Tribute to William M. Greathouse[1]
by
Rob L. Staples
My first encounter with this year's honoree was in a church in Paris, Tennessee. I was a young boy, about age nine. My parents had driven to Paris, about 30 miles from our home across the state line in western Kentucky, to attend some church function and had taken me with them--I suppose for lack of any place to put me where they felt I would stay out of mischief. It was a gathering of persons from several Church of the Nazarene congregations in a certain geographical proximity called a "Zone." The meeting was therefore called a "Zone Rally." Exactly what we were rallying about has long since faded from my memory, if in fact it ever lodged in my consciousness in the first place. But one memory is still very clear. On the platform was an unusually tall, unusually slim young man aged nineteen who seemed to be in charge of something or other. Someone had introduced him as Rev. Billy Greathouse and turned the podium over to him to do whatever it was he was there to do. I remember whispering to my father: "Is that guy a preacher?" When assured that he was, I said: "That is the youngest, the skinniest, and the tallest preacher I ever saw." Today, almost six decades later, he at least is still one of the tallest!
My second encounter with this man was in a classroom in Nashville, Tennessee. I was a sophomore at Trevecca Nazarene College (now Trevecca Nazarene University) and had registered for a course listed in the catalog as "Introduction to Theology." It was taught by that same tall young preacher I had seen a decade earlier. He was now known as Professor William (no longer "Billy") Greathouse. Our textbook was the one-volume abridgment by Paul T. Culbertson of H. Orton Wiley's three-volume Christian Theology. Fittingly--and predictably--the Culbertson abridgment was titled Introduction to Christian Theology. As I look back on it, I marvel that the Culbertson volume excited me so! But excite me it did. I was enthralled and captivated, not only by the content of the text itself, but also and even more so by the enthusiasm of the teacher and his love for the subject--this tall young professor named William (no longer "Billy") Greathouse.
I found that the subject of theology literally set me on fire. We were not more than three weeks into that course when I knew, as clearly as I ever knew anything, that no other academic subject I could ever study would interest me the way theology did. It was the most thrilling discovery I had yet experienced in a classroom. During the ensuing three years, I took every course Professor Greathouse offered. It was he who first suggested to me that I might consider making the teaching of theology my life's vocation, which I eventually did after seminary, doctoral study, and a few years in the pastoral ministry. It is, therefore, a distinct honor and privilege to have been asked to give this tribute to my very first theological mentor.
Who, then, was - and is - this William Greathouse? William Marvin Greathouse made his entrance into the world in the year 1919 at Van Buren, Arkansas, although his parents were natives of Tennessee. When Billy was four years old the family moved back to their native city of Jackson, Tennessee. The Greathouses were Methodists, and in that church Billy was baptized as an infant and received the Eucharist at a very early age-two experiences for which he still has a profound appreciation. Both sets of his grandparents were also Methodists, and his paternal grandfather was a Methodist preacher. When in 1935, however, a new Church of the Nazarene home mission church was organized in Jackson, very near to their home, the Greathouse family visited it, found there a compatibility with their own religious heritage and beliefs, decided to help the church get established, and cast their lot with the new congregation. Thus young Bill, whose early religious foundations were formed in Methodism, would thenceforth build on that foundation in service to Christ's church through the Church of the Nazarene.
After graduating from high school in Jackson in 1937, this young man followed Horace Greeley's advice and went West, at least as far as Oklahoma, enrolling in Bethany-Peniel College (now known as Southern Nazarene University). Here he finished his freshman year, then returned to Jackson and enrolled in Lambuth College, a Methodist school, where he took his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941. During his three years in Jackson, interestingly enough, he also served as the supply pastor of the Nazarene church there, his home church.
In the fall of 1941 he was appointed pastor of the Franklin, Tennessee, Church of the Nazarene. While there he also studied for and received a Bachelor of Theology degree at Trevecca Nazarene College in Nashville. In the fall of 1944 he entered Vanderbilt University's Divinity School. Because he had a Th. B., he was able to bypass the B. D. and work instead on a two-year (72 hour) Master's degree in Theological Studies, concentrating on Historical and Systematic Theology. Here he got in touch with the Eastern Fathers under his esteemed professor, Dr. Roy Battenhouse, an expert on the Ante-Nicene Fathers. He also worked in the areas of Christology and Atonement, which have always been interests of his. He studied at Vanderbilt during the years 1944-48, while continuing in the full time pastorate-first at Franklin and then at the Immanuel Church of the Nazarene in Nashville, both in easy driving distance of Vanderbilt. He received the Master's Degree in 1948, having written a thesis under the guidance of Dr. Edward R. Ramsdell, with the title "A Comparison of George Croft Cell, William Cannon, and Umphrey Lee on Christian Perfection," a title that reveals the early stages of his lifelong interest in John Wesley.
In 1946 our honoree was invited to teach in the Department of Religion at Trevecca, even though a move to pastor the First Church of the Nazarene in Clarksville, Tennessee, necessitated a longer commute to the campus. Teaching two mornings a week for five years in the theological and biblical fields, he was able to combine his love for the classroom with his love for the pastoral ministry, each feeding and nourishing the other. In 1955 he went full-time with teaching at Trevecca, assuming the position then called "Dean of Religion." This made him the college chaplain as well as Chair of the Division of Religion. Back full-time in academe, he resumed his doctoral studies at Vanderbilt in 1956. But, receiving a call in 1958 to be senior pastor of Nashville's historic and prestigious First Church of the Nazarene, a congregation that was older even than the denomination itself, and sensing divine leading to accept, he once again discontinued his graduate studies at Vanderbilt. He did, however, continue to teach part-time at Trevecca.
He was honored by Trevecca Nazarene College in 1955 with a Doctor of Divinity degree. His election to the presidency of that institution in 1963 brought an end to his pastoral ministry and cast him as an educational administrator. He served in this capacity for five years, giving meritorious service, and then was elected president of Nazarene Theological Seminary in 1968. This position seemed ready-made for a man like William Greathouse. With fewer administrative chores to handle, and fewer fires to stoke (or to smother) than in a college presidency, and surrounded exclusively with theological faculty and students, he was in "seventh heaven." His overarching concern was to guide his denomination in the rediscovery of its Wesleyan heritage. To this end, for seven of his eight years in that office, in addition to his administrative role, he taught one class each semester in Wesley's Theology and sometimes a course on the Book of Romans. One of my colleagues at NTS, Paul Bassett, once quipped that Dr. Greathouse had two academic interests-Wesley's theology and the Epistle to the Romans-and for Greathouse the two were one and the same! Although uttered in jest, the comment is not too wide of the mark, for Greathouse finds in Wesley a fidelity to Paul's ordo salutis.
His eight-year tenure as seminary president came to an end in 1976 when his denomination, much to the chagrin of the seminary's faculty and students, elected him to its highest office, that of General Superintendent. The disappointment felt by these faculty members and students was tempered, however, by the prospect of having in the General Superintendency one who was more theologically astute than most who had occupied that office in recent years. It was hoped that he could bring to the Board of General Superintendents an enhanced concern for theological education. In this endeavor he would come to have some notable successes and also some frustrations.
Dr. Greathouse has written widely. For 22 years he wrote a column with the title, "Toward Christian Living" in the Adult Bible Teacher, a Sunday School quarterly. He is author of several books, including The Fullness of the Spirit, and From the Apostles to Wesley: Christian Perfection in Historical Perspective. He co-authored Introduction to Christian Theology and Exploring Christian Holiness, volume 2, and has contributed chapters to several other books, including The Word and the Doctrine, Exploring the Christian Faith and The Second Coming: A Wesleyan Approach to the Doctrine of Last Things. He also wrote the commentaries on Zechariah, Malachi, and Romans in the Beacon Bible Commentary. He was joint editor of the Beacon Bible Expositions, to which he contributed the exposition of Romans. He has recently published Love Made Perfect, a Christian lay training book. Soon to be published is a biblical theology text entitled Wholeness in Christ.
Dr. Greathouse and his wife, the former Ruth Nesbitt, now reside in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, a Nashville suburb. They have three children, Mark Greathouse, Rebecca Martin, and Elizabeth Sykes. There are seven grandchildren.
In an assessment of the life and work of William Greathouse, perhaps the central theme would be his attempt to re-discover the Wesleyan heritage for the Holiness Movement in general, and for his denomination in particular. At a time when some of his colleagues among denominational leaders were sounding the warning, "Let us not lose our commitment to holiness, lest we become like the Methodists," William Greathouse never lost his appreciation for his heritage in Methodism. He believed that, in some respects at least, "becoming like the Methodists" (especially in unapologetically claiming John Wesley as a chief spiritual and theological mentor) would not be the end of the world--nor of the church. At a time when some in his denomination, and perhaps in others within the Holiness Movement, were saying, "We need not call ourselves Wesleyans in our theology, we are Holiness Movement people," Greathouse steadfastly resisted, being unwilling to draw such a line between the eighteenth-century movement and the nineteenth-century one. He was not "either/or" but "both/and," believing there were insights in both traditions that were worth preserving.
Although having deep appreciation for the contribution of the nineteenth-century Holiness Movement, and recognizing that some of these contributions were assets and aids to the spread of holiness, he always remained committed to the proposition that the very purpose of the Holiness Movement was not to plot a completely new course, but rather to renew and re-invigorate the message and mission of the eighteenth-century Wesleyan Revival.
In volume 2 of Exploring Christian Holiness, he writes: "The 19th century holiness movement was the peculiar product of a developing revivalism among persons in whom the principles of Wesleyan perfectionism, Puritanism, and Pietism were at work. Although the doctrine of Christian perfection as understood within the movement did indeed stem from Wesley's teaching, the American milieu gave it an entirely new mood and shape" (p. 298). Although Greathouse can appreciate that development, he can also express concern about some of the excesses that resulted from the pragmatism of that age that had seeped into the Holiness Movement. In the case of Phoebe Palmer, for instance, who had articulated a kind of rationalistic pragmatism in introducing what she called a "shorter way" into holiness with her so-called "altar theology," Greathouse critiques her "theological syllogism," insisting that "syllogistic holiness is not scriptural holiness." He deplores the element of fear that he thinks resulted from Palmer's insistence on holiness as a present duty (Ibid., 301).
I have spoken of my early encounters with Dr. Greathouse in Paris and Nashville, Tennessee. Another came later in Kansas City, Missouri. For a few years, before he retired and moved back to his native state of Tennessee, Dr. Greathouse and I worshipped in the same local church in greater Kansas City. I remember his joyous and enthusiastic singing of the great hymns of the church, the hymns which glorified God and exalted Christ. And I remember his appreciation for some time-honored liturgies which to him were not at all cold and lifeless, but richly filled with meaning. Shortly before his retirement from the General Superintendency he was a guest speaker in the chapel of Nazarene Theological Seminary. In his address, titled "The Present Crisis in Our Worship," speaking somewhat prophetically, he expressed his dismay with the "market mentality," the "give the people what they want" approach to worship. In his wide travels, he had seen the encroaching substitution of overhead projectors for hymnals, bands for organs, and "worship teams" for choirs. He deplored what he called "the growing tendency to crowd out congregational singing with special music" and "the drift toward religious entertainment" in church services. He said: "This practice represents an invasion of the church by the spirit of the age. A narcissistic culture demands entertainment, and we can be religiously entertained and left untouched by the Spirit of Christ." You may applaud such a comment, or you may think it woefully archaic and out of touch with the "real world," but it lets us know where this man stands on an issue that has been much discussed in recent years.
In 1976, under his leadership as president of Nazarene Theological Seminary, the faculty there graciously invited me to be one of their number. I had been happily situated, having taught theology on the college level for thirteen years, and was not especially inclined to move. But one of the factors that caused me to accept, and begin a twenty-year tenure there, was the prospect of rubbing elbows with, and picking the mind of, this man William Greathouse. But, alas! Shortly after I had accepted the invitation, and even before I could move my family and my furniture, Dr. Greathouse departed that institution, accepting the election to the General Superintendency, thereby depriving me of one of the joys I had anticipated.
I have forgiven him for that-I think! At least I have forgiven him enough to consider it a high honor to make this presentation here this evening. Ladies and gentlemen, honored members and guests of the Wesleyan Theological Society, it is my happy privilege to introduce to you this year's recipient of the Society's Lifetime Achievement Award, William M. Greathouse.
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