Travesty of Galileo's Imprisonment

In 2007 I first saw Galieo's Asronomic Observatory at Padua (Padova) University in Italy. It was here in the early 17th century that he observed 4 moons revolving around Jupiter, using a super-powerful telescope that he had invented. The telescope also enabled him to make several other amazing discoveries. Far from impressed, the other professors refused to even look through it, since Galileo felt, by analogy, this confirmed Copernicus' teaching that the earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around as the Catholic church taught. (Ecclesiastes 1:5 says, "The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again.") Though he moved to Florence to seek a freer intellectual climate, the "church" soon caught up with him and threatened to place him on trial for heresy. He stayed quiet for years, but when he published his book on astronomy, the Inquisition arrested and imprisoned him, threatening him with torture if he didn't recant his view about the sun. To save his life, he recanted, but was still branded a heretic and placed under house arrest ... for the rest of his life. The Catholic church's brutal repression of science and its use of torture in the Inquisition are two of many historical evidences showing what a wonderful thing it was that genuine Christianity had begun to find its own way in the Reformation of the previous century ... becoming Protestantism. Next year it will be 500 years since that momentous occurrence began in Wittenberg, Germany in October 1517.

[Photos by Ken Horn]

J. Roswell Flower: A Brief Biography by David Ringer (Wipf & Stock, 2016) Reviewed by Ken Horn

It has long been said that the Assemblies of God is unlike other religious movements in that it doesn’t have a single founder, one major personality with whom it is identified who exerted the most substantial influence at the birth of the movement and helped mold it into a form that would be enduring.

If we were to search for such an individual, J. Roswell Flower would clearly emerge as a strong candidate, all the more impressive because he exerted the influence without ever holding the Fellowship’s highest office. Beginning at the inaugural meeting in 1914, he served in national office multiple times, as district superintendent in the Eastern District, and many, many more. (Of course this reviewer is most impressed with the fact that he was founder, publisher, editor of the magazine that became the Pentecostal Evangel, the official publication of the Assemblies of God for a century.)

Although much has been written about Flower, David K. Ringer has provided the first biography of this giant of Pentecost. The book is signally important in at least two ways:

1.   It introduces Flower to a new generation. J. Roswell, his wife, Alice Reynolds Flower, and the Flower family have an enduring heritage in the Assemblies of God. Indeed, the archives of the Fellowship have been dubbed the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center. But young ministers, workers and attendees of AG churches need this introduction. At 128 pages, this brief biography is eminently readable. Churches would do well to encourage their people to read the book, and get copies for their church libraries. In a day when many Assemblies seem to be minimizing and, thus, forgetting our heritage, this book can provide a crucial connection to a past that can inspire the present.

2.   It is based on an unprecedented wealth of research. The book is based on Ringer’s 2014 D.Min. project for Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. That in turn is partially based on the Flower Family Papers, a collection for which Ringer, who married one of Flower’s granddaughters (Kathryn Flower Ringer), enjoyed unsurpassed access. His family connection also allowed him to undergird the book with unique personal insight.

Flower’s life and words call our movement to be faithful to the vision of our founders. "I have not forgotten the early days of our Pentecostal movement,” he is quoted in the book. “There was an earnest desire to separate from all the things of the world. There was no particular need to frown on worldliness in dress and deportment, for the very passion to please God was sufficient to bring separation from these things" (p. 89).

It is this reviewer’s hope that the book will enjoy a wide circulation, and that its contents will inform, but more importantly, spiritually inspire many a reader.