Reading St. Luke’s Text and Theology: Pentecostal Voices

Essays in Honor of Professor Roger Stronstad

Riku P. Tuppurainen

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781532619847
  9781532619861
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532619854
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Lukan narrative takes its readers into God's story: how his salvation plan in Jesus began on the slopes of Judea and at the Sea of Galilee, ending on the hill of Calvary and the Mount of Olives, yet moving on and telling how the Spirit descended onto the Temple Mount empowering God's people, who then began to fulfill the given mandate in the presence of the Spirit. Yet, readers of Luke-Acts, throughout the centuries, have had a meandering journey as they have tried to understand the narrative's persuasion and Spirit-references. This book seeks to bring awareness to these challenges by some of the most respected Pentecostal biblical scholars and systematicians. Here their vigorous labor with the questions of hermeneutics and theology in relation to Lukan writings have come to fruition. These contributions have been collected as a Festschrift in honor and celebration of the career of Roger Stronstad, a Pentecostal biblical scholar whose contribution to Lukan studies have moved Pentecostal scholarship from shadows into daylight. The editor of this volume invites the readers of Lukan narrative to journey together on the road to Emmaus, as we continue to ponder the events in the past, the present, and the future.

PART I

Roger Stronstad as Biblical Scholar, Pentecostal Theologian, and Educator

“The experience of being baptized with the Holy Spirit did not cease when the story of Acts ended. Countless numbers of identifiable and anonymous Christians down through the centuries have been baptized in the Holy Spirit by Jesus to empower their witness about Jesus.”

—Roger Stronstad, Signs on the Earth beneath, 46.

Chapter 1

Roger Stronstad

The Creation of a Pentecostal Biblical Scholar

Martin W. Mittelstadt

The time had come to mark the influence of our fellow Canadian Pentecostal scholars. In 2010, the second Canadian symposium at the Society for Pentecostal Studies set out to express appreciation to four Canadian Pentecostal academicians revered at home and around the world. We honored Ronald Kydd, David Reed, the late Clark Pinnock, and Roger Stronstad. I had the privilege of paying tribute to Roger Stronstad. Since I first sought out Stronstad in 1993 during the early stages of my dissertation, his scholarship and friendship have inspired my career. In this essay, I reflect yet again on the pioneering contributions of a Canadian Pentecostal academician.1 I suggest that Stronstad’s accomplishments produce at least four enduring results, many of them on display in this volume: (1) in his magnum opus, the ground-breaking The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke, Stronstad rescues Luke from the chains of Pauline interpreters and returns Luke to his rightful place as a contributor to biblical theology; (2) in his Prophethood of All Believers, Stronstad reveals an ever-maturing scholarship by strengthening the language of his earlier volume; (3) in a one-volume commentary, Stronstad and co-editor French Arrington explore canonical order by producing the first Luke-Acts commentary; and (4) in numerous articles on hermeneutics, Stronstad defends and extends the views the above. In so doing, Stronstad models for many burgeoning and seasoned Pentecostal scholars the convergence of academic rigour with pastoral concern.

A Classic in the Making: The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke

Stronstad embarks on a MCS in theology at Regent College with one specific purpose: “I wanted to write a thesis in which I might refute the common anti-Pentecostal clichés which characterized evangelical Protestantism through the sixties and the seventies.”2 Stronstad wrestles with recently released works such as A Theology of the Holy Spirit by Frederick Dale Bruner, Baptism in the Holy Spirit by James D. G. Dunn and, on a more popular level, The Baptism and Fullness of the Holy Spirit by influential British preacher John Stott.3 These scholars inspire Stronstad to embark upon an ever-converging career around pneumatology, Luke-Acts (particularly alongside Pauline literature), and hermeneutics. With his solid Pentecostal foundation and an encouraging and exploratory academic environment at Regent College, Stronstad completes his master’s thesis with what he called “the mundane title” of The Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts.4

Stronstad searches in vain for a publisher until Benny Aker, then of Hendrickson Publishers, paves the way for a thesis that remains in print at the time of this publication. Who would have predicted that a revised master’s thesis would become Stronstad’s signature Charismatic Theology, first published in 1984 and revised and republished in 2012? By way of his first and enduring publication, Stronstad initiates a breakthrough for Pentecostals.

Stronstad draws heavily on Ward Gasque, his thesis supervisor, and, not coincidentally, Clark Pinnock, who joined the Regent College faculty during Stronstad’s tenure as a student. With flare, the influential Pinnock would write the prophetic foreword not only to The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke, but also for all promising Pentecostal theologians:

Watch out you evangelicals—the young Pentecostal scholars are coming! . . . We cannot consider Pentecostalism to be an aberration born of experiential excesses but a twentieth-century revival of New Testament theology and religion. It has not only restored joy and power to the church but a clearer reading of the Bible as well. So with gladness of heart I say, “Welcome to this book and peace to the Pentecostal communities.” We should let Stronstad help us grow together in the unity of the faith in the Son of God.5

James Dunn’s revised dissertation, Baptism in the Spirit, stirred Pentecostals in a way that he could have hardly imagined; his subtitle, A Re-examination of the NT Teaching on the Gift of the Spirit in Relation to Pentecostalism Today, sets up his dispute with classical Pentecostals. Published in 1970, Dunn’s volume undergoes numerous printings and not only launches his career, but also lures Pentecostals into the world of critical scholarship. Dunn typifies the larger Evangelical community and becomes the primary conversation partner for “young” Pentecostals looking to “join the big leagues.”6 Dunn’s deductions concerning Spirit baptism stimulate further interest surrounding hermeneutics and the disposition of Evangelicals and Fundamentalists toward cessationism. Stronstad and emerging scholars, such as James Shelton and Howard Ervin, respond (directly or indirectly) to Dunn and consequently bring Pentecostal theology and praxis into the academic marketplace.7

In his Charismatic Theology, Stronstad keeps Dunn’s conclusions in view. Given Pentecostal adherence to post-conversion experience of Spirit baptism, Dunn’s view equating Spirit baptism with regeneration becomes an inevitable target for Pentecostal response. Stronstad notes Paul’s singular use of the phrases “baptism in the Spirit” (1 Cor 12:13) and “filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18) compared to Luke’s twelve references to the same two phrases.8 Stronstad accuses Dunn (and others) of an illegitimate identity transfer that silences Luke’s pneumatology.9 He pays close attention to Luke’s use of these terms and, unlike Dunn, argues that readers should deem Luke’s pneumatology as charismatic, vocational, and prophetic.10 Stronstad employs the term charismatic as experience(s) of the Holy Spirit to enable individuals to speak prophetically and thereby fulfill their vocation as ministers of the word.

According to Stronstad, Luke’s multi-layered purposes follow the septuagintal tradition and resonate with the didactic methodologies of chroniclers of Israel’s sacred history.11 Stronstad roots Lukan pneumatology to OT transfer of the charismatic Spirit from leader to successor(s), like Moses to his elders (Num 11:14–17, 25) and subsequently to Joshua (Num 27:16–20; Deut 34:9), Elijah to Elisha (2 Kgs 2:9, 15), and the sobering account of Saul (1 Sam 10:10) to David (1 Sam 16:13–14). As Luke turns to his own era, Jesus transfers the same Spirit that rests upon him and empowers his entire mission (Luke 4:18–21) to the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–21).12 This transfer becomes a paradigmatic experience for the eschatological people of God. According to Stronstad, these accounts also include various signs, that is, a Lukan motif that authenticates and guarantees readers that God’s hand rests upon chosen leaders. Various phenomena, whether a voice from heaven, wind, fire, tongues, praise, and/or prophecy, provide visible and/or audible witness to Spirit enablement (Luke 3:22; Acts 2:1–4; 8:18; 10:45; 15:8; 19:6).

Stronstad emphasizes further that the Lukan Jesus not only functions as the consummate man of the Spirit, but also instructs the disciples with future promises of the Holy Spirit for the advancement of Jesus’s mission following his ascension. Jesus’s promise and encouragement concerning reliance upon the Holy Spirit during difficult times (Luke 11:13; 12:12; 21:14–15; Acts 1:4–5, 8) finds ongoing fulfillment through the authoritative witness of the Apostles, Stephen, and Paul. Stronstad stresses that Spirit enablement, available to all Christians, produces wisdom and faith as well as the abil...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contributors
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Comprehensive Bibliography of Roger Stronstad’s Published Works
• Part I: Roger Stronstad as Biblical Scholar, Pentecostal Theologian, and Educator
• Part II: Reading St. Luke’s Text: Hermeneutical Considerations
• Part III: Reading St. Luke’s Theology: Pneumatological Ambiences
• Part IV: Reading St. Luke’s Pneumatology with other Texts
• Bibliography