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103
The Nature of Pentecostal
Spirituality
One of the scribes … asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, 0 Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love thc Lord your God with all
all you
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with
your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no othcr commandmcnt greater than these.”
Mark 12:28-31 (NRSV)
.
.
What is
spirituality?
On the surface this would seem to be a
fairly easy question
to answer. But
any survey
of
offerings
in
your
local Christian bookstore on the
subject
will demonstrate
quickly just
how difficult this term is to define. To be sure, there are definitions which deserve our further reflection. But these are rare. Most of what
passes for advice or reflection on
spirituality
is little more than froth. It
may incorporate
an element of truth, but much of it is aimed at the
popular market and it is often little more than the latest
pop-psychology
or self- help
scheme with little or no relation to Scripture.
We can be judgmental of this state of affairs, of course, but our
day differs little from those which have come and
gone
for centuries before us. Some folks in the New Testament viewed their
prayers
on street corners and their
self-congratulatory giving
of alms as
symbolic
of their
spirituality.
Jesus called it
hypocrisy
and
suggested
that
genuine spirituality
was as secret as it was
genuine (Matthew 6:1-6).
The Corinthians believed that
public
outbursts of
tongues,
or if you would prefer, uninterpreted eruptions
of vocal
ecstasy
were demonstrative of their
spirituality. They
were the
truly spiritual ones,
the
pneccmatikoi. Paul, however, responded
with his lesson on
charismata,
those
many and varied manifestations of God’s
grace
which
point
back to the Giver,
build
up
the
other,
and reach out to the world
undergirded by
a healthy understanding
of self, as being the real marks of spirituality. There are
many
other
examples
we could cite from
Scripture
which would
provide
similar conclusions. The
meaning
of Christian
spiritu- ality,
is at times elusive. In a sense, when we look for it we are in the greatest danger
of
losing
the
very object
of our
quest (Luke 9:23-24). True
spirituality
involves
the giving
over of our
very
selves to the One we
worship
and adore
(Romans 12:1-2).
Recently
as I lectured on the rise of asceticism and the monastic movement,
I was struck once
again by
the
aspects
of these movements which
consciously aspired
to
genuine spirituality.
The earliest monas- tic men and women were hermits who lived in small,
sparse,
isolated caves or cells in the deserts of
Syria
and
Egypt.
Some of
my
students criticized them for
running away,
for
embracing
an individualistic form of
religious expression,
for
failing
to confront the world and the
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104
perfectionism, acts of
self-denial,
a new form of sectarianism. But
problems
which an
increasing
alliance between church and state and the
development
of civil
religion brought
to bear
upon genuine
Chris- tian
testimony.
Others criticized them for
seeking
an artificial form of
of
trying
to work out their own salvation
by engaging
in
or of
producing
others viewed them as
giving
themselves
up
as
gifts
to their Lord and to the
church, those spiritual
few who were called to
pray
and to meditate and to work and to
pray again
in a methodical
rhythm
which remembered both God and
neighbor.
To be
sure,
even asceticism and monasticism have their weak
points and their failures. There are those who are
running away
who do not understand even in a community what it means to be
part
of the
larger
spirituality
intent on their acts than
they
are on the desired results of their actions. But there are the
many
who,
in this
vocation, this
calling,
have not
genuine
Christian
spirituality
but
by
their lives and
to or called us to our own
expressions
whole, who fail to connect
only
demonstrated prayers
have contributed greater spirituality. Pentecostal
spirituality
with
reality,
who are more
of
in a
sense,
from other forms
Charismatic”
and
Emerging
from
upon sanctification,
Wesleyan-Holiness “baggage.”
is no
different,
of Christian
spirituality.
The
symbols,
rites, and rituals
may
differ a bit but
beyond that,
sometimes even in the midst of all that, the
object
is the same.
My good
friend Russell P.
Spittler
is
undoubtedly
correct when he notes that
Spirituality
is “the
gestalt
of
piety,”
and that it is “not native to the Pentecostal tradition”
spirituality,
Pentecostal and
in
Burgess
and McGee,
eds., Dictionary
Charismatic Movements
(Regency/Zondervan, 1988), 804].
the
Wesleyan-Holiness
movement with its
emphasis
the Pentecostal Movement inherited some
generation
chafed at.
stagnation today drinking
of
Pentecostal
Some of it was
good,
such as an
of it was not
good.
Sometimes
emphasis upon
a life of holiness. Some
those
things
in which one
generation
chose not to
engage,
the next
What one culture found to be a helpful consensus in their
quest
for
genuine spirituality
became
signs
of
legalism
and
to the
spiritual development
of another culture. It is difficult
to
explain
to our children
why chewing gum, playing
ball, or
soda
pop
were such taboos
among
those who
preceded
us in the Pentecostal tradition. But
they
were
important
at the
time, not only
as
signs against
the encroachment
because of that we should be slow to
genuine
marks of
spirituality, criticize.
and
generation
or each culture free
of the modern
world, but as
a relative
matter,
with each
Does this make
pentecostal spirituality
to do that which is
good
in its own eyes?
I think
not, for we have,
after all,
adopted Scripture
as our
norm, and that stands above all
things except
the
Living
Word Himself. Some
things
do not
change.
Some
things
do. There are
undoubtedly
which we do and hold that future Pentecostals will
reject
or
things
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105
modify
because
they
find them
standing
between that which is
truly spiritual
and themselves. But there will also be much that we will
pass on to them and for which
they
will be thankful.
As I pondered the
spirituality
of the ascetics and monks, I was also reminded of the times I have been
privileged
to
participate,
for short periods,
in monastic life. I have. been drawn
by
their
regularity
of time spent
in common
prayer-five
or six times a day. I have been attracted by
their meditations on various
portions
of
Scripture, by
their
singing of the
Psalms, by
their
periods
of silence in which
they
listen … listen … listen. But I have
also, perhaps
even
mostly,
been
impressed by
the quality
and the content of their
prayers.
Not
only
have
they sought
to worship
and to
praise
God, to confess
their
sinfulness, or to make per- sonal
petitions,
but
they
have viewed themselves in
community
with their
neighbors
both within the
monastery
and outside. Their
prayers for all who
travel,
for those in
ministry,
for those who are sick or at death’s door, for those who are
helpless,
or
homeless,
or
poor,
for those who are without
hope-these are,
for
me,
also
genuine signs
of their
spirituality.
I take
great joy
and not a little comfort that such prayers
are offered
daily
for me as well as for the world. I cannot imagine
the loss to the church of this enormous band of
“prayer warriors” were
they
to disappear.
In the
end,
it was Roberta Bondi, a friend, and
patristics
scholar who teaches at
Emory University,
who reminded me
through
her book To Pray
and To Love
(Fortress, 1991 ),
of the nature of
genuine spiritual- ity.
“Our wholeness as human
beings depends upon living
out the Great Commandment,” she wrote, which “is the most fundamental of all
early
monastic convictions.” “The
starting point
of a life of
prayer [such
as one finds in
monasticism]
is to
know,
no matter how
dimly, that we are created for and called to love”
(p. 28)
Ultimately, then,
monastic
spirituality
is not all that different from pentecostal spirituality.
Its end is love; the love of God and the love of neighbor.
Their forms
may differ,
but their content is the same. In this issue, five authors speak
to various
aspects
of Pentecostal
spirituality. Dan Albrecht
begins
the discussion with a creative and
important
dis- cussion of Pentecostal ritual. His discussion of the icons of Pentecostal spirituality
which involve the various senses
including sound, sight, and the tactile dimensions is
ecumenically suggestive, pointing
to an area worth
exploring
with the Orthodox Churches. Pentecostals should readily
find themselves and their actions described in the sections on modes of ritual
sensibility
and
ultimately
the kind of transformation of self and of the
community
which takes
place
as
collectively they seek God. Much of this we inherit not
only
from the
Wesleyan- Holiness tradition and the revivalist tradition, but also from the African-American
religious
tradition.
Roland Wessels leads us
through
an
historical-theological study
of the Pentecostal shibboleth called
“Spirit-baptism.”
He
provides
an
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106
overview of the
development Keswick, and
Wesleyan-Holiness
of this doctrine
from its
evangelical, roots to its formulation
among early
Pentecostals. This
experiential reality,
viewed
by many early
Pente- costals as the
epitome
of Pentecostal
spirituality,
and
experienced
in a Cane
Ridge-like context,
where charisms could be
freely manifested, he
contends, was the contribution of the 1906 Azusa Street revival.
changes provide
it also has
David
Bundy, provides
a further clue to the
spirituality
of the Azusa Street revival. His research has turned
up
several
previously unpub- lished letters
exchanged
between Thomas Ball Barratt of
Norway
and the staff of the
Apostolic
Faith Mission on Azusa Street. These ex-
which
Bundy places
within their
larger
historical context
a window onto the
type
of
“spiritual
advice” which was
being given by those who helped
to lead the mission.
Pentecostal
spirituality
is not all a matter of
experience,
ramifications for the
way
Pentecostals interface with the world. One concrete
example
of this is found in one
aspect
of the
ministry
of Aimee
Semple
McPherson.
Gregg
Townsend offers
up
an assessment of this manifestation of Pentecostal
spirituality.
Influenced
by
her
in the Salvation
Army,
“Sister” exhibited a form of Pente-
which fed and clothed thousands, a manifestation
background
costal
spirituality
deserving
of renewed reflection homelessness,
Finally,
Donald L. Gelpi posed
to
challenged
in a
day
of
rising unemployment,
and riots borne of
hopelessness.
looks
carefully
at the
theological challenges
charismatic
spirituality
at a time when the Catholic Charis- matic Renewal celebrates its first
quarter century.
The renewal has
the
larger
church with the
reality
of
personal
conversion and a new
appreciation
for the
Holy Spirit.
The
larger
church, on the other
hand,
challenges
the renewal, and indeed, classical Pentecostal- ism to move
beyond
a
privatized
or individualistic
spirituality
into a more
fully
biblical
spirituality
manifested in
community.
A more
balanced
charismatic
spirituality
can result if the renewal and the
you authenticity, spirituality.
church take
seriously
the
gifts
and criticisms of the other.
As
you
read and think about the
unique
contributions of each of these authors I hope you will ask also how their
insights
can
challenge
to live out the Great Commandment with more
integrity
and
for herein lies the
key ‘
to the true nature of
pentecostal
Cecil M.
Robeck,
Jr.
Editor
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