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Book Reviews / Pneuma 35 (2013) 87-156
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Lisa P. Stephenson, Dismantling the Dualisms for American Pentecostal Women in Ministry: A Feminist-Pneumatological Approach (Leiden: Brill, 2012). x + 211 pp., $135.00; €99.00 hardback.
Ambitious in breadth, Stephenson’s interdisciplinary book engages theology, history, bibli- cal studies, and even a bit of sociology. She provides short summaries of articles and books representing no less than thirty scholars, ranging from Pentecostal biblical scholars to femi- nist theologians. To bring these disparate fields into conversation with each other is a sig- nificant and much needed enterprise that can engender more open access for Pentecostal women to become “active in the churches without gender barriers to specific tasks of the church” (8).
Three sections set up the book’s framework: the first is historical, the second biblical, and the third ecclesiological. In the historical section, Stephenson marshals evidence from past and present to demonstrate that the enduring limitations on women in ministry marked Pentecostalism from the beginning, including the Azusa Street revival (1906) and the emergence of four Pentecostal denominations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), the Church of God in Christ, the Assemblies of God, and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. In addition, she devotes a chapter to summarizing contemporary scholars of Pentecostalism who address the issue of women in ministry in order to show that none incorporates the pneumatological approach which she champions.
The second section looks to biblical scholarship on Luke-Acts in order to revisit Acts 2 as the pivotal text for developing a “theological anthropology based on Lukan pneumatology” (90). Stephenson presents short summaries of three Pentecostal biblical scholars — Roger Stronstad, Robert P. Menzies, and James B. Shelton — to show that they present Lukan pneumatology as charismatic rather than soteriological. In other words, they consider Spirit baptism to be subsequent to conversion; thus Spirit-baptism is concerned with a person’s function rather than with a soteriology that transforms one’s personhood. Because of her disagreement with these Pentecostal scholars, Stephenson gravitates to two other biblical scholars — James Dunn and Max Turner — who challenge this view of Lukan pneumatol- ogy. Into this discussion of biblical scholars, Stephenson folds the Isaianic New Exodus para- digm in Luke-Acts to reorient the discussion to a focus on the soteriological implications of Spirit baptism.
This move leads her, in the next chapter, to summarize three key biblical texts that cor- respond respectively to the imago Dei (Genesis 1:26-27), imago Christi (Galatians 3:26-28), and imago Spiritus (Acts 2). By setting the imago Spiritus alongside imago Dei and imago Christi, Stephenson reaches the conclusion that Spirit baptism creates new persons and new relationships; these possess the potential to transform the Christian community into a “dis- cipleship of equals” (Schüssler Fiorenza). Stephenson writes, “Reception of the Spirit is not just a sign of the new creation, but also the causative agent of the new creation. That is, it offers a new dignity to persons who formerly were not recognized as equals. The outpouring of the Spirit brings about mutual recognition” (133).
In the third section, Stephenson summarizes the second wave feminist ecclesiologies of Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Letty Russell. From each
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/15700747-12341298
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Book Reviews / Pneuma 35 (2013) 87-156
feminist theologian, she selects an image, which she then weaves into a discussion of the ways in which Pentecostal ecclesiology will change when it embraces these images: Schüssler Fiorenza’s discipleship of equals, Ruether’s women-church as an Exodus community from patriarchy, and Russell’s image of authority as a church in the round. On the basis of these images, Stephenson argues, for instance, that the dualism separating clergy and laity must be dismantled in favor of a paradigm of “overlapping circles of function,” each of which is empowered by the Spirit.
In the book’s conclusion, Stephenson returns full circle to the four Pentecostal denomi- nations introduced in the first section and makes recommendations for adjusting their ecclesiological practices to reflect the proposals she sets forth. Even though the recommen- dations themselves retain a sense of the obvious, they remain nonetheless important, such as granting women full ordination, creating educational material that focuses on women’s full humanity, providing avenues for women to be more visible at conferences and on Sun- day morning, and eliminating position titles in favor of addressing each other simply as brother and sister.
A limitation of this book is Stephenson’s tendency to proceed primarily by summarizing others’ scholarship, which becomes tedious for the reader as she revisits already well-trod ground. In this respect, Stephenson relies heavily on description and only rarely asserts her own prescription for dismantling the dualisms that restrict Pentecostal women in ministry. Further, it is unfortunate, given her substantial engagement with Pentecostal scholars (or feminists, for that matter), that Stephenson relies on material published well over a decade ago instead of more recent works. Contemporary Pentecostal scholarship, such as Frank Macchia’s and Amos Yong’s, she virtually ignores despite including them in the bibliography. Leaving out the progressive theologies of Macchia and Yong allows Stephenson to give the misleading impression that Pentecostal scholars espouse a relatively monolithic dichotomy between soteriology and Spirit baptism. This would be a different book if she had interacted with Yong, Macchia, and other Pentecostal thinkers who are currently shaping discussions of pneumatology.
Reviewed by Priscilla Pope-Levison
Professor of Theology and Assistant Director of Women’s Studies Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington
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