Pentecost and Parousia

Charismatic Renewal, Christian Unity, and the Coming Glory

Hocken

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781630870461
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

As the charismatic movement penetrated the Protestant churches and then impacted the Catholic Church, great hopes for Christian unity were aroused among many. These hopes peaked with the great Kansas City conference of 1977 and the Pentecost over Europe gathering in Strasbourg, France, in 1982. After these high points, the Renewal's unity dynamic weakened at the same time as the ecumenical movement was losing momentum.Dr. Hocken argues that the charismatic movement was always a grace for unity, and that this can be seen from how it began and spread. Its deep orientation to unity finds its foundation in the end-times significance of baptism in the Spirit poured out on Christians from so many traditions that reinforces the one hope for the coming of the Lord. Many developments of the last twenty years indicate that the time is now ripe for an ecumenism of the Spirit within which the charismatic impulses of the Holy Spirit can purify and deepen the wider movement for Christian unity. Growing reconciliation between Evangelicals and Catholics suddenly seems less utopian as Pope Francis shows the servant face of a humbler Catholic Church.

I

Charismatic Renewal is Inherently Ecumenical

1

A Major Surprise of the Holy Spirit

After the disciples had witnessed many healings and works of power during the ministry of Jesus, and when the seventy “returned with joy” from their mission (Luke 10:17), Jesus told them: “Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Luke 10:23–24). I have often been reminded of these words during forty years of experience in the charismatic renewal, particularly when I was witnessing things that I never imagined I would ever see. Prominent among these eye-opening moments have been experiences of deep fellowship and reconciliation across ecclesial and denominational divides. In this book on the ecumenical character and potential of the charismatic movement, I want to highlight the role of the Holy Spirit in the breaking down of barriers, and in the establishment of deep respectful relationships between Christians from very different traditions and backgrounds.

From 1977, I can recall the banner-filled arena at Atlantic City, New Jersey, where twenty-five thousand Catholics had been raising their arms and moving their bodies in full-blooded joyful praise of the Lord. This Catholic crowd was drinking in with appreciation the Bible teaching of Robert Frost, a nondenominational pastor. The whole scene presented a vision of a different church—­not replacing the Catholic Church, but simply a church being brought to life by the Holy Spirit. I recall too a moment from the European Charismatic Leaders conference in Paris in 1982, when a British Pentecostal pastor repented for his wrong attitudes to Catholics, and for walking out in protest from the first Fountain Trust meeting in England at which there was a Catholic speaker.1 From Brighton, England, in 1991, I can remember a stirring message from Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap, the preacher to the papal household, that brought the mixed crowd of Anglicans, Baptists, Pentecostals, Catholics, and many others to a moment of profound silence and common penitence before the living God. From Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2005, I cannot forget the moment when following my Catholic confession of the evils of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, a lady Baptist pastor addressed me as brother, hugged me, and said, “I have never called a Catholic priest brother before.” Another such moment was in 2011, when a prophetic team prayed for me at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. How astonished I was when this team of four young people, none of them Catholics, who knew nothing about my identity or my life, proceeded to touch on virtually all the significant areas in my service of the Lord.

Such moments of astonishment at the visible working of the Holy Spirit across the churches and confessions can shake a non-believing or half-believing church out of her complacency. I believe that an objective reflection on the Pentecostal and charismatic movements of the last hundred years will reveal, despite the evident follies and weaknesses, an extraordinary current of new life and power that is changing the face of world Christianity.2

The Charismatic Movement

The charismatic movement of the Spirit is itself a major surprise. It offends secularizing theologies by its unashamedly interventionist character. It is an irruption, an outbreak, in our midst of the love and power of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. No church or denomination was looking for or expecting this kind of renewal. Among the historic churches, overt enthusiasm was hardly the order of the day. Testifying to the impact of Jesus on one’s life was frowned on as an expression of Evangelical naiveté.

Speaking in other tongues was the most striking symbol of this irruption of the unfamiliar into Christian life. By its nature, the making of unintelligible sounds by adults is offensive to the intelligence. For the mainline Protestant churches, more infected by a rationalist spirit, this irrational feature of the charismatic movement caused the most discomfort. The Catholic Church, more familiar with extravagant piety and claims to the supernatural, was not so worried by glossolalia, but still found it difficult to see anything significant in such phenomena. How could making unintelligible sounds contribute anything serious to the renewal of Christian faith?

I see three main elements in this surprise of the Holy Spirit. The first is simply the depth and scope of what was happening in the charismatic movement. God was visiting Christians of all shades and stripes. They were receiving a deep love for the Lord Jesus in their hearts, hearing his voice, and experiencing his power to deliver from evil. They could praise the Lord spontaneously in their own words and in their own prayer-language. The Scriptures came alive, disclosing the face of the one Savior and Lord. There reappeared in the church the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8–10, that were widely regarded as a curiosity of the apostolic age. Many recipients were clearly neither holy nor mature, which upset the assumption that such gifts were rarely bestowed, and only then as a reward for years of ascetical struggle and purification.

Second, there was the speed with which the charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church was spreading, first in the United States and then around the world. The love of Jesus and the power of the Spirit are infectious. In the United States, attendance at the annual conferences at Notre Dame jumped from thirteen hundred in 1970, to almost five thousand in 1971, to over eleven thousand in 1972, to more than twenty thousand in 1973, and thirty thousand in 1976. Within a few years, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) could be found on all continents and in more and more countries.

Third, there was the speed with which the CCR was welcomed at the highest levels of the Catholic Church. The church that seemed the least likely to accept this move of the Spirit welcomed it faster and more explicitly than any other. In just eight years, this movement went from a retreat weekend for students with twenty-five to thirty laypeople near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a worldwide celebration of twenty thousand in Rome in 1975, at which Pope Paul VI declared that the Renewal was “a chance for the church!” A key factor in this church acceptance was the participation and support of the primate of Belgium, Cardinal Léon Joseph Suenens, one of the great figures of the Second Vatican Council much trusted by the pope.

Its Ecumenical Character

No less amazing than the content of the charismatic “grace” and the rapidity of its spread throughout the world was its appearance across virtually the whole Christian spectrum. The charismatic renewal is the first movement of spiritual revival to impact significantly both the Protestant and the Catholic worlds. For the first time since the Protestant Reformation a current of the Holy Spirit has not only impacted the divided churches, but has brought Catholics and Protestants together in worship, teaching, and prayer ministry. This is a remarkable development that has not been sufficiently appreciated. From its beginnings in the 1960s, Catholics have entered into this blessing through Protestants, and Protestants have entered through Catholics. It cannot be that the interdenominational character of the charismatic movement has little or no significance for the work of Christian unity and reconciliation. Moreover, the official welcome given to CCR by the Catholic authorities represents the first time that a movement that began outside the Catholic communion has been so received. However, the welcome was an acceptance of the movement among Catholics, not official recognition of its interchurch character or ecumenical significance.

The ecumenical character of the renewal is demonstrated above all by the evident fact that the Lord is pouring out the same gifts and graces across the Christian world. The fundamental hallmarks of the renewal are the same everywhere, even though there are differences of style, emphasis, and theological explanation. The witnesses to baptism in the Spirit testify to the same work of the risen Lord: the Spirit’s revelation of the crucified and glorious Lord Jesus, the Spirit’s opening up of the Scriptures, a hearing of the Lord’s voice, the release of spontaneous praise and adoration, the desire and the ability to evangelize, the reception of the spiritual gifts or charisms, a new awareness of the powers of darkness and of the power of the Lord to expose and expel them, and a love for the poor, the needy, and the lost. Not only are these characteristics found across church...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• Part One: Charismatic Renewal is Inherently Ecumenical
• Chapter 1: A Major Surprise of the Holy Spirit
• Chapter 2: Catholic Charismatic Renewal as a Fruit of the Second Vatican Council
• Chapter 3: The Newness of the Work of the Holy Spirit
• Chapter 4: The Challenges of the Renewal
• Chapter 5: Ecumenical Renewal
• Part Two: Toward a Charismatic Contribution to Ecumenism
• Chapter 6: A New Season
• Chapter 7: The Purification and Renewal of Identities
• Chapter 8: The Purification and Healing of Memories
• Chapter 9: Toward a Full Ecumenism of the Spirit
• Part Three: Moving Toward the Fullness
• Chapter 10: Word, Sacrament, and Charism
• Chapter 11: Mary, the Church, and Israel
• Chapter 12: A Deeper Significance to Baptism in the Spirit
• Chapter 13: The Holy Spirit and the One Hope of Glory
• Appendix: Charismatic Renewal and Christian Unity
• Bibliography