10/01/2014

Trinity's Midweek Blast for October 1, 2014

A Pneumatological Luthercostal Vision of Hope

Greetings from Chicago, Illinois! I am here for important missional discussions about the church, theological education, and candidacy. Participants in the discussions include seminary presidents, seminary board chairs, the Theological Education Advisory Council, the Conference of Bishops, and members of our Churchwide staff. Look for a word about these discussions in next week's blast.

For today, I want to lift up an epistemological aspect of the Pentecostal movement that certainly caught the attention of many, including me, when Dr. Amos Yong addressed the Trinity community last Thursday during Trinity Days. At present, there is no ecumenical, full communion agreement between the ELCA and church bodies in the Pentecostal sphere. At the same time, this does not mean that we should not pay attention to the Pentecostals, lend them our full respect, and seek to learn from them.

After all, there has been a shift in the center of Christian gravity from Euro-centricity to the global south. There are more Christians in Asia, Africa, and Latin America than in the Euro-west. The fastest growing expression of worldwide Christianity is Pentecostalism. This has resulted in a "Pentecostalization and Charismaticalization" of global Christianity. This phenomenon has been working to renew world Christianity because of "reverse mission." It means that there has been a "browning" (Dr. Yong's word) of North American Christianity as Asians, Africans, and Latinos bring their charisma and presence into the North American mission field.

When speaking about the renewal of Christian theology in the 21st century, Dr. Yong spoke of the gift that Pentecostalism brings as pneumatological imagination. Here is what specifically got my attention, as well as many others. He spoke of the Holy Spirit as being the Spirit of Jesus - both the historical and the coming Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that embodies the creative breath of God that brings the eschatological reign of the crucified and risen Christ in all of its biblical images and promise into the present. In other words, the Holy Spirit creates a prolepsis. Through the Holy Spirit we experience the future reign of God in the here and now as if it is already happening. It is here in this articulation about the work of the Holy Spirit that I immediately thought of my teacher, mentor, and friend, Walter Bouman. This Pentecostal theologian, Dr. Amos Yong, was articulating Walter Bouman's eschatological framework for the work of the Holy Spirit and the nature of the church (ecclesiology). (Was Walter Bouman a closet Pentecostal?)

Other aspects of the pneumatological imagination articulated by Dr. Yong seemingly would take many Lutherans off the reservation, but there is a powerful aspect that would find resonance with many of the millennials and post-moderns with whom I have done ministry. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit tells us that Jesus is irreducible to our confessions. The use of tongues in Pentecostalism is saying that we cannot reduce God to propositions.

Look, I know that the jettisoning of confessions could conceivably take us to an "anything goes" form of theology that is solely based upon experience. It could also take us to places that might not be helpful or redemptive. Yet, globally people have been caught up in the work of the Holy Spirit. If that work would renew us to be more worshipful, joyful, hopeful, and thankful people in awe of God and the Christ that are beyond axioms and explanations, if that work would always bring future promise to bear on all present reality, if that work could assist us to see what the world cannot see, dream what the world will not dream, and be willing to work for what the world cannot work, then I say, "Come, Holy Spirit. Come!"

In the abiding hope of the empty tomb,


Rick Barger, '89
President
Trinity Lutheran Seminary