Every dissertation has to find some unique way to answer a pressing question to count as adding something substantial to its academic domain. Sometimes these methodologies can feel strained and concerned merely with novelty. Other times an author will put their finger on something that not only illuminates the subject in question but also changes the way you understand the topic. Mona Tokarek LaFosse’s published version of her dissertation, Honouring Age: The Social Dynamics of Age Structure in 1 Timothy, does the latter. In it, LaFosse uses the framework of age and how different age groups relate to each other to bring clarity to the concerns of the letter of 1 Timothy as well as answer some long-held scholarly debates about the widows in 1 Timothy 5.

After arguing for the need to look at 1 Timothy through the lens of age in chapter 1, LaFosse uses contemporary ethnographic research on traditional Mediterranean societies to construct two models: 1) age status and the generational cycle and 2) generational stability and social change (chapter 2). These models help to illustrate the age structure of traditional Mediterranean societies and how such structures dictate proper behavior, especially concerning honor. LaFosse is careful to avoid anachronism here and only uses these ethnographic studies to provide a probable starting point that is corrected in light of ancient evidence. In chapter 3, LaFosse proposes a setting for the letter of 1 Timothy (which she takes to be heteronymous. Editor’s note: written by someone other than Paul, see below) in the generation after the apostles when the recipients would have been in generational uncertainty in the wake of the loss of the older Christian generation (represented by Paul) and heightened by the conflict surrounding the false teachers. These concrete realities are answered by the letter’s reinforcement of traditional age structure and the corresponding proper behaviors of those within the church (the subject of chapter 4).

Chapter five through eight, focusing on widows in 1 Timothy, are the heart of the book. Here is where LaFosse’s models become the most helpful. There is no need for her to posit an office of the widow because concerns about widows within a household–both how they were honored and how they could disgrace the (church) family if they didn’t conform to proper behavior–were serious and persistent concerns in the ancient Mediterranean (chapter 5). In chapter 6 LaFosse addresses the two difficulties of the sixty+ age requirement to be put on the “list” (1 Tim 5:9). In short, sixty was considered the demarcation of old age, and the “list” was public recognition of such a widow’s honorable and virtuous life. “The idea of ‘enlisting’ exemplary widows in 1 Tim. 5:9 reflects a similar sense of awarding public honour to those who behave properly and piously—those who embodied the ideals of a virtuous woman over her lifetime” (145). This was important not merely for the sake of honor itself, but because of the vital role an older widow would play in the guidance and formation of younger widows (chapter 7). Chapter eight proposes the “believing woman” (1 Tim 5:16) as a middle-aged woman who was neglecting her duties towards the younger widows, and thus, is the target of Paul’s critique.

I should add one final note that is less a criticism than a question my mind kept returning to as I read her book. As is common in academic circles, LaFosse understands 1 Timothy as pseudonymous (though she prefers the term “heteronymous”). She provides the typical reasons (pp. 11-12): different vocabulary from the “undisputed” Pauline letters, the difficulty in placing 1 Timothy within the timeline of Paul’s life and other letters, and the emphasis on hierarchy as opposed to the (allegedly non-hierarchical) body metaphor. This she takes as evidence for a later date and her own work showing the concern for age and the anxiety caused by generational change would reinforce a compositional date after Paul’s lifetime. Yet, as I read LaFosse I wondered if her own work actually undermined her hypothetical reconstruction of the letter’s setting. If concerns over age structure and dynamics were an ever-present reality in the ancient Mediterranean world, then it would be a concern within Paul’s lifetime just as much as after. That is, why should we think that the real Paul wouldn’t be concerned about age dynamics? It only is a problem if we first assume that somehow Paul stood outside of time and place, aloof from his own culture and concerns. Why shouldn’t he think young men should honor elders or older widows train up and guide younger widows? My intuition is to think he would, but just asking the question illustrates the value of LaFosse’s book.

Reviewed by Ryan Clevenger

Publisher’s page: https://www.mqup.ca/honouring-age-products-9780228019350.php

The authors of a Canadian Pentecostal Reader are to be commended for such an exemplary, seminal, and significant reference research resource. The heart and core of this monograph focuses on a collection of early 20^th Century primary sources in the form of Pentecostal newsletters, carefully reproduced in reprinted format, with minor and useful amendments. The newsletters are arranged from Eastern to Western Canada: Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, respectively. Canadian publication locations include the cities of Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Vancouver, and New Westminster. In the context, the authors describe that their collected primary newsletter “sources are historical, theological, testimonial, autobiographical, and biographical.” (1)

For introductory background information for each set of newsletters, the authors have taken a clever and consistent approach exhibiting and including ‘The People’, ‘The Publication’, and ‘Suggested Reading’. In addition, either external documented quotations or photographs conclude the introductions.

How refreshing to read experiential accounts of first-generation Pentecostals during the initial quarter of the 20^th Century!

Due to the length of Reader it appears that a wise decision was made not to include an index, but to give opportunity for the keen reader or scholarly researcher to secure a digital copy whereby any word or phrase of the book can be searched quickly and, if so desired, in sequence and comprehensively. Also, since The Canadian Pentecostal Testimony (Later renamed the Pentecostal Testimony, now: Testimony and Enrich) is largely available in digital form, the choice was made not to include this periodical among the set of primary newsletter sources for the book (2).

Further research and studies need to be conducted in regard to the following statement: “Ellen Hebden (1865-1923) is widely regarded as the first person in Canada to have the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the accompanying sign of speaking in tongues on 17 November 1906.” ([5]). It would have been helpful for the serious reader or researcher if this statement would have been documented, especially since this information is included in the first issue in May 1907 of The Promise ([12]-13) and since such a specific date is given. In my book review of Thomas William Miller’s Canadian Pentecostals: A History of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada ¹, I called into question that Ellen Hebden was the first Canadian person to be baptized in the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking in tongues in the 20^th Century (Pneuma 20: 1, Spring 1998, 119-20) ². I said, “it appears that John Loney of Snowflake, Manitoba (40-41) and not Hebden of Toronto was the first known Canadian, or at least the first known person in Canada to speak in tongues [in the 20th Century]. ³” (The Apostolic Faith, vol. I, 4 December 1906, 3) in Fred T. Corum’s Like As Of Fire (1981) ⁴ and in Wayne E. Warner’s The Azusa Street Papers (c1997), 24. ⁴ Warner was the former Director of the Assemblies of God Archives, Springfield, MO (8) ⁵. John Loney testifies, “I am in sympathy with your [William J. Seymour’s] work, am baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire, and have received the gift of some as of yet unknown tongue or tongues. It first came two years ago, and is proving more distinct and real. Believe God is preparing me for some special work in some part of his vineyard.” ⁶ (The Apostolic Faith, I, 4 December 1906, 3) in Fred T. Corum’s Like As Of Fire (1981) and in Wayne E. Warner’s The Azusa Street Papers (c1997), 24. Loney’s testimony could be interpreted that he was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues as early as 1904.⁶

Reviewed by Laurence M. Van Kleek

Notes

¹ Miller, Thomas William. Canadian Pentecostals: A History of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Edited by William A. Griffin. Mississauga, ON: Full Gospel Publishing House, c1994. 40-1.

² Canadian Pentecostals Reviewed by Laurence M. Van Kleek, Pneuma (20:1 Spring, 1998). 119-121.

³ Ibid, 119.

⁴ Corum, Fred T.  Like As of Fire (A Reprint of the Old Azusa Street Papers). Wilmington MA:  Fred T. Corum, 1981.  Snowflake, Manitoba—John Loney. Dec ‘06, p. 3, col. 2 [Using Warner’s Index], Warner, Wayne E. The Azusa Street Papers. Foley, AL: Harvest Publications, c1997. 24.

⁵ Burgess, Stanley M., Editor and Van der Maas, Eduard M., Associate Editor. The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. Expanded and Rev. ed. Zondervan, c2002. 1185-86.

⁶ I discovered another Canadian, Harry S. Horton, who was baptized in the Holy Spirit, accompanied by speaking in tongues in the early 20^th Century. He was the father of the Late Dr. Stanley M. Horton. In 1906, Harry received this experience at a home in Winnipeg. (J. Shirley Morsch, Editor in Chief of the History Committee. Rejoice: A History of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Edmonton, AB. The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Alberta and Northwest Territories (Mackenzie District); Altona, MB: Friesen Printers, a Division of D.W. Friesen & Sons Ltd., [1983]: 1.J. Shirley Morsch says, “In Elmer Cantelon’s book, Harvester of the North, he reported that his mother, Mrs. Peter Cantelon, of the Manitoba Mather District near Cartwright, received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in her home in 1906.” I confirmed such in Elmer J. Cantelon’s, Harvester of the North (Toronto, Canada: Full Gospel Publishing House, c1969): 69-70. As already was employed as a search strategy for Mittelstadt and Courtney’s book, “familysearch.org, ancestry.com, and newspapers.com” (3), plus 23andme.com, could be used to shed more light on the historical background of people of interest.

So, besides maintaining that Ellen Hebden was the first person in Canada in the 20^th Century to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and accompanied by tongues speaking on 17 November 1906, there is evidence that others, such as John Loney of Snowflake, MB, Harry S. Horton of Winnipeg, and Mrs. Peter Cantelon of the Manitoba Mather District near Cartwright also received this experience in the same year. The question is for those who consider January 1, 1901, as so sacred, who was first? Is this date especially sacred to God or is it traditionally and culturally sacred to us? If 1904 is accepted, John Loney of Snowflake, Manitoba would be first! But if 1906 is the acceptable year, how likely would it be that November 17^th, so late in 1906, would rule out Harry S. Horton, and Mrs. Peter Cantelon as not receiving the experience possibly earlier than Ellen Hebden? Also, Christian historian scholars need to be careful not to take an elitist position that may rule out testimonies of laypersons.

Dr. Stanley Horton grandmother, Miss Clara Sanford (later Mrs. Elmer Fisher) who lived in Pennsylvania, received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, with the tongues evidence, in 1880.” (Morsch: 1). Claude Kendrick gives further examples of the speaking in “TONGUES PHENONMENA” in the United States in the last quarter of the 19^th Century. See The Promise Fulfilled: A History of the Modern Pentecostal Movement. Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, c1961. 34-6. Regarding experiencing the Tongues phenomena, in 1875, Rev. R.B Swan of Providence, RI; in 1879, W. Jethro Walthall of Arkansas; in 1890, Daniel Awrey of OH; and in1900 “Sarah A. Smith … in Tennessee” had such an experience. (Ibid, 11). So, during the last quarter of the 19^th Century, there is evidence the people being baptized with the Holy Spirit accompanied with tongue speaking. I do not minimize the value or worldwide impact of the Azusa Street revival, but rather agree with Eddie L. Hyatt that since the day of Pentecost such wonderfully blessed phenomena have been throughout history. See Eddie L. Hyatt, 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, c2002).

Kevin Giles, The Eternal Generation of the Son: Maintaining Orthodoxy in Trinitarian Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2012), 270 pages including indices, ISBN 9780830839650.

What this reviewer sees in Kevin Giles’ The Eternal Generation of the Son is a carefully reasoned presentation of what is inherent, or implied within John 1:1 and also in Second Corinthians 5:19, and retaining what is there regarding the person of Jesus in Christian doctrine. The key phrases are “In the beginning was the Word “(John 1:1) and “namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2Corinthians 5:19). There is an implied or inherent eternality in both the Fourth Gospel and in Paul’s second letter to the Church in Corinth.

Giles first sets forth the biblical warrant for “the eternal” generation of Jesus as suggested by “in the beginning was the Word” and also the uniqueness of Jesus as the Word made flesh through whom God reconciled the world to Himself. He then recounts how succeeding Christians from the earliest apologists through the Nicene fathers, Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory Nazianzus, to Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and eventually the Reformers of the 16^th century preserved the understanding of Jesus as “eternal” as well unique. This is meticulously done through copious citations from original documents relative to Justin, Athanasius, the Capadocians (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory Nazianzus), Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, and other of the reformers. They are presented in opposition to Arius, Eunomius, and those who thought otherwise in successive years by maintaining that Jesus is subordinate to God the Father such as Servetus and Socinius in the sixteenth century. Giles singles out Wayne Grudem and Bruce Ware as twentieth-century subordinationists.

The idea of “eternal generation” is drawn from God’s eternality and His entry within the realm of time in the person of Jesus. Giles noted how many of the 4^th century creeds used the Greek word gennao to express the eternal nature of God in His Christ, Jesus, and monogenes to express the uniqueness in Jesus. This reviewer cannot stress enough the painstaking nature of Gile’s apologetic effort in an effort to retain and maintain an orthodox understanding of Jesus relation to God as Father within the time-honored Trinitarian tradition.

Giles supports his argument for maintaining and retaining the “eternal generation” of the “Sonship” of Jesus by not only referencing citations in the Bible but also by a “roll-call” from the past to the present. He regards Athanasius as “one of the greatest theologians of all time” (p. 118). He progresses from Augustine to Aquinas to the major reformers, the Puritans John Owen and John Owen, the Swiss-Italian Francis Turretin, Moses Stuart, and Samuel Miller in America, and the later figures of William G.T. Shedd, Louis Berkhof and Herman Bavinck, Karl Barth, David Cunningham, and lastly, Robert Letham who incidentally wrote a forward to Giles.

James R. Goff Jr. and Grant Wacker, eds., Portraits of a Generation: Early Pentecostal Leaders (Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2002), 430 pages.

The introduction to this book tells us that no real compelling interest existed in the 20 people whose lives are described therein for the first 50 years of the 20^th Century. These were people who had lived in the late 19^th and early 20^th Century and were on their way to being forgotten—they did not matter anymore, and may never have truly mattered until the church began to grow and grow world wide in the last half of the 20^th Century.

As most of you know, all kinds of interest and publication has followed this explosive growth. Why has it happened? Who started it and where and how? There has been much study on the more prominent leaders who became intertwined by what happened at Azusa Street in Los Angeles. However, until this book, many have remained unknown to most of Christendom. You might have heard of some of the people who are included in this book, but I doubt that you know them all. I did not know them all, and I have been a student of our movement for 40 years.

Contributors to this volume include many well-known Pentecostal/charismatic historians including Edith Blumhofer, Cecil M. Roebuck, Vinson Synan, and Gary McGee.

I learned much and I met some new personalities that I did not know. Portraits of a Generation is an excellent reference book that is written well and in an enjoyable style.

Reviewed by H. Murray Hohns