Spring 2015: Other Significant Articles
Dale M. Coulter, “Pentecostalism and the Question of Culture” First Things (November 13, 2014).
Andrew Wilson, “God Always Heals: Good news for our bodies—in this life and the next” Christianity Today (November 25, 2014).
The pastor of a large charismatic church in England and the father of children with debilitating diseases speaks about healing that is no mere theory. William De Arteaga writes: “A good article for a home group or Bible study to tackle the issue of healing.”
Peter Berger, “Is Atheism a Specifically Western Phenomenon?” The American Interest (November 26, 2014).
The lead-in to the article reads: “We know atheism in its Jewish or Christian context, as a rejection of the Biblical God. What would atheism mean in a Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist context?” William De Arteaga writes: “This is a very useful article in understanding atheism. It is by an ex-Catholic and centers of the classical problem of evil vs. a good God. Note that the author never experienced healing nor the gifts of the Spirit in his years as a Catholic. I believe demonstrating the power of the gospel is the key to evangelizing atheists.”
Craig S. Keener, “Rumors of Miracles” Good News (December 30, 2014).
Craig S. Keener writes: “The United Methodist renewal magazine, Good News recently published an article that they titled, ‘Rumors of miracles.’ Other articles in the same issue, such as Wendy Deichmann’s excellent ‘Lessons from Mozambique,’ are also well-worth reading.”
Bob Caldwell, “You Are Already a Theologian (You Just Need to Be a Better One)” Enrichment Journal (Winter 2015).
Traci Humphrey and Phillip Humphrey, “A Theology of Play: Encountering the Other Through Online Gaming” Presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.
Roger E. Olson, “Remembering an All-But-Forgotten, Extremely Influential Theologian: Christoph Blumhardt” Patheos (March 29, 2015).
Darrin Rodgers, “Prominent Novelist Sven Lidman Shocked Sweden by 1921 Conversion to Pentecostalism” Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (March 16, 2015).
Andy Butcher, “Leah Payne: Sent to Higher Education” Foursquare.org (March 24, 2015).
The subtitle of the article says: “Foursquare pastor’s wife, Leah Payne, brings the worlds of faith and academia together as [she] serves her church and teaches theology at George Fox Evangelical Seminary.”
“The Church Needs to Stop Pandering to Trends: Rachel Held Evans discusses what millennials are really looking for in a church experience” Relevant (April 14, 2015).
Eddie Kaufholz interviews Rachel Held Evans about her new book, Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church. PneumaReview.com writer Monte Lee Rice selected this quote: “I think when you look at the people who Jesus surrounded Himself with, that’s what our churches are supposed to look like. They’re supposed to be filled with super uncool people. Folks from the margins of society, and folks who are misfits and oddballs and sick and hungry and homeless, outcasts, the people who are typically despised by the religious.”
N.T. Wright, “The Kingdom and the Power: What the Resurrection Means, Then and Now” abc.net.au (April 10, 2015).
Monte Lee Rice selected this quote: “1 Corinthians 15 is a spectacular chapter, but one of the most remarkable verses in it is the last (verse 58), where Paul says, ‘therefore get on with your work in the present, because in the Lord your labour is not in vain.’ That is at the heart of the meaning of the resurrection: Because God is already making his new creation, all that you do in Christ and by the Spirit is part of that new world. Resurrection is thus not merely about a glorious future. It is about a meaningful present.”
“Are Muslims or Christians Right About God?”
A listen-on-demand special from Moody Radio. From the Moody Radio page: “What is God really like? Is He a single, indivisible being as Muslims teach? Or is Christian theology correct, that God is a Trinity of three persons in one – Father, Son and Holy Spirit? And, who is Jesus: is He a prophet of God, or is He God in human form? In this special two‐hour Moody Radio production, a Muslim scholar [Shabir Ally] and a Muslim convert to Christianity [Nabeel Qureshi, author of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus] debate this relevant and timely topic before a live audience at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Moderating the event is Julie Roys, host of Moody Radio’s Up For Debate.” – Suggested by Marc S.
Full book now available: Julie C. Ma and Wonsuk Ma, Mission in the Spirit: Towards a Pentecostal/Charismatic Missiology (Regnum, 2010).
For more about the Mas, see their PneumaReview.com author pages: Julie C. Ma and Wonsuk Ma.
Ben Witherington, “Living Sacrifices: A Meditation on Romans 12” The Bible and Culture Blog (April 21, 2015).
“In the most narcissistic culture in all of human history, namely our own, self-sacrifice is even spun to be referring to self-fulfillment, self-actualization. Be like Christ has morphed into be who you already are.”
Amy Julia Becker, “Why this Evangelical is Grateful for the Mainline Church: Giving thanks for God’s work throughout the church universal” Christianity Today (April 22, 2015).
William De Arteaga writes: “This is a wonderful article filled with love and charity towards those denominations we dislike or distrust (myself included).”
R.T. Kendall, “Prophetic Responsibility” (April 21, 2015).
John Lathrop writes: “Interesting read by RT Kendall on the gift of prophecy.”
Roger E. Olson, “Embarrassed by the Supernatural?” Patheos (April 29, 2015).
Andrew Gabriel, “Pentecost: More than Acts 1:8” (April 21, 2015).
Craig S. Keener, “When Jesus Wanted All My Money: And everything else. How I learned he’s an all-or-nothing Lord” Christianity Today (May 2015), pages 46-50.
Richard J. Mouw, “Pentecostalism, liberation theology and biblical leadership” Faith and Leadership (April 7, 2015).
Matthew Schmitz, “Our Partial Pacifism” First Things (December 11, 2014).
Another article on pacifism, with this comment from William De Arteaga: “First Things is a Catholic journal, but even if you are specious of some Catholic doctrines (as I am) you should access some of its very fine articles, some of which are based on solid biblical thinking. This one is particularly good.”
Roger Olson, “Pentecostal Pacifism: A Lost (and Denied) Tradition” Patheos (May 6, 2015).
Monte Lee Rice selected this quote from the article: “Now, I am not a pacifist, so I am not personally opposed to that change in Pentecostal belief and practice. What I worry about is the tendency of Pentecostal leaders to deny that part of their heritage and be embarrassed by it. … For the most part, anyway, it crept up and in as part of a gradual process of cultural accommodation. Today pacifists among Pentecostals are often looked down on if not persecuted. And that’s not because of some well-thought-out and theologically reflective change; it’s because of Pentecostal Americanization—a gradual process of cultural accommodation that happened almost unconsciously and is still not fully recognized or admitted.”
Christopher A. Stephenson, “Pentecostal Theology According to the Theologians: An Introduction to the Theological Methods of Pentecostal Systematic Theologians.”
The 2009 Doctor of Philosophy dissertation by Christopher Stephenson at Marquette University.
Abstract: This dissertation is a twofold argument that 1) existing pentecostal systematic theology can be interpreted according to four analytical categories and that 2) future pentecostal theological method should incorporate a form of lex orandi, lex credendi for the benefit of pentecostal theology and spirituality.
I analyze the theological methods of major past and present pentecostal systematic theologians and demonstrate that they have followed four basic patterns. First, Myer Pearlman, E. S. Williams, and French L. Arrington take the material for their theologies almost exclusively from the Bible. Second, Steven J. Land and Simon K. H. Chan center their theologies on the relationship between theology and spirituality. Third, Frank D. Macchia sets the whole of his theology against the background of the kingdom of God and pneumatology. Fourth, Amos Yong focuses his theology on philosophical and fundamental theology from a pneumatological perspective.
After analyzing and assessing the methodologies of these pentecostal theologians, I argue that future pentecostal theological method should incorporate a form of lex orandi, lex credendi that I call regula spiritualitatis, regula doctrinae , or, “the rule of spirituality and the rule of doctrine.” This methodological principle utilizes the strengths from the above pentecostal theologians and asks pentecostals to give detailed consideration to the reciprocal relationship between Christian spirituality and doctrine in the process of theologizing. I recommend this methodological principle because it 1) exhibits the traditional pentecostal emphasis on both pneumatology and eschatology, 2) establishes a strong relationship between theology and spirituality, especially in the process of formulating doctrine, 3) is attentive to the hermeneutical matrix constituted by the worshipping communities in which pentecostal theologians are situated, and 4) gives a prominent place to biblical interpretation in systematic theology. I illustrate the contours of regula spiritualitatis, regula doctrinae with a case study of the Lord’s supper that draws on three particular facets of pentecostal spirituality in order to construct a doctrine of the Lord’s supper that critiques other facets of pentecostal spirituality.
Thanks to Ekaputra T. for pointing out the link.
George Weigel, “The Catholic Church’s German Crisis” First Things (May 20, 2015).
William De Arteaga writes: “A very interesting article from the premiere Catholic journal, First Things, on the status of the German Catholic Church – it is dying, as it is in the rest of Western Europe. I read between the lines that this the natural result of a Church that attempted to counter modernity by accentuating theology/philosophy and marginalizing the gifts of the Spirit which could have given it the true life of the Gospel.”
Wes Granberg-Michaelson, “Think Christianity is dying? No, Christianity is shifting dramatically” Washington Post (May 20, 2015).
The global explosion of Pentecostalism has been fueled, in part, by migration. Ekaputra T. pointed out this quote: “one out of 12 people alive today has a Pentecostal form of Christian faith.”
