Melvin E. Dieter

Christians generally recognize the need to live a holy, or sanctified, life. But they differ on what sanctification is and how it is achieved. How does one achieve sanctification in this life? How much success in sanctification is possible? Is a crisis experience following one's conversion normal--or necessary? If so, what kind of experience, and how is it verified?Five Views on Sanctification--part of the Counterpoints series--brings together in one easy-to-understand volume five major Protestant views on sanctification: Wesleyan View – represented by Melvin E. DieterReformed View – represented by Anthony A. HoekemaPentecostal View – represented by Stanley M. HortonKeswick View – represented by J. Robertson McQuilkinAugustinian-Dispensationalism View – represented by John F. WalvoordWriting from a solid evangelical stance, each author describes and defends his own understanding of the doctrine sanctification and then responds to the views of the other authors.The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.

This new edition expands and updates the only general interpretation of the rise and influence of perfectionist revivalism in America and Europe. Fifteen years of expanding research on the holiness movement reinforce this volume's continuing seminal value to cultural and social research. The new concluding essay describes the history of the revival through the turn of the century. This book expands our understanding of the fragmentation and coalescence of American religion by analyzing the factors which created numerous new holiness denominations. Dieter also outlines the historical and theological factors that separate this largely Wesleyan and Methodist wing of evangelicalism from the fundamentalism of Reformed evangelicals. The identification of such nuances will prove especially helpful to those struggling with the extreme diversity in American religion, especially in evangelicalism. For students and scholars of American religious movements as well as students of the feminist, temperance, abolitionist, and populist movements in American society.