Renewing the Church by the Spirit

Theological Education after Pentecost

Amos Yong

• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781467460330
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Educación religiosa

In most parts of the world and especially where Christianity is flourishing, Pentecostal and charismatic movements predominate. What would it look like for the Western world—beset by the narrative of decline—to participate in this global Spirit-driven movement? According to Amos Yong, it all needs to start with the way we approach theological education.

Renewing the Church by the Spirit makes the case for elevating pneumatology in Christian life, allowing the Spirit to reinvigorate church and mission. Yong shows how this approach would attend to both the rapidly deinstitutionalizing forms of twenty-first-century Christianity and the pressing need for authentic spiritual experiences that marks contemporary religious life. He begins with a broad assessment of our postmodern, post-Enlightenment, post-Christendom ecclesial context, before moving into a detailed outline of how a Spirit-filled approach to theological education—its curriculum, pedagogy, and scholarship—can meet the ecclesial and missional demands of this new age.

1

CHURCH AMID WORLD CHRISTIANITIES

The Heart and Soul of Theological Education

1

Theological Education and the (Western) Church

Equipping the Body of Christ

Theological education is surely a cognitive enterprise, and such human cognition is socially embodied. Hence, all learning, theological study included, derives from our kinesthetic embodiment and interpersonal relations, and therefore is more than merely abstracted or generalized concepts. One way to get at this embodied dimension of theological education is to situate its tasks and activities within the heart of such a palpable and interactive reality, the church.

Yet when we pause to ask, What is the church?, we realize that its shifting forms demand reflection. The hierarchically organized church of Western Christendom, for instance, is no longer the only or perhaps even the dominant form today. But if theological education as we know it largely served that vertically layered sociality, what happens when that body changes its form, for instance, by spreading out and extending itself horizontally instead? Part 1 of this book explores precisely this question, starting in the North American context (this chapter), especially the United States, expanding toward a more global horizon (chap. 2), and then observing ecclesial and religious trends in glocal contexts (chap. 3). Our goal is to understand church in its organic relationality and experiential spirituality so as to imagine emerging and new forms of theological education.

I begin this chapter with a very brief overview of the waxing and waning of distinct groupings of theological education across the last generation, and then explore the aesthetic forms and social/institutional implications of these ecclesial dynamics. Second, I trace the ways this consideration of the what and how of the church’s organic transmission raises the question of the nature of ecclesiality. In the third section I suggest that from these developments comes a more charismatic and experiential understanding of the church as the fellowship of the Spirit. My goal in this chapter is to establish as firm a grounding as possible for theological education in the shifting North American ecclesial milieu in order to consider the wider global landscape.

What Church? “Evangelicalizing” Theological Education

What is the nature of the church that theological educators are supposed to be engaging and serving? We begin with some hard data from the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), the leading accreditation organization for seminaries, theological schools, divinity schools, and other graduate-level purveyors of theological education in North America.¹ From 2000 to 2017, the total head count of students enrolled in ATS-affiliated schools rose slightly, from 72,310 to 73,175. One might think the enterprise of theological education thus remains a healthy one. However, when we consider the numbers from the perspective of the relevant ecclesial movements, we find Roman Catholic enrollment has decreased slightly over the same period (from 8,238 to 7,516), while two other major currents have been starkly divergent. Mainline Protestants have suffered an almost 30 percent loss, from 22,991 to 16,479, while evangelicals² have carried the bulk of the growth, increasing 18.5 percent, from 41,508 to 49,190, since 2000.

Similarly, the total number of mainline Protestant institutions of theological education affiliated with ATS has declined from 97 in 2000 to 89 in 2017, and their prognosis for the future is not rosy.³ On the other hand, evangelical schools have grown by over a third during this same eighteen-year period, from 89 to 120. In 2000, evangelicals constituted 37 percent of all ATS schools and 57.4 percent of the total head count across these same institutions. By 2017, they were in the majority on both fronts: 56.7 percent of the schools and two-thirds, or about 67 percent, of the total number of students.

In one way, this ought not to be surprising, since it has been clear for over a generation that conservative churches have been holding strong if not growing in some quarters and that mainline Protestant denominations have been struggling to maintain their levels, if not actually failing. These trends have persisted, generally speaking (even if with important qualifications). Cumulatively, for instance, membership in denominations like the Disciples of Christ, the American Baptist Convention, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church has diminished from over 18 percent of the total USA population to under 14 percent from 2007 to 2014, numbers consistent with the downward trend of over four decades.⁴

On the whole, evangelical churches have resisted such a steep loss of adherents and, in some cases, have continued to expand. From 2007 to 2014, these churches increased from 51 to 55 percent of all Protestants (Pew, 14) and, in raw numbers, from under 60 million to over 62 million adherents (Pew, 9). Consider four clearly evangelical denominations: the Assemblies of God, the Presbyterian Church of America, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and the Evangelical Free Church of America. From 2000 to 2017, combined approximate membership and adherence in these bodies increased from 2,631,431 to 4,254,169—an increase of over 60 percent.⁵ This does not include informal estimates (which is all we have) of the largest pentecostal denomination in North America, the African American Church of God in Christ, whose membership of approximately 2.25 million in 1988 more than doubled to about 5.5 million by 2012. However these numbers are counted, we see a correlation between the increase in evangelical institutions of theological education and their numbers of students, on the one hand, and the growth of evangelical churches on the other.

Now for three major qualifications: First, people affiliated with evangelical and pentecostal churches and denominations in North America ought not to rest smugly as if they are immune to these wider demographic trends. As we shall see, growth in these sectors is largely attributable to immigration from outside of North America. In fact, the next two chapters document what many evangelical and pentecostal ecclesiarchs are keenly aware of: that immigration aside, their “tribes” have not just plateaued but are actually losing members.⁶ That is why I am resisting championing contemporary evangelical or pentecostal Christianity as the way forward for theological education in the next generation and am instead identifying how the spirituality of encountering the Divine nurtured in these movements highlights how people are looking for religious vitality first and foremost rather than another form of institutional religiosity.

Second, then, and related to the preceding point: even though mainline churches are dwindling, a so-called confessing church movement has emerged over the last few decades, some wings of which operate within mainline denominations (like the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals within the Presbyterian Church USA) and others diverge from their mother denominations (like those distinguishing themselves from the Episcopal Church, such as the Anglican Church in North America, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America). These evangelical types constitute 41 percent of Lutherans, 36 percent of Presbyterians, and 15 percent of Congregationalists, for instance (Pew, 23). The future of these bodies may or may not retain the evangelical label, but they at least caution against any dismissal of Protestantism that the decline thesis might assume.⁷

Finally, these confessing movements are often both evangelical and charismatic, and many are shaped by and connecting back to the charismatic renewal that unfolded in mainline Protestant churches from the 1960s to the early 1980s. In fact, more than a third of US adults describe themselves as “born again,” and 22 percent of Roman Catholics and 18 percent of Orthodox believers also embrace this label (Pew, 31–32). As such born-again evangelicals are also often charismatic and pentecostal in their sensibilities if not commitments, some researchers have begun to talk about the “pentecostalization” of the North American evangelical movement.⁸ These developments are both important for discerning implications for theological education, as the rest of this chapter will detail, and consistent with what is happening among these denominations globally, as we shall see in the next chapter. For our purposes, then, while it is true that strictly mainline groups are fading numerically, the labels are slippery and not altogether helpful since they continue to include evangelical (and charismatic) students who are enrolled in both evangelical and mainline schools and are pursuing theological education.⁹

All of the above begs the question: What about the elusive category of evangelical? On the one hand, we might easily recognize all churches affiliated with the National Association of Evangelicals as belonging in this fold.¹⁰ On the other hand, David Bebbington, and many others following him, has suggested that evangelical be understood adjectivally, as a set of characteristics—for example, biblicism (focused on the Bible), crucicentrism (concentrated on the cross of Christ as essential for the salvation of the world), conversionism (insistent on personal repentance and devotion), and activism (commitment to missionary activity at the grassroots sociopolitical level)—that defines a certain kind of piety.¹¹ Evangelical commitments in this pietistic sense are deeply experiential, revolving around what is often testified about as a vital and personal encounter and ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Even if theological education in North America is feeling great strain, there are still opportunities for engaging the evangelical movement, broadly speaking. Yet we need to keep in mind the complexities. Some of the institutions the ATS includes under the evangelical label are clearly denominationally affiliated, for example, Covenant Theological Seminary (Presbyterian Church of America), Alliance Theological Seminary and Ambrose Seminary (both Christian and Missionary Alliance), and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Evangelical Free Church of America). Others are identified via various categorizations: for example, as pentecostal (at least eight by my count) or as inter/multidenominational (60 percent of the schools on the list) or as nondenominational (half of the list).¹² A few, like the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, serve the charismatic Anglican Church in North America and other like-minded groups, and (I assume) are included within the evangelical count.¹³

How Church? Networking Theological Education

Even if we accept that there are opportunities for further theological education in the evangelical movement in North America, loosely comprehended, there are other considerations. In one direction, such “evangelicalism” is currently experiencing another identity crisis, this one the realization that many of the majority-white denominations and churches within the movement catapulted Donald J. Trump to the American presidency in 2016 and have since remained among his administration’s most ardent supporters. As a result, many have disavowed the evangelical identification, and even those who do not wish to or cannot completely disassociate themselves are qualifying their relationship to the evangelical movement.¹⁴ From this perspective, what is called evangelicalism remains a contested and conflicted reality, and it remains to be seen whether and how this population of persons and churches will engage with theological education going forward, especially since the kind of populism rampant in these sectors is often suspicious of the elitism perceived in the educational enterprise.

Yet many within the North American church are evangelical in character without ever using that name or label to identify themselves. The ATS categories of inter/multidenominational and nondenominational actually encapsulate two truths: first, that American Protestantism is fast shifting from a denominationally defined movement, at its height in the mid-twentieth century, to what is effectively a postdenominational era,¹⁵ one characterized much less by formal (denominationally delineated) ecclesial ties and more by relational dynamics; and second, that American Protestantism as a group is also dissipating. Not surprisingly, the Pew report observes that nondenominational segments of the church enjoyed their most significant growth in the years leading up to 2014: almost one in five evangelicals situate themselves in such churches, as do 13 percent of Protestants and 6.2 percent of all adults in the country (Pew, 15, 26), thus highlighting what might be called a nondenominatializing trend within the movement.¹⁶ Hence, students who are evangelical at ATS institutions may be so because of their spirituality and practices—including those explicated by Bebbington—even if they do not primarily identify as such. Certainly the 120 ATS-affiliated schools gathered under the evangelical rubric (as of 2017) are servicing not just members of established evangelical denominations but also those whose piety and practice make them feel at home in such institutions, including students who still belong to mainline Protestant denominations. If this is the case, evangelical institutions may attract students who are less invested in the label than they are looking to nurture certain historic values, commitments, and practices, even if recent events across the contemporary North American evangelical church at large have called this into question.

There is one more complicating point related to the so-called evangelicalizing trend of North American theological education: the charismatic, neocharismatic, classical pentecostal, and neo-pentecostal undercurrents to these evangelical denominations or individuals. A fundamental realignment is occurring: North American denominational structures are giving way to dynamic networks connected by ministries, charisms, and relationships. Bureaucratic hierarchies are being replaced by charismatic complexes, and professionally certified ministers by relationally oriented mentors.¹⁷ It would not be inaccurate to say these are all evangelicals, but many will aver that the living experience of the Holy Spirit’s work rather than formal affiliations or any identification with labels defines their life and ministry. What drives these ministries are grassroots and organically multiplying networks of relationships that are now also mediated by the Internet.¹⁸

It is no wonder that traditional forms of theological education are in trouble. Seminaries and similar institutions that two generations ago catered to and were directly subsidized by denominations now have to be reinvented almost completely if they are to engage with an electronically flickering, socially amorphous, and charismatically churning complex of relationships. Surely evangelicals will be an important feature in the domain of theological education for the foreseeable future, but it may well be even more urgent that theological educators heed not the label of evangelicalism but the experiential and charismatic spirituality that surges through these most vital arteries of a movement that is both Christ centered and Bible based, and also Spirit empowered. Ecclesiality in the current moment is being generated less and less through denominational protocol and more and more by relational and democratized charisma, that is, the charismatic activity of leaders and lay members.¹⁹ We need a network ecclesiology to understand anew what the church is becoming and to recalibrate our systems of theological education in modalities and directions relevant to and able to interface with these dynamic virtual and social realities.²⁰

Anticipating Church: Charismatizing Theological Education

The question this part of the book poses is: What is the nature of the church of the twenty-first century that theological education is serving? This chapter began by focusing on the North American landscape. So far, it has noted two interrelated points: that the preceding generation has seen the qualified expansion of an evangelical presence in North American theological education that correlates with the diminishing of mainline P...