Book Review: Apostolic Networks in Britain

William Kay, Apostolic Networks in Britain: New Ways of Being Church (Paternoster, 2007), 377pp (with thanks to Paternoster for review copy)

Apostolic Networks in Britain is a history of the different networks within Restorationist churches and develops in different ways Andrew Walker's earlier landmark study Restoring the Kingdom (1985, 1988, 1998).  The book is divided into five parts:

1. The Beginnings - the development of Restorationist churches  from the charismatic movement and the likes of Arthur Wallis and Martyn Lloyd-Jones
2.  The Networks - historical description of the different personalities and their networks, e.g. Bryn Jones and Harvest Time, Terry Virgo and New Frontiers, Gerald Coates and Pioneer, Colin Dye, Colin Urquhart, John Wimber and Roger Forster
3. The Crossflows - this analyzes the impacts of the cell movement, the Toronto Blessing and to a lesser extent Spring Harvest, Premier Radio, Alpha and others
4. The Qualitative Analysis - what can be said is happening among the Networks in terms of theology, missiology and sociology
5. The Quantitative Analysis

William Kay is a leading interpreter of Pentecostal and Charismatic history and theology. In 2000 he published Pentecostals in Britain and also in 2004 the reader Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies. The book is one of a number of recent studies on the charismatic evangelical movement. The strengths of this book is its historical descriptions in the first two parts. I enjoyed reading about the different leading figures, understanding their background and the shape of their networks. The weakness of the book is its lack of critical engagement - the analysis tends to be descriptive rather than critical. The book had the opportunity to be the first real assessment of the restorationist movement, but avoids asking these kind of questions, and so arguably lacks the balance of a critical study. You finish reading and feel its all been a bit one-sided. Kay concludes that he thinks the future might be more church networks and less institutional denominations. I am yet to be convinced and I think as the current 'founder' generation of network leaders reach the end of
their lives, we will see how strong these networks are. I think many will fragment.

So an interesting book, well worth reading if you want the big picture of what has been happening and is happening amongst the restorationist churches, but ultimately disappointing that the book doesn't ask some more serious theological and sociological questions.

 

Comments

[Richard]

I've read a couple of previous books by Kay and from a sociological angle he is brilliant (and I will be buying this book as well, thanks for posting on it). However, this lack of critical theological comment runs through all the other work of his I've read.

[ac]

You may be interested in this interview with William Kay published here http://www.midbible.ac.uk/content/view/133/