word and the spirit or the spirit and the word: Exploring the boundaries of evangelicalism in relationship to modern Pentecostalism, The

Trinity Journal, Fall 2002 by Yong, Amos

III. BOUNDARIES AND IDENTITIES IN EVANGELICAL AND PENTECOSTAL PERSPECTIVES

Some brief concluding comments are in order. My dwelling on the differences between evangelicals and Pentecostals should not obscure the broad agreements which have enabled Pentecostals like Don Argue to become the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and Robert Cooley to become president of Gordon Conwell Seminary. Both movements are agreed on the central importance of being born again into a personal relationship with Jesus. Both are committed to the authority of Scripture. Both are driven to evangelism and missions by the Great Commission for the life. Yet, surely, even with the horribly thin generalizations which abound in the above discussion, differences abound and boundaries are surely present-some of them potentially, if not actually, divisive.

Part of the question revolves around defining authentic Christian or biblical faith. Is Christian faith centered on Christ, or is Christian faith Trinitarian and therefore centered on Christ and the Spirit? Perhaps this is a poor way to pose the question. In his study of modern "Christianities," Stephen Sykes argues that religious identities in general and Christian identities in particular are "essentially contested concepts" which are derivative of both the ambiguous nature of the life and teachings of both Jesus and Paul on the one hand, and the historical conditions Christians find themselves in which continually present new problems for solution on the other. Building on the work of historian of philosophy W. B. Gallie, seven conditions are specified which differentiate identity contests from mere verbal wrangles.30 First, the concept must a) signify a value which b) consists of an internally complex character, and c) which explanation requires reference to respective parts or features of the whole. Further, d) the value achieved should be capable of modification amidst changing circumstances and e) the contesting parties all recognize that the concept is contested by others and agree to participate in the contest both defensively and aggressively. Finally, f) the concept is agreed to derive from an acknowledged exemplar whose authority is uncontested and g) the contest itself is understood as efforts to sustain and develop the original exemplar's achieved values optimally. Christian identity or, synonymously for Sykes's area of inquiry, the essence of Christianity, fulfills the basic conditions for being an "essentially contested concept."'

Clearly, Sykes's argument is plausible in the sense that it appears to be correlative to the structure of personal selfhood as itself an essentially contested concept. But of course, we don't just all agree to disagree about our contested identities. How then are our disagreements to be adjudicated? Sykes's solution moves in the direction that Christians are first and foremost a worshiping community. He suggests that

the phenomenon of Christian worship makes a vital difference to the conditions under which vigorous argument of a radical kind may be regarded as a constructive contribution, not a destructive irrelevance, to the performance of Christian identity in the modern world.31