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.

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).

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

From Pneuma Review Fall 2013.

Wolfgang Vondey, ed., Pentecostalism and Christian Unity, Volume 2 (Pickwick Publications, 2013), 301 pages, ISBN 9781620327180.

It can be a terrible thing when we believe that we ourselves are right and all others are wrong. Terrible, because it can reinforce an arrogance caused by insecurity, causing us to be unwilling or resistant towards the legitimate Biblical perspectives and insights of others. Sadly, ignorance of the basis of faith shared with others, whose experience of church culture is sometimes so foreign and different from ourselves, can lead to caricature and even misrepresentation, often on the basis of anecdotal reflections or bad personal experiences.

This book is for those who are prepared to view things a different way. It is the second volume in a series looking at Pentecostal involvement in cross-denominational discussions regarding the basis of Christian unity. It is intended as a source book and reference work, divided into two parts. Firstly, a selection of narratives that represent ecumenical dialogues in which Pentecostals have recently been involved. Secondly, a selection of official reports on conversations between Pentecostals and two major denomination groupings, as well as the fruit of a conversation between Oneness and Trinitarian Pentecostals.

But this book is useful for more than that. It illustrated one important function of Pentecostalism, which is moving the agenda from abstract and obtuse theological concepts and categories into ‘what is real is what is experienced’. It invites an engagement in an ecumenism that focuses on missional matters, and the exploration of experiential realities: what it means to enter faith, to grow in faith, or to receive the Holy Spirit.

The narratives in part 1 are valuable in showing how people, coming from diverse backgrounds, can find a ‘cross check’ in confirming the propriety of their Christian practices. For whether we readily recognise it or not, there is—at the theoretical, dogmatic level—not always a lot to choose between in the differing systematic theologies offered by competing traditions because of shared roots in historic Christianity, they are sometimes simply amended copies or slight variations of one another. It is at the level of practices that we see the difference. The value of these conversations is in how they lead us to reflect on what we do; and on why we do what we do.

This collection of records and documents is also a book providing a good resource for those looking for a way of finding a positive interface between Pentecostals and both Lutheran and Reformed, as well as Roman Catholics.

Reviewed by James Purves

The Fall 2013 issue (16:4) of The Pneuma Review features these articles:

The Credibility of Miracles: Excerpts from Miracles by Craig S. Keener.

New Order of the Latter Rain: A New Perspective by John R. Miller.

Find all of these articles individually in an easy-to-read format on the archive page: http://PneumaReview.com/fall-2013/

Amos Yong and Estrelda Alexander, eds., Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 261 pages, ISBN 9780814797310.         

Black pentecostal and charismatic Christianity has long been one of the most neglected topics of North American religious history and culture. Estrelda Alexander, an African American professor of theology, and otherwise known for her work, Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism (Intervarsity), and Amos Yong, an Asian American professor of theology, both at Regent University, haven taken on the project to provide a pioneering and multidisciplinary collection of scholars who collaborate on closing the gap on the Black dimensions of the Pentecostal movement. In this groundbreaking work, fourteen scholars discuss the complex reality noted in the title of the book as “Afro-Pentecostalism,” including classical Wesleyan Holiness Pentecostals, classical Apostolic groups, also known as Oneness Pentecostals, charismatic independent Pentecostals, and recent neo-Pentecostals within the wider Black Church tradition. The result is a unique, insightful, multidisciplinary, interracial collection that should complement every library on contemporary Pentecostalism.

After a general introduction by the editors on the shifting strategies and changing discourses of Afro-Pentecostalism, the collection unfolds in five parts: (1) origins, (2) gender and culture, (3) prophetic ethics, (4) pneumatology, and (5) Afro-Pentecostalism in global context. The book features predominantly African American authors, including David Daniels, Leonard Lovett, William Turner, and Frederick Ware (all Pentecostal), as well as Valerie Cooper, Clarence Hardy, Cheryl Sanders, and Ogbu Kalu (all not Pentecostals), and is complemented by the white scholars Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. (Pentecostal) joined by Louis Gallien, Craig Scandrett-Leatherman, and Dale Irvin (all not Pentecostals). Bringing together insights from within and without the Pentecostal traditions and African American Pentecostalism, the chapters draw on historical studies, theology, cultural anthropology, ethics, missiology, and religious studies that cross the borders of color, race, and ethnicity.

The history of modern-day Pentecostalism is still in its infant stage. At this crucial moment of telling the Pentecostal story, a typical syndrome of Pentecostal historiography is racial exclusiveness. Perhaps a form of “narrative racism,” or more likely ignorance and habit, the stories tend to be told in exclusively black or white perspectives. Moreover, those who tell the stories tend to align with the color of choice: white Pentecostals tell a white history, Black Pentecostalism is narrated by the African American community. In contrast, Afro-Pentecostalism sheds new “color” on a story that is one of conflict (narrated by Robeck’s essay) and the need to “navigate the territory” (Daniels’ essay) between civil and religious communities divided by race and ethnicity. This larger history is reflected in the story of women in Afro-Pentecostalism (narrated by Cooper and Hardy) and the rhymes and rhythms of African American culture (told by Scandrett-Leatherman and Gallien). The result of cultural and religious suppression on the surface is a prophetic mode of existence and operation (narrated by Sanders and Lovett). In the depths of the theological terrain, Afro-Pentecostalism also contributes unique insights for the theological task, particularly the renaissance of pneumatology (narrated by Turner) and Black Liberation Theology (told by Ware). From these various roots, Afro-Pentecostalism has expanded to global contexts (narrated by Kalu and Irvin).

The essays are strong and personal narratives of a present-day Pentecostalism, not observations of a bygone era. Individual essays can easily serve as discussion starters in churches and college courses. Most essays are critical, often self-critical, of the status quo among a racially divided Pentecostal movement. Afro-Pentecostalism is an important contribution to initiate the end of racial divisions by telling shades of the Pentecostal story that have long been neglected. Editorial introductions to each section further chart the trajectories and shape the larger story of the Black Church and the Pentecostal movement.