Chapter 8

"Stand by the College"

Pasadena Nazarene College (1933-1948)

 

When in Trouble, Get Wiley

Wiley returned to Pasadena in the fall of 1933, beginning a new tenure as President at PNC, while continuing with partial responsibilities in the office of the Herald of Holiness. Wiley's presence bolstered the attitudes of supporters, faculty, administrators, and students. Kirkemo echoed this sentiment in the following evaluation of Wiley's return to Pasadena:

[H]is return was greeted with relief if not enthusiasm by the churches. He was devoid of ambition and not a threat to anyone [in leadership]. His humility was real, his dedication unquestioned, and his humble life-style appreciated. When Wiley was president, all the attributes of Nazarenes at their best seemed to reside at the college.[416]

Wiley's charisma apparently did not attract many students or supporters, at least at first. In fact, his physical presence left onlookers less than awestruck. A former student and colleague recalled a friend's first impression of Wiley:

I looked at the platform and saw [several] men seated there. I asked what that farmer was doing there. They introduced him as the president of the college and the speaker for the evening.[417]

Benson later added that "one forgot his appearance" once Wiley began to speak. Wiley commanded respect, though not through obvious natural capacities. He, however, built trust between himself, students, and supporters.

The students confirmed their respect for Wiley as a mentor and leader on campus. Sylvester Coates in the 1935 La Sierra wrote about Wiley:

By unbounded generosity shames all smallness in others-holds that dependableness is superior to talent-holds him in doubt and contempt who trifles with honor-recognizes good jokes-has hard time to laugh-know host of clever jokes-bestows them intimately upon a few-maintains 'if you can't discipline a person you can't help him'-believes loss of sleep demands increased eating-quite at home in a crowd but unassumingly quiet-frantically [makes] circles with right hand upon forgetting the right word in speaking-rises early and works late doing much-gets out of way of people who waste his time-commands respect and admiration by sheer value of what he is.[418]

Wiley's return made sense to the college's students, but was his return an encouragement to the college's supporters?

Wiley presented the ideals of higher education to financially pressured churches that could barely support themselves, let alone a college. Wiley writes in the college newsletter, The Clarion, in 1935:

We can do nothing greater-make no more enduring investment than to train young men and women for holiness evangelism and send them out to preach this glorious truth and bring men to Christ.There is no better place to begin this study of human nature and relationships than in a Christian college small enough to maintain such close and stimulating contacts.[419]

Again, Wiley unites the evangelistic task of the church with the educative task of the college. In Wiley's mind, the mission of the Church of the Nazarene and its associated colleges were one and the same. Borrowing a rallying cry from his mentor and founder of PNC, Wiley concluded his article in The Clarion with the following words:

On every school, on every book, on every exercise shall be stamped 'Loyalty to Christ and the Bible.' The great need for an institution where spirituality is at the front, and where it is clearly seen that an intense and enthusiastic devotion is a help instead of a hindrance to intellectual development.[420]

The question was not raised whether the union of evangelism and education was palatable, but the churches supported the kindred spirit they found in Wiley's leadership.

New Debt, Old Ways to Pay

President Wiley returned to PNC and the problem of indebtedness similar to his tenure at Northwest Nazarene College. Wiley still wanted to alleviate indebtedness, but also desired to make PNC a fully accredited institution of higher education. Wiley achieved both goals by 1940. In accomplishing these feats, he turned to old tactics once used in Nampa. Wiley gathered persons who could help accomplish the tasks that he could not do alone. One example of Wiley's recruitment of qualified personnel during the lean years of the 1930's was Marie Huff, his administrative secretary, registrar, and student counselor.

Huff directed the Palisades library that was eventually donated to PNC. Wiley told the story of how she came to be hired at PNC. Wiley visited the library to inquire about the donation where he met Huff. She applied for the secretarial position at PNC. She asked, "How much does it pay?" Wiley was almost too embarrassed to respond. Reluctantly, he stated it was $50 per month along with the remark half in jest: "We are just as honest as we can afford to be." Immediately, she accepted the offer so her two daughters could attend the secondary school academy.[421] Huff began a fifteen-year career at PNC, initially as administrative secretary to the President, eventually gaining more responsibility as registrar and respect among the students as a trusted, but unofficial, guidance counselor.

According to Wiley, Huff exemplified the "true purpose of the institution. That purpose was an "intense and enthusiastic devotion to God is a help rather than a hindrance to the cultural processes of education and that every life, like her is to be fully devoted to Christ and the advancement of his cause and kingdom in the earth."[422] Wiley brought others to the college who helped with accreditation, such as Huff's ability to add to the requirements for a sufficient library, and those, like Erwin G. Benson, who helped raise funds to pay off the mountain of debt burdening the college.

Benson, the Troubadours, and Dollar Bills

Wiley chaired the Committee on Education for the Church of the Nazarene. He recommended that each educational zone raise support for its college that averaged $1 per church member.[423] Four years after making the recommendation, the giving for higher education per capita for the denomination of each church member was only 80¢. However, there were only 407 total Nazarene college graduates. That meant giving toward higher education equaled $167-170 per college graduate. These funds led to an educated laity. In the same report in 1932, only 35% of Nazarene pastors were identified as having at least one year of college education.[424] Wiley continued to recruit astute workers and utilized common-sense fundraising techniques at PNC.

Wiley brought Erwin G. Benson on staff at PNC as "Executive Field Secretary" in 1933. Benson had known Wiley as a college student in the late 1920's. Their interaction grew to include almost every aspect of Nazarene college work from "chapel, faculty meeting, board meetings, classroom, district assemblies, preacher meetings, camp meetings, in his office and in his study."[425] Wiley's first words to Benson in his new position were, "Build yourself into the institution." Advice, Benson adds, that Wiley garnered from others, because that was Wiley's expectation for his own work at the college. And so, Benson traveled the educational zone representing the college at church gatherings, recruiting students, and spearheading the Living Endowment Fund.

An endowment fund was started prior to Benson's arrival, but it had only received $2,000. Benson inaugurated the Living Endowment Fund that sought the goal of raising $2,000 each month from 2,000 persons pledging $1 per month. In the first year, the Living Endowment Fund managed to reach only $246 monthly, only 10% of its goal. By 1939, the annual contribution to the Fund increased to $10,376, still shy of the $24,000 goal. During the war years, the annual contribution to the Living Endowment rose to $31,000 annually.[426]

Benson initially targeted churches that were not contributing to the college. He began touring these 175 churches with a student quartet called the Troubadours.[427] By bringing students directly in contact with churches, Benson put a positive and personal face to the institution. The college never developed a fundraising scheme that extended beyond Nazarene churches.[428]

Benson's tactics helped overcome two prevalent problems during most of Wiley's career: "low enrollment and high indebtedness."[429] The traveling groups also invigorated campus life. During chapel on Monday morning, Wiley asked the traveling bands, including the Troubadours, to report their highlights from the previous weekend. Benson acknowledged the difficulty of the first years of his time at PNC, but Wiley "never showed signs of discouragement."[430]

Student enrollment, though quite low, took a leap after Wiley's return. In 1933, only 87 students were enrolled in the liberal arts four-year program. The first year Wiley returned, enrollment jumped to 256; however, not all students were able to pay their tuition. Children of parents and missionaries received substantial discounts up to half of tuition paid. Other students were not able to pay at all. Unpaid student accounts totaled $10,000. J. E. Janosky who had earlier followed Wiley to PNC, sought several solutions to unpaid accounts. In the end, faculty salaries went unpaid to make up the difference.[431]

Kirkemo states that Wiley personally had a "poor record in fund raising" at PNC.[432] But, Wiley did not have to be a good fundraiser. He surrounded himself with fundraisers. Benson helped alleviate debt and provided for some operating costs with the Living Endowment Fund. The traveling student quartets helped recruit students and raise enrollment. Wiley simply instituted his old fundraising techniques from NNC days. In 1937, this tendency toward what worked at NNC became even more evident. Rev. A. E. Sanner, Wiley's fundraiser and church liaison at NNC, arrived on the Southern California District as district superintendent. Sanner led a Debt Reduction campaign to liquidate $41,000 of unsecured debt and a portion of the mortgage. The Southern California district pledged $30,000 in one year. By the end of 1938, the unsecured debt was paid.[433]

A brochure published by PNC named 1938-39, the "Jubilee Year."[434] The school year marked the 25th year since Wiley first served as president of the college. The advertisement noted that Wiley's "special qualifications" included the fact that "[h]e holds the dying words of Dr. Bresee as a sacred trust. This charge was, 'Dr. Wiley, stand by Pasadena College.'" Students could become a part of Bresee's vision to have 1,000 students at PNC graduate every year to graduate and "preach holiness to the ends of the earth." Along with those lofty ideals, every student upon graduation could "[b]e able to say, 'I went to College under Dr. Wiley.'" Truly, Wiley built himself into the fabric of the institution.

By 1940, the debt was down to $27,000.[435] In 1943, the college burned the mortgage and had a seed fund to begin the construction of new student dormitories. For the first time in thirty years of college leadership, Wiley served a college with no indebtedness.[436] Wiley believed in the challenge he gave to the 1940 General Assembly, "No church can stand true to the Gospel, which does not give adequate care to its youth."[437]

Seeking for Accreditation

As early as 1928, Wiley encouraged all Nazarene colleges to seek standardization through accrediting agencies. All schools, he wrote, should seek "membership in the American [possibly referring to the Association of American Colleges] or other college associations. Our lack at present is in buildings, equipment, and endowment."[438] Twelve years later, Wiley reported that PNC was seeking accreditation through a regional agency.[439] However, the Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools expressed three concerns about accrediting PNC because of low earned doctorates, low faculty salaries, and a low-volume library.[440]

According to Ronald Kirkemo, only two of 23 faculty members had earned doctorates in 1935. In five years, the ratio increased from seven to 33. By 1945, one-third of the faculty (8 of 24) had earned doctoral degrees.[441] Finally, in 1943, faculty salaries were paid in full due to A. E. Sanner's Debt Reduction campaign to pay the mortgage and debt of the college. After receiving provisional accreditation, still there was concern about the size of the library. In 1940, the College had only 12,000 volumes-they needed 20,000. Finally, by 1946, the College owned over 22,000 volumes.[442] When Olive Winchester died unexpectedly in 1947, she willed $50,000 to the College, which became "seed" money for a new library.[443]

In 1944, Wiley reported to the General Assembly on behalf of the Board of Education. Five colleges had become members of the Association of American Colleges; three had standing with regional accrediting agencies; two had state accreditation; and most were members of localized agencies. Wiley pointed out that the libraries were "enlarged," and the "scope" of the educational work of the Church of the Nazarene had expanded.[444] By the end of the 1940's, PNC's teacher education program was on its way to being accredited by the State of California. W. T. Purkiser took the role and responsibility of academic dean. The College was on its way to gaining "academic respectability."[445] Wiley's commitment to standardizing the College to external norms was matched by his desire for students to conform their social behavior to morally permissible Christian behavior.

Social Discipline

Wiley filled many roles as president. He acted as college disciplinarian until 1950, when Joseph Mayfield was hired as dean of students. James Jackson recalled the responsibilities Wiley held:

In those days, he did all the discipline. He was dean, he was dean of students . . . he did not have other academic officers. He was the president and he did it all. He did have a business manager and an alumni secretary, but that was all. There was no vice president, no dean of academics, no dean of students, so if there was a student discipline problem, you went to see your president . . . I don't know how he did it all.[446]

Erwin Benson recalled that Wiley method of discipline was expulsion. Wiley expected students guilty of major infractions to "seek enrollment elsewhere."[447] However, there was not strict enforcement of expulsion. The decision to return to the College was the student's. Benson later stated, Wiley's "door was open to a return through confession and repentance" of one's transgression of the school rules.[448] Wiley's heavy hand was countered by the "acquisition and adjustment" of human nature. In a chapel talk on standards, Wiley told the student body: "No sinner ever gets anywhere while he is justifying himself. But the moment he falls helpless before God, and looks up in faith, at that moment, God and heaven are from him."[449] Wiley expected from students the sort of behavior he expected from himself. He recognized that discipline was gradual as students learned what the college considered to be appropriate social behavior. It was, in Wiley's perspective, the role of the alma mater to "nourish" students in "social graces and spiritual blessings."[450] Social discipline was upheld through regular chapel services.

Usually, Wiley planned the chapel services himself; at times, he was assisted by a faculty committee.[451] The chapel services were expected to be the place where the mind and spirit could intermingle. In a radio address in 1934, Wiley noted that PNC was established because the "training of the intellectual was not the sole function of education," but also "a broadening and deepening of the spiritual life."[452] Overly emotional preachers pulling to get a response from the chapel audience made Wiley wince. Wiley's litmus test for a true revival of spirit was revealed in person's life through their commitment to serving their fellow human beings.[453] The attempt to keep students focused on avoiding temptation and worldliness could, at its worst, have created an "insular community."[454] This insularity was soon overridden by expanding opportunities for social activities on and off campus.

Sports and debate teams gradually made their way into campus life. Ironically, ministerial students tended to dominate football.[455] The connections with an off-campus community expanded to include other groups than the churches on the educational zone. The debate team, at one time led by James Jackson, beat the team from Whittier College, including Richard M. Nixon, who later became President of the United States.[456] Besides academic pursuits, Wiley scheduled opportunities for students to travel to the seashore for ocean side picnics and sunbathing trips.[457] This is extraordinary in light of the denominational stance against "mixed bathing."[458] Wiley wanted the faculty, staff, and constituency to appreciate the "treasures" of young life imbued in the students they worked with. However, Wiley tended to despise social activities that required measuring social status, such as banquets and homecomings that required couples to date.[459] Wiley wanted students to feel welcome regardless of their social status.[460]

Wiley's disciplinary conservatism was primarily a response to a conservative constituency in the 1930's. Wiley grew increasingly more conservative in expectations for a uniform dress code, especially for women, in his chapel talks, and in his discipline for students' social behavior.[461] Wiley's personal views did not always match the conservative picture painted by Kirkemo. James Jackson wrote of the bathing trips, "Dr. Wiley would laugh and say, "Well, that's what we used to do." But then you had people who were saying, [women's] skirts are too short and make-up [was too heavily used]."[462] The conservative constituency demanded a conventional atmosphere for the students. Wiley, however, tended to impose strict social standards on students in order to prepare young men and women for Christian service in the churches that supported the college,[463] and to maintain the traditions of the college's founders. In promoting the traditions of the church, Wiley also found time to write a systematic theology for the Church of the Nazarene.

Christian Theology

In 1919, as a young college president in Nampa, Idaho, Wiley was commissioned by the Church of the Nazarene to write a systematic theology to be used as a textbook for the preparing students for ministry.[464] Delays in the writing of the theology included his responsibilities as a college president, professor, magazine editor, and denominational executive. After returning to PNC in 1933, Wiley worked toward completing his assignment. Kirkemo described Wiley's schedule in managing his various responsibilities in order to finish the textbook. Wiley worked on the demands of the college and taught classes during the morning hours into early afternoon. Later in the afternoon, Wiley napped. During the evening, he worked late into the night writing.[465] Finally, in 1940, the first 487-page volume was published.[466] The duration of Wiley's assignment added to its breadth. According to Wiley, "My range of vision was too narrow. I was constantly discovering new truth and each new discovery demanded a place in the plan of the work."[467]

Students were overwhelmed by the span of Wiley's text. C. S. Cowles did not attend a Nazarene college as an undergraduate student. However, his theology class as a sophomore at the Pacific Bible College (later, Azusa Pacific University), used Wiley's Christian Theology as a textbook. Cowles described Wiley's text to be "way over my head.I just, and I just, remember having this feeling of awe that any human being could know this much about theology. And I'd often thought to myself, I wonder what the person who wrote this book would be like?"[468] Cowles later studied with Wiley as a graduate student and later taught practics at Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa, Idaho. Carl Bangs, an undergraduate at PNC during the 1940's, reminisced about his first year studying Wiley's theology:

At the end of my first year with Wiley and his Christian Theology, I was in confusion. I went to his house and said, 'Look what you have done to me. Nine months ago I had no theological problems. Now I have no answers.' He laughed and replied, 'Enjoy your summer. By next fall all this theology will begin to crystallize.'[469]

According to Bangs, Wiley's extensive footnoting and thorough historical accounts of theological developments allowed for a firm grasp of particular doctrines meant throughout their evolution and not in one geographical location or intellectual milieu. Wiley's theological task was described by Bangs as "a doctrine was not to be determined or understood until one knew what the whole church had said about it."[470] Bangs counted 1,500 titles of ancient, classical, and contemporary sources from which Wiley drew upon to write Christian Theology.[471] But no influences were more pervasive in Wiley's work than the philosophy of personalism.

The philosophy of personalism is evident throughout Wiley's textbook. Wiley's definition of God includes the description of God as Perfect Personality, in that God does not develop as human personality does, but is eternally and essentially complete.[472] Wiley continues:

If God be characterized by personality, He may be absolutely Ideal in character and yet His perfect will may still be unrealized in the objective world. As a Personal Being, He may be trusted and worshiped, while leaving at the same time a place for the moral imperative, which calls upon man [in a generic sense] to share in the task and the prayer which our Lord taught to His disciples, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).

The relationship between God and humanity remained central to Wiley's understanding of who God is. This same commitment to relational theology has become a source of discontent among current Nazarene theologians for which personalism is no longer adequate for understanding of God or for teaching theology. Wiley is no longer considered as the only authoritative source for Nazarene theology in North America.

Sam Powell is a theologian and religion department chair at Point Loma Nazarene University, formerly Pasadena Nazarene College. Powell asserted that "personalism was a theological fad dominant in Methodist theology from the late 1800's to the mid 1930's"[473] and no longer relevant for current theological debate. Powell assumes a stance similar to Karl Barth-that God is wholly other than humanity; therefore, God cannot be characterized in human terms or categories. Carl Bangs and Herb Prince, one of Powell's colleagues at Point Loma Nazarene University, have suggested that Wiley has been unfairly accused of being irrelevant and unable to converse with 20th century theological views. Prince pointed out that a perusal of Wiley's library stored in the Point Loma college archives reveals books written by 20th century Reformed theologians like Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, and Paul Tillich. According to Prince,

They did not show up in his systematic works because, obviously, they'd been published way earlier than many of these individuals had become prominent here in the United States. They don't really come on the scene [from Europe] until the 50s.But it struck me that he had these so that I always assumed that he had a certain awareness of what was taking place and I think I'd read an article in Christianity Today in which he had been interviewed which seemed to reflect a contemporary kind of awareness..So I've come to.well, come around to thinking that maybe Wiley was a little bit more up to date than simply, but might initially be, taken at face value. [474]

Furthermore, Wiley chose to converse with classical themes in classical language whereas these European thinkers dealt with classical themes in contemporary language. For instance, Tillich dealt with the issue of sin, but defined sin as "estrangement," a pointedly psychological and existential term.[475]

Wiley viewed his main task as not to dialogue with his contemporaries, but to summarize historical perspectives about theological issues to educate the church.

Thus, Bangs called Wiley a church dogmaticus, since he was a conveyor of theological truth to the next generation of ministers.[476] Wiley viewed of the study of theology as a "teaching" task, not so much an intellectual exercise for its' own sake. Wiley wrote,

the various systems [of theological study] furnish us with a knowledge of the materials which the [past theological] writers had at their disposal, their mental characteristics, and the methods employed to adapt their teaching to the need of the times.[477]

Wiley's Christian Theology was designed as textbook for the classroom for students, such as Jackson, Bangs, and Cowles, and not a dialogue with contemporaneous theological literature.[478] For example, Jackson referred to using Wiley's Christian Theology in teaching a lay Sunday school class into the 1980's.[479] In his review of Wiley's text in Practical Divinity, a survey of Wesleyan theological thought, Thomas Langford wrote: "[Wiley's] constructive statement is the most complete systematic theology the Holiness movement has produced, and it is an important marker of that movement's theological expression."[480]

The Influence of Personalism on PNC faculty

Although personalism was characterized as a "theological fad,"[481] it had a lasting influence on the faculty Wiley brought to PNC. The University of Southern California (USC) was the epicenter of personalistic thought on the West Coast. Robert Flewelling was the long time editor of The Personalist, an academic journal in the field. Flewelling's book Creative Personality was required reading in PNC philosophy courses. According to James Jackson, a graduate of PNC and USC, "We had a good relationship with USC and they would accept our graduates without a problem," which was important for an unaccredited liberal arts college.[482]

On the PNC campus, there was a student organization known as the Bowne Philosophy Club named after Borden Parker Bowne, the initiator of personalistic thought from Boston University. Bowne's Metaphysics and Theology of Thought and Knowledge were used as theology texts at PNC. W.T. Purkiser, president of PNC following Wiley, and Joseph Mayfield, the first Dean of Students, completed graduate work at USC. John W. Buckham, a noted personalist and mentor to Wiley, wrote five of the twelve books required for Wiley's graduate Systematic Theology class as late as 1958.[483] Students in that class went on to become church leaders, missionaries, and pastors.

Personalism addressed the essential as well as the existential value and worth of an individual. Wiley communicated this idea through the Founder's Address on October 17, 1947: "Are we to forget the individual in our attempt at mass organization?"[484] A sense of having personal significance filtered through Wiley to the faculty, staff, and students at PNC. Jackson acknowledged that

There were administrators that I have worked with that I wasn't always pleased in how they dealt with people, but [Wiley] always seemed to have an integrity in how he dealt with people, which as a theologian, he was attentive to live [what he taught].[485]

In dealing with students, Wiley invited difficult questions, even though the questions were not popular with church leadership. Wiley listed a series of questions from college students that dealt with "religious life and experience." The following is a good example from the Herald of Holiness:

How many different meanings does the Apostle Paul have for sanctification, and how may one determine the specific meaning intended? Is not this varied use of the term a cause of disputation?.What is guidance by the Holy Spirit-a fortuitous shifting of circumstances, or a strong mental impression in what seems to be a logical direction?.Can one be sanctified and be unethical?.Did Adam and Eve sin with the desire for the fruit or in yielding to the desire?.What does it mean in the Bible where it says that it is a glory for a woman to have long hair. Does it mean real long, or just below the ears?.Will you please explain as you see it and in terms which are not theological what being saved and being lost eternally mean? What are your actual concepts of heaven and hell? I am honest and would like to face this question intelligently. I have never heard it discussed before.[486]

Wiley received criticism for allowing such questions to challenge orthodox thinking. Yet, intelligent responses could not be given to questions that were never asked.

W. T. Purkiser and Joseph Mayfield were hired in the late 1930's as professors who were also "more open to student questions and discussion and were less aloof in their relations with students."[487] Wiley valued the individual worth of those persons who administered, taught, and studied at the College.

Wiley's personalism influenced students who later became professors in Nazarene colleges and authors of more recent theology texts. Mildred Bangs Wynkoop was a student at NNC and later at PNC. She began teaching theology at Trevecca Nazarene College in the 1950's. Her book Theology of Love (1972)[488] was influential in holiness studies. H. Ray Dunning, a later proponent of relational theology, wrote Grace, Faith, and Holiness (1988)[489] now a standard in ministerial preparation for the Church of the Nazarene. Rob L. Staples conveyed a personal-pastoral understanding of the Christian sacraments through his book Outward Sign and Inward Grace (1991).[490] Michael Lodahl taught at NNC and now teaches at Point Loma Nazarene University. His book The Story of God[491] incorporates aspects of personalistic-relational theology. All of these works represent a continuum of Wiley's personalistic influence in Nazarene theological inquiry.

A Moderating Influence

Being a mediating influence can be seen in several events during this time in Wiley's life. Wiley mediated conflicts and discrepancies in his professional experience and theological thought as a moderator for the differing parties. The incidents in his professional experience include the Seth Rees affair in 1915 and "Black Friday" in 1957.

The Seth Rees incident was covered in chapter four.[492] As noted in that chapter, Wiley moderated the differing viewpoints of how local church should be governed by the general church. Accountability to denominational control did not mean local congregations could not protest general church decisions. An episcopal system was balanced with a local, congregational structure. This understanding was important for Nazarene colleges as well. Nazarene colleges were accountable to the general church in terms of finance and standardization, but the general church could not create policy that encumbered the governance and administration of a regional institution or its constituency.

Wiley also was a moderating influence in theology. Wiley's personalism was influenced by German idealism, notably G.W.F. Hegel. Hegel's developmentalism proposed that a thesis had an antithesis that could be resolved in a synthesis. In Wiley's conception of God, the thesis of the philosophical Absolute had an antithesis in the reality of the religious experience of the person with the Ultimate Person. The Absolute and the Experiential were resolved in the synthesis of the historical Christ. Wiley states the idea this way: "The Christian conception of God is a conviction that the ultimate Personality of religion and the Absolute of philosophy find their highest expression in Jesus Christ."[493]

In one instance, Wiley did not seem to be the moderating influence. The "Black Friday' incident in 1957 conjures a memory of Wiley that was not flattering. The event centered upon the unwillingness of a professor to recant a public statement that expressed his hesitation concerning the Christian doctrine of the Virgin Birth. The spark of controversy led to a campus wide conflict that pitted Ross Price and Wiley against four popular professors, one of whom made the statement about the Virgin Birth. The whole incident eventually came to a head on March 15, 1957, "Black Friday," when the four professors were released from their contracts at the conclusion of the school year. [494] The ramifications were so serious that W.T. Purkiser, another protégé of Wiley's who followed Wiley as president, resigned at the end of the school year. During his presidential tenures, Wiley gave and received support from both the conservative and liberal members of the faculty, but usually did not sway too far from the middle on theological issues. In this incident, Wiley found himself between two protégés, Price and Purkiser, on each side of a tense situation. Pasadena Nazarene College had just been accredited, and because of the firing of these professors, the college's accreditation was cut from five years to three years. Kirkemo's interpretation of the events has Wiley taking sides with Price. Kirkemo supposed, in this particular situation, it was the response of a theologian who had become "an old man and narrow in his ways."[495] Another view is that he was influenced by his close relationship with Ross Price. Maybe Wiley naturally sided with his former student and protégé, or maybe Wiley's friendship was viewed as being more of an allegiance to Price. The data are unclear, but it seems unlikely that Wiley would have wanted the result of the Black Friday affair to have included the resignation of Purkiser, his other protégé. The Seth Rees affair and the Black Friday incident show Wiley's willingness to enter serious academic or political debate and to take unpopular perspectives. Wiley generally sought the best possible resolution considering the circumstances. Wiley moderated the relationships of faculty with constituents, the academy with the church, new developments in psychology with historical theology, and theological debate with practical experience.

 

Evaluating the Legacy of "Mr. Pasadena"

The "dean of Nazarene educators"[496] suffered a severe heart attack in 1946 at the age of 70. Wiley never fully recuperated. W. T. Purkiser, Wiley's former student and colleague, was chosen by the Board of Trustees to replace Wiley on an interim basis. In 1948, Wiley officially retired the college presidency leaving a "legacy of financial viability, a core faculty, and philosophical vision."[497] Wiley's dreams for a graduate program in religion, financial stability and accreditation had been realized in the years of 1934, 1939, and 1945, respectively.

During this time, faculty members mostly stuck with Wiley and the College through difficult times. In 1930, PNC could only offer faculty members $462 for a nine-month contract, while Pasadena City Schools could pay their teachers $1800 for the same length of time.[498] J. E. Janosky had followed Wiley to PNC from NNU. Janoksy had to care for foster children in his home for years in order to remain financially solvent.[499] A positive relationship between administrators and faculty developed during Wiley's tenure as president, though there were difficult times.

Wiley reviewed his experience at PNC in a lecture entitled "The Purpose of the College."[500] In 1910, when Wiley was asked by Bresee to become the Registrar and Dean at Nazarene University, there were five students--three women and two men. In 1926, Wiley returned to the College that struggled with $65,000 in debt. From 1933-1936, Wiley edited the Herald of Holiness while carrying full administrative responsibilities at PNC. During this time, he was able to liquidate more than $130,000 in debt. By 1949, Wiley had finally resigned the presidency, focused on teaching, preaching, and writing, and sat as an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees for the remainder of his life. Wiley remembered the burden he felt for sticking with the College even in difficult times. Jackson recalled:

The thing he always would talk about would be Dr. Bresee's commission to him and he would say, 'Stand by the college.' And here was a man who had been in Berkeley, had studied, had advanced degrees. He had been a pastor but when he came as a young man and he came in to . . . probably be similar to a dean and Bresee turned it over to him. . . There were, of course, those who probably thought he was much too young to have that responsibility and besides, he was an educator and [common wisdom in holiness churches in those days said] you can't trust [educators].[501]

Wiley viewed himself as the single person burdened to carry the weight of responsibility for the success of Pasadena Nazarene College, because of the personal charge of Bresee, his revered mentor.

Wiley also viewed this responsibility as God-given and passed this notion on to others involved in Nazarene higher education. In 1933, Wiley preached at a watch night service on New Year's Eve. Wiley wrote in his notes,

God's standard is a man, who can cope with any financial situation, can by organization bring order out of chaos, transform social conditions, grapple with the lack of spirituality, meet conditions of ignorance and vice and in all the complex problems of life, never be ashamed.[502]

Wiley does not say whether he referred to himself, but these statements could be construed as a standard he sought to follow during his career. Wiley described "Life as a Quest" that continually meets the struggles and difficulties of the Christian life head on. In a later educational address in 1944, Wiley addressed the multiple tasks of Christian colleges. He wrote:

1. The task of interpreting the truth in a time when ingenious, vicious, poisonous propaganda -the world over-pose in garments of truth

2. The task of teaching life, when the prevalent philosophy is a philosophy of death.

3. The task of guiding the growth of personality in a time when personality is itself apparently the object of annihilation.

4. The task of building a co-operative commonwealth of nations, when as in no other time the world's peoples are torn asunder by suspicions and hatreds and atrocities.

5. The task of educating for peace when today all the world is in a school for war.

6. The task of helping to build a Christian world order when the foundations upon which the structure is to be built are nothing short of pagan quick-sand.

7. And the most baffling task of all-the task of surmounting these nearly insurmountable barriers by helping today's youth became a leaven that will permeate and raise world-culture-when as a matter of fact it is becoming increasingly evident that educational institutions may soon have no youth as subjects for such leaven.[503]

The 1952 General Board of Education, of which Wiley's was not a part, transferred Wiley's personalistic emphasis to these tasks through a document called the "Philosophy of Education."[504] The Board consisted of five individuals whom Wiley had personally or professionally influenced.[505] The document referred to the education board's desire to develop and enrich students' personalities through building "Christian character," a "balanced liberal arts curriculum,.classroom emphasis, chapel services, and personal contact."

Education, as Wiley defined it, was "the results of training or teaching, usually the purposeful efforts of one person to impart information, to shape and interpret the environment, and to exercise helpful influence over another."[506] Wiley attempted to personalize and spiritualize his definition of education:

Pasadena College lays claim to being a Christian institution of learning in the deepest and most vital sense of that term. It is not enough merely that the doctrines taught be orthodox, and the practices ethical, --this does not constitute a Christian College. There must be spiritual life and devotion at its very center. Spirituality must always be kept at the front . . .Since the days of its founders, the institution has persistently declared that the culture of the heart is the fundamental principle upon which any system of true education must rest; and that the legitimate purpose of education is to cherish the mentality with which God has endowed us in loyal relation to the Divine. . .[507]

This personalization of Wiley's definition of education is also evident in his interaction with other faculty and students. Upon his retirement as the PNC president, a student editor of the campus yearbook wrote:

He is, and always will be, the foremost personage on P.C. campus. He is our Dr. Wiley because he has humbly given his life to God in the service of educating Christian young people and thus he has became our friend, our guide, our counselor.[508]

This is how Wiley viewed his relationship to his students as they viewed him-a godly person and lifelong mentor.

Turning Personal Philosophy into Professional Leadership

Wiley returned to Pasadena Nazarene College in 1926. He brought financial stability to the college, only to be elected to editorship at the Herald of Holiness. During eight years in denominational leadership, Wiley retained his commitment to higher education. The decision to return to Pasadena in 1933 was not difficult. The financial pressures had worsened at Pasadena. Wiley may not have been personally responsible for raising the money to pay off the college's debt, but he recruited the individuals who worked toward that goal. Paying the debt was one part of a larger goal to seek accreditation for the college. These goals were eventually accomplished. External measures were also used to evaluate students' social behavior on campus. Wiley sought to build a community, or a college, of individuals committed to an evangelical holiness lifestyle. On campus and with the constituency, Wiley built his persona and philosophy into Pasadena Nazarene College during both difficult and prosperous times.

This We Believe:

Our Distinguishing Teaching Is Entire Sanctification

as a Second Work of Grace

By H. Orton Wiley

President Emeritus, Pasadena College

(Originally published in the Herald of Holiness, March 5, 1958, pages 38-39)

THE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE from its beginning has devoted itself to the preaching of holiness, and has constantly urged upon the people the necessity of pressing into this precious experience. Their primary reason for this is that they are in earnest about seeing men and women saved and made ready for heaven, and the Scriptures say that without holiness "no man shall see the Lord." Many other things they regard as nonessential, but to this great truth they devote all their energy. For this reason God's rich blessing has been upon them, and in the span of a single life they have increased from a few scattered congregations to a well-organized and influential church.

The distinctive teaching concerning holiness as held by the Church of the Nazarene is that it is an experience for Christians only, and that it is wrought by Christ through the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This gift of the Spirit Christ promised to His disciples as a Comforter or Guide into all truth-a promise which was abundantly fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. They hold, then, that the experience of holiness is a second work of grace, subsequent to conversion or the so-called "born again" experience. Their reason for this is that sin is twofold-an act and a sinful nature back of that act. Actual sins are forgiven at the time of conversion, but inbred sin or the sinful nature inherited from the race must be cleansed by the all-atoning blood of Christ. Before conversion, men come to Christ as guilty sinners seeking pardon; in seeking holiness, men come as the children of God, consecrating their all to Him in full devotion of heart and life. Then it is that by faith they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit as an in-dwelling Presence, purifying their hearts from sin and empowering them for service to Christ. Their scriptural basis for this twofold work is: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). The Greek words for "forgive" and "cleanse" are in the aorist tense, which makes it clear that they are separate and distinct acts of God, or as the Nazarenes term it, "two works of grace."

There are many terms used to express this experience, such as Christian perfection, the rest of faith, the uttermost salvation, the fullness of the blessing, perfect love, and sanctification-all of these terms are scriptural. Perhaps the most used term is "sanctification," to which the term "entire" or "wholly" (2 Thessalonians 5:23) is added to distinguish the second work of grace from the more general use of the term sanctification. The words sanctification and holiness are the same in Greek, the verb "to sanctify" signifying the act by which men are made holy. Sanctification as Gods act is necessarily instantaneous, but holiness as a state or condition resulting from this act is susceptible to growth and development.

The opponents of this gracious but normal standard of experience have raised many objections to it, in many cases doubtless because of misunderstanding. Mr. Wesley once said that this doctrine rightly understood would need to be covered with a bearskin before even the dogs would wool it. As it is sometimes charged, the holiness people do not teach that there is no further growth after sanctification; instead, they maintain that, with the inner struggle against inbred sin having been taken away, growth is even more rapid and healthy. When the weeds are taken out of the garden, the plants thrive much better. Neither do the holiness people teach that sanctification deliver men from weaknesses, mistakes, and infirmities. They teach that men are delivered from sin in this life, but that in the resurrection, when the saints are glorified, they are made free from the consequences of sin. St. Paul speaks of two goals of perfection-a resurrection perfection toward which he strove but which he had not attained, and a Christian perfection which he claimed for himself as following fully after the higher goal (Philippians 5: 11-15).

What this second work of grace does, then, is to purify the heart from inbred sin and fill it with perfect love. It enables its possessor through the indwelling Spirit to follow Christ fully even amidst weaknesses, mistakes, infirmities, or other hindrances. Nazarenes believe that religion should bring righteousness, peace, and joy to the hearts of men, whatever their outward condition. They hold that the joy of the Lord is their strength.

In a convention to which I was called for some Bible studies, the ministers of the town formed a welcoming committee, and the Presbyterian minister delivered a welcome address. I have never heard a better characterization of the people called Nazarenes. He said: "Many Christians think they must starve along on skimmed milk in hope of getting the cream after they go to glory, but the Nazarenes demand some as they go along, feeling that it will not diminish their chances of getting even more hereafter. While most church members want just enough religion to make them respectable but never enough to make them uncomfortable, the Nazarenes want all they can get. They are not content with a faith that promises them forgiveness after they are dead and gone from earth; they want something that will put happiness and victory into their lives here and now. That they are finding the process an exhilarating one is obvious. They ask God to do a great deal for them-and He does. He gives them spiritual freedom, loosens up their vocal cords, and puts a look upon their faces that beats the cosmetician."

But this vital and precious experience of the gift of the Holy Spirit is not for Nazarenes or the various branches of Methodism alone; some of the most eminent preachers of this doctrine and possessors of this experience have been Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Friends, and Episcopalians. The blessing is for all. Why not enter into this rest of faith that awaits the people of God?

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