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Editor’s Note One of the highlights of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies held at Northwest College in Kirkland, Washington on March 16-18, 2000 was the Presidential Address in the opening plenary session. Dr. Frank D. Macchia’s paper on “Justification and the Spirit: Pentecostal Reflection on the Doctrine by Which the Church Stands or Falls” was a blockbuster. Frank charted fresh territory in forging Luther’s Doctrine of Justification and the Catholic Decrees of Trent on Justification into a pneumatological rendering of justification that resonated with Pentecostal experience and biblical teaching. It was a joy to watch a con- structive Pentecostal theologian at work at his craft. Professor Macchia’s address is printed as the lead article in this issue of the journal. This article is the address as it was delivered at the annual meeting. Frank is working on revisions of the paper for publication in other theological forums in which a dialogue with the Pentecostal view he espouses may further extend our understanding of the role of the Spirit in justification. Even though Frank’s work will go into different venues, I am personally pleased that Frank consented to continue the tradition of having the society’s annual Presidential Address published in the journal. During the proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting, Father Kilian McDonnell asked for the privilege to address the membership of the soci- ety in one of its plenary sessions. Only a matter of days before the meet- ing date, Pope John Paul II confessed the sins that Catholics had commit- ted against others in the last millennium as the third one dawned. Father McDonnell applied the Pope’s confession to sins that Catholics had com- mitted against Classical Pentecostals, and asked the Pentecostals for for- giveness. On the next evening, during the Annual Banquet at which Dr. Gordon Fee was honored with the society’s Lifetime Achievement Award, SPS President Frank Macchia responded affirmatively to Father McDonnell’s confession and request for forgiveness, and then confessed the sins that Classical Pentecostals had committed against Catholics, and asked that the mutual forgiveness expressed would be a sign of God’s grace at work among Pentecostals and Catholics. Four articles follow the Presidential Address and the Confessions and Responses by Father McDonnell and Professor Macchia. The article, “Pre-Lucan Occurrences of the Phrase ‘Tongue(s) of Fire,”‘ by Dr. Glen Menzies traces the connection between the Holy Spirit and fire in the Old Testament in order to shed fresh light on New Testament references to the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. Dr. Nils-Olov Nilsson’s article, “The Debate on Women’s Ministry in the Swedish Pentecostal Movement: Summary and Analysis,” provides both a historical overview of the debate in the Swedish Pentecostal Church over the role of women in church 1 . 1 2 leadership positions and an analysis of the biblical arguments used by the two major factions in support of their divergent views. Geir Lie’s article on “The Theology of E.W. Kenyon” argues against Daniel Ray McConnell’s view that Kenyon’s theology reflected Christian Science and New Thought teaching. Instead, Professor Lie argues that Kenyon’s thought is reflective of the evangelical Holiness movement of his time, although-due to space constraints-Dr. Lie does not provide a compara- tive analysis to buttress his claim. Dr. Allan H. Anderson’s impressionis- tic piece on “Pentecostalism in East Asia” in the Dialogue provides insightful comparative work between African and Latin American forms of Pentecostalism and the forms it takes in East Asia bring flashes of insight into the nuanced variety of “non-western” indigenous forms of Pentecostal Christianity. Ten book reviews, under the editorial supervision of Dr. Amos Yong, round out this issue. Professor Yong is now the new Book Review Editor of the journal. On behalf of the society, I welcome him aboard and thank him for his energetic approach to his work, already demonstrated in this issue. With this issue, I complete my tenure as the Editor of the journal, and pass the baton on to my colleague, Dr. Frank Macchia, Associate Professor of Christian Theology at Vanguard University of Southern California. I am enthusiastically supportive of the editorial leadership that Frank will bring to the journal. He and Amos, and other members of the editorial team they will assemble, are postured to take the journal to the next level of its professional and academic development. I pass on the editorial mantle to Frank with the hope that he receives the same joy that I experienced in contributing to the scholarly work of the society through the editorship of its journal. Despite the constant juggling act required to carve out time for voluntary editorial work on the main articles, the sense of fulfillment always was reward enough when I held in my hands a new issue off the press. I truly enjoyed working with Dr. Augustus Cerillo, Jr., as the Book Review Editor, Dr. Jerry Camery- Hoggatt, as the Managing Editor, and Rev. George Paul Wood, as the Editorial Assistant. What great times we had in editorial meetings and luncheon celebrations when we finally got a new issue off the press. We will be having our last hooray as you read this issue. Thanks to the Executive Officers who entrusted me with the editorial responsibilities of the journal, and to the membership who were always so generous in their comments about the quality of the jourhal in the annual business meetings. It has been a great six and one-half years. Murray W. Dempster Editor 2
