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
ARTICLES
SPS
Mother Church: Toward
Ecclesiology
Simon Chan
Carl Braaten has
recently the ancient
concept
a Pentecostal
called
on Protestants
Cyprian’s
to return to statement has not God
Protestants.
church
(as implied
up
of
believers”)
Consequently,
purely sociological
dependent
on their own actions. works of some Swedish Lutheran Nygren
and Gustaf
Aulen, According
of mother church.
that “he who has not the Church for his
mother,
for his Father” has never
really gone
down well with
They
tend to think of themselves
in such
expression
rather than the church
Protestants have tended to see the church in
terms,
that
is,
as a
reality
as
making
the as “the church is made making
them.
that is
largely Against
this
general
trend,
the theologians,
such as Anders
through
the act
stand out as rare
exceptions.
to
Aulen,
the church is “a creation
of God in Christ” and therefore “cannot be
comprehended
within
sociological categories.”2 “chosen
The church is a transcendent
by being baptized
or
it is the church
in Christ before the creation of the world”
1:4).
One becomes a Christian
into the
body
of Christ. In this
sense,
that
gives
birth to the believers and
gives
to them their
special
reality, (Eph. grafted
identity.
The
expression
“body
of Christ” is not a
metaphor
for
1 Carl Braaten, Mother Church: Ecclesiology and Ecumenism (Minneapolis, MN: 2 Fortress Press, 1998). Gustaf Aulen, The Faith of the Christian Church, trans. Eric H. Wahlstrom and
Arden (Philadelphia, PA: Muhlenberg Press, 1948), 329.
G. Everett
177
1
reality
that owes its
some social
dynamics;
existence to its inextricable
The church, therefore, bers. This “more
of the total Christ
(totus Christus), more to
say
later.
Thus,
Anders church is Christ
it is an
ontological
link to Christ as its Head.
is more than the sum of its mem- than” is sometimes
as he is
present among earth after his resurrection. Christ is
present
through essence,
his Word and
sacrament, nothing
the
economy
of
redemption, creation and reconstituted
conveyed by
the
concept
of which we shall have Nygren
could write: “The
and meets us
upon
in his Church and the church
is,
in its
of Christ.”3 The
.
from the old
into
other than this
presence
church owes its existence to the action of the triune God. In
God called
people
them a new creation in Christ. This body
is
invigorated by
the
Spirit
of life who raised Jesus from
doing
and we are
baptized
in
short,
is what it means to
the church as our mother.4
Pentecostals share with their Protestant
of the church.
First,
the church
the dead. The church is God’s it and nurtured
by
it.
This, acknowledge
weak, sociological concept tive
consequences.
tially
a service
provider catering Christians.
Rarely
are individuals
the church. When the church is seen as
existing
vidual,
then the focus of
ministry
counterparts
a
very
This has two
nega-
tends to be seen as essen- to the needs of individual thought
of as
existing
for
for the indi- is on individuals: how indi-
vidual needs can be met
by
the church. But when individuals
for the
church,
the focus shifts from the
are seen as
existing individual
needs to our common life in Christ: how we as the
1957), 96. Cf.
belongs
by “evangelical
3 Anders Nygren, Christ and His Church, trans. Alan Carlsten (London: SPCK,
Gustaf Aulen: “The church exists in and through Christ. Just as the church cannot be conceived of without Christ, so neither can we think of Kyrios- Christus without his dominion and the connection with that fellowship which
to him. Christ has become embodied in his church” (The Faith of the Christian Church, 332; emphasis author’s).
4 Such a view of the church, according to Braaten, is nothing but an acknowledge- ment of the ancient trinitarian paradigm of the church, whose authority is defined
its faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It could therefore be described as
catholic” (Mother Church, 77-81, 85-88).
178
2
one
people
verse, namely,
to
glorify 1:6,12,14, etc.).5
The
consequence
of God fulfil God’s ultimate
and
enjoy
God forever
purpose
for the uni-
(cf. Eph. of
giving priority
to indi-
Pentecostals and
evangelical has come to mean
primarily fying power
of God’s
Spirit.
By contrast,
viduals over the ecclesial life has meant
that,
for
many
Charismatics,
a
personal experience
the Pentecost event
of the vivi-
been linked inex-
tricably
to
ecclesiology.
al was
preceded
linking pneumatology
Congar
church as the charismatic
Charismatic Renewal
began Second,
a
sociological understanding
the renewal movement within the Roman Catholic Church has from its
very inception
This was because the Catholic renew-
by
a number of
theological developments
and
ecclesiology.
and Karl Rahner were
already drawing
body
of Christ
long
before the
in the Catholic
Theologians
like Yves
attention to the
Church in 1967.6 of the church tends to
about
by people
united
see the church as a
community brought
so that the koinonia is not
primarily
by
the
Spirit
of God but
by
a kindred human
spir- quite spiritual
like
preach-
the result of human
who make the
.
for a common
purpose,
the creation
it. The
purpose
could be
something ing
the
gospel,
action. In the final
analysis, church,
(Matt. 16:18).
but it is still
essentially
it is the
people
rather than Christ who
said,
“I will build
my
church”
reality
of the church (mother church)
as a
spiritual, entails a doctrine Pentecostal
spirituality.
This
paper
will seek to show that a
concept
transcendent and
organic
of the
Spirit
that will
significantly shape
Such a doctrine of the church will also
applied
Rapids,
.
5 Here, as elsewhere in the New Testament, the use of “shared titles” like “elect” and “beloved” between Christ and the believers suggests that these terms are
to the believers as the church corporately rather than as individuals. See Everett Ferguson, The Church of Christ: A Biblical Bcclesiology for Today (Grand 6
MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1996), 99-103.
Edward O’Connor, “The Hidden Roots of the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church,” in Aspects of Pentecostal-Charismatic Origins, ed. Vinson
NJ: Logos International, 1975), 169-91.
Synan (Plainfields,
179
3
give specific world.
shape
to the nature of the
Spirit’s
Ecclesial
Pneumatology
One
important
consequence
relation to the
of
taking
mother church seri-
pneumatology.
That is
ously
is that we are forced to think in terms of an ecclesial
rather than an individual
locus of the work of the
Spirit
is not in the
Christian but in the church. The
coming
is often
regarded
as
representative
his
body.
To be
baptized into a
Spirit-filled,
is first an event of the church
Spirit-baptism conscious and
responsible
Christians.
of the
as a model for . Rather,
Jesus’
of the
Spirit’s
into Christ
Spirit-empowered
prior
to its Spirit-baptism.
This is
understanding
of
Spirit-
in this
way
will make
when
Spirit- It means that the
primary
pneumatology
to
say,
the
primary
individual
Spirit
on Jesus at his
baptism the
Spirit’s baptism
of individual baptism
should be
regarded coming upon
the
church,
is to be
incorporated
entity. Spirit-baptism
being
actualized in a
personalized recognised
as a distinctive Matthean baptism.7 Understanding
one more
ecclesially
baptism
is “actualized”
personally. focus of
Spirit-baptism
our
fellowship
in Christ.
A basic
problem
is to actualize our communal life or
Pentecostal
reality ized
experiences. my relationship
in Pentecostalism is that it is
hardly aware of this communal context of
Spirit baptism.
has tended to be understood
My relationship
apart
from
fellowship question
of
priority.
with others is
secondary. matter is that we cannot conceive of
fellowship
in God
through
Our
relationship
The
as individual- with God is
primary,
while
But the truth of the
with God
the
Spirit.
There is no
with the triune God at
.
7 Kilian McDonnell and George T. Montague, Christian Initiation and Baptism ill the Holy Spirit: Evidence from the First Eight Centuries (Collegeville, MN:
15-22.
Liturgical Press, 1991),
180
4
with the
saints,
since no
without our
being bap-
Yet,
all too
often,
once
brings
us into the
fellowship real communion
tized into the
body
of
Christ, Pentecostals
Pentecost” than with the
corporate which each
person
has a share.
A related
question
is whether of the Christian life is better served “Free Church”
type
of
ecclesiology. archical
with God is
possible
the church.
are more concerned with their
“personal
Pentecostal
reality
of
type
that has
given
the church a
stronger
held
together
of the church
this
corporate understanding
by
a hierarchical or a
Historically,
it is the hier-
sense of cor-
by
the role of the of Christ
(in persona
(in persona
eccle- on the other
hand,
has tended
we have
just
described. It has not
fragmentation,
for
traditioning.
of Word and
Spirit
would
help
to
but has also not One
might
think
°
The
“play”
of
Spirit
and
spirituality.8
But
if it is not satisfacto-
there must
structure. In the Free
Pentecostal
out
effectively
For
play
to
continue,
in which the rules of the
game
are
clearly
that
is,
a stable
traditioning
ecclesiology, Spirit
and Word tend to be rather related to the church because the latter is conceived of as a
porate identity-an identity bishop
or
priest
as
representative Christi)
and as
representative siae).
Free Church
ecclesiology, toward the sort of
problem only
been
plagued by frequent shown a
very strong capacity that the Protestant dialectic establish some form of
continuity. Word is crucial for
structuring this
play
cannot be carried rily
located in
ecclesiology. be a
playground
established,
Church
loosely
is to take
place,
there must be a
Word and church. This con-
voluntary
association.
If effective
traditioning closer
conjunction
between
Spirit, junction
Eastern
Orthodoxy mainly through certain
conditioning
has been achieved in traditional Catholicism and
role. If the church
their
giving
to the church a
is the
temple
of the
Suurmond, Rapids,
° For an understanding of the dialectic of Word and Spirit as play see Jean-Jacques
Word and Spirit at Play: Towards a Charismatic Theology (Grand
MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994).
181
5
Holy Spirit,
is there not a sense in which
the
temple gives Word is “incarnated”
in
shape
to the
Spirit?
If the Incarnate the church
by
the
Spirit,
limitation” of Christ?
Free Church tradition has
justly whenever the church
attempts
is there then
not,
in a
sense,
a “self- (We
will return
to this
point later.)
The drawn attention to abuses
to domesticate the
Spirit
and Word.
Yet,
for its
part,
it has never
quite
succeeded in
taming
due
largely
to its failure to
ground
however,
Miroslav Volf
tradition without sacrific- wants to retain the
corpo-
but at the same time he
its
centrifugal voluntarism, Word and
Spirit
in
ecclesiology.
In his recent
attempts
to overcome
dencies
ing
the Free Church
principle. rate and
organic
rejects
Catholicism and
Orthodoxy ture of the
Trinity.
study
of
ecclesiology,
the individualistic and voluntaristic ten-
inherent in the Free Church
Volf
nature of the
church,9
the hierarchical structure of the church found in
and based on a hierarchical struc-
For Catholicism the
unity
of the church is founded on the
priority given
to the oneness of God: one
God-one
bishop-one church, is based on the
priority origin.
Volf’s own
ecclesiology of the
Trinity,
their
relations,
of the
Father,
.
tive role of the
Father,
whom the
Spirit proceeds, his
ecclesiology. »
untarism
by replacing
the
bishop same roles
I First,
which stresses the
equality
so that the
unity. (rather
ness)
of God arises from the trinitarian
the one who
begets
plays
no
part
in the
structuring
Volf overcomes the individualism
the church is not the
subject, ated with the doctrine of the “total Christ”
head and members
( Christus
totus, caput
(Grand Rapids,
whereas for
Orthodoxy unity
the
unbegotten,
without is based on the social doctrine
of the
persons
in
than numerical one-
relations. The constitu-
the Son and from
of
and vol- with the
laity
in
exactly
the
an idea associ-
consisting
of both
et
membra); rather,
9 Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity, 0
MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998), esp. chapter 4.
11 Ibid., 202-6, 216-17. Ibid., 224.
182
6
themselves in
interdependent are the mother church.” 12
the
subjects
are the members communion: “Christians
salvation is mediated not
through members of the church.
Holy Spirit,
not
through communal confession
God to one another.” 13
Third,
the church is constituted
institution of officers but
through in which Christians
Second, the
bishop
but
through
the
by
the
“the
speak
the Word of
siality
of the
Spirit-filled its
problems
as far as
traditioning lem is his
rejection
Trinity
in favor of the
social, Trinity.
Can an
ecclesiology role of the Father
thinks that the idea of the
bishop persona
ecclesiae would role to
insignificance.
While Volf
may
have succeeded in
preserving
life,
his
ecclesiology
of the hierarchical
egalitarian
be
adequate plays
no
part
in
structuring
to
hierarchy
is less a reflection
the eccle-
is not without is concerned. The first
prob-
understanding
of the
structure of the
if the constitutive
the church? Volf in
persona
Christi and in
of the role as with
Moltmann,
hier-
This aversion
order
(how
else do
is
the
carryover
,
the head of the
church?), of modem liberal democratic power
of church
officers,16 the
laity
raises the
spectre in
keeping
with the Free Church
lead to the reduction of the
laity’s
But Volf could not conceive
of the
laity
in
any
other
way because,
archy
is
always
associated with domination.
of biblical
we understand the husband as “head” of the wife as Christ
but seems to
betray
values. If Volf fears the abuse of
the
replacement
of the
tyranny
principle,
of the
bishop by of the
many. Second,
Volf
rejects
the
transfers that role
constitutive role of officers and
essentially to the whole
body
of believers as a charismatic
Forsyth, Marriage:
community.17
°
12
13 Ibid., 166; emphasis author’s.
14 Ibid., 224. Ibid., 21’7-20.
15 For an insightful understanding of subordination without domination, see P. T.
Its Ethic and Religion (Blackwood, South Australia: New Creation 16 Publications, [ 191 2] 1999), 69-79.
Miroslav Volf, The Church, 214.
Ibid., 228-33.
183
7
Christi,
As such he could
speak
of office holders as
acting in persona
but
only
as a charisma that is not
given permanently to
any persons. 18
Can such a fluid
conception
the order of the church?
ficiently preserve
tion of the Christus totus
concept ing
of the
relationship
hence in a loose
conjunction tion. Can such an
ecclesiology term?
between Christ and the
church,
of
Christ,
A
Dynamic
Catholic
of
ministry
suf-
Third,
Volf’s
rejec-
can
only
result in a loosen-
and
Scripture,
and tradi- be sustainable in the
long
Community
There are a number of
important
characteristics connected First,
when the
Spirit
“consti-
to an ecclesial
pneumatology. tutes” the church,
is needed
On the
contrary,
ing
and
dynamic.
stands
ebration. The
presence eucharist. As Zizioulas “come
together”
for the Lord’s
it is not a once-for-all action so that all that
now is to maintain its “constitutional” status
quo.
the action of the
Spirit
in the church is
ongo-
This is seen in the
way
the church under- the
action
of the
Spirit
in relation to the eucharistic
of the
Spirit
is
regularly
has
pointed
cel-
invoked in the
out,
it is when believers Supper (
Cor.
11:18)
that
they
are constituted anew
by
the
Spirit
as the Church of Jesus
Christ. 19 In the New Testament therefore
which is what the word “catholic” it is constituted “whole”
be described as “the whole church”
the local
congregation
could
(Rom. 16 :23)-
means-precisely
because
gathers together
communion.
The idea of the
catholicity
by
the
Spirit
when the whole church in the name of Jesus Christ to celebrate the
of the local
congregation
needs
further elaboration. Zizioulas notes that in Jewish and Roman
there were also fraternal associations similar to the
societies
(Crestwood,
18 Ibid., 213. 19
John Zizioulas, Being as Communion Studies in Personhood and the Church
NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985), 148.
184
8
Christian a eucharistic
community sharing
unique
is that as
church. But what makes the church
the one bread and one
cup
it transcends all social and racial boundaries. “The eucharistic
community
was in its
composition
a catholic
community
in
the sense that it transcended not
only
social but also natural
Jew nor
Greek,
the whole church
Catholicity
of this
understanding For too
long
we have excused
concept
slave nor free.
gathered
to wholeness that makes the
is a
concept
that is
before it becomes a uni-
, ‘
of
catholicity
is far- the lack of church
of
catholicity (which, But if
catholicity
has to
that
of
race,
cul-
is far
divisions.”20 There is neither Within a
locality (say
in
Rome), break bread. It is this
transcending local
congregation
“catholic.” first
applied
to the local
congregation versal
concept.
The
implication
reaching.
unity by focusing
on a universal of
course,
remains difficult to
realize). do
primarily
gathers together
ture or
sex,
then the
problem
with the wholeness of the local
congregation
to share the one loaf
regardless
of the lack of
catholicity more real and
urgent.
To the extent that the local
congregation
fails to transcend its
ethnocentrism, Lord’s
Body” and,
therefore, the church’s
catholicity,
a
catholicity believe when we recite the Nicene holy,
catholic and
apostolic
church.”
It is in the
light
of the
Spirit’s
falls short of an essential
it fails to “discern the
quality:
in which we claim to Creed: “We believe in one
catholic that we can
begin
to
appreciate
impulse
of the Pentecostal
pioneer Azusa Street Mission.
Seymour bly
the
only person
real
significance
of the Pentecostal
was a remarkable at that time who
clearly
marked
the whole
history
saw it as the event to
bring
into existence
by
an
all-transcending catholicity.
of the Pentecostal
20 Ibid., 148.
185
constituting
the church as
the ecumenical William
Seymour
at the
man, proba-
understood the outpouring,
because he
a church
supremely
His
significance
in
movement can not be
9
underestimated. follows:
Douglas
Nelson describes
pened. together beyond
his contribution as
Amid the most racist era of a totally segregated society, a miracle hap-
For the first time in history a miniature global community came
the color line, meeting night and day continuously for three years, inviting everyone to enter the new life in fellowship together. The original vision for a new society-forged again in the USA during 250 years of black slave experience-became an historical reality in the church_21
_ ,
of the Pentecostal
event also
in a far more
profound way
than could. Glossolalia was not a
badge
to nor was it just a
sign
of a
a
symbol
of
from
every
con-
in diverse kinds of
of an event whose
pri-
distinguished chiefly by
the Azusa Street
Seymour’s understanding helped
him to see
glossolalia his white
counterparts
identify
oneself as a
Pentecostal, supernatural experience; God’s
bringing together ceivable
background.
tongues
mary purpose
its all
embracing
Mission was an embodiment
it
was,
for
Seymour,
into one
body people
The
speaking
is the most
appropriate symbol
was to create a church
inclusiveness.22 For a
while,
of that
reality.
this sort of ecumenical effort was not
of
Pentecostals,
then or now. Nelson in
Seymour’s day,
blinded
by
of
the old divisions
Unfortunately,
appreciated by
a
majority notes that the white Pentecostals their color
prejudice,
what
Seymour
were raised
mised ;
the
catholicity
years,
Plessis,
was to be
equally
had failed to
grasp
the
importance
represented.23 Before 4ong
again;
the true
spirit
of Pentecost was
compro-
of the church was undermined. In later the work of another Pentecostal
misunderstood and
maligned by
fel-
ecumenist,
David du
21 D. J. Nelson, For Such a Time as This: The Story of Bishop William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival (Ph.D. diss., University of Birmingham,
1 98 1 ), II; cf.
p 204. z2 See Murray Dempster, “The Church’s Moral Witness: A Study of Glossolalia In 23 Luke’s Theology of Acts,” Paraclete
23, no. 1 (Winter 1989): 1-7.
D.J. Nelson, For Such a Time as This, 210-11.
186
10
low Pentecostals.
spirit
of Pentecost
many present-day
Pentecostals, are
working tirelessly
toward
Yet,
these noble
attempts
remain a source of
great inspiration
,
genuine
The cause of the failure to see the
significance
Spirit’s
work in
effecting catholicity sociological
but also
theological. unconsciously,
black contribution
during
Pentecostal movement.
wise
“spiritually
to realize the true
to such as Cecil
Robeck, Jr.,
who
unity.
of the
in the church is not
only White
Pentecostals,
perhaps
or underestimate the
stages
of the
Street
happening.24 Pentecostals
began
had tended to
downplay
the formative
Nelson has shown that even an other-
sensitive white man” like Frank Bartleman had been biased and inaccurate in his
reporting
The result of such a
prejudice
to overlook the
ecclesiological
of Pentecost and stress the
personal-experiential
of the Azusa
is that white
dimension
and missio- became the evidence of a at a
personal empower-
is later
compounded
logical
dimension instead:
tongues personal
Pentecost aimed
primarily ment to
preach
the
gospel. by
their uncritical
alignment Sometimes
they simply
talistic tendencies and
concerns, of
salvation,
an anti-liberal Roman Catholics-attitudes
The
problem
with the fundamentalists.
added Pentecostal fervor to fundamen-
such as a
privatized concept
of
to this
day,
rhetoric and a total
rejection
that still
persist
the fact that Catholic Charismatics have in recent
than their
evangelical
solid
theological arguments
beliefs and
practices (e.g.,
Simon
Tugwell,
Kilian McDonnell et
al.).
despite
years
been far more
helpful providing
Peter
Hocken,
A
Healing Community
brethren in for their distinctive
Francis
Sullivan,
scending
The
Spirit
that creates the eucharistic
cultural and historical
all
social,
24 Ibid., 89-95.
187
community
tran- boundaries also
11
chiefly by
its Paul warned the
is characterized
and
healing.
that failure to observe the
unity
of the
Spirit
in the
the Lord’s
body,”
which results
body”
means
effecting
implies
that this
community work of reconciliation
Corinthians
eucharist is failure to “discern in sickness
not assume that to “discern wholeness and
healing?
ancient
practice
of divine
healing ing
are the fruits of
catholicity. also discover
and death
(1
Cor.
11 :29,30).25 Conversely, may
we
the Lord’s
On this basis we can understand the
menist,
D. T.
Niles,
in the church. Gifts of heal- In our search for wholeness we
as
well,
that it includes wholeness for the
person body,
mind and
spirit.
This fact has led the Sri Lankan ecu-
to observe that “it is not
just
coincidence that there is a revival of the
healing ministry
the same time as there is the
swelling
Movement.”26 It is in the context of ecclesial life
Spirit
ministers and distributes the
gifts
“for the common
of the church at of the Ecumenical
that the
life. As James
has
taught
good” (
Cor.
12:7).
Prayer
for
healing regular part
of the church’s us,
the sick are to be
prayed elders of the
served in the Eastern
Church, anointing
with oil for
healing. this sacrament
Sunday.
As a
healing can then extend
of the
body,
mind and
spirit
must be a
liturgical
for and anointed with oil
by
the church. This
has,
for the most
part,
been
pre-
once a
year
on the
Friday
and
reconciling its
healing ministry
which
regularly practiced
the In
fact,
all believers received
before Palm
community
the church
to the
larger
world. In this
23 Fee thinks that there is not a direct, “one for one” correlation between abuse of
[Grand Rapids,
Spirit, 1 99 1 ), 30.
the Supper and sickness and death, that is, those who abused were the ones who became ill, but that the presence of illnesses and death had
the
something to do with the abuse of
Supper (Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians l6
MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1987], 565).
D.J. Niles, That They May Have Life (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1 95 1 ), 27 78. See Stanley Burgess, “Implications of Eastern Christian Pneumatology,” in Conference on Pentecostal and Charismatic Research in Europe, Experiences of the
ed. Jan A.B. Yongeneel (Frankfurt am Main and New York, NY: Peter Lang,
188
12
connection Pentecostals must
seriously
rethink the
popular practice
of
relying
on a few
gifted healing evangelists
for the well-being
of the church. One must
question
the usual method of
trying
to start a revival
by inviting
some well-known
speak- er with a
supernatural gift
to his or her
credit, usually
an inde- pendent preacher
who takes
pride
in
having
no church affilia- tion. Such an
approach
is
completely contrary
to the work of the
Spirit
in the church. It
implies
that the church needs some external human
agent
to
carry
on its
work,
whereas to believe in the
Spirit-filled
church means that the charismata
operate freely
within the life of the
church,
especially
in the eucharis- tic event when the action of the
Spirit
is
particularized.
In short,
the
holy
communion should be the best occasion for prayers
of reconciliation and
healing
to take
place.
It is also in
recognition
of the
all-embracing healing
work of the
Spirit
in the eucharistic event that Christian tradition concludes the celebration with the
“sending
forth”
(missio:
the Mass)28
in the
power
of the
Spirit
to offer
healing
and recon- ciliation to the world. We are fed and renewed in order to offer
up
our lives as
living
sacrifices to God to be used as God pleases.
In the Book
of
Common
Prayer
the communion ends with the
congregation praying
this
prayer:
Almighty God, we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your
Son Jesus Christ. Through him we offer you our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice. Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory. Amen.
‘ I
Eucharistic
worship
does not end in
cosy fellowship,
but in costly
mission into the world. The
early
Methodists
captured this truth
by including
a collection for the
poor
at the end of the communion service.
28 The Mass properly understood has nothing to do with the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, as commonly thought.
.
189
13
A
Truth-traditioning Community
the
Third,
church
dynamically, truth exists
dynamically.
the action of the
Spirit
not
only
constitutes
it also makes the church the
place
where
This means that connection between Christ the Truth, the Head of the church,
and the tradition of than is
usually acknowledged
the church is far more
profound in Protestantism.
ual,
historical
person,
church as his
body.
The church
Christ who is the truth is not
just
an individ-
but is also the truth in relation to the
Christ the truth.29 The action of the
Spirit,
of Christ
is therefore an extension of
makes
possible
the the Truth in the church. The
through
ongoing traditioning dynamic relationship the
Spirit
is seldom
Pentecostals
Spirit’s
could
develop
a closer
relationship tion. This
potential
“Spirit-Word.”
Steven
relationship
between
between Christ and the church
explicitly acknowledged by
Protestants.
who have a far more
dynamic
work in the church than their Protestant
view of the
counterparts between Truth and tradi-
of the
the
is seen in their
understanding
Land observes that for Pentecostals
Spirit
and Word “is based on that of the Spirit
to Christ. Even as the
Spirit
formed Christ in
Mary,
so
to form Christ in believers and vice
work in the believers is
ongoing
the
Spirit
uses
Scripture
versa.”3? The
Spirit’s
not confined to
just illuminating the
Spirit says
is
always possibility
of
evolving
a
dynamic pered by
the individualistic the Pentecost event. Sometimes rhema-word
cy
towards illuminism.
based on the truth of
Scripture.
conception
given
to an
individual,
The more “orthodox”
the other
hand, try
to correct this
danger by
a wooden
89-107; Aulen,
and is the
Scriptures, although
what
The tradition, however,
is ham-
among
Pentecostals of Spirit-Word
becomes a
which results in a tenden-
Pentecostals,
on
doctrine
(Sheffield, England:
29 Zizioulas, Being as Communion, 110ff. Cf. Nygren, Christ and His Church, esp. 30
The Faith of the Christian Church, esp. 329-35.
See Steven J. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom
Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 100-101.
190
14
of
Scripture
tion refers
solely
to the
Spirit’s to
personal
life. This “safe” traditioning
Pentecostal-evangelical
contemporary
Christmas carol:
inherited from
evangelicalism
approach of truth to the first
century,
collaboration,
in which illumina- work of
applying
the
Scripture
that limits the normative
the result of
is well illustrated in a
,
.
,
.
The Father gave the Son
The Son gave the Spirit
The Spirit gives us life
So we can give the gift of love.
And the gift goes on…
Don’t you love to get a present all wrapped up in a Christmas bow? God gave each of us a present on that night so long ago It’s a gift that keeps on giving if our spirits can receive . It’s the secret joy of living if our hearts can believe…31
I
the
gift
of the Son
through
Christians
recognize
the normative First
the moral
principle
for the individ-
to one
another, provided
. would be to locate the
Spirit-
and the eucharistic
The first three lines
implicitly Tradition. But
subsequently, Spirit
is turned into a timeless ual
giving
of love
among they
“receive” and “believe.”
A more
adequate approach Word within the ecclesial event.
Only
within
retain their
dynamism
church is realised in the eucharist
community
their ecclesial location can
Spirit
and Word
and
continuity.
present.
tivities, but,
because of
history,
us forward into the future. thought
most
succinctly:
Christ the Truth is made
present
action of the
Spirit
in the
preaching
sacrament. This is not
just
a truth of
history, subject
it is
by
the action of the
Spirit,
the
Gospel story,
comes to us
vertically
John Zizioulas has
expressed
31
Christ as the truth in the where he is
sacramentally
in the church
by
the
of the Word and in the
to its rela-
the truth
and drives
this
Gift Goes On.” Words and music by Ron Harris and Claire Cloninger, 0 1983, Ron Harris Music. Used by permission. Emphasis added.
191
15
epicletic transfigures
the
[H]istory understood in the light of eucharistic experience is not the same as history as normally understood; it is conditioned by the anamnetic and
character of the eucharist which, out of distance and decay,
time into communion and life. Thus history ceases to be a succession of events moving from past to present linearly, but acquires
dimension of the future, which is also a vertical dimension transform- ing history into charismatic-pentecostal events. Within history thus pic-
truth does not come to us solely by way of delegation (Christ-the
in a linear development). It comes as a pentecostal event which takes linear history up into a charismatic present-moment.32
tured,
apostles-the bishops,
Zizioulas’s Pentecostals Pentecostal’s
description
of truth is
significant
in at least two
ways.
First,
it confirms
insistence that truth is
supernatural what the
Spirit
has done. Without this
supernatural
for
the
because of
dimension of
being
relativized. This was
the truth is in constant
danger perhaps
liberals than the fundamentalists. uralized truth and this would fundamental structure
Pentecostals, however, historical
why
the
early
Pentecostals were more fearful of the
The liberals had
de-supemat- have
completely
undermined the
experience.
on the
sense of the
Spirit’s
of Pentecostal
have not been as
emphatic
dimension of truth. Their
strong
action has tended to lead
them
toward an
“over-supernatural-
of truth. Here is where Zizioulas’s
truth could
again help
the Pentecostal. The fact that the
Spirit
ized”
concept
“transfigures” history, turning event,
means that
history be
nothing
to
transfigure.
concept
of
is
important,
History
the Pentecostal event takes
place.
of bread and wine that a new dimension of
reality
it
into,
a charismatic-Pentecostal
otherwise there would
is the avenue
through
which
It is
through
the
ordinary
elements
opens up by
the
Spirit’s
action. be divorced from
history, tinuity
Pentecostalism:
by freeing
or there would of the vertical event. Herein
the Pentecostal
The Pentecostal event cannot
be no historical con-
lies the Achilles’ heel of
event from its his-
32 Zizioulas, Being as Communion, 115-16.
192
16
torical
moorings,
traditioning.
need is there to check it
against tion ?
it has
considerably If truth can come
directly
weakened its
capacity
for
from the
Spirit,
what the historical Christian tradi-
The
way
for Pentecostals to overcome this weakness is
by
in the
ecclesial life,
especially
in the where the
ordinary things
are
the
theology
of
the focal
point
locating
their
experience context of eucharistic
worship “transfigured.”
rich
pneumatological
the eucharist.
ly present
in the
eucharist, of Pentecostal
worship? prayer
for a fresh
in-filling al and
spiritual healing?
Pentecostals would do well to
appropriate
resources in the Orthodox
If there is a sense in which the
Spirit
is
especial-
could it not become
Could it not be the occasion for
of the
Spirit
for
physical,
An
Eschatological
“Pentecostal-charismatic” tion to the
past, present,
emotion-
Community
of its rela- The
precise
considered.
Theologically, tionship
between
pneumatology
The action of the
Spirit
in the church as a “vertical” or
event raises the
question
and future of
history.
relation between the vertical and the historical must now be
the issue could be seen as the rela-
and
eschatology.
The
Spirit
is the
distinguishing sign
of the “last
days”
(Acts 2).
The
coming
of the
Spirit present
event. The
Spirit
unites ent. This is seen
repeatedly understood as the foretaste, creation
creates the church
turns linear
history
into a the
past
and future in the
pres-
where the
Spirit
is
or firstfruits of the new
from
beyond history
–
in
Scripture
the
pledge
(Rom. 8:23).
The
Spirit coming
or,
we
might say,
the
“corporate personali- ty”
of Christ and
points
the church in the direction of the
To
quote again
from Zizioulas:
future,
the
beyond.
The Spirit is the beyond of history, and when he acts in history he does so in order to bring into history the last days, the eschaton. Hence the
193
17
‘
first fundamental particularity of Pneumatology is its eschatological char- acter.33
The
presence church’s existence
an
eschatological
of the
Spirit
in the church makes the
to be
essentially
tence in which the “not
yet”
has in a sense
“already
Steven
Land has well summed
eschatological
tension for Pentecostals:
laugh participate
up
the
significance
exis- come.” of this
Pentecostals who are moved deeply and powerfully by the Spirit will
and cry, dance and wait in stillness. In the Spirit they “already”
in the marriage supper but also live in the “not yet” of a lost world. [T]he Spirit acts as a kind of “time machine” via the Word,
the believer to travel backward and forward in salvation and to imaginatively participate in the events that have been and are yet to be.34
enabling
The
understanding
community
constituted
Pentecostal
spirituality.
tence is
basically
characterized and the
beyond.
It is not
merely beyond history.
which is
beyond history and is
something
own
eschatological
of the church as the
eschatological by
the
Spirit
is
extremely First,
the nature of the church’s
dom”
that
everything
crucial for
exis- by
its orientation to the future a historical future but a future
toward that
highlighted by
Zizioulas
to their
for the
king-
This orientation of
spirituality
is
especially
Pentecostals would find
congenial
vision. It was such a vision that led
early Pentecostals to be filled with such a
“passion
else was made subservient to it. Christ as the
coming king
was not
just
one item in the fivefold
it
was,
as Land has
pointed
Some Pentecostals in the
past might
have over stressed the “not
yet” aspect
of
eschatology
and the creation of a
permanent
gospel;
shape
to this
gospel.
the abandonment of
history crisis mindset in
anticipation Christ. While this
apocalyptic some to noble acts of
service,
33 Ibid., 130. 34
Land, Pentecostal Spirituality, 98.
out,
the truth that
gave
resulting
in
of the “imminent” return of vision has sometimes driven it has
unfortunately
also result-
194
18
ed in disastrous ventures.
Second,
we are also reminded new creation.
the
future,
of the of the future
kingdom
in
of the
age
to come in
signs
and
wonders,
but tension between the “has
maintained. If period
had tended to
are often
guilty
of over-
are
already
in some measure only
a measure.
come”
some of the Pentecostals become too
preoccupied Charismatics
‘ playing To maintain a
the
“kingdom
healthy the “not
yet,” pneumatology the context of biblical
while the
Spirit helps
us to
appropriate
that the
Spirit
is the firstfruits
We do have a foretaste
this
life,
but
only
a foretaste. The
powers
present
This
eschatological
and the “not
yet”
must be
strenuously
in an earlier
with the “not
yet,”
modem
like the “third wavers”
now”
theology.
tension between the “has come” and
must be
interpreted primarily
eschatology
has resulted
or the
adoption
in
rather than
apocalypticism.
in either the aban-
of false millennarian eschatology
the future is linked
by
the
Spirit
as the firstfruits of the new cre-
as we shall see
shortly,
history
that the its distinctive charac-
that we can also
begin
to understand work in the
church,
Historically, apocalypticism donment of
history
hopes. By
contrast,
in biblical to the
present
ation. It is as the
firstfruits, Spirit gives
to
present
salvation ter. It is as the firstfruits
the
Spirit’s intercessory
8:26. The “unutterable
groanings” are not
primarily
God but with the
Spirit’s the
groanings
eration of the children of God.
The
Spirit
who
inspires “beyond”
of
history
leads us
through history
concerned with our
personal
work of
identifying of a broken world-a
such as in Rom. of the
Spirit
in the believers
intimacy
with
believers with world that awaits the lib-
abandoning
history
but
the “last
days.”
ing
our
spiritual experience, darity
with the nonhuman
hope
and
points
us to the
does so without
to feel the birth
pangs
of the new
age which in fact had
already begun
when the
Spirit inaugurated
True
Spirit-inspired prayer,
should lead us to a
deeper
creation. Real union with God
by
far from
privatiz-
soli-
195
19
God’s
beyond history to take our historical
with
us True
and
engaged.
Spirit-inspired
Pentecostals need to recover prayer;
otherwise
glossolalia privatized engagement in the
sky-or
warfare or for
gaining
the
Spirit
cannot be too far removed from
solidarity
world. The
Spirit
who drives us forward to a
hope
also drives us back into
history, challenging
existence with utmost seriousness.
prayer keeps
us both
hopeful
this dimension of
glossolalic
can all too
easily
be reduced to
with God and
pious longing
else be turned into a
technique
health and wealth.
for a
pie for
spiritual °
Creator
Spiritus
or
Ecclesiological Pneumatology?
to the
development
way
of life. We must now consider
by
an
organic
mother church there can be no authoritative
at how an ecclesial
pneuma-
of a more coherent
the
implication
understanding
of the may
be stated in this
way:
or
dog-
either. To
appreciate
this
relation of
dogma
to the
the
general
has to do with a confessional standard-what
to be true-and this standard as a
worshipping community.
grows Without the
So far we have been
looking tology
contributed
Pentecostal
of a
pneumatology shaped church. The crux of the matter without
matic definition of
pneumatology point
we need to consider church.
Dogma
we believe and confess out of the church
church,
there is no
dogma.35
We are not
saying
dards
concerning
rather,
as a
community
Lord and indwells the Christian the revealed
that the church devises its own stan- what is to be believed and confessed as true;
that
worships
truth and seeks to articulate it
faithfully.36 Holy Spirit plays
a critical role in this
process
and confesses Jesus as story,
the church
recognizes
The
of
arriving
at a
of Theology Today, B. Eerdmans, 1998),
35 Carl E. Braaten, “The Role of Dogma in the Church and Theology,” in The Task
ed. Victor Pfitzner and Hilary Regan (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. 36
30-31.
Ibid., 25.
196
20
dogmatic
definition.
According
to Reinhard Hutter in a recent study
on this
subject,
the church’s role in the
development
of doctrine is
always responsive
or
“pathic”
in relation to the cre- ative work
(poiesis)
of the
Spirit
in the church. The
Spirit
is the true creator of the church and in the church’s task of
doing theology.
Here is one context in which the term Creator Spiritus
could be
properly applied.37
This role of the
Spirit
must in turn be reflected in the church’s
dogmatic
definition of
pneumatology,
otherwise the church falls into the
ever-present danger
of
assuming
for itself the creative role of
formulating
its own
theology.
This
point
is especially important
because the
development
of
pneumatol- ogy
has not
always
been
governed by
the criterion of revela- tion
but,
especially nowadays, by
interest in
religious experi- ence of whatever
stripe
or source. Braaten notes that “revi- sionists” who have no interest in traditional
dogma
are nonetheless
deeply
interested in
pneumatology
as the basis for promoting
some kind of inclusive
religious experience.38
This largely explains
the
sympathy
of
theologians
like
Harvey
Cox toward Pentecostalism.39
One obvious
example
of the
outworking
of an
“undogmat- ic”
pneumatology
is in the
way
the
concept
of Creator
Spiritus
has been extended in
contemporary pneumatologies
to mean the work of the
Spirit
in the world outside the context of salvation
history.
The
Spirit
is
simply
identified as the
Spirit of creation without
specifying
in what sense this is
possible and whether the
conception faithfully
reflects the biblical account.
Against
this identification of the
Spirit
as the
Spirit
of cre- ation,
we would
argue
that not
only
is the
Holy Spirit
the
.
.
37 Reinhard Hiitter, Suffering Divine Thing,i: Theology
