Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
| PentecostalTheology.com
Pneuma 42 (2020) 263–323
Book Reviews
∵
J. Lyle Story, Joyous Encounters: Discovering the Happy Affections in Luke-Acts(New
York,NY: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2018). 335 pp. $34.95 paperback.
In Joyous Encounters: Discovering the Happy Affections in Luke-Acts, J. Lyle Story proposes that the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts express a “lived theol- ogy of joy” that draws readers into the narrative to experience joy (xiv). His approach involves observation of passages in Luke-Acts that link expressions of joy to experiences of the divine. Against the backdrop of his own pentecostal experiences of joy in Christian fellowship and prayer meetings, Story observes that within scholarship there has been a lack of attention given to emotions expressed throughout the narratives. The emotional development within the Lukan corpus becomes critical for his hermeneutical methodology.
Story begins the opening chapter by addressing the scholarly issues relevant to Luke-Acts. Throughout his book, he addresses a few questions that relate to common treatments of the two-volume corpus. First, he notes the presuppo- sitions some interpreters bring to theological language related to emotion in Scripture and its relevance to interpretation. Second, he notes the tendency to interpret Luke-Acts through the motif of Spirit-empowered Christian wit- ness and how this diminishes the importance of other themes in the narrative. Third, he questions the overlooking of joy as a primary motif in the narrative. Story attempts to evaluate the shortcomings of these common ways of reading the text within pentecostal circles and offer an alternative way of reading that expresses pentecostal experience of joy.
An emotive understanding of joy is integral to Story’s interpretative ap- proach. From the outset of his book, he notes a tendency within biblical schol- arship to redefine emotive words. Joy in particular becomes a victim of this hermeneutical error. The result of this mistreatment of emotive vocabulary is that these words are reduced to theological concepts lacking any emotive qual- ity whatsoever. In contrast to happiness, some interpreters have presumed joy to be an inward state independent of feelings or circumstances. Story argues
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/15700747-04202003
1
264
Book Reviews
that joy is both emotive and cognitive.The over-distinction made between hap- piness and joy has reduced joy into an unidentifiable experience. Certainly, Christian joy should be understood as something different from the happy feel- ings one experiences in feeding our consumeristic tendencies prevalent within a capitalistic culture. Story suggests that Luke-Acts provides a better way of distinguishing Christian joy from other forms of happy affections. What deter- mines the value of a joy is the cause for it rather than its independence from emotion. For example, Story describes the joy that the religious leaders expe- rience when Judas offers to betray Jesus as “misguided joy” while the joy that the former leper expresses when he is healed as “genuine joy” (4). Following N.T. Wright’s observation of joy as central to the early Christian experience in contrasttoSecondTempleJudaism’semphasisonhope,Storyviewsjoyasapar- ticipation in the “last days” inaugurated by Pentecost. Christian joy, therefore, is an experience of the “already but not yet” of the Kingdom of God. Joy is emotive as it functions as an orientation towards the present miraculous encounters with the Holy Spirit and the future eschatological fulfillment that these expe- riences point toward.
In addition to this more robust definition of joy, Story shifts pentecostalism’s preference to reading the Lukan corpus through the lens of Spirit-baptism for empowerment to reading it through the lens of joy. He argues that joy pre- cedes Christian witness to the kingdom. In doing so, he pushes back against the rhetoric of God “using” us and links Spirit-baptism primarily to fullness of joy. Humanity does not exist for utilitarian purposes. God pours out the Holy Spirit primarily for humanity’s joy, not for a job or task that needs to be accom- plished. Joy is intrinsically valuable and leads to witness of the Kingdom (12).
With Story’s shift toward a joy-centered lens for reading, he offers an innova- tive way forward for pentecostal ministers and scholars approaching the text. One of the compelling arguments Story makes in this regard is his narratival approach to interpretation. Rather than treating the narratives as static propo- sitional descriptions of events, he reads the text as an unfolding plot with emo- tivedevelopment.Thisisespeciallyimportanttohistreatmentof thejoyvocab- ulary and how it functions within the narratives. One prime example is his interpretation of Jesus’s prophetic reading of Isaiah and the people’s response (Luke 4:16–30). Rather than interpreting the phraseἐμαρτύρουν αὐτῷin verse 22 as “they [Jesus’s audience] all bore witness against him” and communicating an accusatory tone, Story interprets it as “they spoke well of him” (61). He finds this interpretation more convincing because a positive tone of the crowd in verse 22 better coincides with the people’s praise in the synagogues previously stated in the narrative (Luke 4:15). Even when there are experiences of sadness through- out the narrative, such as when Paul and Barnabas end their disagreement by
Pneuma 42 (2020) 263–323
2
Book Reviews
265
no longer ministering together, Story argues that these moments do not dimin- ish the overarching narrative of joy that is present (291).
Story’s work may be understood as an example of hermeneutics that takes seriously the philological as well as the narratival nature of biblical interpreta- tion. His study does not deal significantly with the historical or source-critical questions that are common through a historical-critical method. Instead, he approaches the text through study of the original language and the function of various units of Scripture in the developing narrative. His treatment of the Greek language addresses more of the contextual landscape of the narrative and how words and phrases might be better rendered in his English interpre- tation. This is what Story means when he refers to emotive words having a “spill-over” effect throughout the narrative (4). As such, Story’s work serves the field of literary criticism within biblical scholarship.
Furthermore, Story’s approach to the Luke-Acts narrative provides a read- ing that better integrates pentecostalism’s experience of joy in Spirit-baptism as a surplus rather than as a mere utility for empowering the ministry of the church. In pentecostal fashion, this insight was formed by Story’s own commu- nal experience of joy in charismatic prayer groups during his journey toward a more pentecostal spirituality. Such an integration entails a fuller witness to the pentecostal distinctive of affections within our worship services that often receive criticism from pragmatists as having no practical value.
Andrew Banacos
Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee,USA [email protected]
Pneuma 42 (2020) 263–323
3
