Higher Life movement

The Higher Life movement, also known as deeper Christian life, the Keswick movement or Keswickianism (/ˌkɛzɪˈkiənɪzəm/ KEZ-i-KEE-ə-niz-əm), is a Protestant theological tradition within evangelical Christianity that espoused a distinct teaching on the doctrine of entire sanctification.

Its name comes from the Higher Christian Life, a book by William Boardman published in 1858, as well as from the town in which the movement was first promoted—Keswick Conventions in Keswick, England, the first of which was a tent revival in 1875 and continues to this day.

The main idea in the Keswickian theology of the Higher Life movement (also known as deeper Christian life) is that the Christian should move on from his initial conversion experience to also experience a second work of God in his life. This work of God is called "entire sanctification," "the second blessing,” “the second touch," "being filled with the Holy Spirit," and various other terms. Believers are encouraged to "let go and let God" in order to receive this. Higher Life teachers promote the idea that Christians who receive this blessing from God can live a more holy—that is, a less sinful, or even a sinless—life. The Keswick approach seeks to provide a mediating and biblically balanced solution to the problem of subnormal Christian experience. The “official” teaching has been that every believer in this life is left with the natural proclivity to sin and will do so without the countervailing influence of the Holy Spirit.

With the rise of the Higher Life movement, Christian denominations largely accepting a form of Keswickian theology with unique distinctives, such as the Christian and Missionary Alliance, were founded. The Keswickian view of sanctification became normative in "American Evangelicalism of a more Calvinistic bent ... except confessional Reformed and Lutheran".