"The Holiness movement differs from fundamentalism and evangelicalism in that it is more oriented to ethics and the spiritual life than to a defense of doctrinal orthodoxy. Indeed, one of the distinctive features of the Holiness traditions is that they have tended to raise ethics to the status that fundamentalists have accorded doctrine. This theme was certainly explicit in the early abolitionist controversies and has consistently re-emerged since. The emphasis given the doctrine of sanctification has led naturally in this direction."
"The Holiness ethic has been described as the 'revivalist' ethic of 'no smoking, no drinking, no cardplaying, no theatergoing.' Such themes have, of course, characterized the Holiness movement -- as have large doses of anti-Catholicism and anti-Masonry. Some of these concerns are still worth some defense, but the Holiness churches have been slandered by observers who fail to penetrate beneath these themes."
Dayton cites the heart-and-soul engagement by holiness movement advocates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries of the following ethical concerns:
- Abolitionist movement
- Women's sufferage and ordination of women to ministry
- Involvement with and ministry to the poor and oppressed
- Peace advocacy
- Simplicity
- Radical equality
"Thomas Upham, one of the more mystically inclined of early Holiness teachers, wrote in 1836 the important Manual of Peace, opposing the military chaplaincy, advocating "tax resistance," and calling for the abolition of capital punishment. Almost totally ignored in the literature of pacifism are the several 'peace churches' produced by the movement."
Dayton also laments the decline of such social ethic distinctives in the middle and late 20th century.
Dayton's article, "The Holiness Churches: A Significant Ethical Tradition" is available online: click here.
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