Reviews

Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars

Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected

| PentecostalTheology.com

Reviews

Daniel E.

Albrecht,

Rites in the

Spirit: Pentecostal/Charismatic

Spirituality,

Journal Supplement

Series 17

(Sheffield, England: 1999), 277 pp.

A Ritual

Approach

to of Pentecostal

Theology Sheffield Academic

Press,

Reviewed

by Bobby

C. Alexander

In Rites

of the Spirit,

Daniel Albrecht

applies

to great advantage major recent and current methods and theories of ritual studies as well as those of anthropology

to illuminate Pentecostal and Charismatic

spirituality,

which, ‘ he notes, is rooted and expresses itself in ritual. The most central is the cor- porate worship service,

in which the

Spirit

is manifest. As defined

by Albrecht,

ritual “connotes those acts,

actions,

dramas and

performances

that a community creates,

continues, recognizes and sanctions

as ways of behav- ing

that

express appropriate attitudes, sensibilities, values,

and beliefs”

(p. 23).

As

ritual, Charismatic liturgy thus

expresses

and enacts

theological principles

that are

key

to such

spirituality

and that frame

liturgy

and invest it with

meaning.

These

principles are; worship/experience

of God, edifica- tion of the

community

of

worshipers-the

most evident element of Charismatic

liturgy,

which is characterized

by

an

egalitarian ideal,

inclu- siveness, and a high degree of

participation-and ministry

to the social needs and interests of the wider

society

as encounter with God is extended into the everyday world in an effort to transform individuals who are outside the church. At the heart of Charismatic

liturgy

and the

spirituality

it express es and embodies is empowerment, which is achieved

through

ritual trans- formation.

Albrecht

explains

his choice of his

principal method,

ritual studies, which was

pioneered by

Ronald

Grimes, by noting

that it focuses on “sym- bolic-expressive

behavior.”

Furthermore, ritual studies emphasizes bodily, physical,

and environmental elements,

especially action,

in the

interpreta- tion of ritual. Words and ritual

objects

are

interpreted

within the framework of actions and the

meanings they embody.

Thus this

approach

has much to offer the

interpretation

of the

sensory, (auditory

and

visual)

and kinesthetic elements of Charismatic

liturgical

action. Another reason Albrecht

adopts

_ °

303

1

the ritual studies method is that it emphasizes

“ritualizing,”

the

process by which rituals

originate

out of bodily and physical

impulses.

Albrecht

fruitfully

draws

upon

Victor Turner’s

insight

that ritual’s capacity

to transform individual and social identities and relationships-rit- ual’s

principal

role-lies in its liminal nature. Ritual

suspends

the estab- lished social roles and duties

whereby

the business of the

everyday

social- structural world is conducted.

Thereby

are fostered

relationships

that are qualitatively

different because

they

are direct and

spontaneous

rather than role-bound. Liminal

relationships

also are

egalitarian,

since

hierarchy

is

put aside as a sense of common

humanity

comes to the fore. Turner referred to such

relationships

as “communitas.” One

slight

correction to Albrecht’s interpretation

of Turner’s

concept

of ritual is that

liminality

and communi- tas

together

create “anti-structure”; Albrecht

places liminality alongside anti-structure. He rightly notes that ritual anti-structure offers a critique of everyday

social structure, whose roles are based on meeting

society’s

mate- rial needs. While such roles are essential,

according

to Turner,

they

are divi- sive ; equally

essential are

relationships

that

express

common

humanity. Ritual’s fundamental role, Turner

argues,

is to infuse

everyday

social rela- tions with communitarian

purpose, putting

social structure in the service of the common

good.

One of Albrecht’s contributions is to show how the liminal and com- munitarian dimensions of Charismatic

liturgy

make it a natural instrument of the

spiritual

and social transformations envisioned

by Charismatic spiri- tuality.

Another contribution is his

recognition

that Charismatic

liturgy, given

its liminal and communitarian thrust, is instrumental in Charismatic spirituality’s ability

to enact its theological principles–experience and wor- ship of God, building up the community

of the faithful, and serving society’s social needs. Yet another contribution is his acknowledgement that it is these capacities

and roles of Charismatic

liturgy

that have enabled Pentecostalism and the Charismatic churches to change and

adapt

in order to fulfil the tri- partite theology

of Charismatic

spirituality.

The chief characteristics of Charismatic

spirituality-which

Albrecht identifies as responsiveness, inno- vation and adaptability,

pragmatism, democratic/inclusiveness,

and empow- erment-are

grounded

in the liminal and communitarian features of Charismatic

liturgy.

A final contribution is Albrecht’s

taxonomy

of the main Charismatic rites

(“worship,”

or

praise service, preaching,

and altar

call), subrites, and the many

different elements that characterize them and that are common to the various churches. His

purpose

in analyzing the various litur- gical

rites and elements is to

compare

and contrast the three case studies with

regard

to the

way

in which

they

serve Charismatic

theology

and its transformative

purposes.

304

2

In the first half of the book, Albrecht establishes a context for his analy- sis of Pentecostal/Charismatic ritual

by providing

a brief overview of the evolving history

and structure of Pentecostalism, which

emerged early

in the twentieth

century,

and the Charismatic Renewal within Roman Catholicism and Protestantism that began in the 1960s. Thereby readers are reminded of the vital,

dynamic,

and mutually informing relationship between

liturgy

and a theology of charisma, and the relation of liturgy to congregational life and mission outside the Charismatic

community.

As he notes, such contexts and relationships

have led worshipers to create,

reappropriate,

and innovate new rites that

express

the worldview and ethos of the Charismatic

gifts,

which center on transformation and

empowerment.

The three case studies of “Pentecostal/Charismatic”

liturgy

in the sec- ond half of the book are based

upon

extensive

participant-observation

field- work and interviews, Albrecht’s own and that of a team he

supervised. Albrecht notes that each of the case studies

represents

a different

phase

in the

evolutionary history

of Pentecostal/Charismatic

spirituality;

classical Pentecostalism

(Assemblies

of

God),

Charismatic Renewal

(a Foursquare Gospel

church that underwent renewal

during

the Charismatic movement within

Evangelical

Catholic and Protestant

churches),

and the “third wave” of “signs and wonders”

emphasizing supernatural healing (a church

in the Vineyard fellowship). Together,

the cases illustrate one of the central

points of this book:

liturgy’s

Charismatic and

experiential

base

(“the Spirit

leads those who

experience

God where God’s

Spirit wills”), along

with its “limi- nal” dimension,

gives

it the capacity to undergo change, and to change

along with it Pentecostal/Charismatic

spirituality

and

theology. Yet,

each case exhibits select characteristics of all of the

phases

Charismatic

liturgy

has undergone–certain

characteristics

being

more

pronounced

in the one church or the other-even while each church

might

offer the same essential Charismatic elements with different

emphases.

The first case

(AG)

is more traditional and less trendy. Originating as a “restorationist” church in the New Testament

tradition,

classical Pentecostalism was

initially

anti-denominational and anti-structural. As the movement

developed,

the church became institutionalized and its

liturgy routinized. Like the other cases, however, classical Pentecostalism has not lost

creativity

or innovation with new

liturgical

elements. The second case (Foursquare Gospel), having

been influenced

by

the Charismatic Renewal, became more flexible and

reappropriated

the “free

worship”

or spontaneity of the

original

Charismatic

experience

in dance and music. The third case (Vineyard)

draws

upon

the Charismatic

experience

of early Pentecostalism but

adapts

it to its own

vision,

which to some

degree

shies

away

from the Pentecostal label: it also draws on the Evangelical tradition. In its attempt to

305

‘

3

be relevant, the third church makes room for the latest trends in the music

and

language

of popular culture.

dom associated

gifts

and church authorities.

Albrecht notes

that,

for all the freedom of the churches that have been influenced

by

the Charismatic

Renewal, there is tension between the free-

with the charismatic

Charismatic

congregations

tend to be authoritarian,

going against

the demo- cratic

ideal,

in which the ritual

authority

or specialist serves to facilitate the liturgy,

which

virtually anyone

is free to lead. Such churches are led

by founders with charisma and charismatic

gifts

whose

relatively

new

regimes appear

to be challenged or threatened

by lay people evidencing outstanding charismatic

gifts.

In the

Vineyard church,

for example,

tongues

are restrict- ed in worship; the laity is given freedom to display gifts during

healing rites,

however.

The book concludes with an elaborate discussion of the characteristic

qualities

of Pentecostal/Charismatic

spirituality

and a reminder that it grows

democratic-participatory

out of “a communal

experience

of God

typified by

its

encouragement

of

forms”

(p. 243).

Douglas

M.

Strong,

Perfectionists

Religious

Tensions

of

American

Democracy (Syracuse,

University Press, 1999), 263 pp.

Review

by David A. Alexander

Politics: Abolitionism and the

NY:

Syracuse

“Mix them, and mix them, and mix them, and keep

mixing,

until

they cease to be mixed, and

politics

becomes

religion

and religion, politics.” An abolitionist writer

quoted

in Perfectionists Politics.

Doug Strong

has written a fine introduction to the boiling quagmire of revivalism, evangelical perfectionism, abolitionism,

and democratic church reform in the “burned-over district” of central and western New York in the middle of the nineteenth

century. Strong

draws on his extensive research into the

primary

documents to tell the

compelling story

of how William Goodell,

Luther

Myrick,

and a

generation

of Oberlin

College preachers changed

the face of

religious

social action nationwide when

they

founded “comeouter” churches and the

antislavery Liberty Party

in order to

stamp out the national sin of slavery along with several other social ills that had come to their attention. These reformers stood for “the

democracy

of Christianity

and the Christianity of democracy.” Strong finds a high level of

and

cooperative

Methodists,

Baptists,

and

Quakers.

interdenominational Presbyterians,

mutuality

social action

among These varied

groups

306

4

found common

religious ground

in evangelical theology,

perfectionist expe- rience,

and the desire for ecclesiastical

reform; they

found common social justice

commitments in

abolition,

black civil

rights,

and women’s

rights. Strong

sees these

political

and

religious

activists as the forerunners of the Holiness movement and the Social

Gospel

Movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. “Ecclesiastical abolitionists were committed to sanctifying the

political process

and the religious

practice

of antebellum America.

They expressed

this commitment

by establishing new, purified organizations, specifically

the

Liberty Party

and

antislavery congregations. In this

way,

the

politics

of both church and . state were to be made

holy-a perfectionist politics.”

Doug Strong

describes the reformers’ vision of

restructuring

the cul- ture of American

politics. “They

believed that human

governments

should be reordered to

correspond

with God’s democratic moral

government.” They

also believed that God had an intentional

design

for the sanctification of society by working

against

all social sins and

especially

the national sin of slavery. For these reformers

slavery

was just one

expression

of societal evil and all Christians were

compelled

to fight in the

holy

war

against sys- temic sin.

They

also had

deep

biblical convictions about the

practice

of human

rights.

Their

leadership

included Antoinette Brown, one of the first ordained

clergywomen

in

America, Samuel Ringgold Ward,

a

prominent black

pastor,

and a number of other women and people of color.

Strong

also describes the reformers’ vision of restructuring the culture of American reli- gion. They

believed that denominational authorities and sectarian distinc- tions were antidemocratic as well as

potentially

evil.

They

resented all forms of theological and ecclesiastical domination.

They reorganized

inde- pendent, locally

controlled

congregations,

which

they

called “comeouter” churches. This “comeouter” movement

portended

a century and a half of denominational mitosis that led to the creation of hundreds of new denomi- nations and

ultimately

the

independent

church movement at the end of the twentieth

century.

Perfectionists

Politics has a close historical connection to similar

argu- ments made

by Timothy

L. Smith’s Revivalism and Social

Reform,

James Brewer Stewart’s Holv Warriors: Abolitionists and American

Slaverv, Nathan O. Hatch’s The Democratization

of

American

Christianity,

and Bertram

Wyatt-Brown’s

Lewis

Tappan

and the

Evangelical

War Against Slnvery.

It is also an important revision of the

historiography

of abolition- ism and social reform because

Doug Strong

links

political

and social action so closely to the theology and

spiritual experience

of the reformers.

Strong makes

religion, especially religious experience,

the

centerpiece

of the anti- slavery

movement. He has written

“[a]

cultural

history

of common men and

307

5

women-many

of whom were motivated

by

their

experience

of Christian holiness to stand

up against

the dominant institutions of church and state.” Strong points out,

over and

over,

that

political

action

by

the

antislavery churches was driven

by,

even

compelled by,

their

experience

of

personal sanctification.

According

to Martin E.

Marty

American Protestantism in the nine- teenth and twentieth centuries devolved into a

“two-party system.”

One party

focused on the sacred

sphere-it emphasized personal piety, personal evangelism,

and a “culture-denying theology.” The other

party

focused on the secular

sphere-it emphasized

social

justice,

economic

justice,

and reli- gious

altruism.

Doug Strong

is determined to

bring

these two

divergent extremes back together again. He envisions a holistic

spirituality grounded in personal

faith-by

which he means a profoundly deep relationship with Christ and a vital

personal piety

where an

“evangelical

conversion

experi- ence is the crucial event of our

religious

lives”-and social

action-by which he means that Christians should work

publicly

for the transformation of society, for justice, and for the issues of race and

gender equality.

In Perfectionists Politics

Doug Strong

has a clear

pastoral message

for the two

largest camps

of American Methodism.

Strong

wants to remind his Holiness friends that at one time in American

history deeply

sanctified

peo- ple

from almost

every

Protestant denomination

cooperated

with one anoth- er to found a national

political party

devoted to human

rights

for women, blacks,

and

working-class people. By

the end of the nineteenth

century, however, this movement took

a tragic turn.

“Among

antebellum

Wesleyan Methodists,

the

experience

of Christian

perfection

had been a means to achieve the

goal

of social reform. For their

postbellum successors,

the achievement of the experience itself became the goal.”

Strong

also wants to remind his United Methodist

colleagues

that the

proudest

tradition of Methodist social reform welled

up

from a deep evangelical piety and that without it social action is meaningless.

Douglas Strong sympathizes

with the

difficulty

of all

evangelical reformers, past and present,

who make a foray into the rough and tumble of national

politics.

This has been a

daunting

task for

every generation

of Christians. It is also a task that Christians have

usually bungled. Strong defines the issue this

way:

“The

perfectionist

dilemma within the

[Liberty] party

was clear: in order to reach their

goal

of establishing a holy

govern- ment,

it was necessary for

Liberty

advocates to compromise their own holi- ness.” And compromising their

integrity

was not

something they were

will- ing to do.

308

6

Richard Shaull and Waldo

Cesar, Pentecostalism and the Future of the Christian Churches:

Promises, Limitations, Challenges (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2000), xiv + 236

pp.

Reviewed

by Carmelo

E. Alvarez

Richard Shaull and Waldo Cesar are well-known intellectuals in ecu- menical circles. In a solid volume

they have

offered a challenging and prom- ising investigation.

The main

purpose

is to

help sociologists, theologians, church

leaders,

and students understand the

socioreligious

and

theological dimensions of Pentecostalism,

by offering

a first-hand

analysis

of an intri- cate and complex

topic.

The

style

and content of the book assist in trying to see the

larger picture,

as they use a language that is professional, yet acces- sible and clear. The careful

analysis

and

specific

case studies reinforce the high quality

of this research.

Pentecostalism can be a very vague and

confusing

term these

days

in Latin America. Some

sociologists, anthropologists,

and theologians prefer to talk about

“Pentecostalisms,” to demonstrate the

diversity

and richness of the “Pentecostal

phenomena”

or the “Pentecostal movement.” Cesar and Shaull decided to concentrate on Brazilian

Pentecostalism, and particularly on the Universal Church of the

Kingdom

of God

(IURD).

In other

words, this is a case

study

of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Dells. This ecclesial organization

or religious movement is very difficult to describe because it is a completely new

phenomenon.

A new term has been coined more

recently as

many

researchers use the

concept “Neopentecostals”

in order to under- stand this kind of

religious organization.

The

suggestive

title of Leonildo Silveira

Campos’s

recent doctoral

dissertation, published in Brazil, is a very good example

of the controversial character of

any

research in this

area, specifically

the Universal Church of the

Kingdom

of God: Teatro,

Templo e Mercado:

Organiza;ao

e Marketing de un Empreeiidimiei7to

Neopentecostal

.. (Theater, Temple and Market:

Organization

and

Marketirtg of

a Neopentecostal Enterprise).

Having

visited

many “worship experiences”

of the IURD in Brazil and Puerto

Rico,

I became fascinated

by

the

“supermarket” mentality

of the whole

organization.

The

temples

are public spaces,

open twenty-four

hours a day in

many places, dispensing any

kind of service from

counseling

to financial advice and

displaying

a

marketing mentality.

The now famous “Prosperity theology”

becomes central in the content of

preaching

that is attractive to poor,

marginalized,

and often excluded sectors of society. Cesar is aware of these issues and problems (pp. 10-14 and

32-34)

and tries to dis-

309

7

cern the limitations and promises of the “Pentecostal movement.”

My own perception

here is that IURD is a “Neopentecostal movement,” quite

different from classical Pentecostalism

(the one that theologically

and experientially

has dominated in Latin America for more than

ninety years, i.e., The

Assemblies of God).

Many

Pentecostal Churches in Latin America have serious doctrinal

disagreements

with the

IURD, particularly

with the use and

interpretation

of the Bible and the

“supermarket mentality”

that shifts the emphasis from the

community

of believers to the consumerism of religion.

The issue of a “Pentecostal

Enterprise,”

in a commercial sense, could be a scandal to

many poor

Pentecostals who are

trying

to cope with an

unjust

economic

system

in a world of

“misery

and

pain.”

For most of established Pentecostal churches in Latin America, the life in the

Spirit requires

a discipleship in witness and faithfulness to Christ and the Gospel.

Following

in the train of

many

of his previous

analyses

on ecumenism and Protestantism, Shaull elaborates a consistent

“rereading”

of the Pentecostal

experience

from Reformed and liberation

perspectives

that is refreshing

and innovative.

Although perhaps

it

says

more about his own “conversion

process”

and less about “Pentecostal

Theology,”

this attempt to understand the Pentecostal churches

may

be a much-needed

step

for the so- called “mainline denominations.” Another recent effort

by Presbyterian churches documented in the book, In the Power

of

the

Spirit:

The Pentecostal

Challenge

to Historic Churches in Latin America

(PCUSA

and AIPRAL, 1996) is evidence of

this search for an ecumenical

dialogue. My own effort of more than two decades of dialogue and

theological

reflection with Pentecostal churches allows me to share Richard Shaull’s enthusiasm. But I am afraid that the situation is more

complicated. Many

doctrinal and theological

issues will

challenge

the classical Pentecostal churches and the so-called “historic churches” in the future. The

“Spiritual

Warfare” move- ment can be a good example of this assertion. An extreme and

dangerous obsession with the exorcism of demons

occupies

the

spiritual

and

pastoral energy

of evangelists and

pastors.

To fight demons is more

pertinent

than to trust in the

liberating power

of the

Spirit

and the

transforming

force of the gospel!

Cesar and Shaull elaborate a conceptual framework

(socioreligious

and theological)

and offer it as an

interdisciplinary

tool.

They

should be com- mended for

undertaking

this serious

project.

This contribution

opens

new methodological perspectives

for future

investigations. They

are

very

aware of the limitations and

challenges (pp.

108-111 and 227-231) that lie ahead. But the

passion

and careful research demonstrated in this book make it a unique

contribution to an

ongoing

discussion. The book is

highly

recom- mended to both the churches and the

academy.

310

.

8

Michael

Bergunder,

Die südindische

Pfingstbewegung

im 20. Jahrhundert,

Studien zur Interkulturellen Geschichte des Christentums 113 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter

Lang, 1999),

xiv + 382

pp.

Reviewed

by David Bundy

Visitors to South India can

scarcely

miss

witnessing

the

presence

and importance

of the Pentecostal

churches, not only in their own right, but also for their influence on the older churches of the region. South India has been important

for the development of Pentecostalism ever since the earliest

days of the movement and, like other sites, can

credibly

claim to have had

per- sons

experiencing

Pentecostal

baptism

in the

Holy Spirit

even before the Azusa Street Revival. In addition, Indian Pentecostalism has

always

had a missionary impulse; indeed,

Chilean Pentecostalism received its initial def- inition from Mukti more than from Azusa Street.

Among

the

early

visitors were T. B. Barratt

(1908)

and A. N. Garr

(1908-1909).

In India, as in other areas,

the Pentecostal tradition

grew

out of groups and areas influenced

by Wesleyan/Holiness spirituality,

as was Mukti.

Despite

the significance of the region, the dearth of easily available

pri- mary

sources has made

scholarly analysis

difficult and

quite

limited. Therefore the work of Bergunder is all the more

significant

as the first

study of Pentecostalism in India

by a Western scholar.

It is, without

doubt,

a land- mark

study

that will always be a standard work. The

appendices, including bibliography,

discussion of

sources,

lists of

interviews,

lists of denomina- tions with numbers of adherents,

congregations

and clergy, are in themselves significant

contributions. The book is divided into two

primary

sections: historical and

theological.

The volume

begins

with an introduction to the

early

Pentecostal activ- ity,

most of which

began

from missionaries converted to Pentecostalism at Mukti and under the influence of Barratt. The earliest individual mission- ary to make

a lasting

impression

was Robert F. Cook, who

eventually

found- ed the Assemblies of God and the Church of God. The other

early organi- zations were the Indian Pentecostal Church and the

Ceylon

Pentecostal Mission. The latter has not desired relations with other Pentecostal denom- inations but also maintains a limited

relationship

with the

Apostolic

Church of Great Britain.

Despite

the wider

beginnings,

the

primary

success of Pentecostalism in South India was

initially

in

Kerala, doing

Pentecostal evangelism among

the established

Syriac

and mission-related Protestant churches.

The remainder of the historical section

surveys

the evolution of the tra- ditions “since the forties.” The second

chapter

discusses Pentecostal

311

9

churches in Kerala in

categories Pentecostal

Assembly).

of “established

churches”

(Indian Mission,

Church, Assemblies

of

God, Ceylon Pentecostal

Assemblies of

God,

Church of

God),

those formed from the “Thomas- Christians”

(Sharon Fellowship,

New India Church of God, New India Bible Church, Gospel

for

Asia),

and those

working among

the Dalits

(World Missionary Evangelism,

Church of God-Kerala

Division,

International Zion

Chapter

three discusses those in Tamil

Nadu, including those founded

by foreigners (Assemblies

of God in K.P.

Valasai, Assemblies of God in Madurai, Church of God, British Assemblies of God in Coimbatore)

(Indian Pentecostal

Pentecostal

Mission,

Full

Gospel

Pentecostal

Church, Pentecostal Church of India, Apostolic Pentecostal Assembly).

Attention is given to the

develop-

denominations and/or

cooperation

and

indigenous

denominations

ment of

transregional churches with

regional strength.

Church,

Ceylon

as well as to

of

The fourth

chapter

describes the

founding

and

development Pentecostal churches in the State of Karntaka, while

chapter

five examines the

phenomenon

in the State of Andhra Pradesh. In the latter

context,

the role of the World

Missionary Evangelism

churches has been central. Additional

chapters

discuss Pentecostal

evangelists

and their

organization, inter-Pentecostal ecumenism as well as relationships with non-Pentecostal churches. A final

chapter

in this section

presents

the histories of four Oneness churches: Bible Mission,

Beginning

Pentecostal Truth

Church, Manujothi

Ashram, and the Yesunamam Church (related to the United

Pentecostal

Church).

Attention

with no effort to

The second half of the book is a carefully developed theological/cul- tural

presentation

of the life and thought of Indian Pentecostalism.

is given to the Hindu

context, and,

in light of those observations, the author turns to issues of

theology, including

the

experience

of

God, prayer

and blessing,

social

ethics,

the order of salvation,

healing, prophecy.

He also dis- cusses

pastoral leadership,

the role of women

(minimal,

excluded from lead- ership positions), ministry, finance,

social work, and worship. This is devel- oped primarily

on the basis of Indian

theological texts,

but

especially

inter- views. It is hoped that the resulting text will eventually be published in India in Indian

language(s)

so that the material will be more available to Indian readers. The

approach

of this work is phenomenological,

impose

an ideological perspective on the Indian data.

Perhaps

the weakest

portion

of the volume is the “Ausblick.” This chapter attempts

to look at the role of south Indian Pentecostalism in the context of world Pentecostal

developments.

ferred an analysis of the

potential

and

problems facing

the church in India. There are hints

throughout

the

volume, but the author

certainly

has the

312

One would, I think, have

pre-

10

expertise

and experience of all the regions of south India,

perhaps

more than any other individual,

and his observations

might

have been

helpful

to Indian Pentecostals and Western scholars alike.

However,

one understands the ret- icence of a careful and

gracious

non-Indian scholar to speak

regarding

the issues

facing

a tradition that hosted him in his work.

Jubileo.

La Fiesta del

Espiritu.

Idendidad

y

misión del Pentecostalismo Latinamericano

(Maracaibo,

Venezuela: Comisión

Evangélica Pentecostal Latinoamericano

[CEPLA]; Quito, Equador: Consejo Latinoamericano de las

Iglesias [CLAI], 1999),

vi + 232

pp.

N

Reviewed

by

David

Bundy

This book is the result of the Encuentro Pentecostal Latinoamericano held in Havana, Cuba, from 23-27

September

1998.

Attending

the

meeting were 120 Pentecostal

theologians

and church leaders from

forty-eight Pentecostal denominations

throughout

Latin America.

Nearly

50 percent of the

participants

were

women,

a statistic that indicates the status accorded women in the Latin American pentecostal churches. There were also a sig- nificant number of youths in attendance. One of the goals was to encourage transgenerational

discussions. Also present at the Encuentro were observers from the World Council of Churches

(WCC)

and the Latin American Council of Churches

(CLAI).

Some

funding

was also received from these international bodies to facilitate the organization of the

meeting

and to help with travel

expenses.

The

goals

of the

meeting were; (1)

to recognize the richness and diversity of gifts that the

Holy Spirit

has

given

to the churches; (2)

to discern what God asks of Latin American Pentecostals as part of the one

church,

which takes into account both the

suffering

and the

hope;

and, (3) to participate, together

with sister churches, on the basis of a thoroughly Pentecostal

identity,

in obedience to Christ’s command in John

17:21,

in the development

of a real

unity

within the church.

The resultant

essays by

thirteen authors from seven countries

speak

to these issues.

They

are divided into six categories: testimonies,

analysis,

the itinerary

of the Comision

Evangelica

Pentecostal Latinoamericano (CEPLA),

the ecumenical

challenge,

the

“jubilee”

in biblical

perspective, and a collection of documents. The

inaugural

sermon on Isaiah l:l-10

by Ulises Munoz

(Chile)

discussed the issues of growing and living in the con- text of the messianic

promise.

This was followed

by

a discussion of the Pentecostal

experience

in Cuba

by Raul Sudrez (Cuba).

The articles of

analysis (by

Heinrich Schdffer, Adonis Nino, and

313

11

Gamaliel

Lugo Morales) explore

the social and religious results of “global- ization” and the “new world order” for Latin America. This is a region of the world that has seen the

poor

become

poorer

due to the

weight

of exter- nal debt taken on primarily

by right-wing military

dictators

supported by the U.S.A.,

and with the advise of the International

Monetary

Fund. This debt now

cripples

the

ability

of the

newly emergent

and

struggling

democracies to provide services and care for their citizens. Latin American

Pentecostals, large

numbers of whom live in poverty, have a serious interest in the macro- economic

problems.

The Encuentro called for a year of

“jubilee”

in which the debts

by which nations have been encumbered

as part of this illegitimate political process

should be

forgiven.

Those who do not think that Pentecostal

theologians

are concerned with economics and social issues or who

think,

as do

many

North American and

European

scholars of Pentecostalism

(e.g., Martin, Stoll, etc.)

that Pentecostals are

only right- wing

offshoots of American

fundamentalism,

should read these

essays!

The next collection of

essays (by

Gamaliel

Lugo Morales, Lydiette Garita and Elida

Quevedo) explores aspects

of Pentecostal

identity

in the context of CEPLA.

Perhaps

the most

important

article is that of Gamaliel Lugo,

in which he describes the Venezuelan Pentecostal

experience. Historically

there were three

stages. First,

there was an

indigenous

church led by independent missionaries and Venezuelan

pastors. Second,

there was the

period

when this church was taken over

by

the Assemblies of God U.S.A. mission

program.

This

juridical change

was

followed,

after the departure

of the independent

missionaries, by a flood of Assemblies of God U.S.A. missionaries. As a result, the Venezuelan

clergy

found themselves outside the

decision-making processes

and de facto second class citizens. They

were disenfranchised in their own church.

Finally,

in

1956, a signifi- cant

group

led by the Rev. Exeario Sosa

Lujan,

withdrew to form the Union Evangelica

Pentecostal Venezuelana

(UEPV).

This

experience strongly influenced the

way

the Venezuelan Christians understand their mission and role in the world as well as the ways in which

they can relate to other denom- inations, missions,

and movements. The

essay by Lydiette

Garita is a care- ful discussion of the role of women in Latin American Pentecostalism and a review of meetings held under the auspices of CEPLA. Elida

Quevedo

con- tributes a passionate, reasoned

analysis

of the function of Pentecostal litur- gy in forming

Pentecostal

identity.

The discussion of ecumenism

(by Roger Cabezas,

Juan

Sepulveda, Israel Batista, Manuel

Quintero,

and Juan Carlos

Urrea)

resulted in five carefully

nuanced articles.

Perhaps

the most crucial

essay

is that of Cabezas, which examines the

larger

historical context of Latin American Protestantism

through

the twentieth

century

and suggests the significance of

314

12

the events for ecumenism. The

essay

also

provides

a history of ecumenism among

Pentecostal churches, with dates and locations of important meetings and conferences. The

essay

is an

important

historical contribution. It reflects the efforts of this tradition in Latin America to be

part

of

defining what it means to be Christian in that context. Contributions from Israel Batista,

a Methodist

pastor representing CLAI,

and Manuel

Quintero, repre- senting

CLAI and the

WCC, present their

understanding

of the ecumenical contributions that can be made

by

the Pentecostal churches. Juan Carlos Urrea

explores

the

feasibility

of and

expectations

attendant to

dialogue between Catholics and Pentecostals in Latin America.

The Bible studies, contributed

by Ross Kinsler,

Professor at the Latin American Biblical

University (Universidad

Biblica

Latinoamericano)

of San Jose, Costa Rica, wrestle with the

meaning

of the

“jubilee”

in the biblical texts. The

appended

documents include the official text

summarizing

the conference and a

three-year plan

with

goals

for CEPLA,

including pro- grammatic

activities

projected

for the same

period.

This volume is

truly

an

important

historical document. It represents the effort of the branch of Latin American Pentecostalism

represented by the participants

to come to terms with what it means to be truly Pentecostal and to be faithful communicants in the

Kingdom

of God. As the book makes clear, one of the major issues

facing

Pentecostals is that of

identity.

On the one hand it seems

very easy

to

say

what Pentecostals are and are not. However, the

reality

in the

large

and

complex

world

religious

movement that is Pentecostalism

requires

more subtle and creative

analysis.

The con- tributors to this volume are to be congratulated on the result of their collab- oration. It is hoped that this book will be followed

by more contributions as the authors and their

colleagues

continue to work on these issues.

David K. Bernard, A History

of Christian Doctrine,

Vol. 3: The Twentieth Century

A.D. 1900-2000

(Hazelwood,

MO: World Aflame

Press, 1999), 415

pp.

Reviewed

by Ralph

Del Colle

With the

publication

of this third volume David K.

Bernard, perhaps the

leading theologian

of Oneness

Pentecostalism,

has

completed

his Historv of

Christian Doctrine. His

through

the Middle

Ages (vol. 1) and the Reformation to the Holiness Movement

(vol. 2).

In this volume he picks

up

with the twentieth century, beginning

with the emergence of Pentecostalism and culminating in

315

13

the latter half of the

century’s

Charismatic movement.

As an ordained minister in the United Pentecostal Church International,

Bernard offers both an apologetic for and a systematization of Oneness Pentecostal beliefs and

practices.

category

for the people of God relate to one of the primary issues for

Luke,

the relation of the church to the Jewish

peo- ple ? How is prophethood

related to the OT

Scriptures,

to Luke’s use of promise

fulfillment

language

and patterns, to the Temple, and to the concept of the New Israel? What is the relation of prophethood as a general catego- ry to the specific

office/function of prophet/prophetess? How is prophethood related to the themes of salvation and witness, which are demonstrably cen- tral to Luke-Acts? And what are the

implications

for the church if all in the community

are

prophets?

These

questions

demonstrate the richness of Lucan

theology, which, despite

this

significant effort,

has

yet

to be

fully uncovered.

Rhoda

Huffey,

The

Hallelujah 258

pp.

Side: A Novel

(Boston: Mariner, 1999),

Reviewed

by Craig

Mosher

The Hallelujah Side, Rhoda

Huffey’s funny

and

poignant

first

novel, might

have been subtitled

“Growing Up Pentecostal

in the Late 1950s.” The main character,

Roxanne,

is the

nine-year-old daughter

of

Ames,

Iowa Assemblies of God

pastors

Winston and Zelda Fish.

Drawing

on

Huffey’s own

upbringing,

the

story

features

perfectly

nuanced details about life among

Eisenhower-era Pentecostals

along

with

wildly

comic encounters with

evangelists,

sinners small and

great,

the

temptations

of

television, Tangerine

Kiss

lipstick,

and rock and roll.

A short list shows how

thoroughly Huffey

knows her material. Found in this

fast-paced

novel are

camp meetings, praying

in

tongues sponta- neously

at the dinner

table, revivals, healing services (a dog is cured of shak- ing

and

warts), missionary boxes, speculation

about the

Rapture

and the Antichrist, anointed tambourines, preacher’s kids

playing

harmonica and

322

20

cello duet

specials, witnessing (though forbidden)

while

serving

as Welcome Wagon

hostess,

and

Speed-the-Light jeeps (among others).

Not

only

does

Huffey depict

that world

accurately,

she also

peoples

it with believable characters (for instance, strict but

supportive parents,

both with vivid and quirky personalities) and with references to luminaries of the era. The elder Fishes hold

up

the

examples

of

missionary

Lillian Trasher, faith healer Oral Roberts, and Revivaltime radio

preacher

C.M. Ward (he “walked like a duck,” Roxanne

comments).

Zelda

particularly enjoys

emu- lating

Aimee

Semple

McPherson

(selectively),

and strives to

play

her tam- bourine as McPherson did in Zelda’s

youth.

Roxanne

struggles

to avoid the

temptations

of the world,

though

her older sister Colleen does not-Colleen

pretends

to be a member of another, better

family,

while also

declaring

herself a Baptist

and, even

more

tragical- ly, hiding

a rosary in her room. Roxanne loves the music of Little Richard and

despairs

of ever

being truly

redeemed. Nonetheless, she feels Great Commission

pressure

as one of the few saved

people

in Ames. How

many people

in town are heaven-bound, her father asks.

“‘Thirty

tive’?’ said

Roxy. `If that.”‘

She

struggles

with her personal demons-a

concept

she takes

literally, calling

one of her demons Fred and

imagining

conversations with him. Roxanne inhabits a cosmos in which the mysterious and supernatural prevail daily,

and so she finds no surprise in her dialogue with a friendly hedge out- side her home and

occasionally

with other inanimate

objects.

Those episodes

seem no odder to her than her daily Pentecostal

experience.

Roxanne’s dilemmas will

ring

true to those who

enjoyed

or survived childhood in similar situations. Is she saved if she does not feel saved? Almost

certainly not, she thinks, though

she might get into heaven

by clutch- ing

her mother’s skirt

during

the

Rapture.

What must she do if she’s con- vinced God has told her to jump from the church roof and

fly

across town? Gather

up enough faith, bring

a friend

along

for

support,

sneak out at mid- night,

and jump. Other smaller conflicts revolve around

aspects

of the holi- ness code, the wreckage of which is on display next door to the church in the persons

of Mr. and Mrs. Woolworth, soused sinners

par

excellence.

Huffey’s point

of view

usually

shows

empathy

with the Pentecostals she

depicts,

but some of the comic moments are extreme

(not unbelievable, just immoderate)

and she

clearly implies

criticism of their fervid excess. However, she stands back and lets them have the

stage

without direct com- ment. Events

usually

feel authentic even when farcical. What would a 1950s congregation

do when confronted with a bikini-clad Mrs. Woolworth?

Sing “Power in the

Blood,” naturally.

As Roxanne

ages

into her fourteenth

year

she walks

delicately

on the

323

21

high wire,

in the world but not of it. She observes the

complexities

of this task for adults as her parents mix ministry with less-than-heavenly pastimes. Pastor Fish flies a

Piper

Cub

simply

because he

enjoys

it, and coaches Roxanne in

backyard

baseball. Her

parents

read Newsweek; Winston also pores

over Das

Kapital (to refute Marx).

The

family

invents occasion after occasion to eat

gluttonous helpings

of cake and ice cream.

They

never dis- cuss the difference between their

indulgences

and a dozen other forbidden activities because the distinction is probably unclear to them.

Ultimately,

Roxanne is forced to choose between her family’s rigorous Pentecostalism and the chance to fill in for two

nights

as one of Aretha Franklin’s

backing singers,

the Sanctified

Sisters, in a large

auditorium in corrupt

Los

Angeles.

Seconds after

baptizing Roxanne,

Pastor Fish

grants her the choice: “I can handcuff

you. You’re

under

age.

But I will not do this. … However, I would like to ask

you

not to go.”

Roxanne faces an adult decision. Her choice shows how difficult it can be to say where the world’s side ends and the hallelujah side begins; the first number Aretha and the Sanctified Sisters

sing

is “Rock

My Soul.”

Karl-Wilhelm

Westmeier,

Protestant Pentecostalism (London:

Associated

University Press, 1999),

159 pp.

in Latin America

Reviewed

by Arlene M. Sánchez Walsh

The several

important

themes that Karl-Wilhelm Westmeier

attempts

to synthesize

in this

monograph

are more often than not buried amidst the somewhat

disorganized

and uneven

chapters

of this book. His overall theme is that Protestantism in Latin America is essentially Pentecostal, not

only

in style, but,

more

importantly,

in Pentecostalism’s liberative modes of belief and

praxis.

The weakest

parts

of the book offer little cohesive bond to this overarching

theme. While

making

an

argument

about the

corruptive

influ- ences of. capitalism and anti-communist

policies

on Latin American mis- sions, Westmeier shifts

from a brief

hi9toriographical

sketch of U.S. inter- vention in Latin America to a generalization about the

transparency

of the U.S.’s “real” interests in the

region.

He

quotes

an executive from

Citicorp without

contextualizing why

this

quote

is

important

for

proving

his

point. He then places a quote from a person identified

only

as Bartleman

right

after the Citicorp quotation, again without context. The Bartleman

quote

is espe- cially puzzling

because not

only

is this

person

not identified as Frank Bartleman,

a pioneering Pentecostal

preacher

best known for chronicling the Azusa Street Revival, but also the

quote

is from the World War One era.

324

22

Thus the

appropriateness

of the

quote

is questionable,

considering

that the author has

spent

the previous page and a half discussing U.S. intervention in the

region during

the late twentieth

century.

Most

frustrating

is the

following section,

which

attempts

to link the middle-class

upbringing

of most missionaries to their transference of mid- dle-class values to their work in Latin

America,

in effect

transplanting

their bourgeois

culture. While this is an essential theme in uncovering why mis- sionaries so often treated Latin Americans as

subjects

in need of

religious and cultural

conversion,

this book fails to contextualize the

history

of the American missions movement and takes it for granted that the reader knows the history of Latin American missions. There is no mention of Henry

Ball, Alice Luce, Maria

Atkinson,

or

any

number of Protestant Euro-American and

European

missionaries who made Latin America their field. It is unfor- tunate that this

chapter appears

to have little

continuity

that lends cohesive- ness to Westmeier’s

important

themes.

Certainly, anyone

who knows the dubious

history

of U.S.

interventions, missions, and treatment of indigenous people

would not doubt Westmeier’s earnest desire to uncover and

provide a systematic missiology as a corrective. Contextualization would have made for a much

stronger

contribution. ,

Adding

to the unevenness is Westmeier’s choice of sources, which he uses quite

liberally (the book is filled with copious footnotes), making

it dif- ficult to find the author’s own voice. Westmeier uses Chilean Marxist Eduardo Labarca Goddard and mentions that he is disturbed

by Goddard’s Marxist

leanings,

but he fails to

challenge

them. Instead Westmeier notes that his

personal

contacts

among

Chilean Pentecostals confirm Goddard’s findings

that the CIA succeeded in infiltrating Chilean Pentecostal

organi- zations

(p. 43).

Westmeier’s confirmation of this information is relegated to a footnote in which he does not mention who his contacts were and exactly how

they

confirmed this. Were

they approached by the

CIA? Is this materi- al too sensitive to discuss?

One should not, however, overlook the thematic

importance

of Westmeier’s

synthesis. First,

Westmeier wants us to believe that all Protestants in Latin American

possess

traits that make them

essentially Pentecostal.

Second,

he wants us to understand the ramifications of what over a century of foreign missionaries has done to Latin

America;

created churches whose

theological

foundations exclude autonomous and

indige- nous

theological

constructs that

speak

to Latin American

reality. Third, Westmeier moves from this

study

of missions to specific areas that he iden- tifies as

points

of conflict that Latin American Protestants have with the political

left, the Catholic Church, and popular religion. It is this second half of the book that

proves

most

satisfying.

325

‘

23

The section

describing

the battles to incorporate liberation

theology’s praxis

for the dispossessed without

grafting

on Marx concludes with the idea that while Pentecostalism and liberation

theology coexist,

liberation theolo- gy has done

little to effect transformative

change

in a practical was. To prove this, Westmeier’s section

on Community and the Growth of CEBs is strong and convincing because it demonstrates that what

evangelicos

view as pow- erful is the transformative

power

of

conversion, and, for Pentecostals, the life of the Spirit, which

they

see as ushering in the Kingdom of God

(p. 94). If the previous sections were as cohesive as the last sections, this would have been a strong contribution to the overall revision of evangelical social mis- sion in Latin America and how evangelicos are re-creating their

spiritual

and social realities.

David

Coffey,

Deus Trinitatis: The Doctrine

of the Triune

God (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1999),

viii +196

pp.

Reviewed

by F. LeRon Shults

This erudite and

carefully argued

book takes the reader to the

cutting edge

of ecumenical

dialogue

on the doctrine of the

Trinity. Coffey

writes from an

explicitly

Roman Catholic

perspective

and maintains the western emphasis

on the immanent relation between the Son and the

Spirit. Expanding

on the ideas of St.

Augustine

and Richard of St. Victor, he sees the

Holy Spirit

as the objectivization of the mutual love of the Father and the Son. Yet, he intends to accommodate the valid concerns raised

by

Eastern Orthodoxy

about the filioque clause. On the basis of

philosophical argu- mentation and biblical

exegesis,

he

proposes:

“The

Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son”

(p. 155).

In chapter one,

“Setting

the

Science,” Coffey

notes the

importance

of the

Trinity

for

understanding

the biblical view of salvation.

Adapting Lonergan’s

transcendental levels of

knowing,

he connects the “biblical” Trinity (our experience

of the

data)

to the “immanent”

Trinity (our

under- standing

of it in our intellectual

culture)

via the “economic”

Trinity (our judgment

that this understanding or interpretation is correct). He places this discussion in the context of the

question

about God’s relation to the

world, which he describes as “super-real.” Coffey believes we must move

beyond the

“faculty” psychology

model of the West as well as the extreme

monopa- trism of the East.

Chapter

two distinguishes between two models of the Trinity, the “mis- sion procession” scheme and the “return” scheme.

Coffey argues

that the lat-

326

24

ter is more

comprehensive

and is able to include within itself the biblical data that led the West to

privilege

the former. His own

approach

is to describe the

Spirit

as the mutual love of the Father and Jesus Christ:

though a distinct

person,

the

Spirit

“does not have a personality distinct from the Father or the Son”

(p. 41).

The third

chapter

treats the two models in more detail, attending

to the

problems

of

temporal language

as

applied

to God. The

origins

of the Son and the

Spirit

from the Father cannot be

temporal because in God there is no succession of time;

yet

he speaks of a “preven- ient” act of the Father that is “identical with the Father’s

hypostasis.”

Having

introduced the

question

of divine

subjectivity, Coffey

turns in chapter

four to “Persons, Divine and Human.” How can we

integrate

the apparently opposed

ideas of “individual” and “relation” within a concept of “person”?

He traces the

problem

from

Augustine

and Thomas

through Fichte and

Hegel.

He

rejects Hegel’s attempt

to

ground relationality

in the three

persons

of the

Trinity,

but

agrees

that

theology

must

accept

Fichte’s challenge

to show the intelligibility of the idea of the “absolute

personhood” of God.

Coffey

reasserts the traditional western vision of God as Absolute Subject,

and it is not clear how he has answered Fichte’s

challenge; finally, he appeals to mystery (p. 83).

The

language

of

“relationality”

leads

naturally

to the

question

of “Change

in God”

(chapter five).

After

summarizing

the challenge of process theology, Coffey argues

that it is a failure at several levels:

logical, psycho- logical, metaphysical.

He returns to the idea of God’s

“super-real”

relation to the

world,

which he believes

protects

the

immutability

and

changeless- ness of God “in himself,” but allows us still to

say

that God “nevertheless changes

in his

relationships

with creatures”

(p. 99). Noting

that this sounds like

dipolar process theology, Coffey appeals

instead to Scotus’ formal dis- tinction a

parte rei, i.e.,

a distinction between different but

inseparable

for- malities of one

object.

This distinction in God cannot be exactly named for it is absolutely unique.

In chapters six and seven,

Coffey

further delineates his

proposal

in dia- logue

with four recent

theologians,

all of whom

( 1 ) reject starting

with

psy- chological analogies, (2) begin

with the

“paschal mystery”

of the economic salvation

history

in Scripture, and

(3)

affirm some kind of

“penal

substitu- tion”

soteriological theory.

He gives us an

enlightening

tour of exegetical and

philosophical

issues

by expositing (in turn)

J. Moltmann, E. Jungel, H. Muhlen,

and Han Urs von Balthasar.

Coffey agrees

with

( 1 ), but in relation to (2) wants also to include the whole life of Jesus, as well as his sending of the

Spirit

that constitutes the church, as that which discloses the trinitarian structure of salvation

(not merely

the

cross, on which the others focus). Coffey

wants to move

beyond “penal”

models of redemption

(3), emphasiz-

327

25

_ _ – — z ing

instead the love of Father and

Son,

and our

participation

in that love in the same

Spirit.

An ecumenical concern is always in the background for Coffey, and he concludes

by recommending again

his

suggested

solution to the

Filioquism vs.

Monopatrism

debates: “The

Holy Spirit proceeds

from the Father and receives from the Son.”

Presupposing

a broad

background

in theology, the author offers a sincere defense of key western

attempts

to hold onto the idea of God as a single

subject (absolutely)

as well as three

subjects (relatively). Although

this reader was not convinced that we should abandon the full and distinct

“personality”

of the

Holy Spirit,

the book is

highly

recommended for its rich

analysis

and its contribution to the ongoing ecumenical

dialogue on the Trinity.

Allen H. Anderson and Walter J.

Hollenweger, eds.,

Pentecostals

after

a Century:

Global

Perspectives

on a Movement in

Transition, Journal

of Pentecostal

Theology Supplement

Series 15

(Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic

Press, 1999),

223 pp.

Reviewed

by Donald Dean Smeeton

This book is a confessed tribute to the founder and

doyen

of academic Pentecostal

studies,

Walter J.

Hollenweger.

Coeditor Allen Anderson defines a threefold aim: “This

publication

is to some extent an

attempt

to further air

Hollenweger’s thoughts

and to discuss the contribution that Pentecostalism makes to our

understanding

of world

Christianity

and its rel- evance for the next century”

(p. 31 ). Of this tripartite goal,

the first

target

is reached but the other two are hardly even

attempted.

If one is looking for an assessment of Pentecostalism’s role in the

larger picture

of Christianity or prognostications

about its future, one will have to look elsewhere.

The book is

arranged

in the format of conference

papers

with a response

to each

essay

and offers reflections on Pentecostalism in

Chili, South Africa, and Korea. Because the respondents share so many of the pre- suppositions

of the essay

writers,

the

responses

are

expansions

of the same themes or a balancing of certain

thoughts; they

lack the rigor that one would expect

if the respondents held

truly

different

perspectives.

As an

“attempt

to further air

Hollenweger’s thoughts”

the book suc- ceeds

wonderfully.

He contributed three of the

essays

and the rest come from his colleagues and students.

Hollenweger’s

contributions are acknowl- edged

in every essay, his thought permeates each

text, his name

appears

fre-

328

26

quently

in the footnotes, and Hollenweger is the most

frequently

listed name

in the index.

the call to

social/political

in

particular.

Those who have read even

part of the remarkable Hollenweger corpus will find that much here is familiar. This

provides

a very broad definition of Pentecostalism; judgments

stated in the form of broad

generalizations

and drawn from evidence that is often anecdotal and sometimes unsubstantiated,

activism,

and a

running

criticism of North America in

general

and North American Pentecostalism

Hollenweger

understands that Pentecostalism,

especially

as it is expressed in North America, has clamored for cultural

acceptance and, therefore,

denied its own

identity,

which

Hollenweger

sees as ecumenical, oral, narrative, and

Black.

Pentecostalism.

Pentecostalism, like an adolescent

moving

toward

maturity,

is striving to “find itself’ and establish its own

identity.

Toward that end, these

essays may

be helpful. But it seems to this reviewer that several foundational issues are not

clearly

addressed. Foremost, of

course,

is a clear definition of

If one

objects

to the narrow definition

Pentecostalism,

one is compelled to offer a clear

replacement.

Pentecostalism distinctive? What these writers

Pentecostalism

(e.g,

relevant

evangelism,

social

engagement, etc.)

seems to be applicable to Christianity in general.

Further,

it seems that the standard of

makes

evaluation

is

applied inconsistently

of classical What

really want from

when one avers that African

and

yet

North

Pentecostalism must be

truly

African to be effective,

American Pentecostalism is

critiqued

because it embodies cultural charac-

teristics of that

part of the world.

If one is unfamiliar with

Hollenwegerian

concerns,

here is a readable introduction. If one embraces

Hollenweger’s original analysis,

one will love this continuation. If one already chafes under his

message,

one

may want to

give

this book a pass.

Explaining

Religion

and (Princeton:

Princeton

Anne

Taves, Fits, Trances,

and Visions :

Experiencing

Experience from Wesley

to James University Press, 1999),

xiv + 449

pp.

Reviewed

by James K. A. Smith

perhaps justly-been

While the Pentecostal tradition has often-and

criticized for a lack of theological

reflection,

we have never been

lacking

in experience.

Indeed, it is the experience of the presence of the Spirit

that lies at the heart of Pentecostal

worship

and devotion. But it seems that

“experi-

329

27

ence” for Pentecostals is

something

like “time” for

Augustine:

we know what it is, as long as no one asks. As

such,

Anne Taves’s

prodigious

Fits, Trances, and Visions,

orienting

itself around

“experiencing religion

and explaining experience,”

comes as

something

of

a provocation

to Pentecostals with an abundance of

religious experience

but a deficit of explanation.

Taves’s book locates itself at the intersection of several discourses:

first, the book is historical in its scope and aims; but second, it is an historical con- sideration of the nexus of revivalist

religious experience

and the then-devel- oping

field of

(popular) psychology during

the formative

period

of “American

religion”

from 1740 to 1910.1 In

particular,

Taves focuses on a number of “seemingly involuntary acts”2 and experiences that are explained in different

ways, depending

on whether one sees them in “religious” terms or “psychological” terms

(p. 3).

As such, Taves covers a wide-ranging col- lection of subjects, from revivalists

Wesley

and Edwards to “new

psycholo- gists”

William James and

George

Albert

Coe-along

with a massive

sup- porting

cast on both sides-all of whom offer accounts for these

experi- ences. But besides the ambitious

scope

of this

project,

the book sets itself apart

in another

way that marks

the distinct contribution Taves has to make.

According

to

Taves,

these two streams

(revivalism

and

psychology) have tended to be treated as

mutually

exclusive

(pp. 348-349).

Those who are

“religious” appeal

to the

supernatural

to

explain

these

experiences

as divine in origin

(or

at least

“spiritual,”

since there can be demonic

experi- ences

producing

the same

bodily phenomena), suggesting

that they are man- ifestations of the

presence

of God and the power of the

Spirit.

On the other hand,

the naturalistic

(or secular) psychologist

will explain such

phenomena by appealing

to natural causes such as hysteria, hypnosis,

and,

increasingly, the subconscious

(pp. 5, 121-127).

But Taves is most interested in what she describes as a

“mediating”

tradition

(epitomized by

William

James),

that

1 As such, the study does not include the role of psychoanalytic thought in American since the

religion,

reception of Freud and Jung took place later into the twentieth century. We for a might hope

sequel from Taves on this score.

2 These acts include phenomena such as “uncontrolled bodily movements (fits,

bodily

exercis- es, falling as dead, catalepsy, convulsions); spontaneous vocalizations

(crying out, in shouting, speaking tongues); unusual sensory experiences (trances, visions, voices, clairvoyance, out- and alterations of consciousness and/or

of-body experiences); (dreams, somnium, somnambulism, mesmeric mediumistic

memory

trance, trance, hypnotism, possession, alternating per-

3). I suspect Pentecostals will be uncomfortable to see common experiences in Pentecostal worship collected along with phenomena such as

sonality)” (p.

burden

hypnotism and clairvoyance. The lies on Pentecostal

shoulders, I think, to generate the criteria to distinguish these nomena.

phe-

330

28

seeks to challenge these dichotomies

by offering

an account that is both nat- ural and

religious.

The telos of her book is to

highlight

this non-dichoto-. mous

explanatory

framework.

However,

one of the most

intriguing insights

in Taves’s

analysis

is the role that “naturalistic”

interpretations played

in the midst of distinctly reli- gious communities,

even Pentecostal communities. As she

notes,

“rational- istic Protestants viewed

involuntary experiences

in secular terms and thus

I minimized the role of religious

experience

within Protestantism”

(p. 350).3 In other

words,

the

psychological

theories

employed by

secularists to dis- credit all religious experience were taken

up by religious

thinkers in order to discredit false

religious experience,

or ecstatic

religious experience

in gen- eral

(as opposed

to the

good

old

charge

of “demonic”

origin [p. 350]).

Thus popular psychological

theories, in the hands of supernaturalists, became mechanisms of exclusion enlisted to discredit and marginalize forms of reli- gious experience

deemed

unacceptable

or

“false”-though

other

experi- ences are left untouched

by such theories (pp. 308, 348). Taves sees just

such an operation at work in Parham’s later criticisms of Seymour and the Azusa revival, suggesting

that while issues of race and

authority played

a role in the conflict, “the overt focus of the contlict was over

experience

in the con- text of worship. Parham viewed much of what he witnessed at Azusa Street as counterfeit and discredited their

experience

in psychological terms”

(p. 330). We,

of course, can see similar

strategies employed

in contemporary criticisms of various “revivals.” In contrast,

Seymour

and Bartleman “viewed a much wider

range

of experiences as authentic”

(p. 332).

The

psy- chological

hermeneutic was

employed, then,

to establish the boundaries of “authentic”

religious experience.

But here Taves

challenges

the employment of psychological explanation as arbitrary, since it is applied

selectively

and never turned on what “we” consider “authentic”

religious experience.

In this respect, one of the most helpful lessons we can learn from Taves concerns the constructed nature of our religious

experience.

It is not only our “explanations”

that are conditioned

by particular assumptions

and horizons, but the

experiences

themselves.

“By approaching

the

experiencing

and explaining

of religion

historically,”

she concludes, “I have tried to make the larger point

that the

experience

of

religion

cannot be

separated

from the communities of discourse and

practice

that

gave

rise to it withocct becoming something

else”

(p. 353).

Our

experiences

are constituted as what

they

are based on horizons of constitution and

(largely) implicit

hermeneutical

3 We can see this strategy continuing to operate in cessationist criticisms that attempt to reduce tongues speech

to psychological or naturalistic phenomena.

331

29

frameworks

(p. 352).

Does this mean that our

experience

is only “natural” and not “divine”?

No, but it does

mean that it is not simply divine: it is a mat- ter of both construction and supernatural manifestation.4 Taves challenges us to become aware of the constructed nature of our experiences in order to pre- vent the “colonization” of our

experience by concepts

and frameworks that might,

we would

say, “quench

the

spirit” (p. 353). Otherwise,

the same ‘open’

frameworks of construction that once made

religious experience pos- sible can

simply

become reified and begin to function as barriers to religious experience.

With this in mind, the impetus to explain

religious experience- through theological

and

philosophical

reflection-far from

marking

the onset of spiritual

aridity,

can in fact be the catalyst for fresh

experiences

of the Spirit.

William K.

Kay,

Pentecostals in Britain

(Carlisle, Press, 2000),

372

pp.

UK: Paternoster

Reviewed

by Vinson Synan

This book

by Kay,

a British Pentecostal

historian,

is a most valuable study of the present

state of Pentecostalism in the United

Kingdom.

With the British Pentecostals

poised

to celebrate their centennial in a few years,

Kay’s book draws a portrait of a movement that has moved

beyond infancy

and adolescence and well into middle

age.

As such, it is a

picture

of Western Pentecostalism that extends far

beyond

the British Isles and indicates the stresses and

challenges

that face the older Pentecostal churches in

many nations, especially those in Europe.

Pentecostals in Britain is a sociological

study

of 930 ministers in the four major classical Pentecostal denominations in the UK: the Assemblies of God, the Elim Pentecostal Church, the

Apostolic Church,

and the New Testament Church of God

(related

to the Church of God,

Cleveland, Tennessee). Although

there are many other smaller Pentecostal

groups

in the UK,

these were chosen as

representative

of them all. The

study

did not include the newer “house churches” and other “Charismatic”

groups

that that have

proliferated

in Britain in recent

years.

The

response

rates from the

pastors

was

amazingly high,

with the Apostolic

Church

recording 84%,

the Elim Pentecostal Church

64%,

the Assemblies of God

57%,

and the Church of God 21 %. These

responses

4 It must be noted that this should not be seen as “reductionistic.” It

is, rather, incamational.

332

30

mean that the results of the study had a high degree of validity. With females making up only

2.5% of the

respondents,

the ministers studied were over- whelmingly

male and middle-aged.

After a well-written

summary

of the history of British Pentecostalism, including

references to roots in the Holiness and Keswick

movements, along with the Welsh revival and the Pentecostal revival at Azusa

Street,

the author concentrates on the British scene for the rest of the book.

Kay recognizes that

Anglican priest

Alexander

Boddy

was the

progenitor

of twentieth-cen- tury

Pentecostalism in the UK after an outbreak of

glossolalia

in his Sunderland

parish

in 1908. He cites

Boddy’s journal, Confidence,

and his Whitsuntide conventions from 1908 to 1914 as

being

crucial in the devel- opment

of early British Pentecostalism. From there he traces the rise of the four Pentecostal denominations on which he based his

study.

The ministries of George and

Stephen Jeffries,

brothers who founded and then left the Elim Pentecostal Church, is interwoven in the

story.

This

gives

the reader a fine introduction to the material that follows.

In a

chapter

titled “Denominational

Problems,” Kay

found that “the problems facing

Pentecostal churches are in many respects the problems fac- ing

all churches,”

i.e.,

“a failure to recruit new members and retain the young people

who have grown up in the church.” His answer is that over the past twenty years

these churches “have demonstrated an

ability

to reform themselves without

alienating

either the old-timers or the

young

radicals.” This is remarkable in

light

of the

many

renewal movements that have swirled

through

Britain in the past decades,

including

the ministries of John Wimber and the “Toronto

Blessing,” among

others.

The

remaining major portion

of the book is concerned with the results of the

questionnaire

sent to the 930 pastors. The book deals with two

major types

of questions. The first are those that relate to the churches’ doctrinal beliefs, their views on church

government,

ethical

questions,

and the

preva- lence of charismatic

gifts

in the church. The second

major

area concerns the personal problems

of the pastors, including their economic status, their

spir- ituality,

their

job satisfaction,

their

personality traits,

and

problems

with burnout. So in fact the book examines the status of the churches as well as the status of the ministers in the churches.

Some of the

findings

are not

surprising.

For instance, on such

major “non-Charismatic” doctrinal

questions

as the

authority

and

inerrancy

of Scripture,

the

virgin birth,

and the divinity of Christ, most

pastors

were near unanimity.

On such “Charismatic”

questions

as the

validity

of the

experi- ence known as the

“baptism

in the

Holy Spirit,”

the

validity

of the charis- mata,

and the existence of

demons,

most

pastors

scored at or near 100%.

333

31

Although

there was some

divergence

on the

question

of tongues as “initial evidence,” most pastors adhered to

the traditional Pentecostal view.

Yet,

a significant minority

felt that

tongues

was not

necessary

in all cases. In answer to the statement:

“Speaking

in

tongues

is

necessary

as initial evi- dence of the baptism in the

Holy Spirit,”

the positive

responses

for the four churches were as follows:

The

figure

for the Elim Church is not

surprising

in view of

George Jeffries’

teaching

that prophecy as well as tongues could also be seen as evi- dence for the Pentecostal

experience.

What is surprising is that the lowest response

was from the New Testament Church of God, which is related to the American Church of God.

An

interesting chapter

on “Ethical Issues”

reported

on recent attitudes among

British Pentecostals related to the “holiness code” that has dominat- ed most Pentecostal churches from the

beginning.

While there has been some

softening

on the

legalism

of the

past,

over 90% of

pastors

felt that Christians should not smoke or gamble, while over 98% felt that homosex- uals should not continue to minister. On the

question

of drinking alcoholic beverages,

the ministers

split

into about

equal camps pro

and con.

Although

most Pentecostal churches have denied ordination to persons who were divorced and remarried, recent trends indicate that the hard line is softening

in Britain. The votes were about 50-50 on the statement, “A min- ister

who,

after

ordination, divorces and remarries should not continue to serve as a minister.”

Other

chapters quizzed

the pastors about the effects of such

phenomena as the “Toronto

Blessing”

and other revivalistic movements in recent

years. A surprising

percentage

found that such movements were a blessing to the churches.

The final

chapters

dealt with the situation

among

the

pastors

related to their financial income, their

marriages,

their personality traits, and the prob- lem of “burnout.”

Though

most ministers were able to cope with the stress- es of the

ministry,

about 10% were “in the danger zone.”

In

looking

over the entire

book, perhaps

the most

telling points

were made by Andrew Walker in the foreword. In spite of the many changes with- in the movement since 1908 and the

disappointment

at not

carrying

the nation in the early years, “what is more

surprising, however,

is that the sur- vey shows,

even more

convincingly,

how much of the

early

Pentecostal

334

32

vision still remains.” In judging the future of the new house churches and Charismatic movements in the Anglican and other historic churches, Walker remarks: “If I were a betting man-and as Dr.

Kay

shows

us, gambling

is still eschewed

by

Pentecostals-I would

put my money

on the old Pentecostal denominations still to be with

us, and thriving,

at the end of the next

century.

I’m not

prepared

to

put my

shirt on the new churches, and don’t relish the

long-odds

on the renewal.”

Pentecostals in Britain is well worth

reading,

both

by

Pentecostal

pas- tors and

by scholars,

but

especially by

Pentecostal denominational leaders around the world who wish to be aware of recent trends that

might

well affect their own churches.

Rune W.

Dahlén,

Med Bibeln som bekännelse och

bekymmer. BibelsynsfrÅgan

i Svenska

Missionsförbundet

1917-1942 med särskild hänsyn

till Missionsskolan och

samfundsledningen,

Bibliotheca Historico-Ecclesiastica Lundensis 42

(Lund:

Lund

University Press, 1999),

563

pp.

Reviewed

by David Bundy

The

struggle

for control of the

understanding

of the Bible was an inevitable result of the Enlightenment version of modernist

empiricism.

The Free Churches of Sweden were forced to deal with the issue as were church- es in England,

Germany,

and the USA. This volume traces one aspect of that debate, focusing

on the

developments

in the Svenska

Missionsf6rbundet,

a small denomination known as the Swedish Mission Covenant Church out- side Sweden.

However,

the debates that

raged

within the Svenska Missionsforbundet had

implications beyond

the confines of that denomina- tion.

Among

these it was the Swedish Pentecostal churches that were most involved and influenced

by

the debate. It is for that reason that the book deserves to be discussed in a Pentecostal

theological periodical.

The method of this review is to summarize the debate, summarize the involvement of the Pentecostal churches, and

proffer

an evaluation of the volume.

The debate over the Bible in the Svenska Missionsforbundet

began

with the death of the renowned

theologian

and churchman Paul Petter Waldenstrom

(1838-1917).

He managed both to be a careful scholar and to maintain the trust of the church. He was elected

president

and chairman of the denomination. In that

capacity

he worked to defend the

authority

of the Bible

against

the “liberals.” In

1917,

Lorentz Backman, a “liberal,” was appointed

to the

faculty

of the

Lidingo Seminary

as instructor in Bible. A

335

.

33

firestorm of

controversy resigned

under

pressure.

he was

sought

to find biblical

erupted and,

after extensive

discussions,

In his

place,

Oscar

Haglund (1888-1944) appointed

to fill the position temporarily.

Haglund

was not acceptable to the students. He was succeeded

by Johan Hellstrom

and later David

Hedeg5rd, and then others as the Svenska Missionsforbundet

studies

faculty

for the Seminary that were

acceptable

to the constituency and the

leadership

of the church. Dah]6n

meticulously

examines each of the actors in this

decades-long drama, looking

at their intellectual

formation, intellectual

shifts,

their

relationships

both

personal

and in print, as well as the results of their

writings

and decisions.

The

situation,

as Dahlen

clearly demonstrates,

became more

complicat- ed with the election of Axel Andersson

(1879-1959)

as

president

of the Svenska Missionsforbundet. Just before his

election,

Andersson had

pub- lished a book entitled Präster och

profeter

inom den bibliska

religion- sictveeklingen (Stockholm: Kultur, 1929).

This volume was rooted in a crit- ical “liberal”

reading

of the biblical text. It was

severely

criticized

by Hedegard

and other Swedish

conservatives, including Haglund

and Lewi Pethrus.

Despite

the furor caused

by the book,

Andersson was elected

pres- ident of the Svenska Missionsforbundet

Andersson

promoted

those who shared his views, and as the conflict contin-

ued, three

of the main Missionsforbundet.

figures

The Svenska Missionsforbundet

by

a

significant majority.

were forced

from the Svenska

(another

small Free

Church).

superstructure

Along for the

Backman transferred to the Swedish

(Lutheran)

state church; Haglund

made common cause with the

Pentecostals; Hedegard joined

the

Evangeliska

Fosterlandsstiftelsen

also

split.

Fifteen

congregations,

which had

apparently already experienced

a Pentecostal

style revival,

withdrew from the Svenska Missionsforbundet to join with the Pentecostals. with

theology,

the lack of a denominational

Pentecostal churches

(understand

the

power

of A. Andersson in the Svenska Missionsforbundet) appealed

to the dissidents.

The Pentecostal involvement with this Svenska Missionsforbundet debate exists on two levels. The first was the

experience

of Lewi Pethrus and the second was the role of Oscar

Haglund

and his

periodical.

We will deal with these in order,

despite

the fact that the lives and thought of Pethrus and

Haglund

were

temporarily

intertwined. Lewi Pethrus attended the Baptist

Betelseminariet from 1904 to 1906 and was horrified

by

the “mod-

ernism” of the

faculty.

Therefore,

when the conservative Svenska

Missionsforbundet hired

Seminary faculty

and administrators with views similar to those he had reacted

against earlier,

he could not remain silent. His instinct therefore was to

support

the conservatives

Haglund)

and to write

against

the ideas of Andersson. The result was that

(for example,

336

34

any

discussion of critical biblical and

theological

issues

among

Swedish Pentecostals was

stopped

for a couple of generations.

Haglund

established a

periodical

named Biblisk

Tidsrkift. Organ for biblisk tro

och forskning

in

1926, published

under the

aegis

of Pethrus’s Filadelfia Church, Stockholm, and used

by Haglund

as a platform for attack- ing persons

he considered liberal in the Swedish

churches, especially

his for- mer

colleagues

in the Svenska Missionsforbundet. He was not

given

to nuancing

issues and his shrill

rhetoric,

as well as his

participation

in con- flicts within the Pentecostal

Movement, eventually

led to a

rupture

with Pethrus.

Haglund agreed

to

change

the name of his

periodical

to Biblisk Månadshäfte. 77dskrift f6r

biblisk tro och forskning. He continued

publica- tion of the

periodical

until his death in 1944. The contributors were from among

the “conservatives”

throughout

the Swedish churches. The

periodi- cal had its

primary

influence within Pentecostal and Svenska Missionsf6rbundet circles. It can be argued that the

periodical

was a major polarizing

intluence in the

churches,

and because of the continuous over- statement, may well have contributed to a liberalizing of the readers in all of the churches.

The decision of Pethrus to “abandon”

(p. 505) Haglund

did not mean that Pethrus had changed his mind about the issues of authority related to the Bible. He favored a more limited warfare on the

subject

and a more care- fully

nuanced discussion. His own

major

contribution came after several more

years

of discussion in the periodicals. He published Kristi Vittnesb5rd om Moseböckerna (Stockholm:

Filadeltïaförlaget, 1933) as a defense

of the authority

of the Pentateuch. Given the

energy

of Pethrus for the issue and the angry polemic of Haglund, it is interesting that there were not more vol- umes written

by

Pentecostals

against

“modern criticism.”

Certainly

there were few

competent

to enter the

fray.

And,

perhaps,

the traditional Pentecostal biblical

hermeneutic,

which steered between criticism and fun- damentalism, which was the currency of Pentecostal

preachers (including “Charismatics” like Frank

Mangs

in the Svenska

Missionsforbundet),

was generally

more attractive.

Dahlen’s work is a masterful

analysis

of a complicated and ful- somely

documented debate. One of the services rendered

by the volume

is the sorting of that literature and the development of a narrative that

helps prioritize

the literature. It is important for scholars of American

religion because it narrates the development of a “fundamentalist-modernist” con- troversy

in another cultural context. For scholars of Pentecostalism, it is important

for understanding the development of one of the themes in Swedish Pentecostal

theology during

the decades of the late 1920s and the 1930s. The volume is enhanced

by an extensive list of published

and

337

35

unpublished sources

(including

the extensive archival sources

used),

an English

summary,

and a carefully crafted index.

338

36

PentecostalTheology .com

Be first to comment Click here to cancel reply.

Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Reviews

Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars

Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected

PentecostalTheology .com

Be first to comment Click here to cancel reply.

Cancel reply

Apologetic site called “Therefore God Exists.”

Haber oku tuzla evden eve nakliyat