Make Way For The Spirit

The Blumhardts, father and son, two witnesses to the power of the Holy Spirit, heralds of the breaking in of God’s kingdom here on earth. And almost inseparable today, so completely did the son take up his famous father’s mantle and absorb his vision.

But God marches forward in history, and whoever stands still is in danger of losing God. Here the son, Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, writes as nowhere else about his father, Johann Christoph Blumhardt, clarifying the unity and continuity in their thought, but also his own painful though necessary points of departure. In particular, he takes a critical look at the role of faith healing, exorcism, and spiritual warfare in “The Awakening” that thrust his father into the limelight, as well as his father’s reluctance to step beyond the walls of the Christianity he inherited.

God wants to renew the whole world, to pour out his Spirit on humankind again, and around the world Christians are praying for renewal and revival. Are we standing in the way? Blumhardt calls out obstacles or “false crutches” that he believes thwarted the movement of the Spirit in his father’s time and his own, all of which are still with us today: a focus on piety and personal salvation, misconceptions about mission and evangelism, and the institutional church with its human structures, dogmas, and traditions. If the religion of our churches is too small for God, are we ready to step outside and live in accordance with his great future?