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Wolfgang Vondey: The Scandal of Pentecost

Ciprian Gheorghe-Luca — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 23:00:05 +0000

Wolfgang Vondey, The Scandal of Pentecost: A Theology of the Public Church (New York: T&T Clark, 2024), 269 pages, ISBN 9780567712646.

Here is a book that lingers in the mind like an unresolved chord. In the cacophony of modern theology, where the church often whispers from the shadows of institutional safety, Wolfgang Vondey’s The Scandal of Pentecost: A Theology of the Public Church erupts like the biblical wind and fire it describes—demanding we confront the raw, disruptive birth of the Christian community not as a tidy origin story, but as a scandalous intrusion into public life.

Vondey, a prominent Pentecostal theologian and professor at the University of Birmingham, draws from his deep roots in Pentecostal scholarship to reframe Pentecost as the foundational event where the church emerges as a “public symbol of humanity,” embodying both brokenness and redemption. The book weaves biblical exegesis, historical theology, and philosophical anthropology into a narrative that challenges privatized views of Pentecost. It argues that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on “all flesh” (Acts 2:17) isn’t a mere spiritual footnote but a transformative scandal, revealing the church’s symbiotic tensions—internal conflicts and external confrontations—that propel it into the world.

The public advent of the Church was loud and boisterous—so much so they were accused of drunkenness—drawing a diverse crowd from all over the known world. It was a scandal.

Without delving into minutiae, Vondey invites readers to see Pentecost as the church’s ongoing pilgrimage, a symbol bridging divine promise and human frailty, urging us to rediscover its public relevance amid contemporary ecclesial debates. The introduction contrasts the “private Pentecost” of the upper room with the “public advent of the church,” highlighting how the disciples’ emergence—loud, boisterous, and accused of drunkenness—attracts a diverse crowd “from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5), sparking debate and conversion (p. 2). Chapter 1 delves into the church as symbol, tracing a typology from Dionysius’ cataphatic and apophatic theology to modern models like Rahner’s incarnational, Tillich’s existential, and Neville’s transformational approaches, arguing that the symbol resides in the “middle” of divine descent and human ascent (pp. 19–56). This symbolic framework progresses in chapter 2 to “The Christian Scandal,” where Vondey examines Pentecost’s continuity with Christ’s cross, portraying the church as a “broken symbol” manifesting humanity’s estrangement and redemption (p. 57). The setting shifts to the aesthetic and behavioral chaos of “Drunken Disciples” in chapter 3, where the disciples’ Spirit-inspired exuberance is both ridiculed and revelatory, embodying an “aesthetics of the Spirit” that challenges social norms (p. 85, quote on p. 87: “the scandal finds its decisive expression in the resolve of the contrast between the judgement of the crowd and the immediate response”). Chapter 4, “The Tongues of Babel,” explores linguistic plurality, contrasting imperial liturgies with diasporic resistance, showing how Pentecost’s tongues foster prophetic dialogue across cultures (p. 117). In chapter 5, “The Anointing of the Flesh,” Vondey probes the corporeal dimensions of the Spirit’s outpouring, insisting that salvation is enfleshed, not ethereal, and elevates Pentecost to a normative event for human embodiment (p. 159, quote on p. 161: “the scandal of Pentecost discloses a behavior formed by the intoxication of the flesh with God’s Spirit”). The progression culminates in chapter 6, “Prophetic Witness,” where the church’s empowerment for mission is depicted as a paradoxical dissolution and reconstitution of power, leading to the conclusion that Pentecost is the ongoing beginning of the public church as symbol of humanity (pp. 193–234). According to Vondey, Pentecost has an anthropological scope: the Spirit’s empowerment for witness transforms individual and communal life, resisting both cessationist dismissals and charismatic excesses. In short, the book’s argumentative arc centers on Pentecost: from historical anomaly to enduring paradigm for the church’s public identity.

The Spirit’s empowerment for witness transforms individual and communal life, resisting both cessationist dismissals and charismatic excesses.

I have to say, Vondey’s book resonated deeply with me on multiple levels—it’s the kind of theology that doesn’t just inform but provokes a reevaluation of how we live out our faith in the public sphere. One of the book’s great strengths, in my opinion, is its refusal to separate theology from lived experience. Vondey draws on the rich tradition of Pentecostal spirituality—its emphasis on encounter, testimony, and transformation—while also engaging critically with broader ecumenical and philosophical currents. He is attentive to the dangers of both sectarianism and assimilation, warning against the church’s retreat into insularity or its capitulation to the logic of the market and the state (p. 112). Instead, he calls for a renewed understanding of the church as a “public event,” a space where the Spirit’s presence is made manifest in concrete practices of justice.

The scandal of Pentecost is not only a matter of theological doctrine but of public behavior—of a community willing to risk misunderstanding, opposition, and even persecution for the sake of its prophetic witness.

Vondey devotes significant attention to the theme of prophetic power and its public implications. He draws on a wide range of biblical and historical sources to show that prophetic acts—whether in ancient Israel or in the early church—were often “publicly recognized as legitimizing [the community’s] prophetic identity” (p. 41). These acts ranged from “astonishing and extraordinary performances contradicting expectations of what is ‘normal’ or ‘possible’ to ordinary (albeit unconventional) human activities performed with often startling, bizarre and even offensive consequences” (p. 41). The scandal of Pentecost, then, is not only a matter of theological doctrine but of public behavior—of a community willing to risk misunderstanding, opposition, and even persecution for the sake of its prophetic witness (p. 43).

Vondey’s engagement with the concept of the church as a public symbol is another highlight of the book. Drawing on the work of public theologians such as Martin Marty, he argues that the church’s public witness is not merely a matter of visibility or influence, but of embodying “the communal character of faith” in a world marked by fragmentation and conflict (p. 8). The church, he writes, is “a faith built of ‘broken symbols,’ manifested above all in the scandal of the crucified Christ” (p. 91). The public nature of the church is thus inseparable from its willingness to embrace brokenness, vulnerability, and the tensions of life in a pluralistic society (p. 91). Vondey is clear that the church’s public vocation is not about triumphalism or domination, but about offering “ordering against chaos and meaning where it had been absent” (p. 12). The church’s task, he suggests, is to engage in a “public hermeneutic” that interprets Christian symbols in ways that are persuasive and life-giving, both within and beyond the boundaries of the faith community (p. 20).

Vondey’s insistence on the public character of Pentecost is especially relevant in our current context.

The Scandal of Pentecost is not without its challenges. Vondey’s vision is demanding: it calls for a church that is willing to be unsettled, to risk misunderstanding and even rejection for the sake of the gospel. He is clear-eyed about the temptations of power, the dangers of co-optation, and the persistence of division within the body of Christ (p. 112). Yet he remains hopeful, convinced that the Spirit is still at work, calling the church to ever-greater fidelity and creativity. Vondey’s insistence on the public character of Pentecost is especially relevant in our current context, where the boundaries between church and society are constantly being renegotiated. His call for a church that is both rooted in tradition and open to the future resonates with the best impulses of Pentecostalism as a movement of renewal—one that is always seeking new ways to embody the gospel in changing circumstances (p. 178).

Before I rest my pen, one thing must not go unnoticed: not every academic theological book ends with a poem, but Wolfgang Vondey’s choice to conclude poetically is both striking and fitting. The poem distills the book’s central themes into a vivid, almost breathless sequence of images, capturing the disruptive and transformative energy of Pentecost. Vondey’s language is intentionally visceral—“heart-beating, lips-stammering / sons and daughters / in scandalous intoxication”—evoking the embodied, communal, and even chaotic nature of the Spirit’s outpouring. It’s a powerful poetic summary that resonates long after the final page.

In conclusion, The Scandal of Pentecost is a significant and inspiring contribution to Pentecostal theology and to the wider conversation about the church’s place in the world. It is a work of both scholarship and imagination, rooted in tradition yet open to the future. For those seeking to articulate a public theology of Pentecostalism—one that is both faithful to the Spirit and responsive to the complexities of contemporary life—Vondey’s book is an indispensable resource. It challenges us to embrace the scandal of the Spirit, to risk new forms of community, and to bear witness to the hope that is within us. But perhaps the most enduring gift of Vondey’s work is its reminder that the church’s true vocation is not to seek safety or respectability, but to live in the creative tension of the Spirit’s leading. The scandal of Pentecost is that God’s Spirit refuses to be domesticated—refuses to be confined to our institutions, our traditions, or our comfort zones. Instead, the Spirit calls us out—into the world, into relationship, into the risky, joyful, and sometimes messy work of building communion in the midst of difference. To embrace the scandal of Pentecost is to open ourselves to the Spirit’s surprising, unsettling, and renewing work—not only for our own sake, but for the life of the world.

Reviewed by Ciprian Gheorghe-Luca

King’s Dream of the Beloved Community

Antipas Harris — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:59:15 +0000

“The Christian-Evangelical Dilemma and Response to Racial Justice: Martin Luther King, Jr’s Beloved Community.”

When: March 11, 2021, at 7pm EST

Where: Zoom webinar (without cost)

I would love for you to join us this Thursday night, March 11, 2021, at 7pm EST/ 6pm CST for a free virtual lecture with Dr. Jamal-Dominique Hopkins. Dr. Hopkins serves as the dean at the Dickerson-Green Theological Seminary at Allen University and regularly teaches in the area of biblical languages and literature. He teaches Old and New Testament Studies, Biblical Hebrew and Greek, and Early Judaism. His scholarly research and publications are in the area of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran Literature, Biblical Hermeneutics and African American Christian Thought. He is the only known person of African Descent to hold a doctorate in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Dr. Hopkins has a passion for matters of racial conciliatory activism. He sees it as a fundamental activity of the original Christian faith.

The title of Dr. Hopkin’s lecture will be “The Christian-Evangelical Dilemma and Response to Racial Justice: Martin Luther King, Jr’s Beloved Community.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. was betwixt and between his Black Christian fundamentalist upbringing and the classical liberal theological orientation of his educational training. Both contexts informed his orthodoxy which in turn helped govern much of his lived experience. While his fundamentalist upbringing largely reflected the rank-and-file participants of the civil rights campaigns (i.e., the poor and socially disenfranchised), white evangelical responses were markedly different. This session will explore these responses to forge solutions toward achieving the beloved community.

Click here to join us for the 1-hour lecture on the Zoom virtual platform this Thursday, March 11, 2021 at 7pm EST/ 6pm CST.

This Lead Like King project at The Urban Renewal Center is our brand-new emphasis on public theology. The goals are to:

Build stronger relationships in diverse communities;
Heal racial brokenness as a result of lived experience;
Assist organizations in their effort to build more cohesive communities of diversity.

Join us for all of the rich series in which theological scholar-practitioners, like Dr. Chandler and Dr. Hopkins, are sharing ways each of us can participate in the collective journey toward the vision of a promised wholeness at the Urban Renewal Center.

Sincerely, Dr. Antipas

Veli-Matti Karkkainen: Hope and Community

Stephen Vantassel — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 20:58:30 +0000

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Hope and Community: A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World, Volume 5. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Press, 2017), x+574 pages with indices.

Hope and Community constitutes the fifth and final of the planned volumes for Kärkkäinen’s opus, A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World. Constructive theology is different from traditional systematic and dogmatic theologies in that constructive theologies are purposely interconfessional, interdisciplinary and interreligious and intercultural (cf. p. xvii). Less attention is paid to biblical and exegetical issues and more to engaging with the “truths” and perspectives of those outside one’s group. Kärkkäinen believes that truth can be found outside of Christianity and that external perspectives are useful in helping us understand our own beliefs more fully. For readers, accustomed to foundationalist approaches to theology, Kärkkäinen’s coherentist approach can be quite disorienting. Nevertheless, those, willing to be led on this journey with no defined destination will find the path full of thought-provoking insights both for Christian theology and their understanding of the great religions of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Like other volumes, Kärkkäinen disrupts the typical sequence of topics by discussing eschatology (i.e., hope) before the church (i.e., community). How much that disruption helps reorient readers, I will let readers decide for themselves. Part 1 delves into the topic of hope or eschatology. He discusses eschatology regarding three spheres, personal and communal, human and cosmic, and present and future (p.17). As is characteristic of constructive theologies, Kärkkäinen investigates how science understands the end. He accepts Science’s negative predictions based on a Neo-Malthusian understanding of humanity’s impact on creation. But Kärkkäinen should be commended for reminding scientists that they often make non-scientific statements as they move to metaphysical ones. He then reviews, in a non-critical manner, how eschatological themes are taken up by Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Kärkkäinen should be commended for reminding scientists that they often make non-scientific statements as they move to metaphysical ones.

Understandably, Kärkkäinen spends a whole chapter on the significance of the resurrection. He connects the resurrection of the body with the restoration of the cosmos. For those interested in philosophical theology, his discussion of the nature of space and time will stimulate reflection, but I am not convinced that his redefinition of eternity is sufficient.

In chapter 7, Kärkkäinen addresses the ecofeminist criticism that Christianity’s focus on the afterlife allowed her members to ignore/degrade the present condition of the planet. He correctly rejects the notion that belief in the afterlife requires a rejection of the present but grants too much weight to the socialist’s critique of capitalism and biocentrism’s critique of anthropocentrism as sources of environmental degradation. Though Kärkkäinen’s reading list is enormous, he neglected to read works sufficiently critical of the so-called environmental movement such as my own, Dominion over Wildlife? An Environmental-Theology of Human-Wildlife Relations (2009) or by E. Calvin Beisner to name two. The fact is many of the nations who have degraded their environments have anti-Christian cultures allowing rampant corruption along with the lack of economic freedom required by capitalism.

On the thorny subject of heaven and hell, Kärkkäinen offers what he calls “hopeful universalism”. He is hopeful that God will provide a way for all to accept Christ without violating the personal choice of those who persist in rejecting him. Those of a Calvinistic persuasion will find much to critique in this chapter.

All of us should be working for the unity of the faith.

In part 2, Community, Kärkkäinen addresses the church, particularly ecumenicalism. After defining various branches of Christianity, Kärkkäinen reviews how other religions understand the community of faith. From there he proceeds to ground his understanding of the church in the nature of the trinity. Chapters 14 & 19 are his most provocative in that he outlines a path for substantive ecumenicalism. I expected a rather watered-down approach but was surprised that he rebuked both high and low church communities for illegitimate roadblocks to mutual recognition. I should note that Kärkkäinen does not demand institutional unity, not that he would oppose such events should they happen. Rather he is looking for affirmation of communion, in that one church organization would accept as legitimate, one’s membership in another church organization such that both churches should share the Lord’s Supper. Although Kärkkäinen appeared to diminish some of the major differences between churches, I do grant that too often denominations have failed to at least endeavor to break down barriers between them, particularly when those barriers were not about Gospel essentials. His call and helpful insights on why churches are separate (It’s not always over theology) should be a reminder that all of us should be working for the unity of the faith.

Kärkkäinen addresses other topics such as the church’s nature (i.e. triumphant vs militant) and her offices. Surprisingly, he does not even believe that the Bible mandates any particular offices in the first place. But if there are to be offices, women should have equal access to hold them. Sadly, the lack of exegetical discussion diminished the force of his views for this reader.

In this final volume, Kärkkäinen does take a few pages to revisit his methodology (pp. 1-4). He reiterates his commitment to a post-foundationalist (i.e. coherentist) theory of truth. He affirms the necessity of integrating insights from outside one’s faith to help reduce, but not eliminate, the inherent biases of our cultural-historical conditionedness. Kärkkäinen is certainly a careful thinker, who seeks to avoid the traps and naivete of arbitrary dogmatisms. But he made a couple of comments that were troubling to me. On page 2 he writes, “… we hasten to add that we humans never have a direct, uncontested access to the infinitely incomprehensible God.” I appreciate where he is probably coming from, that there is a distinction between how we perceive something versus the nature of the thing itself, but can a Christian affirm that? Did Paul when he was taken to the third heaven have direct access to God? What about Paul’s Damascus Road encounter? Perhaps more troubling is the statement from page 3 which says, “That tradition, however, is neither a straitjacket that limits creative pursuit of knowledge nor a basis for mere repetition and defense.” I would agree that tradition is not a straitjacket as that is too restrictive. But tradition does act as a guard rail on the road that tells us the absolute limits of orthodoxy. Jude 3 assumes that there is a tradition, a body of faith that is fixed. Accept it or deny it but don’t tweak it. I would simply ask, “Are Christians called to be creative or faithful?” I wonder if academics, under pressure to always say something new, are too often motivated to be creative at the expense of faithfulness. We can be creative but in our presentation, not the substance. Ultimately, we must ask ourselves, “What is the substance of the faith that empowers us to evangelize like the Apostles did?” If we make that faith too uncertain, too squishy, too historicized, what is there left to care about let alone share with the world?

To conclude, I thought I would highlight several benefits that readers can glean from this series.

Categories. Kärkkäinen provides readers with lots of helpful categories and distinctions on a range of topics. These alone are worth the price of the series.
Engagement with world religions. Kärkkäinen has done some heavy lifting by outlining the beliefs of various religions and how they relate to similar areas within Christianity. If you are interested in inter-religious dialogue or apologetics, you would do well to get started here.
Science and Christianity. Though the series is not focused on science and religion, Kärkkäinen’s engagement of cutting-edge scientific theories/speculations are helpful introductions to some very arcane, but important, topics. His analysis of time/space, and mind/brain are particularly noteworthy.
Lack of Evangelical shibboleths. If you wish to learn how to write about Christian theology while avoiding Evangelical buzzwords or fighting words, then Kärkkäinen’s volumes will lead the way.

Reviewed by Stephen M. Vantassel

Preview Hope and Community: https://books.google.com/books/about/Hope_and_Community.html?id=eCxbDwAAQBAJ

Publisher’s page: https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/6857/hope-and-community.aspx

Read Stephen M. Vantassel’s reviews of all five books in Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen’s series A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World:

Volume 1: Christ and Reconciliation

Volume 2: Trinity and Revelation

Volume 3: Creation and Humanity

Volume 4: Spirit and Salvation

Volume 5: Hope and Community

Discipleship Through Community

Douglas Bursch — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 23:00:14 +0000

Every follower of Jesus is called to be a disciple maker. In this excerpt from his book, The Community of God, Pastor Doug Bursch shows us that the New Testament says discipleship happens in and through community.

God cares equally about the individual and the group. He does not give preference to the development of one over the other. With the formation of Eve, God created humans to exist as communal beings, dependent upon each other and their Creator to be one. Before sin entered the world, God declared that “it is not good” for Adam to be alone. What was true for Adam, remains true for every human being. For the children of God to understand fully the goodness of God, we must dwell in meaningful ways with each other. Consequently, community plays a crucial role in any healthy discipleship process.

Jesus discipled through community

This article is Chapter 12 from Douglas S. Bursch, The Community of God: A Theology of the Church from a Reluctant Pastor (Seattle, WA: Fairly Spiritual, 2017), 240 pages, ISBN 9780692868386. Read the review by John Lathrop.

Community was central in New Testament discipleship. Jesus ministered through a group of disciples. The New Testament church continued Jesus’ ministry and discipleship model after Christ’s ascension. In the New Testament, almost every stage of discipleship and growth occurred within the gathered community, specifically through ministry pairings.

Jesus did not minister the kingdom of God alone. Instead, he began his official ministry on Earth by gathering a group of disciples. Jesus ministered to and with disciples because he was fully God but also fully human. Just as it was not good for Adam to be alone, it would not have been good for Jesus to be alone or minister alone. God created humans for community. To rightly express his humanity, Jesus needed to abide with and work through meaningful human relationships. If Jesus had not shared his ministry with other people, he would not have been the perfect expression of a righteous human. To exhibit the perfect expression of humanity, Jesus shared his ministry with others. Through his incarnation, Jesus allowed himself to be dependent upon human relationships. He shared the plan of God with a community of disciples. In gathering the twelve, Jesus showed us that the gospel is fully realized in and through community.

In Jesus’ communal method of discipleship, he did not individually disciple his followers before bringing them into the larger group. Instead, he asked each disciple to join him and learn about him within a community of followers. The disciples discovered God and themselves within and through fellowship with each other. Their knowledge of God and their ministry giftings developed together. Jesus took twelve equally ignorant disciples and discipled them as an interactive group.

Douglas Bursch: The Community of God

John Lathrop — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 21:25:56 +0000

Douglas S. Bursch, The Community of God: A Theology of the Church from a Reluctant Pastor (Seattle, WA: Fairly Spiritual, 2017), 240 pages, ISBN 9780692868386.

As the last word of the title of this book indicates Douglas Bursch is a pastor; he is affiliated with the Foursquare Church. In addition to pastoring he serves on the Doctrine Committee and Education Commission of his denomination. He has also taught theology at Life Pacific College and Life Ministry Institute.

The Community of God consists of 18 chapters. At the end of each chapter there are discussion questions to help the reader remember, and reflect on, the significant topics covered in the chapter. In the book Pastor Bursch shares some of his own experiences in ministry. However, a significant portion of the text, as the title indicates, is given to developing a theology of the church. That being the case, the book contains a considerable amount of biblical teaching. This teaching demonstrates that community is God’s idea. The author points out that the larger culture in America is moving away from the practice of community (pages 15-16). The church, however, is not to follow this trend, we are called to be a community.

Bursch points out that before creation, God existed in community (and He still does); the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit interact with one another regularly. He goes on to show that with the creation of Eve community was introduced to the human race. He also shows that the concept of community can be found in God’s promise to Abraham (Gen. 12) and in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). We as believers in Jesus Christ are not to live individualistic lives, we are to participate in community. The author maintains that the church should place greater value on the importance of community. We, at least in the West, tend to place more emphasis on our individual needs and desires. Bursch says that in isolation “we cannot fully understand the relational nature and love of God” (page 32).

We are all broken. No matter how you do ministry, some people will sometimes be hurt.

While making a strong case for the importance of community Bursch acknowledges that community has its challenges. When he entered pastoral ministry he thought that if he pastored correctly he could have a church with almost no conflict (page 3). He found that this was not so. To use his words “I was terribly wrong, completely wrong, profoundly wrong” (page 3). The author says he learned “that conflict was simply unavoidable” (page 7). He found that in church ministry he was hurt and people at times felt as though he let them down (page 8). If you think this is too negative a picture of the church, some perspective might be helpful here. Bursch reminds us that we are “ministering with and to broken people” (page 11). He further says that no matter how one does ministry they will be hurt (page 128). He affirms this truth again later in the book when he says that pain is a part of the ministry no matter how carefully you conduct yourself in it (page 166).

Prayer Stations to Bless Your Community

William De Arteaga — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 14:23:51 +0000

Looking for a practical way to reach your community and share the love of Jesus?

The Prayer Station is a wonderful evangelistic ministry. It enables you to touch many persons who have never experienced healing prayer with the power of God. Being healed on the spot will utterly astound the “nones” (those with no religious affiliation), and is fun to watch. Surprisingly, many Christians have not been ministered to with effective, Spirit-empowered prayer. This outreach is also effective in growing your church, as you can invite those who have no church membership to your congregation.

If your church has a healing team you can do a prayer station. Fall is the perfect season for it. Notice that an effective prayer station can be done on the cheap. The original one I helped with only involved an old real estate sign, four volunteers, and a few used bibles from the local Goodwill store.

Here is how to do it. “The Prayer Station”

Walter Dickhaut: Building a Community of Interpreters

David Seal — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 23:49:30 +0000

Walter R. Dickhaut, Building a Community of Interpreters: Readers and Hearers as Interpreters (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2013) 125 pages, ISBN 9781610979962.

Walter R. Dickhaut, in his small volume, Building a Community of Interpreters: Readers and Hearers as Interpreters, proposes that listeners and hearers of a sermon, story or biblical text function as interpreters of the meaning of each of these types of expression or forms of communication. Dickhaut’s thesis maintains that the hermeneutical process is better perceived as a spiral, rather than a circle with a closed circuit, because the reader of any text can influence its interpretation (12).

Dickhaut presents his proposal in two parts. The chapters in part one explain the process of listening, which involves the numerous occasions when one meets the text, the particular angle of vision of the reader and the metaphorical filters and lenses applied in each hearing. Every time a reader encounters or meets the same text, it is not the same reader who encountered the text previously (18). Time and the circumstances of the reader have changed. He may have acquired new learning or modified certain perspectives (18). A filter applied by a reader or listener removes what the reader prefers not to engage (21). The reader is often unaware the presence of these filters. Information that does not conform to the reader’s beliefs or opinions is filtered out. Dickhaut wants the reader to be aware he is wearing these unexpected blinders in the form of biases and prejudgments. When mindful of the blinders, the reader is better able as to make appropriate adjustments (25).

Lenses, on the other hand, focus the listener’s attention on specific interests and features that aim to discover something new (21-22). Lenses empower interpreters to discover “mystery, surprise, and expectation” in biblical texts (34). Lenses function to enhance or enlarge certain details (22). The reader’s angles of vision also shape interpretation. Angles of vision are shaped by the listener’s personal experience, family history, theological and political positions and social and cultural location (27).

The second part, chapters seven through fourteen, is an expanded discussion on the lenses of
mystery, surprise, and expectation, punctuated with three of the author’s sermons. The author encourages the reader to view texts through the lens of mystery and read and listen in such a way that he is satisfied with a sense of the mystery of God rather than needing explanation and rationalization. To read with expectation is to read and listen as one dissatisfied with certain aspects of the world we inhabit (86-87). Surprise in a biblical text can be achieved by searching for things one does not understand, because in doing so the reader “is more likely to learn something new, something that surprises him” (67).

The book’s strength is its reflection on the various factors that potentially effect the listener’s interpretation of a sermon or biblical text. Thus, preachers and teachers are introduced to features that influence the listener’s interpretation of a text or sermon. The author delivers on his goal to encourage building a community of interpreters. In the Afterword, Dickhaut maps out sessions for a Bible study group that explores what happens to meaning when a reader opens a book or listens to a sermon from various angles and when wearing a variety of spectacles.

Reviewed by David Seal

Publisher’s page: http://wipfandstock.com/building-a-community-of-interpreters.html

Preview Building a Community of Interpreters: https://books.google.com/books?id=YkxNAwAAQBAJ

Christian Leadership: Growing a Church or Impacting a Community?

Dan Reiland — Sun, 17 Jan 2016 18:10:55 +0000

Is your church making a lasting impact on the community? As a pastor, I am dedicated to not only grow my church, but to lead them in reaching out to those around us. In this issue of Pastor’s Coach, I share the difference between being focused on church growth and being dedicated to influencing society.

One thing that troubles me when I see churches become larger is that the communities in which they serve don’t seem to change much. I’ve been asking myself why? Am I just idealistic? Perhaps even naive? I don’t think so. But if I am, I will remain that way with hopes of seeing the church truly reform the communities in which we live.

Image: FreeImages.com/Harrison Keely

Actually I think I’m a realist, with a positive attitude. I don’t think my church will change the world. But I must believe it can change my community. If God is who He says He is, and Jesus did what the Bible says He did, we can change the areas where we live! And together we can change the world.

At first I thought it was the difference between a small town, and a large city. It made sense that in smaller towns the churches might have more influence on the culture. It also seemed like the large cities were just not conquerable. But culture in general, independent of church influence, reveals that many small towns change slower (if at all) than large cities, especially during crisis. For example in Florida, when a hurricane comes through and destroys entire trailer parks, they rebuild them exactly like they were, right in the same place. In contrast, large cities like New York after 9/11, the community has been changed forever. They live different, think different and will never be the same.

I’ve also thought it might be a small church, large church issue. I do think there is substantial truth to the potentially greater impact of larger churches because of their resources, but there doesn’t seem to be enough evidence to make a case for this.

It is tempting to say it’s all about leadership, but it’s not that simple. There are great leaders who are not reaching their community, and average leaders who are.

You may find what seem like hair-splitting ideas in this article, but read it through in order to think with me about the differences between growing a church and impacting a community. I will admit this can seem like nuance and spin, but I believe that at the core there is something to this idea. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile and I’m convinced that it is something worth a few minutes of consideration through your leadership eyes. If you have time, send me your thoughts. If nothing else, join me in my passion to change lives and truly impact communities.

You grow a church with talent and leadership. You impact a community with compassion. Churches that are blessed with talent (musical or otherwise) and great leadership are likely to grow. Most of these churches are considered good churches and in many ways they are. But that doesn’t mean the community has been changed – which for me is the mark of a great church. In my thinking, it is impact that matters. This does not discount the huge significance and eternal value of growing churches that are big because of new converts. I’m talking about a kind of impact that not only wins people to Christ, but that does so with such impact that the community takes notice and is changed.Now let me dance on thin ice. First, know that I have and will continue to give my life to Great Commission ministry. I’m all about people coming to Christ. But there is a corporate force that will enable us to ultimately win more to Christ if we have better served our communities. This means we must get involved in things that the community values, not just what we care about.

I believe this all begins with compassion. Churches who reach out with servant oriented efforts that will not ultimately result in anyone coming to their church demonstrate compassion that has true impact. I believe that the best way to do this is to prayerfully think through the various services in your community that did not originate from your church, and choose to serve and financially resource them.

Skyline Church, led by Pastor Jim Garlow did just that. About a year ago there were severe and devastating fires in San Diego County. Hundreds of people from Skyline (and other churches) jumped in to help. By actually fighting fires, and providing food and housing, they dropped what they were doing and jumped in with all their hearts. Dozens of testimonies chimed in the same way: “We can’t believe that church did so much for us.” That is community impact.

You grow a church on your terms. You reach a community on their terms. I love movies where the “bad guys” are in complex and suspenseful negotiations with the “good guys”. One such movie was The Rock with Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage. Mercenaries had hostages on Alcatraz Island and there were bombs aimed at San Francisco. The FBI, and everyone else imaginable, was involved to negotiate the demands. The suspense and tension grew as the negotiations determined who was really in control of the terms.Who sets the terms matters. If your church insists that everyone you connect with must do so on your terms, you may grow your church, but you won’t impact the community. This is not about sloppy theology, going “liberal”, or abusing grace. It’s about a willingness to adapt your church’s attitudes and behaviors, including receptivity to people who aren’t like you, in order that more un-churched people may be willing to try you out and even come back.

Building Christian Community

Olga Soler — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 20:17:41 +0000

This article by Olga Soler is the chapter “Summing It Up” in Creative Ways to Build Christian Community edited by Jeanne C. DeFazio and John P. Lathrop.

If ministry is only the work of professional clergy and is restricted to what goes on at a church service or a major Christian event, then the church is lost and doomed to implode and die in our century. Why? Because, though these things may serve God, the personal touch is often lacking in them. People think clergy pray because that’s what they are paid to do. Many people are church-phobic. Large gatherings may attract people, but they cannot keep them. Happily, there is more to church and ministry than these. Ministry is what the whole priesthood of true believers everywhere does every day in the course of their faithful lives. It is what they do because they love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. It is what they are because Christ lives in them, and they are his. Real church is not an institution or a corporation. It is a loving, hospitable family that reaches out to the world the way Jesus’ hands of love and healing did when he was in the world. So, if the answer is this simple, why do we need books like the one you are holding? We need them because the meaning of true ministry and church may be lost in the fray of the spiritual war that is raging for the conquest of this earth. We must keep taking it back to the biblical norm in order for all of us in the church to survive and join in the victory won by our precious Lord.

No amount of money, sophisticated projects, grand displays, or facilities with impressive or elaborate architecture will make up for the power of what God can do with a community that is functioning in the way that Christ intended it to: being continually enriched and expanded by tapping into all the gifts God has given to its members. Christ told us how to do it in his word, and the value of this plan has not diminished through the centuries. If we are to each other and to the world what he wants us to be, the harvest will soon be reaped, and we will all go home.

It all begins when we realize how truly precious real community is. In the words of Dietrich Bonheoffer, as he reflected on fellowship from a cell in a Nazi prison,

It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that at any day now may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: it is grace, nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.¹

Yes! When every job possible is automated, every materialistic need met, every gadget conceivable invented, and people have seen every special effect on film in a depersonalized futuristic utopia of science fiction, the personal touch will still be in demand. Stories told by human beings will still mean something. A letter written by hand will still be valued. A meal cooked and shared in a hospitable home or church will still be a delight. A song sung by a voice near you or the mystery of a work of human art will still draw people in. A prayer or teaching shared person to person will still heal, edify, encourage, and inspire. The love shown by another person will still be an incomparable thing. How does one create a real community with Christ within? By taking all the gifts he gives us and helping us share them with each other and with the world.

Merold Westphal: Whose Community? Which Interpretation?

Timothy Lim Teck Ngern — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 19:25:50 +0000

Merold Westphal, Whose Community? Which Interpretation?: Philosophical Hermeneutics for the Church, The Church and Postmodern Culture Series (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009) , 160 pages, ISBN 9780801031472.

At last! A reliable and accessible book on philosophical hermeneutics for pastors, seminarians, and Christians, who may know little about the philosophy of interpretation.

Merold Westphal is a distinguished professor of philosophy, postmodernism and ontological theology at Fordham University. In this book, he demonstrates that key lessons in the development of philosophical hermeneutics—from Frederick Schleiermacher to Hans-Georg Gadamer—can enrich Bible reading, whether studied professionally by a theologian, expounded orally by a church leader, or read devotionally by a Christian.

Underlying Westphal’s concise treatment is the argument that postmodern philosophical perspectives on hermeneutics (which some believed to be only a faddish ideology) can contribute to the churches’ quest for rightly reading and understanding Scripture. As the series editor James K.A. Smith introduces in the foreword, Westphal makes careful distinction between the “relativity of finitude” (recognizing that our interpretations are deeply affected to our finite and relative understandings) and “an absolute ‘anything goes’ relativism.”

Postmodern approaches to interpretation have led some to feel “hermeneutical despair” while the opposite extreme could be described as “hermeneutical arrogance,” those that believe pure truth can be received without mediation. Westphal’s nuanced treatment will help Christians navigate between such despair or arrogance, and because of that, Whose Community? Which Interpretation? “is a gift for the Church” (p.11).

Westphal explains there is a myth that goes like this: to read the Bible “plainly” is to read it correctly, but those that “interpret” the Bible read it incorrectly because their methods predispose them to a subjective bias. However, can a reflective reader really preserve the objectivity of the biblical message yet ignore the mediatory role and pre-understandings they brings to the text? In reality, because we are finite beings, we will not have infinite and total knowledge. Westphal shows that from Schleiermacher, a reader will approach texts with presuppositions, and often these assumptions are fed to us from our “hermeneutical circle.” We have to learn to hear the author, including their psychological state, and not just the subject. We have also to learn to see how the different context is dependent on the larger contexts. From Dilthey, we learn that rules help overcome some levels of subjectivity in our readings although many scholars remained critical about any supposed “universal validity of objective/scientific” methodology. From continental philosophers (like Heidegger, Riccoeur and Gadamer), we learn that, to a large extent we are all relativistic in our interpretations: we never interpret “out of nowhere” but from our respective “locations” (not limited geographically), and even at conversion, we read texts from a prior location of “somewhere” ideologically to another ideological position “somewhere else” (p.36). These locations are what philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer calls, “our throwness – the immersion and formation of our consciousness and pre-understandings” (p.70) and “historically-effected-consciousness” (p.74), and in which as readers, we later introduce “a fusion of horizons” (p.107) into our readings, drawing from our respective traditions and backgrounds as well as the many other horizons that interface with our interpretation (ch. 6). I will return to Westphal’s review of Gadamer shortly. From Reformed philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff’s reading of J. Austin’s speech-act theory, we learn that language is a performance subjected to moral and legal norms operating under certain circumstances, so while we may arrive at a fixed authorial meaning, we cannot necessarily conclude towards an authorial intent.