Amos Yong and Dale Coulter bring to bear a fruitful and constructive offering in The Holy Spirit and Higher Education whose primary audience are those engaged in work and service at institutions found within the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. Not that this is their exclusive audience, but it is a helpful focal point for the intended audience. The volume is divided into two sections between the two contributors respectively where each voice may be heard (for those who recognize the writing styles) with three chapters each: historical (Coulter in chapters 2-4) and theological (Yong in chapters 5-7). Both sections offer some of the most constructive and fresh hearings in their respective areas of focus that this reviewer has engaged across the literature in both the history and theology of (Christian) higher education. The volume has helpful introductory and concluding chapters that summarize the project on both ends. Further, each chapter entails a succinct summation of the primary contributions of that chapter to the conversation.

A welcome construct utilized were terms/ideas to lead the imagination of each of the six core chapters of the volume. In the historical section by Coulter, he makes use of habitus, Bildung, and the Romanticist intuitive populism via the “triad of intuitionism, immanence, and progressivism” (in contrast to the “high culture” of liberalism and the worldview notions of Reformed approaches). In the theological section by Yong, he makes use of head, heart, hands and connects these in a pneumatologically attuned trinitarian construction for an integrative approach to Christian higher education. These ideas offer a way of remembering the movements made in each respective chapter of which the authors do hope to have some manner of “hook” to aid those who have read their works toward recall and entering into the imaginations of the writers and the world they have offered. The volume is not overly long (at 306 oversized pages), but likely many readers may find it a difficult read owing to the thickness of careful critical reflection demonstrated in the writing styles of both Coulter and Yong. In this way, familiarity with their previous work bears dividends toward understanding their particular articulations.

The rooting of this volume in the ecumenical turn of “Pentecost” (bearing the marks of Yong’s distinct contribution to the global Pentecost/al conversations) functions well as a metaphor and storying that naturally seems to lend itself to ecumenical dialogue (many thanks for the persistent work in this regard by Yong). This framing/orientation for this project avoids the political dynamics of much contemporary ecumenism and instead not only allows, but specifically calls for diversity (by and through the Spirit). This is not without difficulty in how one may in fact critique such diversities as somehow outside of such storying via Pentecost. However, this makes use of the chief storying of the Church all the while reminding Pentecostals (those identifying as such) of the ways in which this story is not their own unique possession but belongs to God’s work to set all things to rights. Coulter and Yong, thus, provide a way of constructive dialogic engagements between both Pentecostals and the rest of the Church via this storying of Pentecost as the Church’s story (and in turn, as that meant to be/become the cosmic redemptive story).

Another question is whether the “trinitarian” explanations failed to appreciate the decidedly Christologic offering in a turn to the Pneumatologic? While this perhaps opens greater ecumenical dialogue within the wider Christian traditions and among Evangelicals in particular, one may wonder if there is a loss for the internal Pentecostal dialogue between trinitarian and Oneness confessions which is so aptly engaged in the editorial epilogue of the latest issue of Pneuma by none other than Amos Yong himself.[2] It is particularly in the Christologic foci of Pentecostal confession (historic and contemporary rapprochement, e.g., the “Cleveland School” of Pentecostalism) as precisely a potential contribution to the wider Church. Though knowing that this volume is not for Pentecostals narrowly, but for institutions of the CCCU in mind particularly, means this volume is not meant directly to speak into the discussions among Pentecostals directly (though doing so throughout by way of integration of who the contributors are, their work, and the impulses of their socio-historical-religious locations).

Finally, if one sought a “how-to” approach, it is not offered in this volume (intentionally) as this is more pertaining the history, philosophy, and theology of higher education than to the practices of such. It is concerned with practices throughout, but not as a “how-to”. This is not to say no such examples are given. They are offered through the storying of part one and numerous examples of applications in part two. However, this is not a “how-to” book which would have severely limited the volume to time and place. Yet readers in higher education will likely find themselves saying “Now what?” Are there embodiments of the stories and theological ideals of Coulter and Yong that might serve as testimonial exemplars, at least in part, without simply repristinating such and allowing for the particularities of such as faithful in their respective contexts?

It is in these ways (among others) that this volume would serve well to be carefully read by individuals and (preferably in) groups across institutions of (Christian) higher education. The restorying is a key that needs to be taken up. If restorying fails to be appreciated and integrated, it will most certainly result in the failure of institutions of higher education. To be healthy, higher education must move well beyond assessments based merely upon head counts or the construction of new buildings and programs; and if the Christian story is true, education is more than an ROI calculation or a path to employability.

May this volume find a wide readership among all those concerned for the state and future of Christian higher education.

Reviewed by Rick Wadholm Jr.

Publisher’s page: https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481318143/the-holy-spirit-and-higher-education/

Notes

[1] Not least among the book, chapter, and article contributions being Yong’s Renewing the Church by the Spirit: Theological Education after Pentecost (Eerdmans, 2020). [Editor’s note: see the review by Carolyn Tennant]

[2] Amos Yong, “Afterword: Pentecostal Systematic or Constructive Theology: Many Models, Many Witnesses,” Pneuma 45.3-4 (2023): 466-475.

“Simplifying in the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.”¹

“A massive intellectual revolution is taking place that is perhaps as great as that which marked off the modern world from the Middle Ages. The foundations of the modern world are collapsing, and we are entering a postmodern world. The principles forged during the Enlightenment (c. 1600-1780), which formed the foundations of the modern mentality, are crumbling.”²

The current situation, which is being referred to as postmodern, is intimately connected with the notion of metanarrative and its demise. Western civilization has, until recently shared a common story. This common story was not explicit, nor was it intentionally constructed. In the pre-modern period and in the modern period, Western civilization has held had a common story.

Such is no longer the case.

Definition

The word metanarrative is a compound word coming from the word “narrative” and the prefix “meta.” Narrative refers to story and meta has the meaning of “with, after, from”. Combined, they give the notion of going beyond the story. More familiar is the term metaphysics. Physics has to do the material composition of reality and its function. Metaphysics goes beyond physics to look at being or the essence of reality. It asks the questions such as “What is real?”, “What is ultimately real”?, and “What is man’s [sic] place in what is real?”³

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, defines metanarrative as follows:

A metanarrative can include any grand, all-encompassing story, classic text, or archetypal account of the historical record. They can also provide a framework upon which an individual’s own experiences and thoughts may be ordered. These grand, all-encompassing stories are typically characterized by some form of ‘transcendent and universal truth’ in addition to an evolutionary tale of human existence (a story with a beginning, middle and an end). The majority of metanarratives tend to be relatively optimistic in their visions for human kind, some verge on utopian, but different schools of thought offer very differing accounts.⁵

Note the terms “grand”, “all-encompassing”, “classic”, and “archetypal.” One cannot overestimate the unifying role and nature of metanarratives.

Metanarrative and Worldview

Francis J. Beckwith, William Lane Craig, and J. P. Moreland, eds., To Everyone an Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview (Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 396 pages, ISBN 9780830827350.

These essays are presented in honor of Norman L. Geisler, a popular Evangelical theological apologist who has significantly influenced the editors and contributors of this volume. As the title, drawing from 1 Peter 3:15, indicates and as Josh McDowell (Foreword) and Beckwith (Introduction) further explain, To Everyone an Answer is a book about and of apologetics. Christian apologetics of course attempts to provide thoughtful people with a rationally defensible basis for faith. This book will well serve that purpose. In particular, this volume, though affirming the biblical basis of the Christian perspective on reality, appeals primarily to general revelation in an attempt to provide rational arguments understandable to those who do not (yet) share Christian faith.

To Everyone an Answer is organized in five parts with contributions from scholars in their respective areas of expertise. Foundational to the project, “Part 1: Faith, Reason, and the Necessity of Apologetics” is essentially an apology for apologetics. In other words, it defines apologetics and defends the rationale for doing apologetics. Here, for instance, Thomas A. Howe and Richard G. Howe carefully and skillfully detail the definitions and relations of faith and reason. “Part 2: God’s Existence” gets right at “new and improved versions” of classical arguments for theism. For example, Paul Copan presents a moral argument somewhat in the tradition of C. S. Lewis to trace the origin and existence of objective morality to a moral Creator and God. “Part 3: Christ and Miracles” demonstrates the rationality of belief in biblical miracles, including and especially Christ’s resurrection. An example is Ben Witherington III revisiting Christology in light of academia’s quest for the historical Jesus. “Part 4: Philosophical and Cultural Challenges” addresses issues like evolution, theodicy, and postmodernism. In one selection, Ronald Nash gives a clear, cogent Christian presentation of the problem of evil that ends by reminding that no one, including no philosophy or no religion, has explained evil in a universally satisfactory manner but that Christian theism is most credible. “Part 5: Religious Challenges to Christian Faith” looks at the reality of religious pluralism of world religions from a staunchly Christian perspective. In this section Ravi Zacharias writes a stimulating and challenging chapter on Indian culture and philosophy in the context of the gospel.

As is so often the case with such projects, To Everyone an Answer is excellent in many ways but often uneven as well. For example, most Bible-believers will probably take delight in the defense of the miracles of Christ but many Charismatic Christians will be disappointed that the present reality or continuing validity of belief in miracles appears generally dismissed or avoided. Understandably, in convincing non-Christians, the place to start is with establishing the credibility of biblical miracles. However, that does not mean contemporary relevance is dismissible. Quite the contrary, once establishing biblical miracles, adequately explaining why a miracle working God would suddenly cease working miracles could be a rational obstacle. Furthermore, hope that God can and will directly intervene in life today can be a strong inducement to trusting faith. Moreover, on the one hand, Moreland gives a striking defense of “the immaterial nature of consciousness and the soul” that suggests a body-soul “dualism” of human nature based on the teachings of Jesus. His is an excellent argument against mere “physicality” or pure “materialism.” Yet on the other hand, Douglas Groothius effectively attacks “secular postmodernism” but then mistakenly assumes he has successfully defeated Christian postmodern spirituality thereby. In fact, he did not even address Christian postmodernism or even any generic postmodern spirituality. In his defense, this oversight seems to be a supposition of the entire book as taken from introductory and concluding remarks (as well as scattered references throughout) on the subject. Yet it disappoints still.