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Pentecostal Theology, Volume 24, No. 2, Fall 2002
Editorial
African Enacting Theology: A Rediscovery of an Ancient Tradition?
Frank D. Macchia
Karl Barth once referred to the difference between the “ regular theol- ogy” of the great dogmatics of prominent European theologians and the “ irregular theology” of sermons, devotionals, letters, and readings of Scripture that did not follow the lead of the modern historical-critical method. Judged to be less “ scientiŽ c” in nature than the mainstream the- ological treatises that emerged after Schleiermacher, the irregular theol- ogy tended often to encourage a more participatory reading of the biblical text and to be more directly contextual and powerfully prophetic in nature than its scientiŽ c counterpart. Barth wrote of this irregular theology in reference to the writings of the Blumhardts. One needs only to note Barth’ s famous Römerbrief as a more scholarly example. I do not think that a commentary slavishly devoted to the reigning exegetical science of the day could have had the same impact on European theology in 1922 as the Römerbrief. Ironically, the term, “ irregular theology,” represents a modern bias, since such theology represented the mainstream in pre- modern times. This is the irony of the matter.
In a post-Barthian theological era, theological method has witnessed the “ collapse of history” (Leo Perdue) within exegetical and theological method in the quest to Ž nd a place for theology in the university cur- riculum. While one cannot abandon historical method, our understanding of the nature of Scripture and of how people actually interact with it as the book of the church is far more complex now. For example, Gerald Sheppard has taught me about the theological importance of noting the nature of the biblical text as canon or Scripture. And my friend Jerry Camery-Hoggatt is fond of noting, and Walter Hollenweger has reminded us time and again, that much of the world does theology more in the form of narrative than by means of rational discourse.
But narrative is not the only way theology is done in places like Africa. Allan Anderson, in his recently published excursion into Pentecostal and Zionist churches in South Africa, draws our attention to another theolog- ical category akin to Barth’ s “ irregular” theology but more in the realm
© 2002 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden
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Pentecostal Theology, Volume 24, No. 2, Fall 2002
of so-called popular piety, namely, “ enacting theology.”1 Anderson notes in this signiŽ cant work that “ in the African worldview, action and expres- sion are at least as important as re ection” (239). Anderson implies that the delicate balance of emphasis between Christ and Spirit in the African churches he has investigated is evident in church practice as well as con- fession and re ection. Baptism and eucharist “ are central to the life and faith of these churches” and are often practiced with a powerful spiritual sense of identity with the cruciŽ ed and risen Christ (225). This sacra- mental devotion to the living Christ is joined with frequent references to Christ in such churches to provide the primary context in which the work of the Spirit is understood. Anderson refers to this context to criticize the notion that such African churches cherish “ Spirit” at the cost of a strong Christology. A difŽ culty, however, is noted in the possibility that the medi- ation of Christ could be “ obscured” by an emphasis in some churches, such as the International Pentecostal Church of Frederick Modise, on a Spirit-controlled representative or prophet of God who mediates between the people and God (223). Enacting theology has the danger of deifying its saints.
Interestingly, Anderson notes that the Spirit in the Zionist and Pentecostal African churches is not so much the focus of what is actually said about God. Instead, as is typical of African Christianity in general, the Spirit is assumed as that which accounts for the divine activity powerfully felt in all of life and enacted in church. In the African worldview, a person lives in a cosmos of interdependent life forces. In the context of this world- view, the Holy Spirit is assumed to be the all-powerful and all-pervasive presence of God that liberates from oppression (238, 243-244). The Spirit’ s presence is also evident in the holy life dedicated to biblical principles. The difŽ culty lies in discerning what these principles are in the midst of life. The danger that exists here, as elsewhere in Pentecostal churches, is in the possibility of a one-sided pneumatology of wealth and success at the neglect of a pneumatology of the cross, especially in the midst of suffering (254).
But Anderson does not believe that the Spirit is domesticated in the churches that he has studied. Rather than an “ impersonal” life force that we can control at will, the Spirit is felt in ways that imply divine activ- ity, often in ways that move a person beyond his or her limitations. This
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Allan Anderson, Zion and Pentecost: The Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostal and Zionist/Apostolic Churches in South Africa (Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 2000).
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experience of the Spirit is most prominently felt and enacted in various church practices such as healing, exorcism, speaking in tongues, and prophecy. According to one member of a Zionist church, the Spirit’ s “ com- ing upon” someone can provoke such activity as “ jumping up and down, clapping hands, shouting, falling down, fainting, speaking in unknown tongues, prophesying, dancing, singing, and so on” (249). As with theol- ogy in general, but especially with regard to the Spirit, the gospel of Christ is “ enacted” more than discussed. David Daniels has said as much with regard to early African-American Pentecostal Holiness and Pentecostal theology.
I wish to pause to comment on this concept of an enacting theology. Those theologians who have noted a lack of a theology of the Spirit in the history of the church have perhaps neglected the numerous ways in which the churches have “ spoken” of the Spirit in other than verbal dis- course. Also, as Veli-Matti Kä rkkä inen has noted, multiple references to the Holy Spirit in one’ s theology do not necessarily imply that the unique economy of the Spirit is given due weight in perichoretic relationship with the Son. The strong pneumatological assumption behind the divine involvement in all of life helps to keep the balance by resisting a subor- dination of the Spirit to the life and mission of the church in its witness to Christ and by preventing the church from conŽ ning the Spirit to the inner recesses of religious experience. Furthermore, connecting the Spirit to that which revitalizes life prevents us from merely viewing the Spirit as an otherworldly visitor who intrudes into life to do something super- natural only to exit again into some otherworldly sphere of existence. Such an otherworldly pneumatology is more gnostic than Christian and excludes any possibility of viewing redemption as the renewal of life, whether the subject of concern is physical, social, or aesthetic.
An enacting pneumatology actually places us closer to the raw begin- nings of revelation in the Scripture’ s witness to the Spirit’ s work than dogmatic re ection on pneumatology in service to the towering doctrines of Trinity and Church. And if pneumatology is the God active in all of life, opening it to God from within and renewing it in the process, an enacting pneumatology exists closer to the heartbeat of the Spirit’ s work as the “ ame of love and holiness” than volumes of theological re ection on the Spirit in relation to other dogmatic themes.
We should not be surprised that such an enacting pneumatology is sus- picious of an academic theology that is out of touch with our enactment of faith in life and worship. This enacting theology is prone instead to seek charismatic Ž gures who can lead by exemplifying in life the great
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works and truths of the Spirit enacted everywhere to some extent in the church. If the academic theologians might be prone to seek their dense tomes, enacting theologians may be tempted to seek their saints. One is reminded here of the early Franciscans or the German Pietists as Western analogues of the African Pentecostal focus on experience and praxis. Their most passionately written theologies consisted of biographies of saintly Ž gures who ideally enacted the truths of the Spirit and of Christ in life. If, as with the Franciscans and Pietists, the danger of the Zionist and Pentecostal churches in Africa is to deify their saints, the danger of aca- demic theologians is to confuse their dense tomes of theology with the reality to which their tortured discussions seek to bear witness. We all face the same danger, merely behind different masks.
Yet, though the suspicion toward academic theology is understandable, it must be avoided if Pentecostal theology in Africa and elsewhere is to ourish and meet the needs of the whole person. Academic, even abstract, theology gloriŽ es God as much as enacting theology and meets existen- tial needs just as powerfully, only those that arise out of a different way of thinking. My academic theological training and study have blessed me and, I hope, others through me.
These remarks are not meant to imply that Pentecostal academic re ec- tion and discourse cannot take a distinctly Non-Western form in Africa. Such is obvious if theology is to be contextual. In the meantime, enact- ing the work of the Spirit will nourish Pentecostal theological re ection in Africa and keep it close to the heartbeat of the Spirit’ s work much the same way that worship in the West, especially in the Catholic tradition, has shaped theology under the theological dictum lex orandi lex credendi . The same could be said of the history of Orthodox theology. As Dale Irvin recently reminded me, such theology actually calls us back to an ancient Western and Eastern sense of continuity between theology, worship, and life, and is being rediscovered today in a postmodern context under the rubric of “ performative theology,” or, I would add, “ practicing Theology.”2 As theology is nourished by life and the enactment of faith in worship, theological re ection in the light of the scriptural witness will help to test such enactment and draw out the full breadth of its theological implica- tions. For a fuller description of this theological method, note Geoffrey Wainwright’ s classic, Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine, and Life.3
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Miroslav Volf and Dorothy C. Bass, eds., Practicing Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. 3 B. Eerdmans, 2001).
Oxford University Press, 1980.
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There can be no denying that the center of Christianity has shifted South to places like Africa. Andrew Walls thus said quite appropriately that “ anyone who wishes to undertake a serious study of Christianity these days needs to know something about Africa.”4 Perhaps part of the signiŽ cance of African theology will be to call us back to an ancient the- ological heritage and also to grant us resources in the process for address- ing postmodern concerns. But I am now moving too far beyond the limits of the discussions in this issue of Pneuma. The excellent articles that follow will help readers to become better acquainted with African Pente- costalism from the vantage point of both historical and theological interests. Enjoy.
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Andrew Walls, “ Eusebius Tries Again,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 24:3 (2000), quoted in Philip Jenkins, The New Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2002), 5.
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