A Liberating Spirit

Pentecostals and Social Action in North America

Michael Wilkinson, Steven M. Studebaker, Wilkinson, Studebaker

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781608992836
  9781498255547
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630877941
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

The historical ambivalence among Pentecostals about their relationship to culture and society needs evaluation. How do we understand Pentecostal engagement with society, and how are Pentecostals in North America engaging issues of race, class, gender, and ecology? What theologically motivates North American Pentecostals to respond to social issues? What categories best explain Pentecostal responses to social issues in North America? How do they compare to Pentecostal responses elsewhere? Recently, scholars of global Pentecostalism have proposed that the experience of the Spirit among Pentecostals has elicited the development of a Pentecostal "theology of liberation," which has implications for understanding Pentecostal responses to social issues. These projects primarily explore the Pentecostal response to cultural issues in areas outside of North America and especially focus on Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This volume assesses whether the categories of social liberation applied to non-Western Pentecostalism characterize Pentecostalism in North America. Is there evidence of a Pentecostal "theology of liberation" that explains Pentecostal engagement in North America? Do social-liberation categories fit the North American Pentecostal responses to social issues or are others more suitable? These and other important questions about the relation between liberation theology and North American Pentecostalism are thoroughly explored in this important collection of essays.

1

Pentecostal Social Action

An Introduction

Michael Wilkinson and Steven M. Studebaker

Introduction1

Some suggest that North American Pentecostalism represents an anti-culture posture arising from an experience of deprivation or marginalization from mainstream culture.2 One response to cultural marginalization is the adoption of conservative politics and the materialistic values of consumer culture. A sense of disenfranchisement often leads to withdrawal from society or to a spiritual triumphalism.3 On the other hand, there are those who argue that Pentecostalism outside North America is developing a “theology of liberation” in response to social issues.4 These Pentecostals are described as “progressive Pentecostals” who engage issues of poverty, inequality, and ecology.5 The focus on these Pentecostals, however, is primarily in Africa, Asia, and Latin America with little discussion about North America. Is there a North American equivalent? In what ways are Pentecostals in North America engaging issues of race, class, gender, and ecology? What theologically motivates North American Pentecostals to respond to these issues? What categories best explain Pentecostal responses to these issues in North America? How do they compare to Pentecostal responses elsewhere?

The authors of this book critically evaluate whether there are “progressive Pentecostals” in North America. Is there evidence of a Pentecostal “theology of liberation” that explains Pentecostal engagement in North America? Are Pentecostals in North America as “progressive” as their counterparts elsewhere? Do these categories fit North American Pentecostal responses to social issues or are others more suitable? In what ways are Pentecostal responses to social issues unique to North America or similar to Pentecostals elsewhere in the world?6 This book, therefore, is an effort to understand and assess theologically and socially the contemporary relationship between North American Pentecostalism and culture with reference to global trends. This introduction provides an overview of some of the literature and issues to be explored as we move toward an assessment of “progressive Pentecostalism” in North America.

Liberation Theology and Progressive Pentecostalism

Liberation theology represents an important shift in Christianity, especially among Roman Catholics but also Protestants, beginning in the middle of the twentieth century.7 The goal of Liberation theology is most certainly social justice rooted in a preferential option for the poor with the base ecclesial communities the primary location for theological application. Liberation refers to the belief that personal salvation is inseparable from the social struggle for justice. Salvation is social and personal and is incorporated into a theology of the Kingdom of God. While Liberation theology is often associated with Latin America it was in fact far more global in nature. Latin American writers included Gustavo Gutiérrez, Juan Luis Segundo, Leonardo Boff, Hugo Assmann, Jon Sobrino, José Miranda, and Rubem Alves.8 In Africa John Mbiti, Kofi Appaiah-Kubi, and Allan Boesak were important figures.9 In Asia Kosuke Koyama, C. S. Song, and Kim Yon-Bok wrote on themes of liberation for Asian Christians.10

There is some question as to whether or not themes of liberation found a home in North America. How could it be possible for a theology rooted in the colonial experience to be applicable in a “core” region like North America?11 How could North Americans understand the economic injustice experienced in Latin America? Gregory Baum argued in Religion and Alienation that forms of domination and oppression in North America must be understood for their own historical particularities.12 While Latin American oppression is primarily rooted in the world economic system, Baum says it is not at all clear that a single dominant form is evident in North America. Is there a common variable to explain the experiences of women, African Americans, gays and lesbians, Québécois, and Aboriginal peoples? Baum says “It is unrealistic, in my view to look for a single form of oppression in North America, to which all others are subordinated.”13 Following Max Weber, Baum argues for a particular understanding of oppression and domination in North America which is not simply explained as “liberation” from economic injustice. “What we have is a complex intermeshing of technocratic depersonalization and immobility, economic domination and exploitation, racial exclusion and inferiorization, and other forms including the subjugation of women.”14 It should be clear that while Latin America, Africa, and Asia share some commonalities, all these regions need to be evaluated for their own particularities as well.15

While Liberation theology represents one transformation in Christianity, inspiring an important discussion especially among academics, Pentecostalism may turn out to be one of the most important shifts for religion in the twentieth century. Liberation theology opted for the poor, says Donald Miller and Tetsuano Yamamori, but the poor opted for Pentecostalism.16 As more people in Latin America, Asia, and Africa adopt Pentecostalism as their expression of faith, will Pentecostals be able to deal with the economic and social issues they face? What challenges confront Pentecostals as they grow and expand throughout the world? What is it about Pentecostalism that is attractive to the poor and marginalized?

David Stoll raised our attention to the shift in Latin America when many Catholics were joining the Pentecostals.17 Stoll argued that a collision between Liberation theology and Evangelicalism was going to occur and needed to be understood as part of a wider religious transformation. He also argued that Latin American politics would change. David Martin likewise examined the explosion of Pentecostalism in Latin America and identified some of the early tensions between the radical elements of Liberation theology and Pentecostalism.18 One response was to offer a less revolutionary option for the Charismatics in the Catholic Church to pre-empt members from leaving the Church.19 Both Stoll and Martin illustrate the tensions between Catholics and Pentecostals when Latin Americans were opting for a different kind of Christianity.

While Pentecostalism was often critiqued negatively by Protestants and Catholics, Cheryl Bridges Johns argued that Pentecostals in Latin America actually shared with Liberation theology some important commonalities.20 Pentecostalism, according to Bridges Johns, is a major force in the conscientization of the oppressed in the context of a Spirit-filled faith community.21 Adopting the views of Paulo Freire, Bridges Johns argued that Pentecostals need likewise to engage his ideas as they work among the marginalized of the world. Bridges Johns argues that Pentecostalism, beginning with its historical roots among the poor in North America, was always a movement of conscientization.22

By the mid-1990s an important transformation occurred and Pentecostalism was now being taken seriously by scholars outside of the movement.23 The widely read and discussed book Fire from Heaven by Harvey Cox illustrated this shift in our understanding of Pentecostalism as a movement of liberation.24 Cox pointed out that Liberation theology and Pentecostalism share in common the idea that Christians are responsible for continuing the ministry of Jesus, the centrality of the Kingdom of God in their respective theologies, as well as the importance of changing social patterns and not just con...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Series Preface
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Pentecostal Social Action
• Part one: Issues of Race and Ethnicity
• Chapter 2: Recovering Black Theological Thought in the Writings of Early African- American Holiness-Pentecostal Leaders
• Chapter 3: The Rhetoric of Pentecostal Racial Reconciliation
• Chapter 4: Pentecostalism among Canadian Aboriginal People
• Part Two: Issues of Class
• Chapter 5: Waxing and Waning of Social Deprivation as a Model for Understanding the Class Composition of Early American Pentecostalism
• Chapter 6: Re-Visioning the Disinherited
• Part Three: Issues of Gender
• Chapter 7: Your Daughters Shall Prophesy (As Long as They Submit)
• Chapter 8: Acts 29 and Authority
• Part Four: Issues of Ecology
• Chapter 9: Globalization and the Environment as Social Problem
• Chapter 10: Looking the Wrong Way
• Chapter 11: Creation Care as “Keeping in Step with the Spirit”