Precedents and Possibilities: Pentecostal Perspectives on World Religions
4 Some of my overview and analysis draws on Amos Yong, Discerning the Spirit(s): A Pentecostal-Charismatic Theology of Religions (Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series. Sheffield: Sheffield, England: 2000), especially “On the Way to a Pentecostal-Charismatic Theology”: pp. 183-97 and Tony Richie, “The Unity of the Spirit: Are Pentecostals Inherently Ecumenicists and Inclusivists?” (34th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, Virginia Beach, VA: March 10-12, 2005).
5 Fundamentalism’s attempt to captivate the minds of North American religious culture ultimately failed. Premier Pentecostal historian H. V. Synan argues that though many still identify Pentecostals with Fundamentalists eventually the two movements diverged sharply over the narrow nature of Fundamentalism, a move Synan says benefited Pentecostalism by broadening it. See “Fundamentalism”, The New International Dictionary of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (ed. Stanley M. Burgess and Eduard M. Van Der Maas. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002): pp. 655-58 (657, 658).
6 As I intend the term here, “exclusiveness” is a dispositional animosity and attitudinal suspicion toward religious others. Its counterpart is a more appreciative or inclusive stance that affirms ultimate commitment to Christ while exhibiting hospitality and generosity to religious others.
7 This was published with anonymous authorship by the Church of God (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 1975).
8 Douglas Jacobsen, Thinking in the Spirit: Theologies of the Early Pentecostal Movement (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana Univesity Press, 2003), pp. 177-79, 192-93.
9 E. g. Bishop J. H. King, Yet Speaketh (Franklin Springs, GA: Publishing House of the Pentecostal Holiness Church, 1949): pp. 184-88, 212-13. See also J. H. King, From Passover to Pentecost (Franklin Springs, GA: Advocate, 1976 [fourth edition]), pp. 101-04, 109, and Christ-God’s Love Gift: Selected Writings of J.H. King: Volume One (Franklin Springs, GA: Advocate Press, 1969), pp. 21-31, 154-55.
10 E. g., Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to the Theology of Religions. See also Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, The Trinity and Religious Pluralism: The Doctrine of the Trinity in Christian Theology of Religions (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004).
11 Cf. Tony Richie, “Neither Naïve nor Narrow: A Balanced Pentecostal Approach to Christian Theology of Religions”, Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (Philadelphia, PA: Nov 19-22, 2005).
12 Cf. Harvey Cox, Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century (NY: Addison-Wesley, 1995) pp. 101-102
13 Cf. Tony Richie, “John Wesley and Mohammed: A Contemporary Inquiry Concerning Islam”, Asbury Theological Journal (Fall 2003), pp. 79-99.
14 See C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Collier, 1960), p. 29.
15 Clark Pinnock’s Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996) is very popular with Pentecostals. Cf. pp. 185-214.
Category: Ministry, Spring 2006
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