List of PENTECOSTAL Contributors

List of Contributors

Daniel Castelo

Ph.D., is Professor of Dogmatic and Constructive Theology at Seattle Pacific University and Seminary in Seattle, Washington, USA. He is the author or editor of more than ten books, including The Marks of Scripture (Baker Academic, 2019).

Simon Chan

Ph.D., is editor of Asia Journal of Theology. His publications include books and articles on Pentecostal ecclesiology and liturgical theology.

Clifton Clarke

Ph.D., is Assistant Provost for the William E. Pannell Center for African American Church Studies and Associate Professor of Black Church Studies and World Christianity at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has published monographs and edited volumes and a number of articles on African Pentecostalism and the Black Church, including Pentecostalism: Insights from Africa and the African Diaspora (Cascade, 2018).

Marcia Clarke

Ph.D., is Affiliate Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. Her book, Endued with Power: Black Women and the Revisioning of British Realities through Pentecostal Spirituality as Lived Experience, is due to be published in 2019.

David Sang-Ehil Han

Ph.D., is Professor of Theology and the Dean of the Faculty at Pentecostal Theological Seminary. He has published widely articles and chapters in English and edited monographs in Korean. He has been involved with the Global Christian Forum since 2002. His forthcoming monograph is an edited volume, Christian Hospitality and Neighborliness: A Wesleyan-Pentecostal Perspective (CPT Press, 2019).

Peter Hocken

Ph.D.,^† was an accomplished ecumenist, scholar of pentecostalism, and longtime participant in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. His books include Azusa, Rome, and Zion and Pentecost and Parousia.

Cheryl Bridges Johns

Ph.D., is Robert E. Fisher Chair of Spiritual Renewal & Christian Formation at Pentecostal Theological Seminary. A past president of the Society for Pentecostal Studies she has participated in the international Catholic-Pentecostal dialogue, Evangelicals and Catholics Together, and Commission on Faith and Order for the National Council of Churches.

William K. Kay

D.D., is Honorary Professor of Pentecostal Studies at Chester University and Emeritus Professor of Theology at Glyndŵr University. He has published widely on Pentecostalism including Pentecostalism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2011).

Andy Lord

Ph.D., is Associate Tutor at St. John’s College and Senior Pastor of three churches in Nottingham, UK. He has published books and articles on themes of mission, ecclesiology, and Pentecostal-charismatic theology.

Frank D. Macchia

D.Theol., is Professor of Christian Theology at Vanguard University of Southern California and Associate Director of the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies at Bangor University, Wales. His most recent publication is entitled, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer: Christology in Light of Pentecost (Eerdmans, 2018).

L. William Oliverio, Jr.

Ph.D., is Associate Academic Dean and Chair of Graduate Studies at The School of Urban Missions Bible College and Theological Seminary in El Dorado Hills, California. He is the author of Theological Hermeneutics in the Classical Pentecostal Tradition and co-editor (with Kenneth J. Archer) of Constructive Pneumatological Hermeneutics in Pentecostal Christianity.

Jean-Daniel Plüss

Ph.D., is chair of the European Pentecostal Charismatic Research Association and president of the Swiss foundation of the Global Christian Forum. He has published various articles on Pentecostal theology and a book on Swiss Pentecostalism. He is part of international dialogues between Pentecostals and the World Communion of Reformed Churches as well as with the Lutheran World Federation.

Tony L. Richie

D.Min., Ph.D., is Lecturer in Theology at Pentecostal Theological Seminary, Lead Pastor at New Harvest Church of God, and author of Speaking by the Spirit: A Pentecostal Model for Interreligious Dialogue.

Cecil M. Robeck, Jr.

Ph.D., is Senior Professor of Church History and Ecumenics and Special Assistant to the President for Ecumenical Relations at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is a past editor of Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. He has authored many articles and written or edited six books, including The Azusa Street Mission and Revival (Thomas Nelson, 2006), and with Amos Yong edited The Cambridge Companion to Pentecostalism (Cambridge, 2014).

Christopher A. Stephenson

Ph.D., is assistant professor of systematic theology at Lee University and author of Types of Pentecostal Theology: Method, System, Spirit (OUP, 2013), as well as articles in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, International Review of Mission, Ecumenical Trends, and Istina. His ecumenical experience includes the international Catholic-Pentecostal dialogue, the World Council of Churches’ Joint Consultative Group, and co-chair of the first institutional dialogue in the history of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN), which was with the Mennonite Church USA.

Steven M. Studebaker

Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology and Howard and Shirley Bentall Chair in Evangelical Thought at McMaster Divinity College. He is the author of From Pentecost to the Triune God and A Pentecostal Political Theology as well as books on Jonathan Edwards’s trinitarian theology.

Wolfgang Vondey

Ph.D., is Professor of Christian Theology and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. He has published various monographs, essays, and articles on Pentecostalism including two volumes of Pentecostalism and Christian Unity (Pickwick, 2010 and 2013).

Introduction

It has become all but a truism to observe that two of the most important religious events of the 20th century are the dawning of the modern Ecumenical Movement and the birth of global pentecostalism. Perhaps more interesting is the claim that each in its own way is a work of the Holy Spirit to renew the church. Surely even more intriguing is the question of the relationship between global pentecostalism and the Ecumenical Movement. The history of this relationship is complex, to say the least, and I will not preempt the essays that follow by beginning to delve into the details of that history here. Suffice it to say that the mere existence of this volume assumes that there have been enough significant intersections between the Ecumenical Movement and global pentecostalism to warrant pausing to assess the relationship between them and to attempt to promote further the flourishing of that relationship.

At least three themes emerge from the essays collected here. First, although pentecostal responses to the Ecumenical Movement have been and continue to be mixed, there is a strong and definite trend in the direction of respect, support, and participation. In many grassroots locations, pentecostals are more open than they were before not only to acknowledging the Christian identity of those in other church traditions but also to dialoging with them informally and cooperating with them on matters that affect their shared communities. Similarly, pentecostal participants in formal ecumenical dialogues now find it easier than they once did to garner official recognition and financial support from their ecclesial leaders, even as more and more of those ecclesial leaders themselves are beginning to participate. Second, global pentecostalism and the Ecumenical Movement are better when they are together than when they are apart. To take but two examples among many, the Ecumenical Movement offers pentecostalism much-needed humility for its propensity to triumphalism in response to its unprecedented global expansion in recent decades—the very need for ecumenism is testament to heart-wrenching division in the body of Christ that should give pause to unqualified celebration of pentecostalism’s missionary expansion. Pentecostalism, in turn, offers the Ecumenical Movement a reminder that the fresh winds of the Spirit blow from every people and place on the globe, including those who have not been and still are not as widely represented at the ecumenical table as others, even as they increasingly become a majority voice in Christianity. Third, cooperation between global pentecostalism and the Ecumenical Movement should not be uncritical engagement that amounts to nothing more than the one affirming all of the initiatives of the other. They can and should challenge each other, hold each other accountable, and call each other to repentance. If they do so, the benefits can accrue to the entire body of Christ.

The essays in Part 1 are largely descriptive, although not purely historical. They describe some pentecostal interpretations of ecumenism, past and present. Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. chronicles the perspectives of select denominational leaders in the first decades of pentecostalism in North America and concludes that the attitude of resistance that characterized pentecostalism in the middle of the century was not predominant in its earlier history. While those early visions of unity may not accord perfectly with the notion of unity in the modern Ecumenical Movement, they are closer to it than the negative sentiments often associated with pentecostals. Jean-Daniel Plüss profiles the first major pentecostal figures to participate actively in the Ecumenical Movement. Truly a tale of the good, the bad, and the ugly, this history reveals the challenges that early pentecostal ecumenists sometimes faced with their denominations over their ecumenical activity. Yet another intersection between Pentecost and ecumenism came about when the charismatic renewal began to grow in church traditions that were already involved in ecumenism. Peter Hocken traces this development from groups like the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International up to current events with Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. According to William K. Kay, the advent of the charismatic renewal prompted further participation of pentecostal denominations in ecumenism. He offers a taxonomy for distinguishing between pentecostal and charismatic church traditions and gives particular attention to trends in the UK in both theological and sociological perspectives.

Wolfgang Vondey takes up pentecostal participation in formal ecumenical dialogues and accentuates the distinctive character of their presence in these engagements. He gives an overview of the findings of international dialogues and sketches the contours of several local and informal conversations with pentecostals. The essays by David Sang-Ehil Han and Cheryl Bridges Johns contain both descriptive and prescriptive facets, inasmuch as each in its own way also suggests partial elements for a current interpretation of pentecostals and ecumenism. Han highlights the Global Christian Forum and recent initiatives in receptive ecumenism. He suggests that pentecostals are well-suited to participate in these ecumenical endeavors because of the importance that narrative plays in their spirituality and their belief that transformation comes as one encounters others. Johns uniquely analyzes and interprets key moments in the history of the Ecumenical Movement and in pentecostal ecumenical activity. She claims that pentecostals may be central players in the future of the Ecumenical Movement in part because of their strong presence in both the Global North and the Global South.

The essays in Part 2 are directly related to intersections between ecumenical theology and certain loci in systematic theology in pentecostal perspective, the first two of which explicitly address issues in fundamental theology. L. William Oliverio, Jr. reviews various pentecostal approaches to hermeneutics, which refers to far more than simply biblical interpretation, inasmuch as it encompasses theological and philosophical dimensions of hermeneutical theory. One of the approaches that he identifies is decidedly ecumenical in ways that have potential to challenge both pentecostalism and other church traditions. Religious experience has been both a hallmark of pentecostalism and an occasional obstacle to dialogue with other Christians. However, while raising critical questions about mediated and/or unmediated religious experience, Daniel Castelo explores points of continuity between pentecostal spirituality and Christian mystical traditions. Keeping with the question of theological method to a lesser extent, Christopher A. Stephenson investigates a point of intersection among pneumatology, christology, and the doctrine of the Trinity in connection with the question of an organizing theme for the whole of systematic theology. Drawing on Catholic and pentecostal forays in Spirit christology, he challenges—on both dogmatic and ecumenical grounds—the viability of making the fivefold gospel central to future pentecostal systematic theology. Frank D. Macchia examines baptism in the Holy Spirit in ecumenical perspective by evaluating various accounts of its relationship to Christian initiation. He warns, however, that preoccupation with this relationship risks defining baptism in the Holy Spirit in subservience to ecclesiology, and he calls for an ecumenical pneumatology that does not take its point of departure from deliberations about the nature of the church.

Two essays focus explicitly on ecclesiology. Andy Lord gives some fresh reflections on the relationship between the church’s institutional and charismatic dimensions. Highlighting the idea of movement from predominantly charismatic to institutional bearings and vice versa, he suggests ways forward for Catholic, Reformation, and pentecostal traditions in their respective understandings of themselves and each other as the church. Simon Chan concentrates solely on the church’s worship. He brings out aspects of pentecostal and traditional liturgical worship that challenge each other, and he pursues a normative liturgy strengthened by the best in both traditions. Turning to soteriology, Steven M. Studebaker notes the similarities of certain pentecostal theologies with a strand within Protestant scholasticism that bifurcates the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation. While he fears that this bifurcation contributes to an ecumenical impasse for pentecostals because it mutes one of pentecostalism’s primary contributions to ecumenical dialogue, he believes that there are resources in the thought of some current pentecostal theologians for moving beyond this impasse.

Tony L. Richie suggests a correlation between pentecostals’ endeavors in ecumenical dialogue and their endeavors in interreligious dialogue. In keeping with his claim that testimony is an important mode of discourse in these dialogues, he adopts a first-person perspective and rehearses several of the concrete interreligious activities in which he has participated with a view to their theological underpinnings. Clifton Clarke and Marcia Clarke draw on resources largely outside the West to enhance the precise meaning of Christian unity. They examine challenges to some traditional ecumenical processes offered by the African category of Ubuntu—the idea that persons are understood in their relationship to other persons—specifically as embodied by pentecostals in Africa and the British Isles. A final reflection wraps up the volume by taking a look ahead at what might be in store for pentecostalism and ecumenism along the lines of Pentecost, unity, and universality.

Besides the authors and editors, several people deserve appreciation for bringing this project to its final form. Drenda N. Butler ran down data missing from some footnotes, created the index, and compiled most of the bibliographies. Annelia F. Babin and Elly Chaney assisted with the bibliographies. The editorial staff at E.J. Brill has been more than patient with a couple of unforeseen setbacks that delayed publication, and the anonymous external reviewer made several suggestions whose incorporation has brought greater clarity and precision on a number of fronts.

It is with great sadness that this collection of essays comes to print without one of the editors with which it began, Fr. Peter Hocken. Peter was a longtime participant in and historian of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and the Ecumenical Movement. His name appears as editor because his was a significant part of the original vision for the book, because he was integral to securing the host of authors assembled, and because he provided invaluable feedback to all but three of the essays. His fastidious attention to detail and precision have improved immeasurably the quality of this collection, which we dedicate to his memory. It is our pleasure to include here the completed essay that Peter contributed, which inevitably becomes one of his last publications. May these essays make a small contribution to those things of the Spirit for which Peter long labored.

Christopher A. Stephenson

Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, 2019