Recent scholarship on the rapid expansion of Christianity in the Global South consistently affirms the Pentecostalization of the church. Scholars are producing histories and theologies on the efforts of Pentecostal missionaries from the Global North and the rise of independent Pentecostal churches (hence the series at hand). In this work, Jakob Egeris Thorsen gives a much-needed history and analysis of another dimension of Global South Pentecostalization, namely the role of Charismatic experience and praxis within Catholic parish life.

In this revision of his PhD dissertation defended at Aarhus University in Denmark, Thorsen delivers a Missionwissenschaft, a methodological blend between science of religion and mission theology, to assess the rise of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in Latin America and specifically Guatemala. Thorsen argues that the rapid Pentecostalization of the Catholic Church created increased blurring between CCR and the institutional Church. He discovers renewalists who reject institutional religion for more particularistic and countercultural praxis and witness, but paradoxically remain in the tradition and embrace institutional hierarchy.

Thorsen focuses on the religious life of Charismatic and non-Charismatic Catholics in La Colonia, a small parish in the lower middle-class district of Santísima Trinidad on the outskirts of Guatemala City. He conducted six months of fieldwork in this small Guatemalan Charismatic Catholic parish (from June to December 2009) in order to assess the ecclesial contributions of Guatemalan Charismatics, particularly their negotiation of parish life alongside priests, bishops, non-Charismatics, and non-Catholic Pentecostals. Apart from routine participation in weekly parish events, Thorsen concentrated his research on three Charismatic groups, namely, a full-scale Charismatic youth group, a soft-Charismatic Bible study, and an upper middle-class non-parish based Charismatic youth group. He conducted more than thirty interviews of parish members including Charismatic and non-Charismatic parishioners as well as four priests and two Charismatic auxiliary bishops. Along the way, Thorsen reveals his personal connection and possible motivation for this project; he first came to Guatemala as a sixteen-year-old high school exchange student and subsequently converted to Catholicism in his early twenties. Thorsen’s wife is from this community, and their daughter was baptized in this parish. He describes himself as a non-Charismatic lay theologian and a friendly critic of the CCR.

In 2007, Dave Kinnamon and Gabe Lyons published the sobering results of their research on young adult perceptions of American Christianity. In their duly titled Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why it Matters, Kinnamon and Lyons categorized their findings into six chapters that describe the concerns of a disgruntled generation.[1] Young adults claim American Christians are hypocritical, homophobic, judgmental, too focused on conversion (instead of discipleship), too sheltered, and too political. As I made my way through Mark Strauss’ Jesus Behaving Badly, I could not help but wonder if his Jesus might provide a suitable antidote for the two publics described in Unchristian. Indeed, the promotional blurb on the back cover of Strauss’ work sounds unpleasantly similar: “We often overlook that Jesus was judgmental… provocative… chauvinistic… racist… anti-environmental… angry.” On the one hand, young people should find in Strauss’ Jesus an appropriate corrective to their legitimate claim that the Jesus of modern North American Christianity has become stodgy and irrelevant. On the other hand, they and the accused Unchristian public would do well to rediscover the enigma of a radical, political, and often in-your-face Jesus.

Strauss sets up twelve provocative questions (each one a chapter) to reconcile this paradoxical Jesus. The questions include: Is Jesus a revolutionary or a pacifist? How is it that Jesus makes statements such as “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9) and “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44), yet also declares “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mark 10:34) and “I have come to bring fire on the earth” (Luke 12:49).

Is Jesus an environmentalist or an earth scorcher? What is one to make of a Jesus who curses a fig tree (Mark 11:18-22) and sends demons into pigs that plunge to death (Mark 5:1-20), but also serves as the impetus for contemporary appeals to save pandas (or Cecil the lion) and address global warming?

Is Jesus antifamily or family friendly? Jesus shows little lenience for diminishing standards on marriage and divorce, yet demands some followers to forsake – even hate – mother and father and/or risk betrayal by them (Luke 14:26; Matthew 10:37).

Mark L. Strauss

Is Jesus a legalist or grace-filled? How does one reconcile Jesus’ demands for perfection (Matthew 5:48) with his sensitivity to outcasts and the scum of society (e.g., parables such as the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the great banquet)?

Though I am tempted to reveal Strauss’ answers for these and other chapters, I will say that he generally answers each question with a qualified “yes.” And though I generally agree with Strauss’ conclusions, I also wonder whether he delivers reasonable answers to such teasing questions in twelve to fifteen pages per question. For instance, is Jesus a racist or inclusivist? And is he anti-Semitic? What is one to make of Jesus’ trash talk to a Gentile woman who seeks healing and deliverance for her daughter? Not only does Jesus – the Jew – use  a racial slur, “it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26), but he states “I have come for the lost house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). The question becomes more complex when coupled with other occasions where the Johannine narrative reveals Jesus’ tumultuous relationship to Jews. Though I appreciate and agree with the attempt to rescue Jesus from accusations of racism and anti-Semitism, I am afraid that Strauss does not provide for the current complexities of Christian understanding and engagement of race. For example, attentive readers should be aware of contemporary interpretative methods such as post-colonial, global, and multi-disciplinary readings that keep such questions very much alive.

Another book by Mark Strauss: How To Choose a Translation for All Its Worth that he wrote with Gordon Fee. Read the Review by John Lathrop.

I must address one more chapter. Is Jesus sexist or egalitarian? How is it that the same Jesus who chooses twelve men to be his apostles and offers no women the highest positions of authority also serves as the impetus for future egalitarianism? To be clear, Strauss emphasizes Jesus’ empowerment of and advocacy for women. But sadly, in my opinion, Strauss vacillates and fails to place Jesus on an egalitarian trajectory. Once again, a short chapter fails to tell the larger story or provide enough information concerning a much debated topic. In the end, I find his conclusion that “my own personal views lie somewhere between traditional complementarian and egalitarian positions” both wanting and untenable (151).

Finally, I must ask, “Who should read and learn of Strauss’ Jesus?” On the one hand, I feel like this work smacks of F. F. Bruce’s Hard Sayings of Jesus.[2]  Like Bruce, Strauss reviews the intense differences over difficult sayings only to offer the right answer in a few pages. Since Strauss, also like Bruce, is a reputable New Testament professor and a prolific scholar,[3] I assume he would not want his students (many of them would-be pastors) to arrive at simple answers and underplay the complexities of the biblical story. On the other hand, I would potentially consider this work for a mature adult Bible study group under the careful guidance of a teacher with a solid understanding of the first-century socio-cultural world and a good grasp of hermeneutics.[4]  Similarly, I might also envision this as a secondary textbook for an undergraduate introduction to the New Testament or a book study on one of the Gospels.[5]

Reviewed by Martin W. Mittelstadt

Publisher’s page: http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=2466

Preview Jesus Behaving Badly: https://books.google.com/books/about/Jesus_Behaving_Badly.html?id=A-2OBgAAQBAJ

Notes

[1] Unchristian (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007).

[2] Bruce, Hard Sayings of Jesus (Grand Rapids: IVP Press, 1983).

[3] Strauss has served as professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary in San Diego since 1993.

[4] See also Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (Downer’s Grove: IVP, 2012) by E Randolph Richards and Brandon O’Brien. Not surprisingly, Richards provides an endorsement for the book at hand.

[5] One of my colleagues at Evangel University uses David T. Lamb’s God Behaving Badly (Downer’s Grove: IVP, 2011) in this way for his introductory course on the Old Testament.

When Jesus poses the question, “who do you say that I am?” he receives an array of answers from his disciples (Mark 8:27-28). Today, responses to this inquiry remain legion. Enter David Capes, Rodney Reeves, and E. Randolph Richards (CRR). Finally, they have the answer! In roughly 250 pages, they promise “an introduction to Jesus that guides us [their readers] on our pilgrimage toward seeing Jesus truly” (back cover). CRR title the final chapter of their book “Our Jesus,” their synopsis of the Jesus they hope their readers will (re)discover.

In this review, I offer my own questions. Are the tour guides reliable? Did they guide us well? Are they worth the money? Have they led us to the “true Jesus”? In short, I think so. I find much to appreciate in this work. For the most part, “their Jesus” resonates well with “my Jesus.” And since I am also a tour guide of sorts (I teach New Testament Literature, Gospels, New Testament Theology, Luke-Acts), surely I lead people on a journey to the true Jesus. At the same time, though we share much in common concerning our Jesus, I must address a methodological concern and a few alternate paths.

First, these guides bring solid credentials and experience. Capes, Reeves, and Richards serve as New Testament (NT) professors at their respective institutions (Houston Baptist University, Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO, and Palm Beach Atlantic University). They have a solid history of scholarly work in their discipline including an earlier shared work titled Rediscovering Paul[1] and various publications as individual authors. Given their credentials, I turn to the current work.

In part one, the authors walk their readers through the NT and pose Jesus’ question to each NT writer. They begin with Mark, who announces that Jesus is a healer, an exorcist, and miracle worker in a hurry to get to the cross. His Jesus is an average teacher, often difficult to understand, and a bull in a china shop, repeatedly under the skin of the religious leaders. Matthew’s Jesus provides answers to Jewish questions about messianic expectation. His Jesus has an impressive pedigree, speaks with confidence and courage, and offers not only aggressive answers to ongoing questions on Mosaic Law, but fills the role of a new and better Moses. Luke’s Jesus takes his disciples on a long journey of discipleship (compare Mark’s Jesus); the Third Gospel’s Jesus turns the world upside down as a first-century social advocate for the poor, the downtrodden, women, and children all the while preparing his disciples for a similar future ministry. Then there is John’s Jesus. His Jesus produces signs and speaks with clear self-awareness and confidence about his relationship to God.

The serious scholar of Pentecostalism recognizes the incredible complexity of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity. The numerical and geographical explosion of Pentecostals continues to produce an ever-diversifying movement that proves both challenging and exciting for researchers. For this volume, coeditors Cecil Robeck and Amos Yong assemble a team of well-respected scholars, skilled in multiple disciplines and from across the globe, to lead us into and not through this spaghetti junction. True to the nature of a Companion volume, the contributors refuse to provide easy answers and choose instead to offer sufficient introduction to chosen topics so that readers may navigate their way through the maze of scholarship. The editors divide the book into three parts.

The theology and literature of hospitality is a hot topic. Over the last decade a plethora of theses, dissertations, monographs, books, and articles, whether scholarly or popular, sacred or secular, have filled our bookstores. In light of these innumerable publications, one might wonder why another work on “hospitality,” “neighbors,” and “strangers.” But would-be readers be assured; you will not be disappointed. In Hospitality & the Other, Amos Yong opens the door to a new world of interreligious possibilities. While economists appraise the value of the hospitality industry, Yong locates this motif at the heart of God’s economy. Yong proposes an innovative paradigm for theology of religious encounter, interreligious dialogue, and contemporary missionary practices. He revisits questions surrounding a biblical theology of hospitality and recommends that contemporary practices be transferable to new faith, national, or ethnic contexts.

Yong introduces his work with a moving narrative of three case studies, namely, Christian-Buddhist relations in Sri Lanka, Christian-Islamic tensions in Nigeria, and multi-cultural and interreligious contexts in the United States. Yong provides his readers a look at different social, political, and interreligious contexts as a practical point of departure – substantive examples of positive Christian relationships forged though hospitality, dialogue, and mutuality among people of different faith contexts.

Yong follows this engaging global introduction with thematic analysis well-suited for Pentecostals (to be sure, Yong does not write for Pentecostals only, but his Pentecostal worldview permeates his work). He returns to the first century church to recapture the interrelationship between Christian thought and praxis. He sets early Christian belief not in “the book” as in a catalogue of beliefs, but as encounter with the living Jesus, the paradigm for the Spirit-empowered life of Christian discipleship. Yong suggests that the early community in the Lukan narratives supplies the example for a contemporary “performative theology” (39); the church faithfully improvises the story of Jesus (Luke 1-24) and the disciples (Acts 1-28) through ongoing performance of Acts 29. In other words, contemporary followers of Jesus continue the open-ended gospel story one act at a time. Pentecostals well acquainted with evangelistic passion and experience in different and ever new contexts should resonate with this foundational thesis. In short, Yong enlarges the degree to which evangelistic creativity and pragmatic novelty might be an extension of the canonical script (55).

After reviewing the traditional categories of exclusivism, inclusivism , and pluralism, Yong suggests that these narrow and cautious platforms are no longer useful in a complex world and require more robust and systematic scrutiny. He constructs a platform for the Christian doctrine of hospitality by recommending that followers of Jesus counter interreligious violence, war, and terrorism with the spirit of Pentecost. Yong zeroes in on the Lukan story and envisions a new kind of interreligious encounter where the diverse tongues of Pentecost open up a way to imaginative Christian practices in a pluralistic world. With Pentecost as the foundation for God’s hospitable embrace, Yong returns to the Third Gospel and the Lukan Jesus as the embodiment of God’s hospitality. First, Jesus serves as an exemplary recipient of hospitality. His lowly birth in a manger and final burial in the private tomb of Joseph of Arimathea bracket a life that relies on the goodwill of many. Jesus lives his life as the consummate guest in numerous homes. Second, in ironic fashion, Jesus the “homeless” guest becomes Jesus the host, the agent of God’s redemptive hospitality. Jesus often breaks with convention by entering into suspect homes, failing to wash, and rebuking hosts in order to embrace outsiders, the oppressed and marginalized of the ancient world. In a further twist, accusers generally fail to understand and/or receive Jesus’ acts of hospitality and in so doing reject the hospitality of God. Finally, Yong finds in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan a principal lesson for interreligious hospitality. Yong establishes Jesus’ teaching relating to Jewish and Samaritan tension as an illustration of mutual encounter of the “other” first century religion. Once again, Yong recommends contemporary application. Twenty-first Christians must imagine fresh possibilities for performative encounters with those of current world religions.