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Book Reviews / Pneuma 33 (2011) 427-466
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René Holvast, Spiritual Mapping in the United States and Argentina, 1989-2005: A Geogra- phy of Fear (Leiden: Brill, 2009). xiv + 367 pp. $133.00.
Run (do not walk) to your computer, and either order this book or send a request to your school’s librarian to make sure that a copy of it is in your school’s library. With this volume, based on a PhD dissertation presented to the University of Utrecht, René Holvast has con- tributed a definitive account of the rise of the spiritual mapping movement that is not only highly relevant to those working on the ground-level of Pentecostal-Charismatic missions and church ministry, but also a crucial reference for those who work at the strategic level of theological education for Pentecostals (i.e., virtually every seminary and department of theology in the world).
Holvast presents not only a detailed and rigorous chronology of the formation of spiri- tual mapping, but also a devastating critique of the way missiologist-cum-apostle Peter Wagner, George Otis, and others employed loosely construed “data” from the Argentinian Revival of the 1990’s to propose that maps could be made to identify the demonic spirits of various ranks that putatively hold sway over specific geographical areas and population units. Wagner, Otis, and their followers believed that by creating such maps through “research” techniques such as prophetic utterances, prayer walks, the collection of anecdotes of spiritual and demonic experiences, and other forms of Spirit-led “participant observa- tion,” believers could identify the demonic spirits against which they should conduct “war- fare prayer” and thus break the “demonic strongholds” that prevent evangelistic success or social reform in an area.
Te first segment of Holvast’s devastating critique provides a richly documented history of the Spiritual Mapping Movement in the US and other countries, tracing its historical roots and development in the Church Growth Movement centered at Fuller Teological Seminary and in the Charismatic Movement. He goes on to document how Wagner and others used hyped-up anecdotes from the Argentinian revival to support their claims about the efficacy of Spiritual Mapping. In contrast to their asseverations, he offers contradictory quotes from various Argentine leaders, including Argentine Church Historian J. Norberto Sarracco who said, “Because of . . . [ Wagner’s] publications, people came to Argentina . . . to look at the growth and its principles. We had to tell them that it was just not there. Tat the methodology just does not work” (63). Sarracco went on to say “Others often pitied us: Argentinians do not know what happened in their own country” (63-64). Holvast’s skillful and critical telling of the history of the movement’s development and decline powerfully serves to discredit it. His theological critique is most effective when he critically describes the self-understanding of the movement and its reception among Evangelical theologians such as Robert Priest of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and others. It is less effective in his final theological summary. It is questionable, for example, that he is correct in criticizing the movement as “developing unwittingly into something akin to Liberation Teology” (299). In addition, many Pentecostal missiologists will disagree with the view of the demonic that he offers.
Perhaps the least persuasive element of Holvast’s argument was specifically highlighted in the marketing of his book, namely his assertion that Spiritual Mapping was “an expression of Americanism, as well as the socio-political concept of Manifest Destiny and U.S.
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/157007411X602826
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Book Reviews / Pneuma 33 (2011) 427-466
religious marketing” (back cover). Even the most cursory consideration of Wagner’s books and the way they are marketed will confirm the latter element, but the case Holvast presents for seeing Spiritual Mapping as an expression of Americanism and Manifest Destiny is less persuasive than the rest of his critique. Te primary evidence he proffers for this view, over and over again, is that Otis’ book, Land of the Giants, locates “the seat of Satan in the Gar- den of Eden in Iraq” (204, 228, 287), and refers to Saddam Hussein as “the most recent incarnation of Satan himself” (204). Holvast opines that Spiritual Mapping “does implic- itly share the general feeling that the U.S. is a natural epicenter of divine initiative on earth” (286) and he alleges that “not God, but the political interests of the US seemed to be lead- ing [Evangelical networks]” (287). Further evidence may indeed exist that furthering the “Manifest Destiny” of the US was a driving force behind Wagner and Otis, but Holvast does not provide enough substantiation to make his case. Tat American writers writing for an almost exclusively American audience seemed to focus on American concerns should hardly be surprising or particularly damning. Yet Holvast seems to be clutching for any appearance of evidence to confirm his low view of American Evangelicalism. He concludes the book with a drive-by charge that “in the US Christian alleys of all kinds keep on pop- ping up as hypes, incessantly trying to achieve the divine destiny of the US. Tey continu- ally appear on the horizon, functioning as shortcuts in order to achieve the vision of Americanism in a quick fix” (306-07). He is certainly free to allege that American Evan- gelicalism is a jingo for American political ideology, but more evidence and more careful argumentation are needed to confirm this major theoretical claim.
Still, make no mistake about it. Tis fine study is a ground-breaking work for Pentecostal missiology and deserves a broad reading by scholars and students in seminaries and religion departments around the world.
Reviewed by Joseph L. Castleberry President
Northwest University, Kirkland, Washington [email protected]
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