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4 Australian Pentecostal Studies 19 (2017)

Editorial: Identity and the Shape of Pentecostal Theology

Shane Clifton

Exactly what, if anything, constitutes Pentecostal identity has been a topic

of reflection and debate from the initial Pentecostal revivals at the turn of the

20th century. I n this present edition of the journal, Mark Hutchinson takes on

this issue afresh, drawing on the Australian experience of the charismatic

revivals to ask whether the charismatic movement is appropriately identified

as a "new reformation of the twentieth century?" It is not my place to steal

Hutchinson's thunder, except to affirm his premise that identifying definitions

are contested, and that terms such as pentecostal and charismatic "are subject

to differences of historical opinion over definition , ideology, and application."

Even the choice of whether to use capital letters (Pentecostal/pentecostal1 )

becomes a sticky issue, because identifying definitions shape the future.

Hutchinson is a historian and sociologist, and there is little I can add to his in-

depth analysis of the meanings and consequences of the charismatic

movement. Instead, in this editorial essay, I take the opportunity to think

alongside Hutchinson, using a different discipline and set of sources to ask

whether and how pentecostal identity might shape the scholarly reflection of a

pentecostal theologian.

Pentecostal revival and the rejection of distinctives

In the earliest days of the Pentecostal revival, most of the participants

understood the movement as a renewal of the wider church, and so without its

own ecclesiology and theology. From this perspective, the movement did not

exist for itself, and debates about identity were purpose defeating. In Australia,

1. For the most part, I will label Pentecostalism without the capital "P," since I take the label to

reference a movement rather than a specific church or denomination.

Clifton, Identity and the Shape of Pentecostal Theology 5

for example, the founder of the fledging Pentecostal movement, Sarah

Lancaster, insisted that the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) was not "another

CHURCH (emphasis hers)," 2 and for many years the assemblies she led, and

those in relationship with her, had no formal pastors, doctrinal statement, or

interchurch structures. And the subsequent formalisation of the AFM was

judged a concession to contextual pressures (including external critique of

female leadership). Lancaster's views were not unique among global

Pentecostal founders. To take one further example, Lewi Pethrus, the leader of

the Swedish Pentecostal Movement (SPM) for most of the first half of the 20th

century, lamented the fact that global Pentecostalism had become a movement

for Pentecostals and not the whole church. 3 He consistently rejected

Pentecostal denominationalism and any formalised structures that controlled

the relationship between local Pentecostal assemblies. For him, the SPM was

a spiritual fellowship of independent local churches whose existence was not

grounded in denominational structure and identity but in the unity of the Spirit

that knew no boundaries and that constitutes the true ecumenical church.

A non-self-identifying Pentecostal vision was a worthy ideal, but it was

not long before Pentecostalism in Australia and Sweden, as elsewhere,

functioned in much the same way as any other denomination. 4 As Weber's

commonly referenced theory on the routinisation of charisma predicts, the

movement's growth and spread resulted in the promulgation of Pentecostal

distinctives and the instigation of formal ecclesial structures. 5 And their

2. Shane Clifton, Pentecostal Churches in Transition: Analysing the Developing Ecclesiology of

the Assemblies of God in Australia, ed. A. Davies and W. Kay (Leiden, The Netherlands:

Brill, 2009), 58.

3. Tommy H. Davidsson, Lewi Pethrus' Ecclesiological Thought, 1911- 1974: A

Transdenominational Pentecostal Ecclesiology (Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2015), 214.

Davidsson's book is reviewed later in this journal.

4. Clifton, Pentecostal Churches in Transition , 2009, chap. 2; Davidsson, Lewi Pethrus'

Ecclesiological Thought, 1911- 1974, 106.

5. Max Weber, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (California:

University of California Press, 1978).

6 Australian Pentecostal Studies 19 (2017)

existence as being for the wider church was further undermined by mainstream

rejection of pentecostal spirituality, and the concomitant intransigence and

divisiveness that was to become an unfortunate feature of Pentecostalism in the

20th century. Indeed, as Pentecostals formed their own assemblies and

interchurch networks, they disputed among themselves about the theology and

practice of Spirit baptism, and over core doctrines (such as between Trinitarian

and Oneness Pentecostals). Ecclesiology itself became a matter of dispute, and

local and interchurch wrangling took their course.6 Inevitably, those who

emerged with power decided matters, and Pentecostal identity took

institutional form.

Historians and sociologists define pentecostalism

Precisely what it is that constitutes that identity has long been of interest

to the Pentecostal academy. In 1993 Pneuma: the Journal of the Society of

Pentecostal Studies devoted an edition the journal to "the search for a

Pentecostal identity." 7 Of importance was the paper "Whither

Pentecostalism?" by the then president of the Society of Pentecostal S tudies,

David W. Faupel. His reading of early pentecostal history was that its origins

were to be found in Pietism, not — as is often assumed — conservative

evangelicalism, and that its emphasis on experiential spirituality meant that

liberalism and pentecostalism were fraternal twins.8 From his perspective,

pentecostalism arose as a critique of emerging fundamentalism. Faupel goes

on to argue that, rejected by the church they tried to revive and reform,

pentecostals created their own ecclesial institutions, and then "borrowed the

language of their opponents to establish their legitimacy." In so doing, they

6. There is no better telling of these power plays than that provided by Grant Wacker, Heaven

Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture (London: Harvard University Press, 2001).

7. Murray W. Dempster, "The Search for Pentecostal Identity," Pneuma 15, no. 1 (January 1,

1993): 1– 8, doi:10.1163/157007493X00013.

8. David W. Faupel, "Whither Pentecostalism? 22nd Presidential Address Society for

Pentecostal Studies November 7,1992," Pneuma 15, no. 1 (1993): 16.

Clifton, Identity and the Shape of Pentecostal Theology 7

embraced the narrow fundamentalism they had sought to reform.9 Faupel

concluded by asserting that pentecostalism had come to a crossroads, one in

which it needed to decide the shape of its identity; either as a subgroup of

fundamentalism/evangelicalism, or – in the Spirit of its founders – as an

experiential spiritual movement with open and inclusive horizons.

Two other articles stand out in the 1993 edition of Pneuma . Harvey Cox,

looking from the outside in, highlighted the positive impulses of

pentecostalism; its experiential centre, authentic spirituality, celebratory

worship, and "this -worldly" brand of practical Christianity. But, he also

identified the dark side of historic and contemporary pentecostal identity; its

sectarian spirit, tendency to acquiesce uncritically to the status quo of the

prevailing culture, naïve and dogmatic biblicism, and co-option by the political

forces of the religious right (his 1993 analysis prescient for Pentecostal

churches in 2017, co-opted as too many have been by right-wing political

forces across the globe) .10 From the inside, pentecostal historian Cecil Robeck

summarised the movement's identity as being ecumenical, globally

multicultural, and evangelistic, but he also highlighted the myriad of ways in

which, over the course of the 20th century, its actions had belied these

identifying traits. In response he called for repentance, asking that "we look

past ourselves and our parochialisms, be they theological, denominational,

cultural, or regional, and become active participants in the work of God for

some form of visible unity in the world."11 Robeck's call to repentance was

essentially a challenge to return to the original spirit of the pentecostal revivals;

not so much a rejection of pentecostal identity in toto, but a willingness to hold

that identity loosely for the sake of the work of the Spirit in the wider church.

Although Cox and Robeck took a global view, the debate about

pentecostalism's relationship to evangelicalism was largely North American,

9. Ibid., 21–23.

10. Harvey Cox, "Some Personal Reflection on Pentecostalism," Pneuma 15, no. 1 (1993): 29 – 34.

11. Cecil M Jr Robeck, "Taking Stock of Pentecostalism: The Personal Reflections of a Retiring

Editor," Pneuma 15, no. 1 (1993): 58.

8 Australian Pentecostal Studies 19 (2017)

and is confused today by the uncertainty surrounding evangelical identity in

the West (including debates between so-called conservative evangelicals and

neo-evangelicals). For an understanding of global pentecostal identity, the

rigourous historical work of Allan Anderson stands out. Above all, his oeuvre

presents a challenge to the tendency of earlier scholarship to define

pentecostalism by its North American context. To facilitate the discipline of

pentecostal studies, Anderson describes four primary approaches to defining

the movement: 1. The typological approach differentiates between classical

Pentecostals (those with historic links to the early 20th century revivals), older

independent and Spirit churches (as found in China, India, and Africa),

Charismatics (those in mainline churches impacted by the charismatic

renewal), and neo-pentecostal and neo-charismatic churches (independent

mega-churches and so on); 2. The social scientific approach seeks to identify

common characteristics or phenomena (such as David Martin's categorisation

of pentecostalism as "an indigenous enthusiastic Protestantism and extension

of Methodism," or "a fissiparous dynamism of untutored religiosity" 12 ); 3. The

historical approach traces the multiple roots of churches that identify

themselves as pentecostal/charismatic (in which case pentecostalism is a

heuristic label given content by historic al study); and 4. The theological

approach defines pentecostals as those who share a pneumatology and other

aspects of theological worldview deemed essential.13 Anderson himself

considers whether is best to speak of a range of pentecostalisms — assuming

that the movement is too diverse to identify common traits — but concludes

that it is appropriate to use the term "pentecostalism" to describe "churches and

movements globally that emphasise the working of the gifts of the Spirit." He

also notes that a broader definition "should emphasise pentecostalism's ability

12. David Martin, Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), 18.

13. Allan Anderson, "Varieties, Taxonomies, and Definitions," in Studying Global

Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods, ed. Allan Anderson et al. (Berkeley: University of

California Press, 2010), 16–25.

Clifton, Identity and the Shape of Pentecostal Theology 9

to incarnate the gospel in different cultural forms," 14 and insists that global

pentecostalism is of a different character to that typically seen in North

America. While Western classical pentecostals have generally identified

themselves by reference to the doctrine of Spirit baptism, globally

"Pentecostalism is more correctly seen in a much broader context as a

movement concerned primarily with the experience of the working of the Holy

Spirit and the practice of spiritual gifts." 15 My reading of Anderson's insistence

that pentecostalism is not American or Western is that he is not only expanding

our view of the movement's history, but narrating history to hold up a model

of the movement that is not constrained by conservative evangelicalism's

dogmatic tendencies. And in so doing he shows that there is a choice about

how we identify modern pentecostalism, and so also a choice about the type of

movement it might become as it moves forward through the 21st -century.

Identity and theology

Central to choosing that identity is differing assumptions about

pentecostal theology that lead to divergent theological paths. In the context of

biblical studies, many have followed the lead of giants such as Gordon Fee,

drawing on the historical metho d that predominates among evangelicals to

explore pentecostal topics; Fee's God's Empowering Presence, which studies

every passage that references the Spirit in the New Testament, as the

exemplar.16 Taking this approach, pentecostal scholars have debated

evangelicals about biblical constructions of baptism in the Holy Spirit, as well

as other topics of pentecostal concern, borrowing the evangelical rules of

14. Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 14–19.

15. Ibid., 18.

16 Gordon D. Fee, God's Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul, Reprint

edition (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2009).

10 Australian Pentecostal Studies 19 (2017)

engagement. 17 Taking a different trajectory are scholars that have sought to

describe pentecostal hermeneutics in its own terms, emphasising the Spirit's

involvement to explain the creative and non -historical Bible reading that

predominates in the pentecostal pastorate. To this end, such scholars utilise

alternative reading strategies, often referencing developments in semiotics,

narrative analysis, reader response criticism, and other post-modern

hermeneutical theories (although sometimes without the ideological critique

that is central to post-modern theory).18 Taken altogether, there is a general

consensus that pentecostal hermeneutics involves an interplay between the

Spirit, the community, and the Scripture, which generates biblical readings that

shape the storied and shared life of Spirit-filled communities. In this context,

the insights of evangelical h istorical-critical exegesis might form one of the

community voices, but other interpretations are also given their due, as the

Spirit moves.

If we lift our gaze from biblical hermeneutics to the broader discipline of

theology, again we faced with divergent paths. For many, under the influence

of conservative evangelicalism, theology is biblical theology; a task that

involves systematising the message of the Bible, and drawing on Christian

tradition and the contemporary context primarily for the sake of translation, so

that pentecostals can communicate the one true message of the (Spirit filled)

17. James D. G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit: A Re- Examination of the New Testament

Teaching on the Gift of the Spirit in Relation to Pentecostalism Today (London: SCM, 1970);

R. Stronstad, The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke (Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1984);

Roger Stronstad, The Prophethood of All Believers: A Study in Luke's Charismatic Theology

(Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999); William W. Menzies and Robert P. Menzies,

Spirit and Power: Foundations of Pentecostal Experience (Zondervan, 2011).

18. Kennet h J. Archer, A Pentecostal Hermeneutic: Spirit, Scripture And Community, unknown

edition (Cleveland, Tenn.: CPT Press, 2009); Jacqueline Grey, Three's a Crowd:

Pentecostalism, Hermeneutics, and the Old Testament (Eugene, Or.: Pickwick, 2011); John

Christopher Thomas, "'Where the Spirit Leads' – the Development of Pentecostal

Hermeneutics," Journal of Beliefs & Values 30, no. 3 (December 1, 2009): 289–302,

doi:10.1080/13617670903371589; Kenneth J. Archer and L. William Oliverio Jr, eds.,

Constructive Pneumat ological Hermeneutics in Pentecostal Christianity, 1st ed. 2016 edition

(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Clifton, Identity and the Shape of Pentecostal Theology 11

Scriptures to the modern world.19 The problem with this approach is not so

much that it mirrors conservative evangelicalism, but that in doing so it fails to

appreciate the extent to which Christian tradition and the contemporary context

have shaped its biblical theology. And because it confuses its contextual

worldview with "the Word of God," it tends to be narrow-minded and

dogmatic.

There is nothing wrong with learning method from others, which is the

only way to develop expertise in a discipline (especially exegetical methods,

since the Bible is the historical text). And if pentecostalism is a movement of

and for the wider church, it must do theology with other traditions, both

regarding content and method. My formative training has been in a Catholic

University, and I have drawn especially on the Method in Theology of Bernard

Lonergan in my work as a theologian. 20 From Lonergan's perspective, method

is grounded in the processes of human knowing, and as such precedes (or

transcends) any particular ecclesial tradition. Thus, there is no pentecostal

method per se, but, rath er, the Pentecostal theologian applies common

methodological tools to the content of pentecostal theology and praxis. But

should pentecostal identity do more than provide the data of theological

reflection? Should it inform a unique epistemology that also shapes theological

method?

James Smith answers that it should; that "it is inadequate and inauthentic

for pentecostals to simply adopt "off-the-shelf" options in theological and

philosophical discussion." 21 While he recognises the value of learning from the

wisdom of others, he argues that pentecostal spirituality contains "a unique

19. The classic illustration of this approach is J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology: Systematic

Theology from a Charismatic Perspective, Three Volumes in One edition (Grand Rapids,

Mich: Zondervan, 1996); Also William W. Menzies and Stanley M. Horton, Bible Doctrines:

A Pentecostal Perspective (USA: Logion Press, 2012).

20. Bernard J.F. Lonergan, Method in Theology (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1972).

21. James K. A. Smith, Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy

(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2010), xiv.

12 Australian Pentecostal Studies 19 (2017)

theological 'genius'" that is a gift to the church catholic," and, therefore, that

pentecostal scholars should have the hermeneutical courage to be

unapologetically pentecostal. 22 In terms of identity, Smith takes an open

definition of pentecostalism, emphasising radical openness to the operations of

the Spirit, rather than denominational distinctives. He then defines a

pentecostal worldview as encompassing:

(1) a position of radical openness to God, and in particular, God

doing something differently or new; (2) an "enchanted" theology of

creation and culture; (3) a nondualistic affirmation of embodiment and

materiality; (4) an affective, narrative epistemology; and (5) an

eschatological orientation to mission and justice. 23

But what does it mean to say that the Spirit helps us to "know?" Smith

highlights the Pentecostal assumption that human knowing is not just

conscious and deliberative, but it is also precognitive and affective . He argues

that Pentecostalism elevates the epistemological significance of the experience

of the Spirit, most fully symbolised in Pentecostal worship, where the Spirit is

understood to transform a person's emotional core so that they claim to "know"

the divine voice.24 It is difficult to see precisely how the elevation of this

experiential, affective, and precognitive knowing can impact on theological

method, since the latter is a public discipline, and so necessarily conscious and

evaluative. But Smith goes on to highlight the importance Pentecostals place

on testimony for spiritual discernment, concluding that narrative is central to

pentecostal knowing. In a noteworthy aside, he thus suggests that "memoir is

the consummate pentecostal theological genre" (a claim that may redeem my

theological work as — at least implicitly — methodologically pentecostal 25 ).

22. Ibid., 22.

23. Ibid., 32– 33.

24. Ibid., 75.

25. Story, including memoir, is central to my recent work in disability, Shane Clifton, Husbands

Should Not Break: A Memoir about the Pursuit of Happiness Following Spinal Cord Injury

(Eugene, Or.: Resource Publications, 2015); Shane Clifton, "Grieving My Broken Body: An

Clifton, Identity and the Shape of Pentecostal Theology 13

More broadly, a pentecostal epistemology incorporates the effort to discern the

work of the Spirit in the world, especially in surprising places. The wind o f the

Spirit blows where it wishes (John 3:8), and spiritual grace is ever at work

where it is least expected. Smith thus holds that openness to the creativity of

the Spirit — a Pentecostal aesthetic — is a central trait of pentecostal

worldview, and generates the capacity to imagine a new world and a better

future. 26 In referencing imagination, Smith is drawing on the many

publications of Amos Yong, whose principal project has been to develop and

apply a pentecostal theology that he labels the "pneumatological imagination,"

which is:

theology as particular and yet aspiring toward the universal; of

theology as local and yet claiming to be global; of theology as

occasional and yet handed down once for all; of theology as

narrativistic and yet also metanarrativistic; of theology as

conservative and yet novel; of theology as modern and yet

postmodern; and so on. This is a theology pursuing after the Spirit,

reflecting the attempt to "live in" and "walk according to" the Spirit.

I call this a pneumatology of quest—a dynamic, dialectical, and

discerning theology of the question, driven by a "pneumatological

imagination."27

Yong posits a triadic framework for theology that "includes three

moments: that of Spirit (praxis, experience, act of interpretation), that of Word

(thought, object, given of interpretation), and that of Community (context,

Autoethnographic Account of Spinal Cord Injury as an Experience of Grief," Disability and

Rehabilitation 36, no. 21 (2014): 1823 –29; My earlier ecclesiology was also grounded in the

story of the Pentecostal church in Australia, Clifton, Pentecostal Churches in Transition,

2009.

26. Smith, Thinking in Tongues, 28.

27. Amos Yong, The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global

Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 2005), 10.

14 Australian Pentecostal Studies 19 (2017)

tradition, public of interpretation)." 28 Explicitly rejecting any singular

hermeneutic principle, such as sola Scriptura, Yong envisages theology that is

biblically grounded, but that reads the Scriptures through a hermeneutical grid

informed by the experience of the Spirit in Luke-Acts. In that narrative,

Pentecost is not a one-off event, but the template for an open and creative

discernment of the Spirit in imaginative interpretations of the Bible and the

community; interpretations which look to transform the world. Wolfgang

Vondey labels what emerges as "a theology of imaginative play," which is

biblical, poetic, storied, critical, and constructive, and offers an "ethical

alternative to the orthodox establishment."29

Even though creative, Yong's pneumatological theology is not divorced

from Christology and orthodox Christian belief; "pneumatology provides the

orienting dynamic,… Christology provides its thematic focus." 30 Pentecostal

tradition has always been Jesus centred, since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of

Christ. And notwithstanding pentecostal debates about the doctrine of the

Trinity (re Oneness Pentecostalism), the pneumatological imagination of Yong

is also deliberately Trinitarian and orthodox because it intends to be

ecumenical. Even so, it is critical of theological traditions that subordinate and

minimalise the Spirit, and it understands Pneumatology as having universal

reach, and so looks for the work of the Spirit beyond the church.

In this light, Yong's understanding of "community " is deliberately wide-

ranging, and not restricted to the pentecostal movement, the Christian tradition,

or the ecumenical church. Yong argues that "only a pneumatological

imagination is able to sustain the dialogical task of theology in a pluralist

world,… only the pneumatological inspired and empowered imagination is

28. Amos Yong, "The Hermeneutical Trialectic: Notes Toward A Consensual Hermeneutic And

Theological Method," The Heythrop Journal 45, no. 1 (January 1, 2004): 23,

doi:10.1111/j.1468 -2265.2004.00240.x.

29. Wolfgang Vondey, Beyond Pentecostalism: The Crisis of Global Christianity and the Renewal

of the Theological Agenda , Pentecostal Manifestos (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2010),

41.

30. Yong, The Spirit Poured Out , 27.

Clifton, Identity and the Shape of Pentecostal Theology 15

capable of both listening to the many voices but also critically discerning their

contributions." 31 Yong has sought to apply the pneumatological imagination to

the doing of theology in dialogue with communities rarely addressed (and

sometimes explicitly rejected) by other pentecostals. One example is his long-

term project in developing a pneumatological theology of religions, which

seeks to discern the presence, activity, and absence of the Holy Spirit in other

religious traditions. 32 Yong's openness to the work and voice of the Spirit in

other religions, as well as in other disciplines (such as disability studies and

contemporary science), indicates that he is working from an understanding of

pentecostal identity that imagines what the movement might be if it allowed its

orientation to the creativity of the Spirit to have its way, over and against its

fundamentalist impulse.33

Because the Spirit blows where it wishes, the pneumatological

imagination breaks down religious, cultural, gendered, and other barriers,

empowers people on the margins, and enables the capacity to listen to and

speak in the tongues and testimonies of outsiders. 34 It risks new conversations,

new (and ancient) ways of thinking, new relationships, and new practices for

the sake of mission, because the Spirit is the first fruit/deposit of the future.

While the pneumatological imagination is a pentecostal method, it is not

just for pentecostals, but intends to offer a way forward for Christian theology

31. Amos Yong, The Dialogical Spirit: Christian Reason and Theological Method in the Third

Millennium (Cascade Books, 2014), 284.

32. Amos Yong, Discerning the Spirit(s): A Pentecostal- Charismatic Contribution to Christian

Theology of Religions , 1 edition (Sheffield: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2000); Amos Yong,

Beyond the Impasse: Toward a Pneumatological Theology of Religions (Grand Rapids,

Michigan: Baker, 2003); Amos Yong and Clifton Clarke, eds., Global Renewal, Religious

Pluralism, and the Great Commission (Lexington, Ky: Emeth Press, 2011).

33. Amos Yong, Theology and Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity

(Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2007); Amos Yong, The Spirit of Creation: Modern

Science and Divine Action in the Pentecostal-Charismatic Imagination (Grand Rapids, Mich.:

Eerdmans, 2011).

34. Yong, The Dialogical Spirit , 16.

16 Australian Pentecostal Studies 19 (2017)

as a whole.35 In this way, it returns to the earliest impulse of pentecostal

revivalism. While it is unlikely that many of the first-generation pentecostals

would recognise the content of Yong's theology, he is, even so, carrying

forward their spirit. Yong develops a pentecostal theology that transcends

pentecostalism for the sake of the wider church. For him, pentecostal identity

is not the focus of attention. Even the ecumenical church is too small of an

object for a theology revived by the pneumatological imagination. Rather,

renewed theology looks to the transcendent God, and discerns the imminent

presence of the Spirit in surprising locations, stories, and communities.

There is , in fact, nothing uniquely pentecostal in the pneumatological

imagination, which is as it should be. Its threefold structure reflects common

assumptions about theological sources, and its emphasis on aff ective

experience and narrative is central to the biblical text (especially the dramatic

story of the gospel). And while theologians have too often concerned

themselves with proposition rather than story, there has been increasing

recognition of the import ance of narrative for theological meaning.36

Neither can the pneumatological imagination replace other theological

methods, given that the processes and limitations of human knowing precede

particular cultures and traditions. Instead, it might function as an overlay, an

orientation to the creative Spirit that adds character and life to disciplinary

rigour. If we take Lonergan's functional specialities as an example, the

pneumatological imagination embraces sources of research beyond traditional

authorities, bringing diverse and marginal voices to the foreground. 37 In

35. Amos Yong and Jonathan A. Anderson, Renewing Christian Theology: Systematics for a

Global Christianity (Baylor University Press, 2014).

36. Hans W. Frei, Theology and Narrative: Selected Essays, ed. William C. Placher and George

Hunsinger, First Edition edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); Kevin J.

Vanhoozer, Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine (Louisville,

Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014).

37. Lonergan schol ars themselves have spoken of the importance of the Holy Spirit for

Lonergan's method, and of the fact that this opens wide the sources of research, Robert M.

Doran, "Functional Specialities for a World Theology," Lonergan Workshop 24 (2013): 99–

111.

Clifton, Identity and the Shape of Pentecostal Theology 17

addition to using disciplinary methods in interpreting those sources (such as

historical and socio-critical exegesis), it allows room for imaginative play, and

for attending to the inspiration, not only of authors, but of readers and hearers.

And since the pneumatological imagination also entails discerning the Spirit's

absence (or the daemonic) , there is scope for attending to the experience and

ideological criticism of feminist and other postcolonial interpreters of

authoritative texts – too often ignored by conservative evangelical scholarship.

The judgements made about the history of theological ideas , about what is

moving forward or backward in redemption or decline, can be awakened to

enchantment , to the changes wrought by the presence of the Spirit, to

materiality and the like. There is a tendency in theological analysis to take a

left-wing bias (for good reason, given the gospel's concern for social justice),

but the pneumatological imagination has an open mind about personal and

social empowerment, prosperity, and flourishing in the here and now. 38 The

conflicts that emerge in dialectic analysis, and the stand one takes for and

against alternatives, is likewise inevitably influenced by pre-existing

worldview (whether pentecostal or another), but is also open to revision, as the

process of learning is self-correcting. 39 Lonergan describes this process of

learning in terms of conversion ; intellectual, moral, and religious. Intellectual

conversion can be a product of authentic subjectivity — of the diligent

application to the processes of learning and the pursuit of truth — but it can

also begin as a gift of the Spirit, who orients us to the love of beauty, the desire

for goodness, and the pursuit of truth. 40

And what of imagination? Lonergan treats imagination as one of the

38. Smith, Thinking in Tongues, 11; Shane Clifton, "Pentecostal Approaches to Economics," in

The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Economics , ed. Paul Oslington (Oxford ; New

York: Oxford University Press, 2014).

39. Lonergan, Method in Theology, 141. There are eight functional specialities, but I hope I have

done enough to make the point.

40. In this paragraph I have followed Lonergan's first four functional specialities. There are eight

in total, but I have done enough to make the point. Lonergan, Method in Theology.

18 Australian Pentecostal Studies 19 (2017)

processes of consciousness that contribute to insight, by helping to make sense

of the meaning of data and of the flow of meaning through history. He also

holds that conversion affects a person's imagination (among other things), by

releasing symbols that penetrate to the depths of the psyche. But imagination

is given broader meaning in Yong's work. In its broadest sense, our knowledge

of the world is imaginatively constructed and, further, the imaginary can

creatively transform the world. As Shakespeare famously observed:

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination

That, if it would but apprehend some joy,

It comprehends some bringer of that joy.41

The pneumatological imagination, then, is an invitation to the theological

creativity that is so rarely found in dogmatic religion, but that is essential to

redemptive justice. In argument resonant of Acts 2, Martha Nussbaum

describes the capacity of narrative imagination to,

enable us to comprehend the motives and choices of people different

from ourselves, seeing them not as forbiddingly alien and other, but as

sharing many problems and possibilities with us. Differences of religion,

gender, race, class, and national origin make the task of understanding

harder, since these differences shape not only the practical choices people

face but also their "insides," their desires, thoughts, and ways of looking

at the world. Here the arts play a vital role, cultivating powers of

imagination that are essential to citize nship. 42

41. Shakespeare, a Midsummer night's dream, Act 5, Scene 1, referenced by Hart, "Creative

Imagination", p.5

42. Mar tha Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal

Education (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), 85.

Clifton, Identity and the Shape of Pentecostal Theology 19

In the same way, the pneumatological imagination is concerned about

speech in other tongues, not to control and sequester diverse voices, but so that

we might see the presence of the Spirit in contexts very different to our own.

Conclusion

Reflecting on Pentecostal identity serves as a reminder that theologians

too often forget that theology is meant to be practical as well as profound, open

as well as true, this worldly as well as transcendent, radical as well as biblical,

more generous tha n critical, more storied than propositional, more spiritual

than religious, more open-ended than carefully defined, more dialogical than

dogmatic, and awake to the fluidity and diversity of the Spirit's work in the

world. And even though aware that theology can say very little about the

transcendent God, and that pentecostal theology continues to be done on the

margins, a pneumatological imagination contains the promise of Pentecost;

that seemingly insignificant things can be used by the Spirit to transform the

world.

Beyond the formalities of method, the affirmation of a pneumatological

imagination is surely intended to inspire theologians — practical theologians

more than abstract metaphysicians — to have Spirit -inspired dreams and

visions. That the imagination is most active in the darkness of the night, or

when one's eyes are closed in meditation or prayer, speaks to the presence of

the life-giving God in hardship and terror (a reality too often forgotten by

modern Pentecostals), but also inspiring the joy of imagined new worlds.43 It

is an invitation to dream about a world , a theology, a church, a community that

is presently unthinkable.

In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions,

43. I owe this idea to correspondence with Lauren McGrow.

20 Australian Pentecostal Studies 19 (2017)

your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women,

I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy (Acts

2: 17- 18).

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ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.

  • Allan Anderson
  • Michael Bergunder
  • André Droogers
  • Cornelis van der Laan

This chapter attempts to define Pentecostalism/s, in view of the fact that definitions are often static and prone to generating confusion. The study of Pentecostalism is a developing field, and this chapter attempts to embrace its different methodological and theoretical aspects from a global perspective. The globalization of various kinds of Pentecostalism and their proliferation into complex varieties is bewildering. The chapter seeks to give some clarity to the discussion of ways in which Pentecostalism can be described and analyzed, and it tries to offer direction through the maze of different shifting forms of Pentecostalism. Furthermore, it outlines some of the ways in which this movement can be identified by using the family resemblance analogy. It also looks at the parameters by which categories are made, and it offers a flexible and overlapping taxonomy, examining how various scholars have approached the subject.

  • David Martin

Preface. Proposed argument. 1. A Cultural Revolution: Sources, Character, Niches. 2. North America and Europe: Contrasts in Receptivity. 3. Latin America: A Template?. 4. Latin America: Ambiguity in Different Cultural Sectors. 5. Indigenous Peoples. 6. Africa. 7. Asia. 8. Trying Conclusions: A Global Option?. Index.

  • Shane Clifton Shane Clifton

Purpose: For good reason, the trajectory of contemporary research and therapy into rehabilitation following spinal cord injury (SCI) has moved away from focusing on the pathology of depression, to highlight the contribution of resiliency, optimism, and hope to long-term well-being. This article complements this literature, exploring the analogous links between the losses of SCI and the experiences of the grief that accompanies the death of a loved one. Method: The article uses autoethnography, drawing on the authors' writing about his own experiences as a C5 (incomplete) quadriplegic, to identify a correlation between the stages/symptoms of grief and the journey of rehabilitating from an SCI. Results: The article highlights the "wild" and ambiguous reality of adjusting to an SCI, and so challenges the dualist tendency to assume that people are either resilient or weak, successful or unsuccessful in their recovery. It recognises that adjusting to an SCI involves complex swings in emotion--sadness, anger, and melancholy, alongside hope and determination. Conclusion: Drawing on strategies of grief therapy, the article suggests that constructing and reconstructing the story of one's own life is essential to learning to accept and live with an SCI. Implications for rehabilitation: Since the losses accompanying SCI are analogous to grief, grief therapy strategies that recognise the complex and ambiguous nature of recovery can be part of rehabilitation. Therapy should encourage people to construct and reconstruct narratives--life stories--that help them mourn their loss and make sense of their new lives. The loss of an SCI is especially potent following return to the community, so storied therapy should continue beyond the period of the in-house rehabilitation.

  • Trevor A. Hart

This paper considers the claim that imagination is implicated in our most apparently straightforward human transactions with the world, that our 'knowing' of the world (both in experience and our subsequent symbolic ordering of it) is in some sense imaginatively constructed from the outset. Second, drawing in particular on the work of Mark Johnson, it explores the senses in which such imaginative transactions are both experience constituted and experience constitutive (that, in Ricoeur's words, imagination 'invents in both senses of the word'). Third, it attends to one apparent theological cost of ascribing to human imagination a 'creative' role in relation to the human world. Fourth, it focuses in particular on Charles Taylor's account of the imaginative construction of the self as a moral entity. And finally, it considers just one example of how the arts may be active in shaping moral identity, and thereby the human world in which we live and move and have our being.