it’s just another book to add to the shelf, then maybe a true call to arms is a lot further off than we previously feared.
We lose people every day because the general public that fills our seats on Sundays aren’t willing to dig deep enough to really know what they’re on about. No discussions, no answers, no questions.
The fittest warriors we have are leaving the Army by the hundreds because there’s a more educated fighting force somewhere else. All the while, the Army of Salvation sets the new book right next to the old one… on the shelf.
3- We are finding new ways to take all attention away from the real issues that face our Army. This article, and response to it are prime examples.
N Holt
I read through parts of this and one of my thoughts…my Good Lord how did the early simple uneducated salvationists ever manage without such formal statements and explanations of our faith?
I long to see God raise up Generals of The Salvation Army who know how to set us all to praying, fasting, self-denial, who know how to spur us on to community transforming, bar shutting down, strip club closing, beer selling ending, dope snorting ending, revival! (Such as happened under the first generation of Salvationists). I don’t know how they managaged with their fierce unity, rules, regulations, and lack of such grand diversity and freedom of expression spoken of these days.
It seems their simple aims of loving God supremely and fierce determiation to win the lost at all personal costs are too simpleminded and narrow for our day. Their method of all or nothing will not do in our day apparently. When they became a soldier, it was all or nothing. You took on the uniform and abandoned the fashions of this world (every day/ 24/7). Soldiers who were well off left their comforts and went to work in slums. Soldiers poor and begerly set out with all determination and without education just testified of the goodness of God to them. Prayer meetings didn’t just last for minutes, they lasted for hours, and not hours of snacking and chatting about prayer, or hours of one person stand formally and pray properly and another stand and pray properly, but they prayed soul wrenching heart burning, hell shaking, determined, passionate prayer that would get someone thrown out of some our current corps.
What am I driving at? I believe that our answer to how best to live our lives as Salvationists and how best we should go about fulfilling the great commission to win the world to Jesus lies not in promoting the vast edjucation and knowledge and diversity, etc… (if that were best for us then the world would have long been won to Christ by the Catholic church, no other church on earth is as broadly and intellectually edjucated as the bishops, Cardinals, and Pope) No, no, no a thousand times no! Our answer lies in seeking the Face of God! In promoting unity in much prayers, fastings, obedience.
God give us a General, and officers of every rank that will go down in earnest prayer before God and issue ORDERS down the ranks that will draw the line and say this is how we’re going to do it and lay out the requirements of corps officers, soldiers, local officers,etc. You’re going to have to hold this list of meetings, you’re going to go into these parts of town and visit every drugged, sin ladden, despairing soul there even if it costs your life!
Leaders that don’t mind pruning for greater fruit to be produced! Not all are called to soldiership! God help us draw the line and fire the red-hot gospel shots against all hell again today as once we did in days gone by!
AG