research

My current research focuses on tracing the outline of global Christianity and its theological agenda from the perspective of the renewal movements. This research is funded in part by a theological research grant of the Lilly Endowment of the Association of Theological Schools. The resulting insights are published in a monograph entitled:

Beyond Pentecostalism: The Crisis of Global Christianity and the Renewal of the Theological Agenda (Eerdmans, 2010).

Table of Contents (PDF)

Abstract:

The thesis of my research is that global Pentecostalism represents an indispensable catalyst in the formulation of the global theological task. My starting point is the notion that theology in the late modern world is experiencing a crisis, understood positively as both turning point and precondition for the progress of the theological task. I argue that Classical Pentecostalism is a manifestation of this crisis and responsible for bringing about the turn of theology toward a global agenda. The project describes the elements of this crisis, identifies how Classical Pentecostalism is a manifestation of the crisis, and suggests that the task of overcoming the crisis can be accomplished by integrating global Pentecostal thought and praxis in the worldwide theological agenda. This task, I propose, inevitably leads theology “beyond” the boundaries of the Classical Pentecostal tradition. A distinction is thus made between Classical Pentecostalism, with its origin in North America at the beginning of the twentieth century, and global Pentecostalism, a worldwide manifestation of the Pentecostal movement that has not forsaken but outgrown the boundaries of Classical Pentecostalism. I suggest that it is not the Classical Pentecostal tradition but global Pentecostalism that enables the renewal of the whole Church. 

Brief Description:

The project begins by identifying six areas of a contemporary theological crisis and the contributions of Classical Pentecostalism: (1) A crisis of reason and the articulation of meaning exacerbated by the Pentecostal story and the revival of glossolalia among Classical Pentecostals. (2) A crisis of ritual intensified by the gap between the ritual culture of the established liturgical traditions and Pentecostal notions of liturgy. (3) A crisis of creedal theology deepened by the doctrine of Oneness Pentecostalism and its implicit critique of a sequential formulation of the doctrine of God in the form of the three articles of faith. (4) A crisis in the Christocentric interpretation of the gospel enhanced by the pneumatological orientation toward the gospel among Pentecostals. (5) A crisis in ecumenical ecclesiology manifested in particular in the rejection of Classical Pentecostalism by the mainline churches and the formulation of a Pentecostal identity in terms evading and even rejecting orthodox formulations. (6) A crisis in Pentecostalism intensified by a general trend of the movement toward global theology and the tendency to go beyond the boundaries of the Classical Pentecostal tradition. The results of this analysis suggest that the task of overcoming the crisis can be accomplished by integrating global Pentecostal thought and praxis in the worldwide theological agenda. Based on this integration, the project then identifies the contributions Pentecostal theology offers the global theological task. The results sheds light not only on the future of Pentecostalism but on the immediate direction of global theology in the twenty-first century.     

Goals:

The goal of this proposal is the integration of Pentecostalism in the global theological agenda by recognizing the major resources Pentecostalism offers the theological task today. In light of the six areas of crisis in contemporary theology identified through this study, the following six corresponding areas of Pentecostal contributions to the theological task will be identified. (1) A revival of the theological imagination and its integration of the use of reason through stories, images, visions, aesthetics, and affections manifesting the work of God’s Spirit in the world. (2) A transformation of the orthodox elements of liturgy from a conceptually fixed, written, tradition-based, priest-centered, and Christologically oriented framework into a flexible, oral, scripture-based, people-centered, and pneumatologically oriented notion of ritual, a task that has been pursued recently by many of the major theological traditions. (3) A reformulation of the orthodox doctrine of God apart from the three articles of faith in light of a narrative-symbolic hermeneutic and pneumatological view of revelation. (4) A correction of the static and truncated view of the gospel, resulting from the dominant Christocentric perspective, with the dynamic notion of a “continuing gospel” emphasizing its pneumatological, personal, ecclesiological, and eschatological dimensions. (5) A revisioning of ecumenical ecclesiology that understands Pentecostalism not as an alternative to other ecclesial traditions but as an ecumenical potential transforming the ecclesiological orthodoxy of Christendom. (6) An emphasis of renewal that takes Pentecostalism beyond its own boundaries and, in so doing, offers a prototype for understanding the theological task in the late modern world. 

Method:

Since this study is focused not only on Pentecostal thought and praxis but on the wider theological agenda, the project employs the method of correlation and experiment. The heart of this approach is a unification of the global theological task and the Pentecostal tradition. It stands in contrast to the so-called providentialist approach (Lovett, Pomerville, Synan), genetic approach (Bergunder, Dayton, Kendrick), multicultural approach (Daniels, Hollenweger, Robeck), and functional approach (Blumhofer, Wacker) to Pentecostal identity that often mark the parameters of an internal debate and have been of little interest to the global theological agenda. In their place, correlation determines how Pentecostalism and global theology are related to each other. The purpose of this approach is to allow us to make a prediction about the global theological task based on what we know about Pentecostalism. The results suggest that Classical Pentecostalism is a manifestation of a larger theological crisis. Six fundamental areas of this crisis will be identified through the method of correlation. In addition, since correlation does not measure cause, it is necessary to analyze the relation of Pentecostalism and global theology in the controlled environment of the six areas. This allows the project, first of all, to identify Classical Pentecostalism as a contributor to the crisis. Furthermore, the project can then proceed to evaluate the contributions of global Pentecostalism to the future of the wider theological task in the 21st century.

Significance to others:

Since this project envisions Pentecostalism as a catalyst for the global theological task in general, three main audience clusters can be identified for the project. The study addresses the “orthodox” theological academy in general and calls for a joint effort to articulate the task of global theology in the twenty-first century. This broad appeal is channeled through three larger ecumenical groups, (1) Evangelicals engaged in formulating the shape of theology in the postmodern context and the debate about a “generous orthodoxy,” (2) Catholic and Anglican theologians participating in or reacting to the movement labeled “Radical Orthodoxy,” and (3) the growing number of Pentecostals who have begun the construction of a global theology from a Pentecostal perspective.

On the one hand, Beyond Pentecostalism challenges the theological academy that in recent years has begun to envision the global theological task of the late modern world with greater participation of Pentecostal thought and praxis.  In particular, the book speaks to the agenda of three major sections of the American Academy of Religion: the Evangelical Theology Group and its attempts to interpret Pentecostalism as a subsection of the Evangelical tradition, the challenges of the New Religious Movements Group in light of its endeavor to categorize theological movements as either “marginal” or “mainstream,” and the Ecclesiological Investigations Group and its effort to integrate Pentecostals in the existing ecumenical landscape. 

The project engages the internal debate among Pentecostals, carried out in The Journal of Pentecostal Theology and Pneuma as well as ecumenical journals such as the Journal of the Wesleyan Theological Society, Ecumenical Trends, and Mid-Stream. The discussions of the well-received Ecclesiological Investigations group of the AAR present a further audience. In addition, a debate about the nature of theology continues to be carried out in journals such as Theology Today, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Theological Studies, or Currents in Theology and Mission. Finally, a number of publishers have sustained publications on the theological task for a broad audience, e.g. The Task of Theology Today: Doctrines and Dogmas (Eerdmans), The Character of Theology: An Introduction to Its Nature, Task, and Purpose (Baker Academic), The Crucial Task of Theology (Westminster John Knox), After Modernity—What? Agenda for Theology (Zondervan).

On the other hand, the book also challenges Pentecostal scholarship and the formulations of Pentecostal theology proposed by members of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. The project should be of interest to those who have followed the argument of Amos Yong and Frank Macchia and their vision of Pentecostalism as the possibility of global theology. While adapting the pneumatological approach of these authors, Beyond Pentecostalism extends their views and proposes a broader potential of the Pentecostal contributions and challenges to the task of global theology.