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21
The Charismatic Movement and
Augustine: The
Challenge
of Symbolic
Thought
in the Modern
World
Karla Poewe
*
Introduction
It is the intention of this
paper
to puzzle about the nature and
impor- tance of charismatic
Christianity
as a prevalent
experiential
form of religiosity.l
I
say prevalent
because it seems to be
occurring
in all parts of the
world, although
it is
particularly lively
in those areas that are under
pressure
to change, are
questioning
their
major traditions,
and/or are
subject
to considerable human transience.
Charismatic
Christianity
is a
religion
of
change.
In South Africa, founders of
independent
churches are
quite explicit
in their view that charismatic churches are there to change South African
society. Thus, the nine
biggest
and most
vigorous recently
founded
independent churches arse the centers of a
major
social drama.2 It consists of the coming together
of diverse ethnic and “racial”
groups
the members of which have
lost faith
in both,
apartheid
and its violent alternative. The
change
of which I speak is, therefore, not that of
high
technol- ogy
or urbanization and modernization of the Third World. Nor is it
primarily
social or
political.
It is rather cultural in nature and starts with the breakdown of world views like
apartheid and, especial- ly,
the
major
western world view based on science,
progress,
and
*Karla Poewe is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology, The Uni- versity
of Calgary, 2500 University Dr., N.W.Calgary, Alta. T2N 1N4 Canada
lIn the 1950s to 1970s a pentecostal style of Christianity became acceptable in, and spread through, mainline churches. Called the charismatic renewal, it caused considerable strife within these churches. During the late 1970s and 1980s, splits led to the creation of innumerable
These
independent
charismatic churches and ministries.
independent
churches and ministries are nondenominational and they are centered on the gifts of the Holy Spirit (as in 1 Cor.12), hence the designation charis- matic. They were the visions of itinerant and visible
as Bill
highly evangelists and Included here are such men prophets.
Branham, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart.
Kenneth Kenneth
of
Hagin, Copeland (some
of them now in disrepute) America; Reinhard Bonnkb of Africa and now in West
Dawson of New
Germany; Joy
Zealand; Yongi Cho of Korea; Ray McCauley, Ed Roebert, Fred Roberts, Nicky van der Westhuizen, Paul Lutchman, and Michael Kolisang of South Africa
(representing
all ethnic
groups including Afrikaner, Indian,
and Graham
Black);
Kendrick, Roger Teale, among many others of Great Britain, and so on.
2These churches include: Durban Christian Center, Hatfield of Pretoria, Rhema of Johannesburg,
The Christian Revival Centerof Chattsworth, Christian City of Johan- nesburg, Nicky
van der Westhuizen Evangelistic
Ministry, Maritzburg
Christian Center,
have
Victory Life, and the New Covenant FellowshipBryanston).
All 9 churches
over 800 members (where membership is emphasized) and between 10,000 to 50,000 people in attendance at Sunday services.
1
22
development.
It is as if a medieval mind set resting on
mysticism
and a hankering
for closeness to the divine center
were, paradoxically, breaking through
the fetters of the now
aged and,
to many,
stifling
atti- tudes of the
Eighteenth Century Enlightenment.
What has been lost is faith
in science and the
supremacy
of reason. What has been won is a renewed
faith
in
intuition, vision, experience
of the
holy,
and creativ- ity.
It
means,
in
effect,
a
greater sensitivity
to one’s environment including
an increased
sensitivity
toward the
humanity
and
gifts
of non-western
peoples.
It also means
listening
and
acting upon
inner promptings
and, hence, being open
to and
grasping
new
opportunities, be
they
of a relationship or
entrepreneurial
kind. The effects of this are quite dramatic,
for
example,
in South Africa’s
integrated independent churches where the
Afrikaner
is being detribalized and
many
a black is being
turned
away
from bitterness and frustration.3
The
charismatic movement
and other
experiential religions,
in- cluding
urban new
religions
and the New
Age movement, express
loss of confidence in one or the other of the
major
world traditions
only
to reemphasize formerly ignored
facets of them. This
versagen
und umwalzen of world views and the
resulting
eclecticism has
penetrated academia as much as the
general public.
One need
go
no further than to mention a
few
recent works in
anthropology
to make the
point,
for example,
Karl-Heinz Kohl’s Abwehr und
Verlangen,
Johannes Fabian’s Time and the
Other, George
Marcus’ and M. J. Fischer’s
Anthropology as Cultural
Critique,
and so on.4 All either
question,
or
respond
to the failure
of,
various traditions in the
discipline.
At the risk of
stating
the obvious, there seems to be a difference, however,
between academia and the
religiously
involved
public.
The former tend to be content with their criticism, while the latter feel uncomfortable with it and
proceed
to fill the critical vacuum with an overarching goal.
Both shun
specific
traditions and
programs,
but charismatics do so in order to reestablish a direct tie with God
(the
source and center of all
creativity)
who is
expected
and seen to act in their
everyday
life. In its Sartrean-like
goal specification
and in the un- Sartrean
expectation
of concrete manifestations
(of
the
Holy Spirit), this form of religiosity is
eminently
existential.
One of the ironies of rejecting a tradition is that the
very rejection
of its more recent doctrinal
interpretations
and
religious practices gives
a heightened respectability
to its
original
doctrines and
practices.
Thus charismatic Christians see themselves as
reenacting
first
Century
30ther as yet unpublished papers about South Africa’s charismatic churches are available from the author.
4Karl-Heinz Kohl Abwehr und Verlangen Qumran: im Campus Verlag, 1987; Johannes Fabian, Time and the Other New York: Columbia University Press, 1983; George
marchs and M. J. Fischer, Anthropology as Cultural
Critique Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1986.
2
23
Christianity expecting,
above all, the same manifestations of the
super- natural that are said to have occurred then.
Doctrine is
stripped
of centuries of
interpretations, (hence
the sense of de-emphasis on doctrine of which mainline liberal and fundamental- ist Christians
complain),
while behavior in the sense of a living rela- tionship
with an active and immanent God
through
the
Holy Spirit
is reemphasized.
Gone is a
mediating hierarchy.
What is left is a
spiritual guide (a teacher, evangelist, prophet, guru,
trance
channeler, etc.)
who returns the individual to a direct
relationship
with an active God who
speaks into the life of the individual in the
language
of
“signs
and wonders.” This
language
reads or
deciphers experiences
and communicates through experiences.
Restored to primacy is
mysticism, religious
celebration,
and
allegory or
anagogy
in the form of
personal
testimonies. For charismatics a testimony
is a
story
told
by
an individual about his or her walk with God. While the tradition is reduced to skeletal form, it is nonetheless used to interact
dialectically
with the individual’s life
experiences
thus maintaining
a recognizable order in the
process
of reordering that life. Given that a testimony is an
anagogy
which leads the individual to see in the visible events and
experiences
of his life the invisible
plan and actions of
God,
two
things
are of interest. We want to know, firstly,
which
symbolic
faculties a person uses to construct his or her life
story. And, secondly,
it should be observed that in a
changing, transient,
and
eclectic world,
order is not so much out there in
society but in the individual. The life of the individual runs
according
to God’s plan
and the individual’s
thought patterns
are
supported by
a network of international
neo-pentecostal
Christians with whom he or she is in contact,
either
directly
or
through
the media. A human or media-based network,
rather than
community,
is also the
organizational
framework of the New
Age
movement. .
Augustine’s Confessions:
The Source of the Charismatic World View
Pentecostals, neo-pentecostals
and charismatics are said to
comprise between 50 to 60 million
people
the world over.5 This
general
form of
million adult 5 According
to a Gallup poll conducted for Chrisaanity Today in 1980 about 29
Americans considered themselves to be charismatics. The charismatic
movement has grown since. Some observers believe that charismatics constitute the largest
Protestant family in the world. Estimates have it that there are 50 to 60 million charismatics around the world. In addition there are thought to be 38 million inde- pendent Pentecostals, around 16 million Protestant charismatics and between 30 to 50 million Catholic charismatics. While charismatic beliefs are
the Third World
particularly popular in where
they merge well with indigenous beliefs about and the healing, spirit possession power of the Spirit (David E. Harrell, Pat Robertson: A Personal, and
Religious,
Political Portrait
[San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987] 108) what is
3
24
religious expression is, however, particularly popular
in Latin Amer- ica,6 Africa,
the United States and
Korea,7
and in
parts
of the United Kingdom.
Given this
popularity and,
more
importantly,
the fact that neo-pentecostalism recognizes
no class barriers and has become a religion
of the urban middle
classes,
it can no
longer
be dismissed as a religion
of the
oppressed
and/or as somehow marginal.8 Indeed, the time has come to
acknowledge
its roots not
only
in first
Century Christianity
but in the seminal mind of
Augustine
of
Hippo,
North Africa.
While it is
unpopular
to
say
so in
theological circles,
it is in fact Augustine’s Confessions9
that sets the
pattern
for charismatic Chris- tianity.
It is, therefore, essential to look at this work in some detail.
Augustine’s Confessions point
to some of the most fundamental distinctions that are
part
of the
thinking
of modem
day
charismatic Christians. These distinctions include
sequencing
and
highlighting
of events, recognition
of states of
being,
and the use of dialectical think- ing
to relate
personal experiences
to a biblical framework and vice versa. We turn to discuss these and other distinctions now.
First, Confessions is
based on a distinction between conversion
pro- cess and conversion drama. The former consists of
carefully
remem- bered and examined events and
experiences
that take
place
over
many years and,
in
Confessions,
are recounted on
many pages.
The
latter, conversion
drama,
is a moment of
heightened
crisis and awareness during
which
Augustine recognized
in a flash, a fundamental
change
in his state of
being.
This drama is
relatively
short in time and is con- densed onto
very
few
pages. (Confessions, therefore,
is written from within this new state of
being
some
years
after
Augustine
had matured into his role of Catholic
bishop).
The conversion
process
as told
by Augustine
resembles the
telling
of a testimony
by
a charismatic Christian. The conversion drama remains that,
a drama,
though
the nature of its
content,
like divine intervention and the
specific conflict,
varies somewhat from
person
to person.l0
amazing is their widespread acceptance in North America’s and South Africa’s white middle and
professional classes and their impact in similar population pockets of Scotland
England, and, much less so, West Germany.
6Personal communication with David Martin.
7Richard Quebedeaux, The New Charismatics II San Francisco: Harper 8t Row, 1983; Walter J. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals: The Charismatic Movement in the Churches Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972 ; Peabody, Ma.: Hendrick- son Publishers, 1988.
_
8Richard H. Neibuhr, The Social Sources of Denominationalism New York: Holt & Co., 1929; Vittorio Lantemari, The Religions of the Oppressed : A Study of Modern Messianic Cults Lisa Sergio, trans. New York: Knopf, 1963.
9For simplicity, in this paper E.M. Blaiklock’s translation of The Confessions of St. Augustine (Nashvdle: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983) is used. ,
101 have conducted research among charismatic Christians in South Africa, the
‘
‘
4
25
Second, Augustine’s
conflict is condensed into two dominant
oppo- site
symbols
which come to represent, in a word
each,
undesirable and desirable states of
being.l
AR charismatic Christians use this
crisp symbolic
device to characterize their life before and after conversion or,
what is
similar, surrendering
it to God.
Third,
there is a distinction between the state of
being
which informs the
perspective
from which
Confessions
is written and the dialectical interaction between this Christian framework and
Augustine’s experi- ences.
Confessions
is
written,
as said, from the state of
being
a Chris- tian a
long
time after the conversion drama. Likewise, charismatic Christians tell their testimonies from the state of
being
Christians following
conversion and/or other milestone dramas. Both,
Augustine and charismatic Christians, however,
rely
on dialectical
thought pro- cesses as
they
reflect
upon
their
experiences
in the
light
of Christian doctrine and reflect
upon
Christian doctrine in the
light
of their
experi- ences. More so than
Augustine,
of
course,
charismatic Christians emphasize
Corinthians and the
theology
of Luke. 12
Fourth,
it should be clear that neither
Augustine’s
conflict
symbol- ized
by
dominant
symbols,
nor the divine intervention at the
height
of the conversion drama, nor
finally
the
Christianity
that informs Con- fessions
makes sense unless it is realized that
Confessions
is about Augustine striving
to establish a relationship with God. Charismatic Christians are much more
open
about their desire to restore or establish a personal and direct
relationship
with God.
Consequently,
their theol- ogy
about divine intervention
(including speaking
in tongues, resting in the
spirit, power
encounters,
and so
on) has, perhaps,
moved
beyond that of
Augustine.
Equipped
with these distinctions, we are now
ready
to look at the symbolic operations
which
Augustine
and charismatic Christians
use, and at the
pattern underlying
conversion. These
symbolic operations and
patternings give
the charismatic movement its and
–
power persua- siveness.
_
The
Symbolic Operations
at Work in
Augustine’s Confessions Augustine’s
reflections allow him
both,
to garner nuggets of wisdom and to portray the drama of conversion. In these endeavors he relies on the human
ability
to
symbolize
which, according
to Leach, consists of using (1) symbol relationships
which
are arbitrary
but habitual or con- ventional, and (2) sign relationships
which are
contiguous
but in a rela-
.
U.S.A. and Canada and base my conclusions on over 200 life history type interviews as well as participant observation in independent churches in South Africa and North America.
l lVictor Turner, The Forest of Symbols London: Cornell University Press,1967.
l2Roger Stronstad,
The Charismatic
Theology of St. Luke, Peabody,
Ma: Hendrickson Publishers, 1984.
5
26
of a
part
to a whole, as well as
signal relationships
which are causal. 3 In
tionshif
other
words,
he works with both
metaphor
and
metonymy. Though largely ignored
in
symbolic
or
interpretive anthropology,
the use of metonymy is particularly
popular among
charismatics.
By metaphor
is meant
simply
that A stand for B by
arbitrary
associa- tion. The association can be
habitual, conventional, private, or one of planned
resemblance as in an icon.
Metonymy
includes
sign,
natural index,
and
signal.
In the
first,
A stands for B as part for a whole; in the second,
A indicates
B; in
the
third,
A
triggers
B so that the
relationship between A and B is mechanical and automatic.14 What makes the metonymic operation
so powerful is the fact that, in practice,
people
do not
carefully distinguish among sign, index,
and
signal,
so that A stands for and indicates B while B is seen to
trigger
A.
Augustine
did this with “the voice”
episode,
for
example,
and charismatic Christians do this with
visions,
speaking
in tongues, and other
phenomena
Charismatic
Christians,
like
Augustine, rely
on careful
patterning
of the conversion
process
and drama. Thus
Augustine
describes the tell- tale
signs, emotions, attitudes,
and
thoughts preceding and following the
peak experience
of his conversion.
By peak experience,
I mean the moment of
euphoria, clearly
identified
by Augustine,
that followed recognition
of conflict resolution.
In the
analysis
of the charismatic movement, mood and emotion can- not be dismissed as Geertz for
example,
is inclined to do.15 Not
only must we record the
passage
of mood and
feeling
from the
immediacy of the
experience
to the
metaphor
and
metonyms
of
testimony,
but their
logical, one might
even
say precise, place
in the
process leading up to,
and
following,
the drama of surrender must also be noted. In other
words,
in the
presence
of charismatic activities the
“meanings- and-symbols ethnographer,”
as Geertz calls himself,16 must dare to step beyond
the bounds of
cognition
and
metaphor
to become
also,
like the
charismatic,
a
“signs-and-wonders ethnographer”
in order to
cap- ture
experience
and
metonym.
The
metonymic
structure is essential to
Augustine’s
successful des- cription
of conversion.
Thus, preceding
the
peak experience, Augustine describes occurrences that are
sign posts along
the
path
of conversion, for
example: premonitory healing,
God’s
closing
doors and
opening new
ones, listening
to other
people’s
testimonies; then,
increased inner tension as he
longs
for similar resolution of his inner conflict; the unresolved conflict
prompting
him to describe himself in terms of
13Edmond Leach, Culture and Communication: The Logic by which Symbols Are Connected Cambridge: The University Press, 1976.
l4LMch, Culture and Communication.
lSC?o? Geertz, Local Knowledge: Further
Essays in Interpretive Anthropol- ogy (New
York: Basic Books, 1983) 62.
16Geertz, Local Knowledge, 69.
6
27
themes of sickness,
“healthy” madness,
a kind of
dying, searching;
the
point
of
breaking
and sense of dread. Here the
peak
is
anticipated
and
his emotional state is further
highlighted.
While the events
preceding
the experience
of conversion occurred over a number of
years,
the ‘
highlighted
emotions
leading
to the
peak experience
occur within
moments of one another: there is the need to
surrender,
awareness of
inner
conflict, lamenting
the
seemingly
unbearable
psychological pain
of it
all; then,
a storm of tears
marking
his actual emotional
surrender
repentance,
the voice,
sharp concentration,
the biblical
passage,
and
euphoria
with the resolution of his conflict.
If emotion
predominates
in the
period preceding
the
peak experience
of
conversion,
intellect
predominates
thereafter.
Following euphoria,
Augustine
writes of intellectual surrender
accompanied by
intense
longing
to read, think, and
write,
an awareness of increased
blessings
(or “fruits”),
an awareness of
having
been made
whole; then, intellec-
tual zeal followed
by
inner
peace
and the
knowledge
of
having
won an
important victory,
awareness of God’s
plan
for the salvation of
humankind,
and
recognition
of
signs
and wonders. All of this is a very
accurate
portrayal
of the charismatic
experience today.
And while this
amazing
sense of self-awareness and
sensitivity would,
no
doubt,
be
dismissed
by
Geertz as the
self-engrossment appropriate
for the roman-
tic poet,17 it should be remembered that
Kierkegaard
and
Jung identify
self-knowledge
with the
knowledge
of God.
The wisdom of
Augustine
is that he does not
depend only
on
tangible
evidence of God
doing
such and so
(usually
described
by
use of
metonymic symbols).
Nor does he
rely solely
on
metaphor.
The
logic
of conversion with its peak experience as climax, and the
emphasis
on
human emotion and intellect
preceding
and
following
the climax
respectively,
is impeccable.
What is more
fascinating
is that
Augustine’s portrayal
is existential
in
nature-quite Heideggerian (who may
have been
Augustinean).
As
with
Heidegger’s concept
of dread, or
Thackeray’s description
of a
Gros Ventre Indian
seeking insight,18
so Confessions shows an indi-
vidual who allows himself to
go with,
and live
through,
his dark
period.
While this is done at the cost of existential
pain,
the individual
is certain of “the
light
at the end of the
tunnel,”
the
rebirth,
the emer-
gence
from the dark womb into the
light
of day. To
put
it in the words
of
Marett, “Dynamically viewed, experience
of the sacred resolves
itself into a passage out of
depression through
a chrysalis-like passivity
into renewed
vitality.” 19
Because it is
psychologically painful
and time
consuming,
some
l7Geertz, Local Knowledge,10.
18Manda Cesara,
Reflections of a Woman Anthropologist:
No Hiding Place (London:
Academic Press, 1982) 66,134.
19R. R. Marett, The Threshold of Religion (London: Methuen & Co, 1914) 170.
7
28
charismatic Christians want to
by-pass
their existential tunnel.
They thereby
abort various
symbolic operations except
that of
metonymy. Consequently,
the
great prominence given
to
metonymy
holds a danger.
It turns some charismatic Christians into seekers of
supernatu- ral
experience
which the
metonymic operation
allows them to inter- pret
as manifestations of the
Holy Spirit.
In their
impatience
for these experiences
some fall into the
trap
of
trying
to
manipulate
the
Holy Spirit,
or
themselves,
to
bring
on the
Holy Spirit.
Not
surprisingly,
in the Third World these tendencies make. for the
quick indiginization
of Pentecostalism which takes on
African,
Indian or other
forms,
some- times
beyond recognition.20
Speaking positively, however, Augustine’s
existentialism is echoed in the charismatic attitude that God is not confined to
Scripture,
but is found,
as Jung
said,
“in the
storm,
in the
whirlwind,
in the
cataclysmic events
(of
an individual’s
life)
and of
history (generally),
in the
healing presence
of his Son
(or
the
Holy Spirit),
in the
ongoing proclamation of the church.”21 In life
changing experiences,
as in
extremity, concrete forms of existence tend to predominate and
“symbols
tend to actualize.”22 To
quote
Des Pres further,
“meaning
no
longer
exists above and
beyond
the world: it reenters concrete
experiences,
becomes immanent and invests each act and moment with
urgent depth.”23
Reflection and Dislocation
Having
looked at the basic
symbolic operations
that
underpin
Con- fessions
and
being
aware of the book’s
logical pattern,
a pattern that is followed
by
charismatics
today,
even when
they
have not read
Augus- tine, we shall now look more closely
at
Augustine’s
use of reflection (in
this
section)
and
metonymy (in
the next
section).
Both bother modern
scholars, perhaps especially
American
scholars,
and
yet
both are
quite
attractive to a significant proportion of the urban charismatic populace.
The American scholars’ uneasiness about
reflection,
especially
self- reflection,
has
something
to do, I think, with their
preference
for
image building.
Self-reflection is seen either as
self-engrossment24
or as
20Karla
Poewe, “Links and Parallels
between Black and White
Churches in South Africa and
Independent
America,” Pneuma 10:2 (1988),141-158.
21Wayne B. Rollins, Jung and the Bible (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1983) 96; 7regarding
existential thinking of charismatic leaders, see David Harrell Oral Roberts: 4n American Life Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. It is sad that the
on rationality by many academics and their ignorance, indeed :ear, of charismatic
overemphasis placed
Christianity
blinds them to the fact that in Confessions, if iowhere else, Augustine is existentialist.
?Temence Des Pres, The Survivor (New Yoric Pocket Books,1977), 77.
23Des Pres, The Survivor, 77.
24Geertz, Local Knowledge, 10.
8
29
narcissism.25 Americans tend to prefer the
opposite process, namely, image building,
to which self-reflection is a threat.
Indeed,
in America reflection tends to be directed toward the other.
Thus,
on the one
hand,
the obsessive
image building
results not
only
in
larger
than life
repre- sentations of
political figures,
the latest
being Dukakis,
or
anthropolo- gists,
like
Margaret Mead,
but also
evangelists,
like
Swaggert,
Roberts, and so on. On the
other,
these
images
are fair
game
for those who reflect
upon
them and
find,
as one would
expect,
a large
gap
between the
image
and the real
person.
Nevertheless, reflection is
indispensable
to the
uprooted
or unrooted individual. It is a reaction to the loss of, or discontent
with,
one’s cognitive
universe. It has
something
to do with
correcting
for mental, cultural, spatial, social,
even career dislocation. Thus
Augustine
voices a sense of dislocation when he
complains
that his
business, namely rhetoric,
is a source or means of knowledge based on
technique
and/or manipulation.
Its mechanical shallowness has become
meaningless
to him, making
God more attractive
precisely
because he is transcendent and
nonmtinipulative.
Augustine’s complaint
is not
very
different from that of the modem individual who likewise
experiences
science as mechanical and shallow.26 Coupled
with this comes the sense of dislocation which results from the
ideologization
of science and
technology
as attitude and
thought.
In
practice,
Science
requires distancing
from what one experiences,
observes,
and lives out. As
ideology,
it is to
give
comfort. Unable to do the
latter, many
an individual is left with a vague sense of not
being
in the
right place physically, mentally,
or
emotionally. Reflection
on one’s actions is a major
way
of
relocating
the self in the sense of
bringing
it into a
right relationship
with itself and God. But self-reflection and reflection
generally
are more
important yet. They
are a vital
part
of the
methodology
of noting
religious feeling
and recognizing
the
holy.
Like
Otto,27
one searches for reflections of the Numen in the events of one’s life, in human
consciousness,
in the ex- periences
of worship in many different traditions, and in religious awe. Charismatic Christians continue this tradition. Individuals are en- couraged
to search their
experiences
because reflected in them is the Numen and the
ongoing activity
of God. In the
process,
no matter how uprooted they may
be
socially, spatially, politically,
or professionally, they
have in fact relocated themselves in what is
variously
referred to as “the
kingdom
of
God,” “Zion,”
“the
city
of God,” and so on.28 .
25Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism New York: Warner, 1979.
26Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge G. Bennington
& B. Massomi, trans. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
27Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy. J. W. Harvey, trans. Oxford: Oxford Uni- versity Press, 1923.
28M. E. West, Bishops and
Prophets
in a Black
City: African Independent
9
30
It was
pointed
out earlier that in
reflecting, Augustine
carries out at least two
symbolic operations.
On one
hand,
he examines his mundane actions in order to find in them
nuggets
of God’s wisdom-a metaphoric operation.
On the
other,
he describes the
experiential high- lights
of the conversion
process
in order to
point beyond
them to “God’s
plan”-a metonymic operation.
The
metaphoric operation deals with core
theological concepts
of sin,29
humility
as the word made
flesh,30 evi1,31
anticultism and
anti-magic.32
The
metonymic operation
deals with the
birthing
of core charismata out of the womb of tension, conflict, dread,
emotional
surrender, lamentation, contrition, voices,
and so on.33 It
is,
as said
earlier,
the
metonymic operation which turns
Christianity
into an
experiential religion.
Because it is popular among
charismatic Christians and because it entails certain dangers,
we shall now look at it in more detail.
The
Metonymic
Structure of Augustine’s Conversion
. Whatever the differences between
Augustine’s Christianity
and that of charismatics
may be,
in the
metonymic structuring
of surrender to the
holy,
the two are
uncannily
alike. The similarities are so
great
that one must conclude that the
symbolic
faculties of
metonymy
are in universal use .and never were
eclipsed by
reason as
Enlightenment thinkers
might
have wished.
The
experiences
that
Augustine highlights
as
signs
of God’s won- drous hidden
ways
to aid
humanity,
these
metonyms
are common among
charismatics. One
might,
for lack of a better
term,
call them “heralding
events” after Christenson. The latter
points
out that certain “events are heralded as a demonstration of
supernatural power
and activity
and are linked to biblical
types
and
patterns
There
is, first,
the
premonitory curing
and conversion of
Alypius signifying
that God worked
through Augustine35
and
foreshadowing Augustine’s
own
healing
and conversion. Such a premonitory healing was likewise noted
by every
famous modem
evangelist
from William Branham to Oral
Roberts,
to Kathryn
Kuhlman,
to Kenneth
Hagin,
and so on. It is
usually
the first event that starts them on the
path
of a healing
and
evangelistic ministry.
‘
Churches in Soweto Johannesburg Cape Town: David Philip, 1975.
”
29Confessions. 157.
30Confessions. 165.
31Confessions. 172.
”
32Confessions. 186.
33Confessions,191, 201, 203-4.
Christenson, “Pentecostalism’s Forgotten Forerunner,” in Vinson Synan, ed. 34Larry
Aspects of Pentecostal-Charismatic Origins (Plainfield, NJ.: Logos International, 197n, 25.
35Confessions. 137
10
31
Second,
there is the
phenomenon
of the
smiting
word.
Again
in The Confessions
it happens first
to Alypius
(with Augustine
the
instrument) and later to
Augustine
himself.36 In these
“heralding events,”
modem charismatics also
recognize
one or other of what
they
refer to as the nine
spiritual gifts. Although
the “third wave” of the charismatic movement wants to democratize
these ‘ gifts,37
there is still considerable gift specialization.
Thus, one
evangelist may
have the
gift
of
healing, another of prophecy, or of discernment, and so on.
Indeed,
the five-fold
ministry
described in
Ephesians
is
popular
in Europe,
America,
South
Africa,
even Korea. It consists of
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors
and teachers and each tends to exercise different
gifts. Aligned
with these
gifts at
work in the leaders is a common
congregational response pattern.
Someone in the
assembly will
always
be convinced that
something
said
by
the minister “was said on his
(the listener’s)
account alone.”
Third, Augustine,
as charismatics
today, places events, encounters, and
appointments
so that
they
reveal God’s
plan
for the individual. Thus
Alypius’
arrest
by
the
marketpolice3g
and later the
special
meet- ing
between Ambrose and
Augustine etc.,
are what John Wimber calls “divine
appointments.”39
Fourth, the
charismatic renewal has made
explicit
the transformation of failure
into God’s
closing
some doors in order to open others. We see this
again
in subtle form in
Augustine’s Confessions
with the fail- ure of his mother to find him an
appropriate bride,4?
with the failure of the
commune,41
with the
break-up
of his common-law
marriage,42
and so on. The
importance
of
(a counterbalancing) victory,
so common in charismatic circles, is also
present
in
Augustine’s
work. He was converted and became a Catholic
bishop-for this,
and this
alone,
the door was
open.
Fifth, Augustine
and
present-day
charismatics
assign equal signifi- cance to
listening
to testimonies
especially prior
to conversion and/or other ritual milestones. Testimonies are full of metonymic signs so that listeners become sensitive to detecting them in their own lives. Sixth,
at the
height
of the conversion
drama,
between the
point
of
36Confessions, 137.
‘
37C. Peter Wagner, Signs and Wonders Today Altamonte Springs, Fl.: Creation House, 1987.
38Confessions, 139.
‘
39Tim Stafford, “California’s Latest Boom Church Has Power Encounters with Sin and Sickness,” Christianity Today (August 5, 1986), 17-22; John Wimber (with Kevin Springer) Power Evangelism: Signs and Wonders Today London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1985; San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1986.
40Confessions, 146.
41Confessions, 147.
__ _
. _
‘
42Confessions, 148.
11
32
“snapping”
and the
“light
of confidence” emotions come thick and fast. Despite
the
great intensity
of
emotion, however,
three intellectual heralding
events stand out:
(1)
the
crystallization
of
reality
into two opposing
forces
(at
the
point
of
conversion); (2)
the
sharp
mental con- centration at the sound of a voice
(at
the
point
of “divine interven- tion”) ; (3)
the instant
recognition
that the
“smiting
words” state his new
being (at
the
point
of climax).
Metonymic events,
which are
very
much
part
of the charismatic theology
about the work of the
Holy Spirit
in the life of an
individual, are
always
associated with surrender and its
consequent
fruits. Thus as intellectual surrender follows emotional
surrender,
so increased bless- ings replace
former
despair;
a sense of
wholeness replaces
the former sense of conflict;
peace
and
victory replace
dread and fear.
Concluding
Remarks: The
Danger
and
Challenge
of the Charis- matic Movement
The
prevalence
of
metonymy
and the
tendency
of urban
persons
to hang
on to charismatic control when
they
should surrender
it,
opens Christianity
to the
charge
of
becoming magical.
It is
important,
there- fore,
to look at the transformation of
religion-making
into
magic- making
characteristics and of the
paradigmatic
shifts that turn a great tradition,
like
Christianity,
into numerous
religious
movements or “salvation
syndromes.”43
An
overemphasis
on
metonymy, especially
its causal
aspect, may shift attention
away
from transcendence and
non-manipulation
toward immanence, manipulation,
and
technique.
Obsession with
technique (like
ritual
healing, laying
on of hands, use of anointed
cloths)
and the expectation
of automatic results are
magic-making.
Objectification
and reification also reinforce
magical
tendencies. While
Augustine, despite
his conversion, had come to see that
evil, within and
without, would confront
him for the rest of his
life, this insight
tends to be avoided
by
some charismatic Christians.
Augus- tine’s self-reflective
stance,
which was
consciously anti-magical,
meant that he looked at his smallest actions and most mundane
experiences
in the
light
of
Christianity
so as to disclose
thereby
not
only
God’s
ways and
plan,
but also to show the continued
presence
of
imperfection
in humankind.
By contrast,
the more common
response
now is to
objec- tify
evil as something
in,
but
separate
from humankind. Evil is personi- fied as
spirit beings
that
may possess,
obsess,
or obstruct an individual. Most charismatics
distinguish
between
possession
and evil tendencies of human
beings
that have
nothing
to do with
possession.
Others
ig- nore the distinction. For
them,
evil is a being which must be exorcised. Consequently,
trust is placed in exorcistic
techniques.
This is magic.
.
–
43Winston Davis, Dojo: Magic and Exorcism in Modern Japan Stanford: Stan- ford University Press, 1980.
12
It should be mentioned
science.
science
energy,
or third
eye, fied”
(as ancestor, animal,
33
x-ray, eye
spirit etc.) and, usually,
is
that
that the above
empirical form-of spiritccality may
well be
encouraged,
rather than
discouraged (as
Weber 1904-5 and Wilson
thought),44 by
western industrialization and faith in
If western medicine cannot
diagnose
and cure an
illness,
it is taken to
spiritual practitioners
who claim
they
can. The same
popular
methods are
applied, except
what the
microscope,
or ear cannot see or hear, the faith healer’s faith, or Holy
Spirit
within, or
and so
on,
can. It is
“seen,” “identified,” “classi-
or Satanic
extracted from or flushed out of the
body. Indeed,
Davis
argues urban
magic helps
urban man to
operate
more
(rather
than
less)
effi-
in the
system. Admittedly,
urban new
religions,
which Davis. calls
magical religions,
tend more
easily
in this direction than charis- matic
Christianity.
45
Like
evil, so too God’s good
can be
objectified.
ciently
so in the
spiritual
autobiographies Christians.d6 Modem American becoming’a
Christian
of charismatic
ingly
reflect
upon
one’s actions, and’
business of becoming
learning
the
proper techniques
Spirit
experience
moves mitment of service
This is
particularly
(or biographies)
of charismatic biographers
describe the
process
of
journey
in
pursuit
of the
the
Holy Spirit)
then
One does not
painstak-
notices that with the new
as an adventurous
acquisition gifts.
These
gifts (of
have life and character
changing consequences.
one
simply
latest
gift
one feels better, acts better, and does better. The whole
a better human
being
has to do with
finding
and
to exorcise evil
spirits
and
acquire holy gifts.
It is the above
practice
that has turned the battle with
ongoing
inner temptations
into ritual milestones. Thus in the charismatic movement the
important
ritual is no
longer
conversion but
baptism
in the
Holy
with the evidence of
speaking
in
tongues.
The latter ritualized
the
person
a step beyond conversion to a full com-
in the Christian
community.
Most
recently,
there is a newer
development yet
within the charismatic network: the
Signs
and Wonders Movement of John Wimber. The vital ritual is no
longer
con-
nor
baptism
in the
Holy Spirit
with the evidence of
speaking in
tongues,
but exorcism. The latter
provides
“real” deliverance and therefore “real” entrance into that new life that was
formerly thought
to
with conversion.
The above shifts are taken to be
paradigmatic by
their innovators so
version,
have started
Press,
Fleming
Wilson, Magic and the Millenium: A Sociological Study of Religious Movements 44aryan
of Protest Among Tribal and Third World Peoples London: Heinemann, 1973 and
Contemporary Transformations of Religion London: Oxford University
1976.
45Davis, Dojo: Magic and Exorcism in Modern Japan.
46John and Elizabeth Sherrill, The Happiest
People
on Earth Old Tappan:
H. Revell, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984.
13
34
that each new core ritual comes to
represent
a new movement. Recent decades,
for
example,
have come to be associated with three such movements in America.
Primary emphasis
on conversion was associ- ated with the “bom
again”
movement of fundamentalists
(1950s-60s). Primary emphasis
on
baptism
in.the
Holy Spirit
with the evidence of speaking
in
tongues
was associated with the charismatic renewal of the middle classes in mainline churches
(1970s-80s). Primary emphasis
on deliverance
through
exorcism and the
recognition
of all
gifts
of the Spirit
is associated with the
Signs
and Wonders Movement of John Wimber
(1980-90s).
The
popular
version of Christian
growth
and
development
differs from that
portrayed
in
Augustine’s Confessions.
It does so because it omits the self-reflective
process
with which North Americans are not comfortable. As a result, seekers
expect
and
evangelists preach
instant change
and
exaggerated optimism. Inevitably,
the
resulting image collapses
into its moral vacuum. The oral
testimony,
which should have been a literary work of great
truth,
ends as a lie.
It is as a corrective to
these, especially American,
cultural infusions into charismatic
Christianity
that
Augustine’s Confessions
must be seen. In this
sense,
it is the first classic
study
not
only
of a vital charismatic
Christianity but,
more
importantly,
of a charismatic world view. It is a world view
that, despite
the above mentioned
dangers, currently competes
with and
challenges
the western liberal tradition as we inherited it from the
Enlightenment.
The charismatic movement
challenges
both
enlightenment
world view and the
methodology
and
explanatory,
tools used to
study religion. Regarding
the latter we cannot
hope
to understand this
phe- nomenon
by looking only
at cognition. As Fabian reminds
us,
we have to include the dimension of
experience
as well as the
searching
reflec- tions of the
experiences
of those we research.47 To such words as “know” and “think” and
metaphor
we must add Otto’s
concept
of “feeling response”
and
metonym
in order to handle the arational aspects
of religious
experience,.
Finally,
far from
excluding empathy
and
einfuhlen
as Geertz suggests,
in the
apprehension
of the Numen we
may
well have to recognize
our own
experiences
in a charismatic
description
of his.49 We
may
have to return to an old dictum of Rudolf
Otto, namely, “that religion
is
caught
rather than
taught,
awakened in the individual’s experience
rather than communicated
through
instruction.”’50
Regarding
the existential
thinking
of charismatic
leaders,
see
47Fabian, Time and the Other, 108.
48Harold W. Turner, Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy: Commentary on a Short- ened Version Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen, 1974.
49Geertz, Local Knowledge. – .
501L W. Turner, Rudolf Otto, 29.
14
35
Harrell.51 It is sad
that the
overemphasis placed
on
rationality by many academics
and their
ignorance,
indeed fear, of charismatic Christianity blinds them to the
fact that in the Confessions,
if nowhere else, Augustine
is existentialist.
5 lHa=U, Oral Roberts.
15
