Globalization of Pentecostalism: A review article, The

Trinity Journal, Spring 2002 by Elbert, Paul

The Globalization of Pentecostalism: A Religion Made To Travel,1 is the result of a conference in Costa Rica (1996) devoted to a selection of issues emerging from the ongoing globalization of what Presbyterian theologian J. Rodman Williams identifies as the Pentecostal Reformation,2 a movement which represents more than one third of the world's practicing Christians, more than all of Protestantism combined. In Williams's case, for example, his many writings,3 especially his trilogy, Renewal Theology,4 have been of some assistance to the global Pentecostal and Charismatic renewal movements as have the biblical contributions, for example, of Arrington, Ervin, Horton, Palma, and Rea5 from within the Pentecostal sector. These movements6 continue to attempt to reach out to Christians in various denominations through conferences and symposia around the world, as is the case with the current effort of Dempster, Klaus, and Peterson. The estimate that the Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal movements now numerically dwarf all Protestantism combined is probably a conservative numerical estimate by Baptist statistician David Barrett's latest tabulation7 and accords with the belief of traveling observers that there are over a million Pentecostal churches in villages, towns, and cities across the world. Given the contributions of the Reformed/evangelical and Catholic tradition to the Charismatic Renewal, joining Pentecostalism's renewed emphasis on Scripture and experience in theological reflection and hermeneutics,8 and to various former and ongoing dialogues with Pentecostals,9 the fruits and outreach of this conference in Costa Rica, along with associated theological ramifications, are of obvious importance to all serious observers of the contemporary religious scene.

Dempster, Klaus, and Peterson have put together a collection of essays built around three pre-selected themes, somewhat similar in style to the earlier Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture.10 Here, the editors and conference organizers come from the disciplines of social ethics (Dempster) and missiology (Klaus and Peterson). The immensity and diversity of the Pentecostal movement and its burgeoning offspring, the international charismatic renewal (not considered in this volume), afford a wide possibility for scholarly consideration. The topics chosen reflect the concerns and interests of the conveners and are grouped into three categories: Changing Paradigms in Pentecostal Scholarly Reflection; Pentecostalism as a Global Culture; and Issues Facing Pentecostalism in a Postmodern World.

I. CHANGING PARADIGMS

As a brief assessment cannot give due consideration to all the contributions, perhaps it is appropriate to focus on some of the highlights and lowlights, as well as some backgrounds, in an effort to provide an overall perspective of the volume. In the first category, Changing Paradigms, Wonsuk Ma, writes on "Biblical Studies in the Pentecostal Tradition: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" (pp. 52-69). Noting that two thirds of the world's people in the Third World are more open to the supernatural world enunciated in Scripture than in Western cultures, Ma points out that "The Pentecostal movement has long treasured Scripture. These 'people of the Book' have never questioned the authority of the written word" (p. 54), citing some of the scholarly books and journals produced in the tradition. Use of biblical narrative is widespread and Ma seems to side with the critical interpretative methods that emphasize the legitimacy of employing narrative for doctrine and practice:

Though the use of narrative for constructive theological work and doctrinal formulation has been criticized from both within and without, narratives are still viewed by Pentecostals, not only as an effective, but also as an authentic means of communicating traditions and truths. (p. 62)

Pentecostals' view of narrative and their application of its didactic intentions is entirely consistent with, and essentially the same as, how it was regarded in the Graeco-Roman world at the time Luke-Acts was written, where the narrative-rhetorical tradition was regarded as a means to persuade with clarity and plausibility, to set forth vivid examples and precedents, and to provide the reasons for why such actions occurred.11 Therefore, one may appropriately mention that the criticism or condemnation of using Luke's narrative to establish what Luke expects believers to pray for and what Luke expects God to do in answer to prayer-because Lukan characters who bear witness to Jesus also pray and receive the Lukan gift of the Holy Spirit-is, from the perspective of Pentecostal tradition, negative criticism that misunderstands Luke as having strictly historical-not theological-motives. It is widely viewed as virtually the same cessationist position that Calvin finally adopted toward the gift of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts, amended (recently by some) with the corollary that all the Pauline spiritual gifts are for today. In disagreement with evangelicalism, it is also reasonably understandable as a neo-cessationist non-Lukan position which has been long protected in the Reformed tradition and by others overly deferent to that tradition,12 a position broadly perceived from within the sector of Christendom under consideration in this volume as driving a narratively poisonous wedge between the earthly Jesus (his teachings, actions, and examples) and the heavenly Jesus who pours out the Lukan lift of the Holy Spirit.