The Priesthood of All Students, Timothée Joset. Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Langham Global Library, 2023 (Also available in French and Spanish editions).

Summary: Contends from historical, ecclesiological, theological, and missiological perspectives that the idea of the priesthood of all believers has been essential to the student-led, non-clerical character of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, and helps account for it global spread to 180 countries.

In 1947, ten evangelical (in theological, not political terms) student movements in North America, Europe, East Asia, and the South Pacific united to form the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). They united to foster similar movements, led by students in other countries around the world. Today, 180 countries are represented in IFES. [In the interest of full disclosure, I work as a campus staff minister in the IFES member movement in the United States, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA.]

This work considers how a basic biblical premise of the Reformation, the priesthood of all believers, has been vitally important to the character and spread of student movements under the umbrella of the IFES. The work is a published version of the doctoral dissertation of Timothée Joset, PhD, who serves as IFES Engaging the University Coordinator, residing in Switzerland. As such, it represents one of the most extensive archival research projects on the history of the IFES as well as an analysis of the theological and missiological outworkings of this biblical premise.

The first part of the work, then, focuses on the history of the IFES, showing how the idea of the priesthood of all believers has been the implicit rationale for the ministry of students with other students within the ten founding movements and their pre-history before 1947, subsequently in post-colonial Africa, amid the student activism and revolutionary impulses of the 1960’s, the rise of the global south in the 1970’s, and partnerships between movements in the 1980’s and the changes in the world up to the beginning of the new millenium. The history more briefly considers the years since.

Several things stand out. One is the parting of the InterVarsity Fellowhip in the UK from the World Student Christian Federation, a once-evangelical student movement that did not share the IVF understanding of the authority of the Bible and the centrality of the atoning work of Christ, reflecting a drift to a more intellectual and liberal theology. This is crucial because in ensuing years, the founding movements of IFES arose from the UK movement and shared the theological convictions, which are reflected in the IFES Doctrinal Basis.

Joset traces how this difference was reflected in the years subsequent to the formation of IFES, tracing questions about its decisions to eschew the ecumenical movement, questions about IFES relationship to the church, and doubts about how a movement primarily led by students with limited staff counsel could remain sound. He traces the responses of both how students were encouraged to active church participation, and the focus on campus mission, where students were most effective in reaching other students, and how the mission-focused doctrinal basis allowed students to come together across denominational lines.

An important part of this work also traces the impact of IFES on broader evangelical thinking relating evangelistic and social concerns, as they wrestled with the response to the turbulent sixties. He features how IFES leaders Rene Padilla and Samuel Escobar helped articulate a gospel-centered social ethic that, with the help of John Stott, shaped the Lausanne Conference of 1974, all of this arising from the grapplings of Latin American students. Likewise, the redefinition of partnership between movements, particularly between the West and the rest of the world was rooted in the importance of indigenous student leadership, the priesthood of all student believers.

A briefer second part looks at how IFES groups practically function. Joset develops the ideas of immediacy, mediation and membership to describe how the theological premises of priesthood of all believers works out in these groups–groups gather on the basis of their immediate faith, they mediate it to their campus environment in both witness and intellectual engagement, and they maintain membership with their local congregation. I personally appreciated his recognition of the complex role of campus staff ministers who are not clergy–helping maintain focus on doctrine and mission, yet without overstepping the role of students.

The third part focuses on ecclesiology. Much of this focused on how the doctrinal basis both articulated how IFES is a part of the church but also provided a basis for mission in the university world which actually enriches the church rather than simply arising from it. Joset then turns in the fourth part to the theology behind the idea of the priesthood of all believers, from Old Testament, to Christ, to the early church, in which all believers are part of a kingdom of priests. He brings this to bear on the discussion of these student movements as “para-church,” contending that a missional ecclesiology that sees such movements as a natural response to God’s redemptive movement is not bound by ecclesiocentric structures. I was also fascinated by his exploration of Roland Allen. Allen’s book on Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours was formative for many of us in student ministry in the 1970’s and 1980’s in arguing for the ability of students to advance and multiply the movement, a version of the priesthood idea. He also explores how recent discussions of apostolicity related to the priesthood idea.

In his concluding section, I appreciated his discussion of the different forms of mediation in which student movements engage–priestly, intellectual and academic, to the church, and internationally. He also underscores how the priesthood of all student believers, operating within the doctrinal framework of IFES provides a basis for a vibrant mission in the university world, not diffused by the theological differences among churches, and in turn, enriching the church in its own mission.

I value Joset’s rigorous study of these matters, which offers what I think is the most far-reaching theological and historical discussion I have seen. He affirms what I have long thought, that a mission like that of IFES groups just makes sense, rather than every denomination trying to have its own ministry, which is often more about conserving rather than advancing belief. Far from being a threat to churches, as it has often been perceived, the products of such mission have deeply enriched the church and the wider fulfillment of its mission in the world. Furthermore, the robust discussion of the priesthood of all believers not only undergirds the approach of IFES student movements but can be empowering to broad swaths of the church that have ceded ministry to professional clergy rather than being affirmed that they have a vital role in mediating the gospel of Christ in whatever context they are placed. It is also striking that it was this “priesthood” approach that enable IFES to adapt to a post-colonial world, with 170 countries joining the initial ten.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary e-galley of this book from the author.