The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh

Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology

Yong, Amos

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781441206732
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Denominazioni cristiane

The Pentecostal movement has had an incredible impact on the shape of worldwide Christianity in the past century. Estimates are that Pentecostals and charismatics make up approximately one-fourth of Christians worldwide, and the numbers are only expected to grow. With these developments comes the need for thoughtful Christians of all persuasions to better understand Pentecostal theology. In fact, Amos Yong believes that Pentecostal theology can be a great gift to the church at large. Yong presents a thoroughly Pentecostal theology of salvation, the church, the nature of God, and creation. He also provides a fascinating survey of the state of worldwide Pentecostalism, examining how Pentecostal theology is influencing Christian churches in other countries.

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“Poured Out upon All Flesh”

Salvation, the Spirit, and World Pentecostalism

On the day of Pentecost, the crowd asked, “What does this mean?” Peter answered that this was the last days’ outpouring of God’s Spirit upon all flesh. Today our theological question is, What does it mean that God did so then and continues to pour out the Spirit on men and women, young and old, slave and free (Acts 2:17–18; cf. Joel 2:28–29)? The beginnings of a response to this question will take us toward a pentecostal theology for the late modern world along at least three lines. First, insofar as theology is doxology, then pentecostal theology will be reflection on the prayers, praises, worship, and liturgies of those upon whom the Spirit has been poured out. Second, insofar as theology is theodicy, then pentecostal theology will be reflection on the fallenness of the human condition and on the divine response of the outpouring of the Spirit. Finally, insofar as theology is second-order reflection on lived experience, then pentecostal theology will be reflection on the triumphs over sin, sickness, and Satan that are enjoyed by those visited by the Spirit. In short, the beginnings of a pentecostal theology will be the saving works of God accomplished through the Spirit’s being poured out on all flesh. For this reason we begin this exploration of a world pentecostal theology by focusing on the phenomenology of pentecostalisms in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Such a phenomenology of world pentecostalisms is important also since my own pentecostal experience is, by and large, limited to the North American context. Because the biases that inevitably inform my discussion are derived from this context, they will need to be checked, expanded, and corrected by the worldwide pentecostal experience. Further, the upward social mobility and increasing institutionalization of classical Pentecostal denominations in North America have resulted in churches almost indistinguishable from evangelical churches on any given Sunday morning.[1] Arguably, such a convergence has produced an increasing openness of North American evangelicalism to the movement of the Spirit in the church and the development of a more Bible-centered piety among pentecostals influenced by evangelical spirituality. At the same time, it may have also resulted in the loss of a distinctive pentecostal witness. Finally, a case can be made that North American pentecostalism is no longer at the vanguard of what God is doing through this movement in the world. “Classical Pentecostalism is unlikely to be a major power in the developed world because it represents the mobilization of a minority of people at the varied margins of that world, whereas in the developing world it represents the mobilization of large masses.”[2] For all of these reasons and more, any attempt to develop a pentecostal theology today needs to attend to the world pentecostal phenomenon.

My coverage of world pentecostalism is, however, necessarily limited. Not only am I reliant on mostly secondary sources; my selections are also shaped by my theological agenda, especially insofar as theology not only derives from experience (and hence is descriptive) but also informs experience (and hence is prescriptive). At the same time, I submit the following phenomenological overview to be representative of world pentecostalism as actually occurring on the ground. In each section, I begin with an introductory overview of the literature, then move on to thematic and case study analyses of the Spirit’s being poured out on all flesh.

1.1 ON YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS: LATIN AMERICAN PENTECOSTALISMS

The three types of pentecostalism in Latin America combined to number more than 141 million by the year 2000, approximately 27 percent of world pentecostalism (NIDPCM 287). The literature on the explosion of pentecostalism in this region is itself staggering and resists summary statements.[3] Several notable elements, however, should be highlighted, beginning with the diversity of Latin American pentecostalisms. It is composed of autochthonous churches, some antedating Azusa Street; churches founded by classical Pentecostal missions organizations; Oneness or Apostolic churches; and a wide spectrum of Latino/a churches in North America.[4]

Second, the Latin American pentecostal experience can also be understood to provide an alternative to “popular Latino Catholicism, the occult, and mainline Protestantism.”[5] Regarding the Catholic Church, pentecostalism provides an experiential, emotional, nonritualistic, and dualistic (in church-state relations and church-world relations) alternative.[6] From the Catholic perspective, pentecostalism is considered to be sectarian and cultic, and its activities illegitimate proselytism. Relations between Catholics and pentecostals remain tense in many areas, given the predominantly Catholic history of many Latin American nations and regions.[7] Regarding the occult, pentecostal polemics are often directed against the “demonic” manifestations of Candomblé and Umbanda (Brazil), Santeria (Cuba), voodoo (Haiti), and so on. Yet it is sometimes difficult to categorize the complex reality on the ground as pentecostalism blends into spiritist/animist versions of Christianity.[8] Regarding mainline Protestantism, it should be noted that the conservative-liberal divide in North America is much less noticeable in the Latin American context, including the Latino/a pentecostal experience of North America.[9] But the situation is more complex across Latin America especially when the definitions of political conservatism or political liberalism differ from region to region and when the Latin American world features various types of Protestantism and pentecostalism and the interchangeability of evangélicos and pentecostales.[10]

Third, whereas earlier analysts emphasized functionalist explanations of Latin American pentecostal growth related to rapid social change since the 1950s, more recent interpreters have highlighted a complex of social, political, economic, ideological, psychological, and even moral-ethical factors at work.[11] Yet the religious draw of pentecostalism should not be underestimated: physical, emotional, and spiritual healing; access to the supernatural; tongues as a sign; the centrality of music and song; oral, narrative, and vernacular modes of communication; the empowerment of women; networks of support, solidarity, and skill development—each of these is either essentially religious or includes a specifically religious dimension.[12]

This section explores further the phenomenon of Latin American pentecostalism both thematically and through a case study. It provides observations regarding the political dimension of Latin American pentecostalism, then analyzes a distinctive type of feminism in the Latin American pentecostal experience, and concludes with an overview of the Misión Iglesia Pentecostal in Chile. The questions throughout are these: what has salvation meant in Latin American pentecostalism, and how has this been manifested and experienced?

1.1.1 The Sons of Latin American Pentecostalism: Toward a Pentecostal Politics of the Spirit. In a recent study, Timothy Steigenga has devoted extended attention to a topic that has gained increasing notice among students of Latin American religion: pentecostalism and politics.[13] While recognizing that no generalizations about pentecostal politics should be made without factoring in region, political context, and religious beliefs and practices, Steigenga illuminates how, as a result of the explosion of the charismatic movement (also known as neopentecostalism) in Guatemala during the 1960s and 1970s, more than 80 percent of Protestants (evangélicos) and perhaps 50 percent of the entire population were pentecostals by 1980.[14] This provides the context for two especially interesting events. The first case was an army coup in March 1982 that “called to power” the retired general Efraín Ríos Montt. Under the Christian Democratic ticket (and as a member of the Catholic Church), Montt had run for and probably won the presidency in 1974, but was cheated by his fellow army officers, who installed their favored candidate. After failing to win a second nomination from the Christian Democrats in 1977, Montt retired. Disillusioned, he showed up in 1978 at the doorsteps of the newly established neopentecostal church El Verbo and came into his born-again experience under the guidance of El Verbo leadership. Over the next four years, Montt was discipled by El Verbo elders and lay leaders. In the weeks preceding the election date, March 7, 1982, El Verbo elders fasted and prayed over Montt’s aspirations for making a third run at the presidency, but resulting prophecies indicated that his time was not yet. The coup d’état on March 23 by young army officers and their invitation to the (allegedly) surprised Montt to assume command was understood by El Verbo elders (who believed Montt’s claim to innocence) as confirmation of prophecy. The general proceeded to retain two El Verbo elders as spiritual advisors to the president.

Montt’s brief tenure was thoroughly ambiguous.[15] On the one hand, he was touted as the nation’s first evangelical leader, who would cleanse the nation from its corruption and injustice. Toward that end, Montt articulated (over national television) and implemented a “Victory 82” vision for a new Guatemala based on morality, order/discipline, and national unity. The morality represented (arguably) a convergence of conservative Catholic mores and neopentecostal legalism (symbolized concretely by the presence of El Verbo elders in the president’s cabinet). The discipline included new policies of “no robo, no miento, no abuso” (no stealing, no lying, no abuse of government authority and resources) for governmental employees and attempts to restore law and order (against the guerrilla resistance movements). Finally, Montt sought to build a unified state from the variegated indigenous populations. On the other hand, Montt’s vision quickly alienated him from various constituencies. The officers who put him in power came to see his moralism as motivated by religious fundamentalism, and the Catholic hierarchy reacted against his Protestant dispositions and spiritual advisors. Further, the indigenous peoples were massacred, relocated, or forced into exile by an army thought to be either authorized by Montt or out of his control altogether.[16] For these reasons, the army ended Montt’s presidency in August 1983.

But this was not all for pentecostal politics in Guatemala. The second case concerned Jorge Serrano, Montt’s former president of the council of state and member first of the neopentecostal Elim Church and then of the Catholic charismatic-renewal organization El Shaddai. While running for president in 1990, Serrano promoted “a ‘spiritual warfare’ project of national exorcism known as ‘Jesus is Lord of Guatemala,’ to free the country from a curse relating to pre-Christian religion.”[17] Serrano’s victory in the election was a first for pentecostal politics. As with Montt, however, Serrano’s tenure was also ambiguous. Questions were raised not only about his human-rights policies and practices but also about his personal morality. In June 1993, he was exiled to Panama.

These cases are not glowing examples of pentecostal engagement with politics. Further, although El Verbo elders served as Montt’s spiritual advisors, it appears that neither they nor the two neopentecostal presidents operated in the public political sphere on the basis of a distinctive pentecostal identity. In fact, politicians such as Montt and Serrano may have used their pentecostal affiliations rather than been useful to their pentecostal constituencies or to the nation.[18]

These events are important, however, because they anticipate central developments of the twenty-first-century pentecostal experience along four lines. First, Montt and Serrano are representative of the increasing number of pentecostals who will aspire to and even run for public office. Second, not only will there be more pentecostal candidates; some have been, and many more will indeed be, elected to office. Serrano’s election, “the first of a Protestant as president, represents the coming of age of Protestants in public life.”[19] Third, not only are pentecostals voting; their voting is evidence of an emerging sociopolitical consciousness. In the case of Guatemala, in addition to individual members being involved in guerrilla warfare against the repressive government, pentecostal churches are increasingly engaging in emergency relief work (in response to the civil war), addressing racism regarding the Indian population so that ladinos (those of mixed Spanish and Indian blood) no longer exploit the indígenas (pure Indians), and developing social and community services.[20] Finally, even for pentecostals who retain the strict apolitical stance prevalent in twentieth-century pentecostal history, such a stance is more rhetorical than real. As demonstrated by the indigenous peoples in the Guatemalan mountains, apolitical orientations are actually discourses that reorder and restructure an alternative way of life—an alternative politics, in this case between the army, on the one side, and the guerrillas, on the other—resulting in new educational, economic, social, and political realities.[21]

What is taking place in Guatemala is representative of Latin American pentecostalism. In Brazil, for example, the “politics of the Spirit” has also been increasingly manifest, with pentecostal entry into politics as far back as 1962, when one of the leaders of the pentecostal church Brasil para Cristo ran for and was elected to the federal congress. From 1979 to 1982, the newly founded Workers’ Party attracted sizable numbers of pentecostals (crentes), many of whom were very active, even providing leadership. Then in 1986, a breakthrough year, thirty-three evangélicos were elected to the constituent assembly charged with rewriting the constitution after twenty-one years of military rule; of these, eighteen were pentecostals, thirteen of whom were members of the Asamblea de Dios.[22]

But this is not all.[23] Pentecostals are increasingly involved in neighborhood organizations focused on improving the material living conditions of the wider communities in which they live, especially in more diverse neighborhoods that are less dominated by Catholic leadership and a Catholic population. In the latter contexts, pentecostals have shown the capacity to work with Catholics and even spiritists. Although involvement in labor struggles is much more difficult to track, especially because of the nonviolent modes of resistance insisted upon by crentes, their participation often makes a significant difference because of their large numbers. Further, the Brazilian pentecostal experience has also provided a distinctive, powerful counterdiscourse to racism, in that God is no respecter of persons and the Holy Spirit is seen to be given to all persons regardless of the color of their skin. Finally, some pentecostals have resisted unjust structures, policies, and conditions and aligned themselves against the immoral perpetrators of injustice.

Space constraints do not allow comment on pentecostal politics in Nicaragua (where pentecostals were engaged on both sides of the Sandinista-Contra civil war), Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, or Argentina.[24] The preceding facts, however, support the following summary statements. First, pentecostals in Latin America are becoming increasingly engaged in social and political activities. Second, such engagement shows an emerging awareness that salvation is not only an otherworldly anticipation but also a this-worldly experience, manifest in the material, economic, social, and political dimensions of human existence. Third, pentecostal leaders and laypersons are realizing more than ever that the outpouring of the Spirit and the saving work of God do not preclude but include these various dimensions. Here the early modern pentecostal conviction that the presence and activity of the Spirit meant the healing of the body or the provision of the material needs of the believer is extended to encompass the sociopolitical sphere.

Certainly, I am not claiming that Latin American pentecostalism as a whole is becoming a politicized faith. In general, pentecostals remain focused on either eschatological salvation or, if they have been introduced to such, the prosperity gospel of individual blessings in this life. Yet it is also undeniable that pentecostal experience, like all religious experience, is inherently political and that pentecostals are becoming more intentionally political. Pentecostals continue to lack a well-thought-out sociopolitical vision, and, because of their decentralized nature, cannot be expected to produce anytime soon such a distinctive pentecostal perspective. In any case, I would argue that Latin American pentecostals need to build on the factors that currently motivate them: “Fervent moralism, a conviction that God punishes the unjust in this world as well as in the next, and Old Testament images of a pe...