The Quest for a Pentecostal Theology, by Keith Warrington
Encounter
A clue in our quest to locate the core of Pentecostalism may be gleaned from the early Pentecostals who were suspicious of creeds and preferred to concentrate on shared experiences. Indeed, Anderson deduces, ‘In its beginnings, Pentecostalism in the western world was an ecumenical movement of people claiming a common experience rather than a common doctrine’.15 Similarly, Hollenweger concludes, ‘What unites the Pentecostal churches is not a doctrine but a religious experience’.16 Indeed, Sepulveda cautions against seeking to identify Pentecostalism on the basis of its doctrinal beliefs for fear of
running the great risks of forgetting, and thereby mutilating, what is essential, viz. the primacy of experience over doctrine, and of relationship over belief; in other words, the freedom of the Spirit who does not permit himself to be confined by doctrinal categories which are in the end rational.17
Similarly, Ellington concludes,
Doctrines may be challenged and even overturned without striking at the heart of Pentecostal faith because the essential emphasis of Pentecostalism is not a teaching which must be believed or a proof which can be deduced and defended against all challenges, but a God who must be reckoned with in direct encounter.18
Although an overstatement, this does signal that which is fundamental to Pentecostalism—a personal, experiential encounter of the Spirit of God.19 It is this that best identifies the Pentecostal heartbeat.20
A more productive route in seeking to identify Pentecostal theology may therefore be to recognize the central Pentecostal expectation of a radical experience of the Spirit, and, in particular, as it relates to their identity as children of God, their perception of God, their worship and service, their mission and evangelism, their reading and application of the Bible and their relationships with other believers.21
Early Pentecostals were suspicious of creeds and preferred to concentrate on shared experiences.
That which is central to their faith and practice are the concepts of ‘encounter’ and ‘experience’. They aim to know God experientially, whether it is via an intellectual recognition of his being or an emotional appreciation of his character and it is this that often makes them functionally different within the Christian tradition. Kärkkäinen concludes that ‘the essence of Pentecostalism can hardly be captured by any theological formulation; spirituality and spiritual experience is primary’.22
For Pentecostals, revelation is not just intended to affect the mind but also the emotions; theology is not explored best in a rationalistic context alone but also with a readiness to encounter the divine and be impacted by one’s discoveries in a way that will enlighten the mind but also transform the life. Indeed, Pentecostal theology may be best identified as a theology of encounter—encounter of God, the Bible and the community.
Pentecostals value experience-based encounters with God because they have the potential to transform believers. They believe that if God initiates an experience, it must be in order to positively transform the individual concerned.
Such encounters are not merely viewed as self-authenticating or self-oriented; they are deemed to be valuable as motivational forces, leading to personal transformation as a result of the Spirit’s involvement in their lives. MacDonald, preferring to identify the spirituality of Pentecostals as ‘fully experienced gospel’ or ‘Christ-centred, experience-certified theology’, concludes that ‘any genuine experience with the living God will leave an emotional wake in a man’s psyche’.23 Such encounters are believed to be reflected in the Bible, and Pentecostals fully anticipate an experiential outworking. Thus, where there is sometimes an absence of credal confession and formal ceremony in Pentecostal spirituality, there is the presence of experience, often spontaneous, emotional, heartfelt, intensely personal and life-transforming. Pentecostals embrace a spirituality that expects to touch God and to be touched by him. It may be intensely personal (I-Thou), sometimes has a numinous quality (resulting in a sense of awe) and mystical experiences are also possible.
Pentecostals do not feel they must fit their spirituality within a framework that is tightly circumscribed by logic or rationality.
Pentecostals do not simply affirm a list of biblical beliefs; they have encountered them experientially. Thus, the baptism in the Spirit is not simply to be recognized as a distinctive doctrinal feature of Pentecostal theology but to be understood as reflecting that which is central to Pentecostalism, namely encounter and experience. Thus, Chan identifies the baptism in the Holy Spirit as the matrix in which Pentecostals receive ‘a certain kind of spiritual experience of an intense, direct and overwhelming nature centring in the person of Christ’,24 Coulter concluding that ‘the experience is more fundamental than the theological metaphor expressing it’.25
Category: In Depth, Pneuma Review, Winter 2013
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