Book Review: The Priesthood of All Students

The Priesthood of All Students: Historical, Theological, and Missiological Foundations of a Global University Ministry by Timothée Joset. Carlisle, UK: Langham, 2023 pb., 409 pp., bibliog.

In the previous decades of the modern world enamoured with innovation, there has hardly been time to go back and consider the roots of societal phenomena. Yet in today’s climate of widespread disorientation and disequilibrium—both within and outside Christian circles—there seems to be a recent evangelical trend of historical investigation and inquiry in order to make sense of current realities. Timothée Joset’s The Priesthood of All Students fits into this category. It not only provides insights into the origins and development of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) but also brings to light larger issues, controversies and challenges within the worldwide Christian church and globalizing society as a whole. Beginning with a broad overview of the history of IFES—a task which the author acknowledges as difficult to do because of the vastness and variety of the organization’s worldwide presence—Joset sketches its birth and growth both chronologically and with regard to the development of its ideas about ‘theology (the legitimation of IFES’s mission); ecclesiology (the legitimation of the form of IFES’s mission); and university (the context of IFES’s mission)’ (p. 5). He suggests that ‘as Paul used the imperial Roman road system to spread his message, IFES uses the university system’ (p. 153).

Joset’s generous use of primary sources demonstrates his commitment to an unbiased presentation. Giving IFES’s critics a prominent voice along with its proponents, he ultimately contends that a missional ecclesiology ‘legitimise[s] a ministry on campus which is the contextual incarnation of the mission of the church and not anything beside it or potentially secondary to it’ (p. 359).

Joset delves into the day-to-day activities of IFES as well as the ‘theological, ecclesiological and missiological questions’ (p. 169) which they necessarily raised and continue to raise. These activities include witness, prayer, Bible reading and fellowship, which Joset explains within the themes of immediacy, mediation and participation. These themes, Joset suggests, point to ‘the implicit “priesthood of all believers” logic at work in IFES’, which holds that ‘because IFES students have a direct relationship to God (immediacy), they can be frontline witnesses (mediators) of Christ on their campuses … in the context of their membership of [and, thus, participation in] the IFES fellowship as well as in the church’ (p. 181).

Joset’s work is timely in honestly depicting an organization that has struggled and succeeded in spreading across the globe, in a way that has involved reciprocal intercultural partnership and a mutual give-and-take of ideas and practices among its ethnically varied iterations.

Whether in the initial formulation of IFES’s Doctrinal Basis or the gradual articulation—informed by the questions and contributions of its growing constituency from all over the world—of IFES’s missional ecclesiology, Joset argues that IFES operates with a presupposition of the priesthood of all believers. He then explores the biblical and theological background of this doctrine, intentionally including non-evangelical sources to claim that the doctrine has a ‘growing ecumenical consensus’ (p. 253). He also goes beyond the church/parachurch binary, instead demonstrating IFES’s self-understanding as ‘the natural, contextual outworking on campus of a missional understanding of the church’ (p. 238) in which students serve a pilgrim-priestly role by participating in the mission of God on campus, since the New Testament ‘witnesses a widening of the priestly prerogatives to the whole people of God’ (p. 252).

Joset concludes by offering a way forward for IFES and the global body of Christ: the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers—with its attendant themes of immediate access to God and the mediatorial role between God and the academic and global world—can make possible more constructive conversations on matters such as indigeneity and contextualization.

Understanding campus ministry as part of the priestly function of all believers, says Joset, allows it to operate in an apostolic way that does not compete with but is in fact an integral part of the ministry of the local church in a community that contains a university. This conviction becomes the foundation for empowering student leaders to study and share the Word of God for themselves, while also encouraging them to learn from others, including the leaders of both the global church and the local churches in their communities. Doing so requires a wise navigation of tensions between ‘the opposite pairs church–parachurch, academically trained–untrained, experienced–inexperienced, ordained–lay, and young–old’ (pp. 357–58).

As the global church seeks to navigate similar tensions while experiencing a shift from the Global North to the Global South, Joset’s work is timely in honestly depicting an organization that has struggled and succeeded in spreading across the globe, in a way that has involved reciprocal intercultural partnership and a mutual give-and-take of ideas and practices among its ethnically varied iterations. This book will be helpful to those involved in university ministry as well as those concerned about the perennial tension between church and parachurch organizations. Both Joset and IFES question those categories and propose instead that a ‘community [like IFES] is not an alternative local church, but the manifestation of the invisible church on campus’ (p. 217).

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