A Book Review of Andrew D. Naselli’s Let Go and Let God? A Survey & Analysis of Keswick Theology

Reading Andrew D. Naselli’s Let Go and Let God? reminds me of my early Christian pilgrimage. In the environment in which I grew up, it was common to hear preachers who, at the end of their sermons, would give an altar call to plead to unbelievers to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, and then challenge believers to surrender their lives to the Lord. In the mind of these preachers, such believers are those who have already received Jesus as their Saviour, but not yet as their Lord. These preachers, perhaps unconsciously, indicate that there are two kinds of Christians: (1) saved but not dedicated (carnal), and (2) saved and dedicated (spiritual). At first glance, this carnal-spiritual classification seems to be not problematic. After all, is it not true that believers are not equally mature? However, this classification allows implicitly the notion that one can be saved but not committed to Christ—that one can receive Jesus as Savior but not as Lord. Until I read this volume, I did not realize that this thinking has its roots in Keswick theology, which is the subject of Naselli’s book.

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