APNTS is privileged to have a variety of accomplished authors on our faculty. Previously, we have featured the Commentary: Book of Numbers by Dr. Mitch Modine, and today we bring attention to a new work by Dr. Floyd Cunningham.
Expressing a Nazarene Identity, by Floyd Cunningham, is part of the “Frameworks for Lay Leadership” series being edited by Rob A. Fringer for the Church of the Nazarene’s Asia-Pacific Region. Expressing a Nazarene Identity is a revision of lectures that Dr. Cunningham delivered at a conference of the Peru North District in 2017.
The short book centers on the reason-to-be of the Church of the Nazarene, the proclamation and corporate embodiment of holiness. Cunningham compares the rise of the Church of the Nazarene to similar denominations. He describes the theological development of the Church of the Nazarene by using the image of the disciples of the Emmaus Road’s encounter with Jesus, in which Jesus points to himself by referring to Scripture. Cunningham argues that the compassionate ministries of the Church of the Nazarene flow out of the church’s attempt to live out its doctrine of holiness. He describes the philosophy and strategy of the church’s mission as being a demonstration of the church’s commitment to both its cardinal doctrine, justification by faith, and to its distinguishing doctrine, holiness. At the same time, Cunningham describes the educational philosophy of the Church of the Nazarene as being deeply rooted in Wesleyan theology. Finally, in the last chapter, through a look at a 1960 sermon of General Superintendent Hugh Benner, Cunningham calls the Church of the Nazarene to a recovery of holiness as the source of an empowering encounter with God.
Dr. Cunningham is Professor of the History of Christianity at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary, where he has taught since 1983. He earned his PhD in history at Johns Hopkins University.
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