Pentecostalism and Ecumenism: Past, Present, and Future (Part 2 of 5) by Amos Yong
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Pentecostalism and Ecumenism: Past, Present, and Future (Part 1 of 5)
Pentecostalism and Ecumenism: Past, Present, and Future (Part 3 of 5)
Pentecostalism and Ecumenism: Past, Present, and Future (Part 4 of 5)
Pentecostalism and Ecumenism: Past, Present, and Future (Part 5 of 5)
Notes
1 The WCC Basis is functionally equivalent to denominational statements of faith. However, the WCC is also careful to insist that the Basis “is not a ‘confession of faith’ in the formal theological sense. But as a brief expression of the foundation of what the Council is and for what it does, it offers some important clues for understanding the WCC” (Marlin Van Elderen, Introducing the World Council of Churches, rev. ed. (Geneva: Risk Book Series/WCC Publications, 1992), 4.
2 My use of the term “fundamentalism” follows George Marsden’s Fundamentalism and American Culture: The shaping of Twentieth Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980).
3 I have previously developed this idea at greater length: “Between Two Extremes: Balancing Word-Christianity and Spirit-Christianity (A Review Article),” The Pneuma Review 3:1 (Winter 2000): 78-83.
4 See Ruthven, On the Cessation of the Charismata: The Protestant Polemic on Postbiblical Miracles (Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series 3; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993); see my review of this book in The Pneuma Review 3:2 (2000): 64-65.
5 For a discussion of Pentecostal churches in the WCC, see Walter Hollenweger, Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997), 384-87.
6 The Assemblies of God, for example, “disapproves of ministers or churches participating in any of the modern ecumenical organizations on a local, national, or international level in such a manner as to promote the ecumenical movement [in part] because: …(c) We believe that the combination of many religious organizations into a world superchurch will culminate in the religious Babylon of Revelation 17 and 18” (Assemblies of God Constitution and Bylaws, Article 9, §11). While this position is characteristic of many fundamentalist denominations, moderate evangelical churches have distanced themselves from this kind of rhetoric. And, insofar as classical Pentecostal denominations in North America like the Assemblies of God have recently come to align themselves more so with evangelicalism than fundamentalism, this kind of reasoning regarding the ecumenical movement may need to be revisited. The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, for example, does not have either a constitutional or position statement against ecumenical involvement. More important than mimicking one another, however, the truth is at stake. Classical Pentecostals of all types need to move beyond stereotypes they have inherited from those they have previously affiliated with and investigate the charges raised on their own terms.
Category: Ministry, Pneuma Review, Spring 2001
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