Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
| PentecostalTheology.com
450
Book Reviews / Pneuma 32 (2010) 431-473
J. Harold Ellens, Understanding Religious Experiences: What the Bible Says about Spirituality (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2008). xvi + 183 pp., $44.95, cloth.
Ellens is a prolific writer in the areas of religion and psychology. His background as a chaplain, theologian, psychologist and minister informs his scholarship. Much of his work has advanced the interface and dialogue between the two disciplines that largely ignored each other from 1910 to 1980.
Te volume under review is a part of Praeger’s Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality series. Ellens’ thesis is that religious experiences have been and are empirically and bibli- cally validated; when examined scientifically and theologically, these experiences are quite normal and, more importantly, existentially meaningful. Although it would be rather easy to marginalize or dismiss such phenomena as psychotic or aberrant behavior, they should be better understood and can even be helpful in spiritual formation. In short, Ellens believes that religious experiences are largely inseparable from spirituality.
Ellens begins his argument for the validity of religious experiences with an analysis and application of psychologist William James’ Te Varieties of Religious Experiences (1902), proffering that James’ empirical observations and analyses remain foundational for investi- gating psycho-spirituality. Te next seven chapters examine biblical spirituality. Careful attention is paid to numerous themes and character narratives using a concave lens to allow the reader to view the psycho-spiritual importance of these experiences. Spirituality is identified thematically and metaphorically in terms of “walking with God” and “search- ing for God.” Principles and practices of biblical worship and prayer are carefully studied in their historical context and meaningfully applied to contemporary spirituality. Te next two chapters circle back to psychology to examine religious experiences using a sample of structural developmental psychological models (e.g., Fowler, Piaget, and Kohl- berg).Te final chapters explore contemporary perspectives on spirituality and near death experiences. Ellens notes that the rise of scientific inquiry in the Western world has kept the paranormal marginalized. He further observes that Christians also have been dismis- sive of such phenomena and states that most are not open to the paranormal or parapsy- chological and challenges this “consensus”: “Te Holy Spirit of God can speak to us in ESP, intuition, prescience, rational thought, near death experience, empirical science, heu- ristic analysis, and phenomenological investigation” (164).
In regards to the utility of Ellens’ work for Pentecostal thought and practice, there appears to be both possibilities and concerns. First, the Pentecostal reader will find the Holy Spirit as a ubiquitous Person through much of this discussion. Ellens’ pneumatology would most likely be accepted, similarly conceptualized and experienced by most Pente- costals. Second, there is no shortage of discussion of God’s grace. Words such as universal, radical, and unconditional appear quite regularly as adjectives of grace. Tird, the Pente- costal reader will welcome his understanding of worship as being a celebration. Fourth, Ellens employs ship (I Tim. 1:19) and anchor (Heb. 6:19-20) metaphors as encourage- ment to hope in an immutable, trustworthy God. Finally, Ellens discusses emotional heal- ing on numerous occasions, an area of particular interest to Pentecostals working as psychologists or professional counselors.
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/157007410X534058
1
Book Reviews / Pneuma 32 (2010) 431-473
451
However, several aspects of Ellens of work may concern some Pentecostal readers. First, Ellens argues that Christians have over-focused upon Jesus. He comments, “Te Jesus cul- ture in the church for 20 centuries turned Jesus into a religious idol and replaced both God and the Holy Spirit in our consciousness, with a historical messiah” (95). Although Ellens makes a convincing biblical case for the primacy as well as the contemporary activity of the Holy Spirit, it seems to be at the price of a diminished Christology that would be unaccept- able to most Pentecostals. While Pentecostals would acknowledge the humanity of Jesus, Ellens over-emphasizes the anthropomorphic Jesus as being “shaped” by culture and the belief of His time (76). Tus such claims would be contested by Pentecostals: “At his bap- tism Jesus experienced an epiphany. He perceived God saying to him, ‘You are my son.’ It took him 40 days in solitude to sort out what that epiphany could possibly mean. He sensed that it meant that he should . . . dedicate his life to replace the forces of political and social evil in the world with the reign of God’s kingdom” (78).
Finally, Ellens’ deconstruction of the Abraham-Isaac and Samuel-Saul narratives are most likely conceptualized differently than how these are taught and preached in many Protestant and Catholic churches. Briefly, in his telling of the Abraham-Isaac story, he observes, “His son, Isaac, was very special to him; but nonetheless he nearly carried out the dastardly deed before he got his head screwed on straight — and only stopped the kill- ing because he thought he heard a voice from heaven stopping him” (32). Using psycho- logical phrasing, Ellens reasons: “To believe that God is telling you to kill your son is obviously crazy” (36). In a similar re-interpretation, Samuel is identified as an “intimida- tor” and a “criminal” (100) because he “stupidly declared that God wants obedience at all cost” (99) when ordering Saul to exterminate the Amalakites. Ellens thus declares that the Spirit of God was not upon Samuel as “Samuel was evil-spirited” (99).
Taking the various elements together, Ellens has written a book that is palatable to at least progressive members of all three Abrahamic religions, which obviously allows for a broader readership associated with the secular publisher of his book series, and that most likely reflects his own post-modern religious worldview and scholarly perspectives. His equating Jesus and Deepak Chopra (110), stating that the spirit in Edgar Cayce was the “same nature as that experience by Jesus” (110), and using terminology such as energy source, spiritual energy, channel, and clairvoyance all reflect that he is embracing a univer- sal, pluralistic truth that holds similarities to New Age spirituality. Ellens’ book is a good resource for those who believe we should not limit ourselves to the rational and empirical because we may forfeit natural and common revelations made available to us by God. On the other hand, Pentecostals may find Ellens’ “channels” of revelation and experience as being somewhat counter to the normative Pentecostal methods for perceiving, experienc- ing, and explaining God.
Reviewed by Robert L. Moore
Associate Professor/Licensed Psychologist Argosy University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
2
