30 Years of the Bulgarian Church of God in Chicago

July 10, 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the first service of the Bulgarian Church of God in Chicago in 1995.
We have told the Story of the first Bulgarian Church of God in the Untied States (read it here) on numerous occasions and it was a substantial part of our 2005 dissertation (published in 2012, see it here).

From my personal memories, the exact beginning was after Brave Heart opened in the summer of 1995 and the Narragansett Church of God closed the street for a 4th of July block party with BBQ, Chicago PD horsemen, a moonwalk and much more.

The first service in the Bulgarian vernacular was held Sunday afternoon, July 10th 1995 being the true anniversary of the Bulgarian Church in Chicago. Only about a dozen were present and the sermon I preached was from Hebrews 13:5. Unfortunately, to this day 20 years later, we cannot locate the pictures taken that day to identify those present. And some have already passed away.

Using a ministry model that later became a paradigm for starting Bulgarian churches in North America (see it in detail) the church grew to over 65 members in just a few weeks by the end of July. This was around the time the movie Judge Dread had opened and the first edition of Windows 95 was scheduled for release in Chicago. I saw them both at the mall on upper Harlem Boulevard.

The Bulgarian Church of God in Chicago followed a rich century-long tradition, which began with the establishing of Bulgarian churches and missions in 1907. (read the history) Consecutively, our 1995 Church Starting Paradigm was successfully used in various studies and models in 2003. The program was continuously improved in the following decade, proposing an effective model for leading and managing growing Bulgarian churches.

Based on the Gateway cities in North America and their relations to the Bulgarian communities across the continent, it proposed a prognosis toward establishing Bulgarian churches (see it here) and outlined the perimeters of their processes and dynamics in the near future (read in detail).

After a personal xlibris, the said prognosis were revisited in 2009 in relation to preliminary groundbreaking church work on the West Coast and then evaluated against the state of Bulgarian Churches in America at the 2014 Annual Conference in Minneapolis.

We’re yet to observe the factors and dynamics determining if Bulgarian churches across North America will follow their early 20th century predecessors to become absorbed in the local context or alike many other ethnic groups survive to form their own subculture in North America. We will know the answer for sure in another 30 years…

 

 

Bulgarian Pentecostal riddle…

Five kings with five crowns
Four bishops and castle in the middle
Who will blow the whistle
and who will play the fiddle?
A Bulgarian Pentecostal riddle…

Back to the Basics of Pentecost: Diamonds in the Rough-N-Ready (2025)

Since the beginning of the 21st century, only 6-10% of new born believers in America receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, which by 2018 has resulted in:

• Over 60% within Global Pentecostalism do not speak in tongues
• A major doctrinal shift within Pentecostal Theology today claims speaking in tongues is not the only evidence of Holy Spirit Baptism
• Some theologians even claim there is no initial evidence in the Bible
• Others today go further to believe that no outward sign of the Holy Spirit baptism is necessary.

For this reason, WE are re-committing ourselves and ministry to revival and restoration of the Pentecostal Message through praying, fasting and preaching:

• Salvation of the sinner’s soul and entire sanctification through the Blood of Jesus
• Baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire with initial evidence of speaking in tongues
• Supernatural gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit
• Healing, deliverance and signs following
• Pre-Millennial return of Christ and pre-Tribulation Rapture of His Church to glory

Please consider the URGENCY of this generation!

Let us reason together what can we do to prevent this rapid decline in Biblical spirituality.

Revival will not come without preaching!

Revival of Pentecost will not come without preaching the Message of Pentecost.

 

Speaking in Tongues in America Prior to the Azusa Street Revival of 1906

April, 1906 – The Azusa street revival swept the globe starting with California

January 1, 1901– The initial phenomenon of speaking in tongues occurred at Parham’s school in Topeka, Kansas

January 6, 1900 – Frank Sanford’s Shiloh school reported that “The gift of tongues has descended”

1896 – Over 100 people baptized in the Shaerer schoolhouse revival conducted by the Christian Union in the North Carolina mountains

1887 – People falling in trances and speaking in tongues were reported at Maria Etter’s revival meetings in Indiana

1874 – Speaking in tongues occurred during healing meetings reported in New York

1873 – William H. Doughty and the Gift People of Rhode Island spoke in tongues

1854 – V. P. Simmons and Robert Boyd reported tongue speaking during Moody’s meetings

FURTHER READING:

Church of God (Cleveland, TN)

• Alive, alive! (A personal testimony)
• Church of God Primitivism
• Bulgarian Church of God
• J.W. Buckalew
• Why revival came? by Dr. Charles Conn

Azusa Street Revival of 1906

• Lucy F. Farrow: The Forgotten Apostle of Azusa
• The FORGOTTEN ROOTS OF THE AZUSA STREET REVIVAL
• Azusa Street’s Apostolic Faith Renewed
• Azusa Street Sermons
• Pentecostal Primitivism Preserved

Prior to Azusa Street Revival of 1906

• First person to speak in tongues in the Assemblies of God was William Jethro Walthall of the Holiness Baptist Churches of Southwestern Arkansas
• The Work of the Spirit in Rhode Island (1874-75)
• Speaking in Tongues in America Prior to the Azusa Street Revival
• WAR ON THE SAINTS: Revival Dawn and the Baptism of the Spirit
• How Jezebel Killed One of the Greatest Revivals Ever

ALIVE 2025

Rev. Dony K. Donev, D. Min.

“When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.”

2 Timothy 1:5

My Grandma, Todorka Mindova, was one of the first Sunday school teachers in the Bulgarian Pentecostal Union. After successfully graduating from a training course in the city of Sliven led by Donka Kinareva and personally organized by Dr. Nicolas Nikolov, she was allowed to minister in the denomination. But for grandma, the faith was more than teaching or a sermon. It was life. Many Bulgarian Pentecostal ministers can testify to the effectiveness of her ministry. And for her constant fasting and thousands of answered prayers I could write a book.

But far more interesting for me as a child was the fact that being a Sunday school teacher, Grandma never tried to preach to me. In the hardest moments of life she would only confess these words, which I have remembered from my childhood: “We serve a living God.” More was not needed. For Grandma preached with her life. Read more

The Cross: A Message of Salvation and Revolution

For every Christian, the crucifixion bears one ultimate meaning: salvation. And not just salvation through the cross, but through the death on the cross with multiple layers of significance. It is the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, the undeniable proof of a sovereign God acting within the drama of human history, and an unprecedented political manifesto revealing the enduring power of faith.

The practice of crucifixion dates back to the 9th century B.C., introduced by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser as a brutal punishment for criminals. Offenders were bound, crucified alive, and raised high to be seen by the public—a horrifying spectacle designed not merely to punish but to sow fear in all who dared challenge the authority of the empire. The true power of this punishment lays not in the death it brought, but in the prolonged agony and exhaustion preceding it.

Before the rise of the Roman Empire, crucifixion already bore the weight of terror and shame. Under Rome, it became the empire’s most dreadful symbol—a declaration that its might could crush any man, any nation. In 71 B.C., following the failed rebellion led by Spartacus, 6,000 of his captured followers were crucified along the road from Capua to Rome.

Rome had turned crucifixion into a science of torture! Death so brutal that the victim became little more than a piece of bloody meat in the eyes of the soldiers. Flesh was torn by whips embedded with metal, bone, and glass. Blood drained from the body until the organs could not function any longer. The body suffocated slowly, painfully, as breathing ceased and the blood powered into the dry limestone dust. The torment was total!

The condemned were then nailed to rough-hewn wooden beams—hands and feet pierced—then lifted slowly into the air. Death came not instantly, but after three to four hours… or three to four days. The sight of a naked, disfigured body suspended on a cross, wracked with agony, could not go unnoticed by the watching crowd. The criminal had turned into a victim of cruelty, of imperial might and of public condemnation.

This is the scene that Tertullian, an early Christian apologist, identified as the peculiar cruelty of crucifixion. The Roman historian Cicero deemed it a “most cruel and horrifying” punishment, while Josephus described it as the “most pitiable of deaths.” Yet for imperial Rome, the crucifixion was a public proclamation: a terrifying sentence reserved for those who dared to disrupt the order and peace of the ultimate pagan state. All rebels against the Empire met such an end!

Jesus knew that this would be His fate! It was foretold in the prophecies. This was how the true Messiah was destined to die. The four Evangelists describe in vivid detail the trial and crucifixion: Judas received his silver and his judgment; conflicting witnesses marred the court; Pilate washed his hands before the crowd, claiming to find no fault. The soldiers’ beatings, the casting of lots for His garments, the crown of thorns, and the long, agonizing walk to Calvary under the burden of the rough heavy wooden cross—all marked the path of redemption.

His blood stained the narrow streets of Jerusalem! The crowd followed Him to the hill called Golgotha. Those near enough saw the splinters of the Roman-crafted cross soaked in blood. Those farther away heard the hammer strike iron through flesh, followed by screams that pierced the air. Then the crowd hushed as the Roman soldiers began to pull the ropes. The cross was raised upright, wedged into the rocky ground. And on it, standing tall between heaven and earth, hung the reason for our faith, the very source of our salvation. The forsaken Messiah, the wounded Healer, the King condemned by kings, the Lord slain by lords. His hands and feet were nailed, His brows crowned with thorns, His body swollen, bloody, and bare. His blood streamed down the tree, dripping onto the hardened faces of the guards below. For this is how God chose to die for the salvation of the world. But even from the cross, through parched lips and a final breath, the Eternal One continued to speak.

At that moment, in midday darkness, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. It was not the end, but a beginning. The wounded, the outcast, the poor, and the powerless were now invited into His presence!

Five apostles—Andrew, Bartholomew, Peter, Philip, and Simon the Zealot also died by crucifixion, as Christ did. Thousands of early Christians were crucified along Rome’s stone paths. John Foxe, in his Book of Martyrs, writes that crosses, poison, and every imaginable cruelty were employed to eradicate Christians. Not for crimes committed, but for the singular “offense” of believing differently. For the early Church, the cross transformed from a symbol of terror into a banner of faithfulness, even unto death.

By the end of the first century, apologists like Minucius Felix were already linking the cross with Christian identity. In the early third century, Tertullian himself proclaimed it the sign of the Lord. History knows no greater reversal, no more profound political declaration: the symbol of Roman oppression became the symbol of the Christian faith.

The early Church’s message was clear: the pagan empire held no power over faith that rose above death, hell, every kingdom and every ruler. The cross carried a social message too, judging justly and restoring dignity. At Golgotha, the lame walked, the blind saw, the poor found their Father.

The cross bore an economic truth as well: an empire built on slavery cannot hold those made free in Christ. But above all, the message of the cross is spiritual. Earthly power cannot liberate the soul. Only Christ, crucified, can redeem those who give their lives to God!

It is likely that, in our own century, a global power may again seek to assert its might crushing dissenters, thinkers, believers alike through legislative, executive, and judicial force. And perhaps, for a time, it will succeed. But it will not endure! For the word of the cross is a power greater than any empire, earthly or otherwise. Easter is the triumph of faith—the holiday that transforms the enemy’s weapons into instruments of salvation.

Christ is Risen! May God keep us all!

Dony K. Donev, D.Min.

Aesthetics and Pathos in the Catholic-Pentecostal Encounter

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S SP

Presidential Address

Aesthetics and Pathos in the Vision of God:

A Catholic—Pentecostal Encounter

Ralph Del Colle

Introduction

Some years ago an essay made a deep and lasting impression on me. The article was by Richard A. Baer, Jr. and was entitled “Quaker Silence, Catholic Liturgy, and Pentecostal Glossolalia—Some Functional Similar- ities.” It was published in Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism, a col- lection of papers that had been presented at the second annual meeting of this very Society in 1972. Russell Spittler was program chair and subse- quently editor of the book.

Baer’s thesis was simple and direct. He argued that the “religious prac- tices” of speaking in tongues, the silent worship of the Society of Friends, and the liturgical worship of the Catholic and Episcopal Churches bore a “fundamental functional similarity.” By freeing the worshipper in the depth of one’s spirit, these practices enable one to put the analytical mind at rest and “to respond to the immediate reality of the living God.” “[L]ife as the praise of God” is the intended fruit of such practices.

As one who had migrated from charismatic prayer back to the liturgical prayer of my upbringing his thesis made eminent sense. While I cannot speak about Quaker silence, I have come to know the silence of traditional Catholic spiritualities and can testify (something scholars can do in a Society such as ours) that the functional resemblance holds, at least with regard to the inner dispositions that charismatic prayer, liturgical prayer, and contemplative prayer all seem to evoke. The thesis, while not draw- ing any theological links among the three traditions—it was more a

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phenomenology of religious practices and experience and an affirmation of the spiritual principle of “letting go” in the divine presence—also recalls an essay in which those connections were made at the level of theological traditions.

Albrecht Ritschl, in many ways the mid-nineteenth-century successor to Friedrich Schleiermacher, might have been sympathetic to Baer’s obser- vations, but not in order to commend them. In his essay “Prolegomena to the History of Pietism” he noted the similarities in the intent of reforming efforts undertaken by the medieval Franciscans, the Anabaptists of the Reformation period, and the Pietists of the seventeenth century. It is a com- plicated story, and specialists in the field can render a more critical judg- ment on the proposal than I can. But if he is correct, one has to take seriously the link between world-renouncing piety with its primitivist and reformist impulses and the pursuit of Christian perfection common to all three traditions. For Ritschl the configuration of Christian life that emerges was inimical to that advanced by the magisterial Reformers, the position he upheld. If it is fair to say that Pentecostals are latter-day descendents of this pietistic impulse, at least in regard to the pursuit of Christian perfec- tion, then we have a theological account of the Christian life that links Catholics and Pentecostals. This complements Baer’s observations about the functional similarities that are enacted in worship.

I suspect that none of this is really news to anybody. The option to situ- ate the experiential dimensions of Christian life and the theologies of grace that support that enterprise tend to build bridges from the Wesleyan and Pentecostal camps to the Catholic side of the Western Church, or even to the Eastern Church (as you have heard in David Bundy’s Presidential address), rather than to either the Lutheran or the Reformed traditions. Although, if we dissect all the theological streams that influenced the English Reformation we need to be careful about any simplistic trajectories leading to the Wesleyan and Pentecostal streams of the Christian Church.

Nevertheless, one example of this “catholicizing trend” with some doctrinal substance is rather significant. One has only to recall Frank Macchia’s Presidential Address in 2000 entitled “Justification and the Spirit: A Pentecostal Reflection on the Doctrine by which the Church Stands or Falls.” Although Macchia was not uncritical of the Council of Trent’s Decree on Justification, he did note that Pentecostals have more in common with its transformational understanding of justification than the forensic model confessed by the magisterial Reformation traditions. The key Pentecostal innovation is, in Macchia’s phrase, “that sanctification is

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the means by which the Spirit achieves justification in Christ,” which to my Catholic ears sounds like another way of saying that the grace of justification is indeed sanctifying grace.

In any case, both the proponents of this similarity (not identity!) in the understanding and praxis of grace in the Christian life—one need only recall Albert Outler’s reading of Wesley—and those who, while identify- ing the connection, resist the prescription confirm that we are on solid ground here. Regarding the latter, Karl Barth could be invoked as much as Albrecht Ritschl, although Barth might just lump the liberal Ritschl (no doubt to his dismay) with the Catholics, Anabaptists, and Pietists. The issue, of course, is the extent to which one wants to situate the reality of Christ’s grace in relation to experience, something that in its anthropolog- ical rendering detracts, in Barth’s judgment, from the primacy of God’s word in the matter.

Thus far, what I am suggesting is the following. Baer’s prescient obser- vation about liturgical worship and charismatic worship directs us to an incipient theological connection between the Catholic and Pentecostal tra- ditions. Beyond their “functional similarities” that bear on Jesus’ anticipa- tion of worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23), we can appeal to the shape of Christian life engendered by a theology of grace in which an experimen- tal form of piety is critical. The remainder of my remarks in this address will build on these observations and explore the relationship between the posture of faith and the doctrine of God implied by these respective pos- tures in Catholicism and Pentecostalism. I will then explore the encounter between these two traditions for the mutual contribution they make to Christian proclamation in this third millennium of the Church’s mission.

The Catholic Posture of Faith: Aesthetics and Transformation

Prelude

In good scholastic fashion faith may be considered in both its objective and subjective dimensions. Fides quae creditur refers to the content of faith, the faith that is believed, and fides qua creditur is the act of faith, the faith by which one believes. It may indeed be the case that the preference of the present culture is toward the latter, the personal existential act of faith. This is not limited to Christianity. The commonplace distinction between religion and spirituality is usually made in favor of the latter, thereby allowing any number of people to describe themselves as spiritual

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but not religious. This holds both for those who are affiliated with a reli- gious community and the latter-day transcendentalists, who, in the spirit of Henry David Thoreau, commune with the divine or nature via the individ- uality of their own participation in the harmony of the cosmos. All of this is very American and now perhaps endemic throughout the postmodern West, with the United States clinging more than most to an explicit religio- sity. It is no understatement to suggest that the fides qua is determinative of the fides quae even in the Christian community, if one were to do a sur- vey about the relevance of doctrine for the living and practice of the faith.

I review this to set the context. My intent is not to evoke nostalgia for some more self-consciously religious period in human history. Seculari- zation has indeed had its effects, and while it has not eliminated human religious and spiritual longing, it has opened the door to a radically plural- ist intentionality of religious aspirations and practices. This is not simply a matter of a more widespread global consciousness—I suppose most Americans know where Iraq and Afghanistan are these days—but it also emerges from within the fractures and fragmentations of Western culture itself, even aside from new immigration patterns.

Catholics, constitutionally speaking, cannot ignore the cultural context. We tend to operate analogically rather than dialectically in our theological methods. “Both-and” is our preference to “either-or,” to put it somewhat crudely. Thus our formulae include faith and reason, nature and grace, and, following the same logic, Church and culture. Not that modernity has been an easy ride for the Catholic Church. Witness its divestment, usually forced, of its cultural and socio-political privileges in Europe in the wake of the French Revolution. This has not been without its benefits ecclesio- logically speaking—a new model of Church has emerged—and in the civil realm has brought relief to many Protestants in Catholic majority coun- tries, not the least of which include Pentecostals in Latin America, for instance, a situation still in process.

I need not continue. The Catholic Church has traveled some distance from the cultural pessimism of Pope Pius IX in the nineteenth century to the optimism of Pope John XXIII at the Second Vatican Council and its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes. But it is not that story I want to tell, although I think it is far more complicated than many presentations by contemporary Catholics might suggest. Rather, it is the theological implications of this passage through modernity that are intriguing with this in mind: Catholics must account for culture.

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Aesthetics as the Modality for the Catholic Posture of Faith

As you might have guessed from the title of this address, I am charac- terizing the Catholic and Pentecostal postures of faith under the rubrics of aesthetics and pathos respectively. On the Catholic side it will be no secret that the influence that most informs my reflections is that of the great twentieth-century Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. Let me begin with a proposition.

In the posture of faith, it is impossible from a Catholic perspective to separate the fides qua from the fides quae. Actually I think that is true for all Christians, Pentecostals included, although I should let folks speak for themselves. This does not, however, make it any easier to explicate the matter theologically. My previous reference to the cultural context was intended to highlight the complications attending any assertion of the proposition. For example, one approach in Catholic apologetics is to argue that the truth of Catholic faith is evident in its beauty. Such an aesthetical approach highlights the beauty of its liturgy, religious art, the seamlessness of its dogmatic edifice and philosophical traditions, and the lives of its saints. Actually it is very appealing, perhaps more in the past than in the present. But nostalgic appeals to a previous era, the high Middle Ages or the Church Fathers, for instance, is not what I mean by the aesthetic modality of the faith, even considering the importance of tradition and continuity for Catholic sensibilities.

The aesthetical characterization of Catholic faith has more to do with the configuration of the divine-human relation in terms of beauty, or, more accurately, glory. In other words, the glory of God is manifested or medi- ated through the form of the faith both in regard to its subjectivity, the fides qua, and its objectivity, the fides quae. The light and experience of faith on the one hand, and the structure and dynamic of revelation on the other, constitute the aesthetic modality of faith in the Catholic tradition. Or, to put it another way, contemplation and sacramentality, to use just two examples of Catholic religious praxis, are the two poles by which the divine presence is known and apprehended by Catholics.

First, a word about form, since it may seem odd to Pentecostal ears to hear that faith, even in its subjective modality, is a matter of form. Form implies mediation, and Pentecostals—at least this is my impression—tend to emphasize immediacy in the divine-human relation. From the Cath- olic perspective, form as a modality of mediation does not detract from the reality of God’s presence in one’s life, or from those immediate

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inspirations that may be classified as actual graces, or, as in Ignatian spir- ituality, consolations without previous cause—that is, when God “enter[s] into the soul…to act upon it…without any previous perception or knowledge of any object from which such consolation might come to the soul through its own acts of intellect and will.”

Form, therefore, embraces rather than excludes mystery. Mystery, defined as the salvific presence and agency of God in the gospel, and mys- tery as the human reception of that divine action and presence, is revela- tory of that which exceeds its manifestation in the form. Let me repeat the point: mystery is present in the form, it is mediated by form, and simulta- neously is greater than the form. As we say in the Ignatian tradition in spir- ituality—the one that shapes my own spiritual life—God is the magis, the always more. This holds for God and for the human participants in the mystery of salvation. Neither God nor the workings of grace lie outside of form. The reality of mystery including its excess resides in the form, not behind or beyond it. So there is not a God beyond the mystery of the Holy Trinity, nor is the presence of grace in a person’s life something less than the mystery of God’s self-communication to the believer. This is all the more the case when we consider that the fides quae and the fides qua can- not be separated, although we may distinguish them.

Perhaps this may become clearer by analyzing the following prayer, the Preface for Mass on the Solemnity of Christmas as found in the Roman Missal:

In the wonder of the Incarnation Your eternal Word has brought to the eyes of faith a new and radiant vision of your glory. In him we see our God made visible and so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see.

Here we have what von Balthasar calls the objective and subjective evi- dences of faith, namely, the Incarnation and the eyes of faith. Note the dominance of the aesthetic motif and its requirement of form. The revela- tion of the Incarnation imparts “a new and radiant vision of your glory.” The “eyes of faith”—a visual metaphor quite at home in the Catholic tradition—leads to the rapture of “being caught up in love of the God we cannot see.” The radiance of the divine glory in Christ, “our God made vis- ible,” generates faith which itself is a participation in that very glory.

The mediating role of form is essential to both revelation and faith. The movement to the God we cannot see is only possible because of the visi- bility of God’s glory in Christ whom we can see. Christ is not left behind as some temporary point of transition into the unseen God. Glory, a good

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biblical concept, is precisely the splendor of God made visible, in this case made visible in the humanity of Christ, the culmination of Israel’s salvation history. A dynamic of praise is the only proper response to the glory irradiating from Christ. The doxology with which the prayer of the eucharistic canon concludes culminates in a movement through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit to the honor and glory of God the Father. Therefore, the principle of sacramentality, that is, the divine presence signified and efficaciously active in a creaturely medium, corresponds to the aesthetical gaze that is worship with its trans- formational implications. Paul knew this well: “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

Likewise, if we cannot dispense with the sacramental mediation of divine glory in Christ, the God-man whose glorified humanity is never dis- pensable, then we cannot ignore the participatory dimensions of the act of faith as well. The form of faith as the fides qua embraces the sensory aspects of human agency, what the classical traditions in spirituality called the “spiritual senses.” The passive and active modalities of the experience of faith presuppose the ontological enablement of the human agent through the grace that both heals and elevates, the gratia sanans and the gratia ele- vans. Faith is enacted via the attunement of the whole person, corporeally and spiritually, to the divine presence discerned, as it were, in the very actions of the one who believes. This primordial Christian experience, an attunement to God in faith, hope, and love, is the basis for all infused graces, whether mystical or charismatic in nature. It is this ontological ele- vation of the human person, a transformative dynamic at the level of habit, that the Catholic doctrine of created grace is intended to convey. Super- natural in modality it suffuses and is known through the human acts that it engenders. The form of the act of faith is the very disposition of the person who is a new creation. He or she is called to radiate the beauty of holiness, the effulgence of the divine glory in Christ that constitutes, permeates, and shines forth from the communion of saints.

In order to appreciate this dynamism of grace I need to turn briefly to the notion of experience and its place in the traditional Catholic theology of grace. It is by no means a foregone conclusion in Catholic theology that experience has any proper place in the theology of grace. At least, it does not occupy the place that the doctrine of assurance does in some Protestant evangelical traditions, especially when this is understood as the means by which the presence of saving grace in one’s life may be verified. The

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struggles of John Wesley, for instance, over whether he was a Christian possessing saving faith seems odd to Catholic sensibilities. In the classical spiritual tradition, one would be cautioned about such enthusiastic excesses, for it was believed that the reliance on experience for the assur- ance that grace was indeed at work distorted both the truth about the oper- ations of God’s grace and the validity of experiences one might have received from the Lord.

The caution about experience was not without dogmatic foundation. The Decree on Justification of the Council of Trent, in Chapter IX entitled “Against the Vain Confidence of Heretics,” concludes: “no one can know with the certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to error, that he has obtained the grace of God.” Following this a strong strain in neo- Scholastic theology, in order to emphasize the supernatural dimension of grace, argued that grace was inaccessible to the realm of human con- sciousness. On the other hand and at the same time, other traditions, espe- cially in spiritual theology, affirmed the vast array of spiritual experiences one could have, including infused mystical graces, the experiential horizon of many a saint. The tradition of discernment of spirits in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola is a good example of this.

The key in all this is Catholic caution about the absolute claim of cer- tainty in knowing that one has grace. Thomas Aquinas distinguished between such certainty and the knowledge one may have by conjecture. For example, although not with absolute certainty, one could interpret one’s experience such as delighting in God and despising worldly things, and conclude to the presence of grace in one’s life. Or, as St. Joan of Arc, with rather heroic faith when asked during her trial if she was in God’s grace, replied: “If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there.” This is quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (# 2005) in a paragraph that begins with the statement,

Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience, and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved.

This sets the context for the aesthetical model of the posture of faith derived from the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar. His definition of the “experience of faith,” a concept he rehabilitates with great effort, never- theless also reflects these deep-seated Catholic sensibilities. Thus he can say that the experience of faith is “the experiencing of something that is essentially hidden and which is present only through mediation.”

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Therefore, he prefers to speak of “dogmatic experience” rather than psy- chological experience, those that are “‘objective’ experiences in Christ and in the Church,” for it is in them that the form of God is known. This ensures that the experience of faith is indeed a self-surrender to God and is pneumatologically based. “The Holy Spirit,” says von Balthasar with a rather Germanic cadence, “is, in identity, both the Spirit of God’s objective revelation in Christ and of the objectivation of the existential Christ-form in the form of the Church—her offices, charisms, and sacraments—and the Spirit of Christian subjectivity as faith, hope, and love.”

The Catholic posture of faith, and I think von Balthasar is right on this, consists in beholding the divine beauty present as glory “in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations” (Eph. 3:21). In this case beauty “is” sim- ply in the eye of the beholder if that beholder is the God-man himself and ours through the participation of grace. Thus we may conclude this section by appropriating the interrelationship between the fides qua and the fides quae, but now in the sense offered by von Balthasar: “. . . the fides quae of the Christian is the fides qua of Christ as he faces the Father, and even the Christian’s fides qua lives from the radiance of this light of Christ, which we can characterize as the Christian’s archetypal fides and which shapes the totality of his form by making the whole man into an adequate answer to God’s Word.”

The Pentecostal Posture of Faith: Pathos and Transformation

Amid the challenges posed to orthodoxy by liberationist-inspired or- thropraxy in the last four decades, orthopathy has emerged as a distinctive Wesleyan and now also Pentecostal contribution to Christian theological method. The “right passion” of the religious affections has restored John Wesley in particular to his rightful place among the great theologians of the Christian Church. Gregory Clapper, Henry Knight, Richard Steel, Theodore Runyon, Steven Land, and Samuel Solivan are among those who have employed this approach. For the purposes of this address I will uti- lize their insights to analyze the Pentecostal posture of faith and then return to its implications relative to the doctrine of God.

It is important to note that the utilization of this concept is of Wesleyan provenance and has been picked up by Pentecostals, especially those in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition, but not exclusively. I mention this because its employment in a Wesleyan context might be different than in a Pente- costal one. These concern three major aspects of orthopathy, which I will

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pose as questions for further Pentecostal theological inquiry.

The first revolves around the influence of Wesley for Pentecostals. While this need not be confined to the Wesleyan-Holiness stream of Pentecostalism, his influence there is certainly greater. Further, does a Wesleyan account of the religious affections also apply to Spirit baptism and glossolalia, the Pentecostal distinctive, as it does to the rest of the affections in the Christian life? In other words, does the emphasis upon the reception, experience, and use of charismata change the configuration of religious affections when compared to the experience of grace that sanctifies? There is also the issue of progeny. Wesleyan theology owes more to Wesley than Pentecostal theology, and there is no comparative figure of similar theological weight in Pentecostal origins such as Wesley occupies in Methodist and Holiness origins.

The second concern focuses on the ecclesial context within which one affirms the centrality of the religious affections and how they may be parsed relative to both discernment and the practice of Christian life. Henry Knight’s excellent book, The Presence of God in the Christian Life: John Wesley and the Means of Grace, identifies the issue in its subtitle. To understand clearly Wesley’s “religion of the heart” he must be situated within his own historical context in the Church of England. The battles against Formalism and Enthusiasm, against Antinomianism and Perfec- tionism, as Knight’s chapters unfold it, were specific to his context. I do not doubt that analogies to that context may appear as types throughout Church history, and therefore Wesley’s distinctions may function as sys- tematic guides and rules, a regulative grammar for theology as a whole. As I have said, it is now time for Wesley to assume his place among the Church’s theologians. But it does raise questions about the relationship between the religious affections and “the traditional means of grace.” It seems to me that Wesley’s very nuanced account of the religious affec- tions, as Knight explicates it, is profoundly informed by his Anglican con- text in which such means were in practice. Is there the same intentionality about these “traditional means of grace,” especially the sacraments, in Pentecostal churches or even in Wesleyan-Holiness churches as there was for Wesley in his own Anglican context? Does this affect one’s account of the religious affections and their emergent formative role in theology? You understand how Catholics would be particularly interested in this question!

A third question concerns the definition and configuration of the reli- gious affections. This is the most important and the one on which I will

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concentrate. Steven Land, in his book, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom, describes “Christian affections” as “objective, relational and dispositional.” The summary is consistent with the work of the Wesleyan scholars he mines, and highlights the depth and complexity of the religious affections. As objective, God is “the source and telos of the affections.” This corresponds with the fides quae, von Balthasar’s objec- tive evidence in the aesthetical apprehension of God.

There is much to discuss regarding the medium of the fides quae. For example, how does doctrine or dogma mediate the truth and content of the faith? For Land, the emphasis is on oral-narrative formation in which “God’s righteousness, love and power…evoke, limit and direct the affec- tions of the believer.” While this may not include creedal profession, the proclamation of the gospel, indeed of the “full gospel,” is enacted through Pentecostal rituals of praise, preaching, testimony, and prayer. In this dynamic there is certainly present an announcement and discernment of the truth of the gospel. For a full list of such rituals see Daniel Albrecht’s, Rites in the Spirit: A Ritual Approach to Pentecostal/Charismatic Spirituality—(Macro)Rituals in Appendix A, and Liturgical Rites, Foundational and Microrites in Appendix B. (The one I particularly like is the “sacred expletive,” to be distinguished from “sacred explicatives”).

The Christian affections are also relational; in “faith, obedience and love” they “shape and express” one’s “relationship with God, the church and the world.” They embrace the moment-by-moment existential relation that the believer has with the Lord and that is in fact dependent upon Christ’s “initiating, sustaining and directing” action. Again, here I would draw a parallel with the fides qua of von Balthasar’s subjective evidence for the experience of faith.

Finally, the Christian affections are dispositional. Dispositions are to be distinguished from feelings and moods. Therefore, they are not “passing feelings or sensate episodes.” Rather, they characterize a person, and in disposing one to God and neighbor, they seem to corroborate with the notion of the effects of habitual grace in the Catholic tradition. Perhaps we can characterize the dispositional dimension of Christian affections as grounded in the ontological transformation that grace works in the believer, the new creation effected by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

All of the above is consistent with the Wesleyan scholarship I men- tioned and is dependent upon it. A major characteristic of all this work is to underscore what I call the depth dimension of the religious affections.

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The intention of orthopathy is not a revival of emotionalism but the embrace of the biblical notion of the heart as essential to transformation in the Christian life. Its Pentecostal adaptation suggests that the intense affec- tivity that characterized the emergence of Pentecostalism had much to do with a combination of charismatic manifestations and apocalyptic longing. Land even speaks of the “the Apocalyptic Affections” as the overarching category for Pentecostal effusion and experience. Gratitude in praise and thanksgiving, compassion in love and longing, and courage in confidence and hope are proposed as the template by which we can schematize Pentecostal affections. However, another issue arises—in addition to the one I raised about the means of grace—in this adaptation of orthopathy from the Wesleyan to the Pentecostal tradition.

Knight devotes a short section of his investigation to the “relation of immediate and mediated presence.” Again, the analysis and explication of Wesley’s position is informed by how Wesley responded to his critics, in this case, Anglican and Moravian. Suffice it to say that God can be imme- diately present contra some Anglican denials. In fact, Wesley sounds like Ignatius Loyola when he affirms that in private prayer, for instance, God may pour forth his love into one’s heart and thereby be acting immediately on the soul. At the same time, contra the Moravians, God often employs outward elements of religion, such as the means of grace, to relate one to God in an inward manner. In other words, God may become immediately present through the means of grace.

In addition to the issue of whether for Pentecostals the “outward” means of grace are a means to “inward religion,” the theology one assumes on the nature-grace relation is also raised. As I hinted at before, in the Pentecostal arena this has not only to do with the modality of “sanctifying grace,” for example, but also with the nature of the charismata or spiritual gifts. The expectations of the supernatural that inform Pentecostal affec- tions weigh in the direction of immediacy. When translated into Pente- costal practice this may very well mean that the perceived immediacy of divine presence trumps mediated modalities with consequences all across the theological spectrum from spirituality to ecclesiology. Let me briefly pursue these by comparison with the Catholic perspective.

Aesthetics and Pathos: Complementary Postures of Faith?

I have used these two heuristic models, aesthetics and pathos, to char- acterize the Catholic and Pentecostal postures of faith. In the process I

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have raised the question of the modality of divine presence in the two tra- ditions, immediate and mediate, along with their respective theologies of grace, especially in regard to nature and supernature. And just to state the obvious, these are more Catholic queries than they are Pentecostal.

By posing the question of complementarity I am not suggesting incom- patibility at all! It is not a question of right vision versus right affections. As we have seen, both models interrelate the fides qua with the fides quae, the subjective and objective dimensions of faith. So we cannot posit the aesthetic model as having to do only with what is seen, but with “seeing” as well. Likewise, pathos is not limited to the heart of the believer but also applies to the heart of God—the angle largely pursued by Samuel Solivan in, The Spirit, Pathos and Liberation: Toward an Hispanic Pentecostal Theology. My hope, then, is to explore how these two Christian traditions (the oldest and the youngest!) might each illuminate the other.

One area of conversation is certainly ecclesiology, especially the rela- tionship between the sacramental and the charismatic. But that would take us far afield and require attention to a number of issues that have not been broached in this address. Let me concentrate, then, on the question of authenticity and faith. I mean authenticity in the existential sense, the real- ity and truth of faith.

In a postmodern context in which a variety of worldviews, including religious ones, contend with each other, it is imperative that the Church contends for the faith; and this begins primarily in the house of God. It does not stop there. In fact, there can be no authentic faith without mission. But we cannot fool ourselves that the faith will be heard in proclamation without its truth registering in the lives of those who profess it, those who confess Jesus Christ in the Church and in witness to the world. In this regard Catholics have much to learn from Pentecostals and maybe, at least in the lives of the saints (I am mindful of the scandal that has rocked my church in the last two years!), Pentecostals can learn from Catholics.

Authenticity primarily has to do with the encounter with God. A recent document from the Roman Curia entitled Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the “New Age” attempts to iden- tify how the spiritual hunger present in our culture is being satisfied with a narcissistic spirituality that focuses on the innate human potential for self-fulfillment. In no way naïve about the diffusion of New Age spirit- uality even by groups within the Church, the document mandates solid theological appraisals and strict spiritual discernment of these tendencies. The main counter to this phenomenon is promotion of authentic Christian

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spirituality, the core of which is a relationship to the God who is transcen- dent to creation and yet redeems it in love.

In order to ensure this prospect it is necessary that the whole person be engaged in the divine-human encounter. Christian faith has never just been a matter of intellectual assent, although that indeed is a dimension of con- version. The way to the truth of the gospel must also embrace the neces- sary interconnection between the objective and subjective dimensions of faith. In both of our traditions the integrity of faith is dependent upon self- surrender to the self-revealing Other known publicly, not esoterically, in the gospel. “Right seeing” and “right affections” bespeak the ongoing transformational process by which believers are conformed to Jesus Christ. The encounter with the living God of the gospel reaches to the depths of the person by virtue of the presence and agency of the One who is revealed. It is to the truth of the latter that we now turn.

The Vision of God in Glory and Power

The vision of God, the visio beatifica or beatific vision, is the most direct and simple understanding of eschatological fulfillment. It is the highest good, the summum bonum, of the creature, this seeing of God face- to-face. An intuitive, immediate seeing of God in the divine essence is what constitutes the beatific vision and embraces acts of knowledge, love, and joy with knowledge or love being more foundational depending on whether one is a Thomist or Scotist. The just soul requires the lumen gloriae, or light of glory, in order to see God. It is beyond the natural capacity of the intellect to see God; therefore the light of glory supernatu- rally elevates the just soul to see God without any creaturely mediation. In this sense the heavenly vision is a case of pure immediacy. Until then we see in a glass darkly, until we shall know fully as we are fully known (1 Cor. 13:12) when we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2) with the requi- site transformation that this entails—we shall be like him. God may act on the soul directly or immediately in our wayfaring state, but this is only anticipation of what is to come in the state of glory.

One further aspect of this scholastic compendium has to do with the interrelationship among the various forms of cognition. The light of glory corresponds to the light of faith, the lumen fidei, in the present state of grace, which itself perfects the light of reason, the lumen rationis, in the state of nature. So, by the light of reason we know the created order; by the light of faith we know—in the biblical sense of that word—the truths of

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divine revelation; and by the light of glory we will know God in the divine essence in heaven.

The supernatural dimension of the divine economy is evident in both grace and glory. The pilgrim state wherein we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7) is the fruit of sanctifying grace. The heavenly state is likewise the fruit of glory, the eschatological consummation of grace that presently justifies and sanctifies. The light of glory strengthens the intellect to see God and in the words of Thomas Aquinas “is to be described not as medium in which God is seen but as a medium by which God is seen; and as such does not take away the immediate vision of God.”

Why bother with these theological nuances? If the mutual contribution of our two traditions is to mark the authenticity of the encounter with God as a witness to the truth of the gospel, then we need to take care that the human and divine acts that constitute the encounter are preserved in their full integrity. On the human side this translates into the fully supernatural and the fully human dimensions of that encounter. Grace and grace alone enables the life of faith and the life of glory. Simultaneously, it is the inter- nalization of such grace, the truly sanctified and anointed life that reveals the triumph of grace. Did not Paul say that he did not receive the grace of God in vain but worked harder than the rest of the apostles and not him but the grace of God that was with him (1 Cor. 15:10)? It is this marvel of grace that our two traditions, at their best, bear witness to: I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, yet the life I now live I live by faith (Gal. 2:20). It is this combination of divine and human agency—Christ lives and I live— that is at the heart of the matter.

Translate, if you will, what I have been articulating in Catholic scholas- tic terminology into a Pentecostal genre. First, recall the Catholic expres- sion. One sees God in heaven by the light of glory, an illumination of the created intellect by which the essence of God is known—thoroughly supernatural and yet by God’s gift intrinsic to our glorified cognition. By that I mean that the light of glory, to quote from one scholastic source, is “a supernatural operative habit bestowed upon reason.” Additionally, the life of faith is the beginning of the supernatural process that leads to such consummation.

How does this sound in Pentecostal language? Perhaps something like this? When the Holy Spirit is poured out the divine affections begin to seize us. Now that’s just the beginning! In fact, we have already been moved from within when we began to long and tarry for the coming of the Holy Spirit. To long and to tarry, to groan and to wait upon the Lord!

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Already there is a transformational process that is taking place. For it is in the pathos of God to bestow the Holy Spirit, and now, as we pray and tarry for the promise, it begins to emerge as our own pathos. This too is a gift! The divine affections that want so much to give the gift of the Holy Spirit, in desire so far beyond what human beings in their noble and generous parental affections are capable of—if a child asked for a piece of bread what father among you . . .?! (Luke 11:11-13)—these divine affections are now being matched by grace working within our human affectivity, so closely tied to desire and volition, that we pray, tarry, and receive the gift when it comes. And again, this is only the beginning!

The Spirit is bestowed in power, and what happens? People go forth as the Spirit leads and anoints. Sensitivity to the things of God, both those that make for holiness and those that make for convincing witness, is increased! The grace and power of God so works within that one apostle can say to those to whom he is sent: “For God is my witness, how I long for you with the affection of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:8). Is that not transfor- mation? Is that not the pathos of God becoming the pathos of his children? “Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48)! “Be mer- ciful just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). And, by the way, from where does Pentecostal praise and adoration arise? Is it not from the mys- terium pietatas, the mystery of piety, at work when, in the synergy (to use an Eastern Christian concept) of divine and human affections, we are led by our high priest, the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ in praise and worship?

What does all this suggest about the doctrine of God? Since in good Thomistic fashion—the exitus and reditus of all things coming from and returning to God—God is the beginning, the middle, and the end. Actually, Paul said it first: “For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). To the human participant the commanding invitation then is clear: “Be holy for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:15-16). It sounds as if what we say about God has some- thing to do with the language of being!

Truth be told, not a lot has been written on the Pentecostal doctrine of God. The theologians of this Society are just catching up with the exegetes and historians. I have mentioned Sam Solivan’s utilization of orthopathy. He envisions it as the third leg of a “Liberating Triad” along with ortho- doxy and orthopraxis, oriented especially to “suffering as multi-dimen- sional experience [that] incorporates all our being, including the spiritual sphere.” In the realm of the metaphysics of divine being more specifically,

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Clark Pinnock has argued that a Pentecostal contribution would accentuate the emphasis on divine relationality. Pentecostals, he says, should forswear the absolutist model of divine being because they are “relational theists.” Terry Cross, in the same issue of the Journal of Pentecostal Theology in which this proposal was floated, responded mostly in the affirmative, with the caveat that the perfection and relationality of God ought to be consid- ered in dialectical tension. He did, however, suggest that Pentecostals could not avoid “some kind of philosophical categorization to organize our theological concepts.” Pentecostal theologians and philosophers need to continue this theological inquiry.

I will conclude with some Catholic reflections on the matter in dialogue with Pentecostal concerns. In good Catholic fashion it is my judgment that one cannot afford to evacuate metaphysics from language about God or thinking about God. Clearly that is a loaded statement, and to avoid any further digression I will not unpack it. For those interested, and whose aca- demic fare includes the “sacred explicative,” I will confess that I am mov- ing in a post-Heideggerian Thomistic direction. What that means is simply that the postures of faith that I have discussed imply that presence, or, bet- ter yet, “presencing” is at the core of a metaphysical universe, to borrow a phrase from the late Dominican theologian William J. Hill. The presencing of being seems to me the most cogent account of subjectivity, intersubjec- tivity, and the convertibility of the transcendentals: being, truth, goodness, and beauty. That is the Heideggerian side. The Thomistic emphasis is evi- dent in my continued judgment that the best way to metaphysically describe the being of God relative to creation, and which I think preserves creation as creaturely vis-à-vis God, is the notion of actus purus, God as pure act. All that God is in the divine being itself and in relation to creation is best accounted for as movement from actuality to actuality, not from potentiality to actuality or vice-versa. In other words, movement in God, for example, the intra-divine processions that constitute the persons of the Trinity, and movement from God into the created order—for example, the temporal missions of the Son and Spirit in the divine economy—are move- ments of presencing as pure actuality. Dialoguing with Pentecostals con- vinces me of this even more.

If Pinnock, with Cross’s necessary coda, is correct about relational theism, then the epistemic moment in faith is derived from the presencing of divine agency and power in the motions of grace and in the distribu- tion and operation of spiritual gifts. Pentecostals are acutely aware of God’s presence in their lives, a presence that is both personal, in a sort of

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dialogical and personalist I—Thou Buberian sense, and energetic—in the modality of power. The divine energies, to use an Orthodox concept, or the operative dynamism of the Spirit’s gifting, characterize the Pentecostal/ Charismatic experience. It is through this modality of divine agency that God’s personal nature is known. The manifestation of power is not inimi- cal to personal apprehension of God; rather it seems to confirm it. God cares for me because God has liberated me through the manifest and effi- cacious presence of God’s power.

All of this also has to do with presencing; God’s coming to presence via manifestations of the Spirit, and our coming to presence through the praxis of praise and ministry in the Spirit. No surprise, then, that there has always been an intimate connection among Pentecostals between the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit coming to presence, and eschatological long- ing, the Lord Jesus coming to presence in the parousia, which also entails our glorification with him. The Thomistic twist on these Pentecostal sensi- bilities is necessitated by the following observations.

I return to the context with which I began this address. Our world is plagued by a combination of secular and spiritual forces that have lost their way. Secular forces have settled into a material contestation of identity and power. This misses the mark (another word for sin!) of true diversity in unity by coercive forces that fracture and fragment the human project, both from within communities and from without spiritual forces in all their pluralism seem to refract back into the human condition an infra-cosmic redundancy of escapist aspirations, narcissistic self-fulfillment, or the enlistment of spiritual energy in support of the material contestation of sec- ular forces. In the face of this, what might the churches offer? If “heaven below” is an apt metaphor for the Pentecostal Movement, and let me sug- gest “open heaven” as a metaphor for the Catholic vision, then we need to ensure that the presencing in which we participate is indeed from above.

The Thomistic insistence that God’s coming to presence is from actual- ity to actuality preserves our creatureliness, a necessary prerequisite for participation in the divine light and power that comes from above. It is in the poverty of our finitude and sin that we discover the fullness of God who exceeds the intent of our petitions and even the scope of our imagi- nation (Eph. 3:19-20, 1 Cor. 2:9). Most of all, the pathos and beauty of God, the presencing of grace and glory, bespeaks subsistence in God that exceeds our apprehension and that evokes our praise. By subsistence I mean something that is neither transitory nor ephemeral. Although in the beatific vision we never comprehend God, yet we really commune with

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God, a communion that begins in via, on the way. Here and now, in the Pentecostal assembly and the sacramental community, there resides the presencing of human and divine persons, the highest form of be-ing. There we catch a glimpse of authentic subjectivity as intersubjectivity, persons in communion. Such communion in the heart of God can only be invoked by naming that form that will never pass away—Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there is just something about that Name!

Measuring Digital Discipleship

On Measuring Digital Discipleship

One attempt toward a more accurate and useful measurement of spiritual growth is presented by Brad J. Waggoner in his book The Shape of Faith to Come: Spiritual Formation and the Future of Discipleship. Waggoner focuses on seven domains and the answers to questions relative to a defined biblical truth. These domains are: learning the truth; obeying God and denying self; serving God and others; sharing Christ; exercising faith; seeking God; and, building relationships.

https://www.johnbmacdonald.com/blog/measuring-spiritual-growth
https://www.breezechms.com/blog/3-ways-we-measure-spiritual-growth

Through extensive testing, LifeWay Research has discovered that certain markers are at work in the lives of believers who are progressing in spiritual maturity. These 8 signposts reveal each person’s spiritual progress:

1. Engaging the Bible
2. Obeying God and Denying Self
3. Serving Others
4. Sharing Christ
5. Various Exercising Faith
6. Seeking God
7. Building Relationships
8. Living Unashamed

Spiritual Growth Measurement Resources

A few years ago, LifeWay Research embarked on an in-depth study to examine the state of discipleship in the church today—the Transformational Discipleship Assessment (TDA). That study included interviews with 28 discipleship experts, a survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, and a survey of 4,000 lay people in North America (30 percent of the respondents were from Canada).
This research revealed eight attributes that consistently show up in the lives of maturing disciples: Bible engagement, obeying God and denying self, serving God and others, sharing Christ, exercising faith, seeking God, building relationships, and being unashamed (transparency). The study also found that certain kinds of behavior led to people growing in those attributes. Among them: confessing our sins and reading the Bible.

The RISE of a CHURCH

God’s way out is not yucky nor mucky. When crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites’ rain boots didn’t get stuck in the muck.  They walked on DRY land.  Believe for the DRY path.

Theological Reflections on Dubai as a Modern-Day Babylon: An Analysis of Prophetic Parallels

Theological Reflections on Dubai as a Modern-Day Babylon: An Analysis of Prophetic Parallels

I present this discussion to address an intriguing observation that has surfaced after over two decades of preaching on eschatological signs around the world. While I have delivered messages on the potential parallels between biblical prophecy and contemporary developments, including the rise of Dubai as a possible modern-day iteration of Babylon, I find that there is an absence of an English-language recording encapsulating these ideas. Although materials exist in Bulgarian and other languages, their accessibility requires translation—a process akin to the biblical “gift of interpretation of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:10). Today, I endeavor to provide a concise analysis of how biblical prophetic frameworks align with the socio-economic and cultural developments in Dubai, with a particular focus on its potential typological significance as a restored Babylonian empire.

The 10-Nation Confederation and Its Eschatological Implications

To begin, we observe the existence of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), a 10-nation consortium that includes Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The composition of this organization is noteworthy for its shared Islamic identity, which imbues its geopolitical actions with apocalyptic undertones, as noted by Esposito (1999) in The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?. Within Islamic eschatology, the concept of the Mahdi, a messianic figure, plays a central role, and population growth is often viewed as a religious imperative to strengthen the Muslim world’s global influence (Nasr, 2007). This shared worldview situates the Middle East, and particularly Dubai, as a focal point in contemporary discussions of global power shifts.

Economic and Cultural Hegemony of Dubai

Dubai, strategically located across the Persian Gulf from Iraq, resonates with the ancient descriptions of Babylon as a center of wealth, trade, and cultural exchange. Scholars such as Oster (2017) have highlighted that ancient Babylon was not merely a geographic entity but a symbol of hubristic human ambition and economic dominance, themes that echo in the modern emirate’s meteoric rise. Dubai hosts over 25 million tourists annually and boasts one of the largest airports in the world, positioning itself as the “tourism capital of the world” (UNWTO, 2023). Additionally, Dubai’s multicultural fabric, where representatives from virtually every nation, language, and religion coexist, aligns with the biblical depiction of Babylon as a cosmopolitan hub (Revelation 17:15).

Economically, Dubai’s influence extends far beyond its borders. It controls over 30% of the NASDAQ technical index, reflecting its significant role in global financial markets (Jones, 2022). The construction of man-made islands, such as Palm Jumeirah and “The World,” symbolizes both its technological prowess and its aspiration to reshape the natural world—a characteristic often attributed to ancient Babylon’s monumental architecture (Finkel, 2013).

Biblical and Historical Comparisons

Theologically, parallels between Dubai and ancient Babylon can be drawn from the narrative of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. The construction of the Tower was motivated by human vanity and a desire to “make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4, NIV), a sentiment that mirrors Dubai’s rapid urbanization and global branding efforts. Furthermore, the Etemenanki ziggurat in Babylon, dedicated to the god Marduk, served as a “temple of the foundation of heaven and earth” (George, 1992). Similarly, Dubai’s architectural marvels, such as the Burj Khalifa—the tallest building in the world—serve as modern testaments to human ambition and ingenuity, echoing ancient aspirations to connect the terrestrial with the divine.

From a historical perspective, the Tower of Babel was constructed after the biblical flood (Genesis 6-9), ostensibly as a safeguard against future cataclysms. This raises the question: Is Dubai, with its advanced infrastructure and resilience to climate change, similarly positioned as a haven against potential global crises? While speculative, this analogy invites further exploration through interdisciplinary studies of theology, urban planning, and environmental sustainability.

Eschatological Considerations and Future Directions

Critics argue that comparisons between Dubai and Babylon lack theological significance. However, an examination of the facts reveals compelling parallels. Scholars such as Beale (1999) have emphasized the symbolic role of Babylon in biblical prophecy, representing human rebellion against divine authority and the concentration of power, wealth, and corruption. Dubai’s emergence as a dominant force in the global economy and culture invites reflection on whether it fulfills a similar archetype in contemporary times.

Finally, the rise of new economic alliances, such as BRICS and the shift toward alternative currencies for oil trade, further underscores the Middle East’s centrality in shaping global geopolitics (Shah, 2023). As the region continues to evolve, the potential for a unified Arab political and economic bloc reminiscent of ancient Babylon remains a topic of significant scholarly interest.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while Dubai is not a direct geographical or historical successor to Babylon, its symbolic resonance with the ancient city is undeniable. The intersection of biblical prophecy, economic power, and cultural diversity renders Dubai a compelling case study for understanding the eschatological dynamics of the modern world. As history unfolds, it remains to be seen whether Dubai will further solidify its role as a modern Babylon, embodying the themes of ambition, globalization, and apocalyptic anticipation that have captured the human imagination for millennia.

Toward a Pentecostal Philosophy of Education

Toward a Pentecostal Philosophy of Education Jeffrey S. Hittenberger Introduction Michael Parra serves as Outreach Coordinator at Valley High School in Santa Ana, California, an urban community south of Los Angeles. Every day Michael works with students in crisis, on the verge of dropping out, involved in gangs, pregnant, suicidal. He states: ‘ Whereas some people might say, “This kid is lost,” I have an of what God can do. Some expectation call people might say I’m optimistic because I’m But what young. or see as a attitude, I would call people optimism, positive expectation, vibrant expectation of what God can do. Outside looking in, some might see it as youthful impetuousness, but I see it as a recognition of God’s power, and my wanting to be involved in God’s Kingdom work. Michael Parra is one of perhaps millions of Pentecostal educators, tens of thousands of whom are working in formal education systems. To be a Pentecostal or Charismatic Christian (henceforth, for the sake of simplicity, Pentecostal) is to be one of more than 400 million people in the world who have submitted their lives to Jesus Christ and opened their souls to receive the baptism or infilling of the Holy Spirit. Terminology varies, but Pentecostals share a belief that the gifts of the Spirit did not end with the Apostles, that the signs, wonders, and miracles in the Acts of the Apostles are not confined to the first century, but that that outpouring of the Spirit continues into the presents. I How do Pentecostal Christians think about and do education? How do Pentecostal experience and theology shape Pentecostal educational philoso- phy and pedagogy? I am especially interested in how Pentecostal experi- ence and theology influence our teaching and thinking when we teach in formal education systems and in higher education systems. Do our experi- ences of Spirit baptism or Spirit in filling and our beliefs about the ongoing outpouring of the Spirit give our educational ideas and practices a distinc- ‘ I David B. Barrett, and Todd M. Johnson, “Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: 1999,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 23:1 (January 1999), Johnson estimate pp. 24-25. Barrett and Pentecostal/Charismatic population at just over 449 million in mid-1999. define this They category as “Church members involved in the Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal.” ” 217 1 tive quality? Is there some special gift that Pentecostal educators have to share with the larger church and with the wider world? Four sections follow, corresponding to the major questions to be addressed: What do Pentecostals say about how their experience and theology impacts their educational thought and practice? . What framework might allow us to formulate and compare philosophies of education? How do Pentecostal educators adopt and adapt various educational philoso- phies ? What framework might enable Pentecostals to further explore and articulate the impact of Pentecostal experience and theology upon their educational philosophy and practice? – The bulk of this study is descriptive and analytic in character, covering the first three questions above in some detail, while suggesting a preliminary framework in response to question four. This study is exploratory in nature and seeks to contribute to Pentecostal thinking and practice regarding edu- cation. The structure of this article is inductive, moving from the specifics of Pentecostals reflecting on their own experience as educators toward the generalities of educational philosophy. I do not presume to articulate a Pentecostal philosophy of education in any definitive fashion. I do suggest, however, that Pentecostal experience and theology have relevance for the educational philosophies and practices of Pentecostal educators, a relevance that opens fascinating possibilities for further research and development. For the purposes of this study, “Pentecostal” is defined broadly to include those Christians who consider themselves Pentecostal or Charismatic, embracing the works of the Holy Spirit in the first-century church as described in Acts and elsewhere in the New Testament as relevant and normative for contemporary Christians. Pentecostal experience, by extension, is defined as personal participation in Christian communities that embrace and seek the continuous outpouring of the Holy Spirit and practice the multiple gifts of the Spirit described in the New Testament. A subsequent study might fruitfully examine distinctions among various Pentecostal and Charismatic groups (with their varied ideas of the nature of the continuous 218 2 outpouring) with regard to educational philosophy. Education is also defined broadly to include both the formal (school- based, credit- or degree-oriented) and nonformal (church- or home-based, mentoring-oriented). A Pentecostal educator, therefore, might be a teacher, a pastor, a mentor, a parent, or a friend who intentionally contributes to the learning of another. This broad definition of education also recognizes that much learning occurs indirectly, or informally, and this is of particular sig- nificance to Pentecostals. The primary focus of the study, however, is on education in formal and post-secondary settings. Peterson has defined a philosophy of education as “a unified set of philosophical assumptions together with their implications for the educa- tional enterprise.”2 Knight notes that the task of educational philosophy is to bring educators into z . Face-to-face contact with the large questions underlying the meaning and purpose of life and education. To understand these questions, the student must wrestle with such issues as the nature of reality, the meaning and sources of knowledge, and the structure of values. Educational must philoso- phy bring students into a position from which they can evaluate alternative intelligent- ly ends, relate their aims to desired ends, and select methods that harmonize with their aims. Thus a major task of educational philosophy is to help educators think pedagogical about the total educational and life process, so that they will be in a meaningfully better tion to posi- develop a consistent and comprehensive 3 program that will assist their students in arriving at the desired goal.3 . This study’s methodology includes interviews of Pentecostal educators, a cross disciplinary review of literature related to this topic, as well as philo- sophical and theological reflection. This article is also informed by a life- time of interaction with Pentecostal educators and by my career as a Pentecostal educator serving in a variety of educational contexts. . What Do Pentecostals Say about How Their Experience and Theology Impact Their Educational Thought and Practice? Pentecostal educators face a dilemma. The Pentecostal movement is, among other things, a Spirit-inspired protest against structures and forms that obscure the truths of God’s Kingdom. Pentecostals have historically ‘ . 2 Michael L. Peterson, Philosophy of Education (Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1986), 24. 3 George R. Knight, Issues and Alternatives in Educational Philosophy, 3d ed. (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1998), 3. 219 3 shared Jesus’ distaste for religious systems that have become instruments of oppression. “Woe to you experts in the law,” Jesus said, “because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”4 They have also shared the per- spective of the Apostle Paul, who wrote, “See to it that no one takes you cap- tive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tra- dition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”5 Pentecostalism is a renewed experience of God’s direct intervention in one’s life, God’s self-revelation in the world. For a Pentecostal, a second- or third- hand experience of God does not satisfy. True ideas about God are no sub- stitute for God’s tangible presence. This Pentecostal emphasis on immediacy makes more abstract thought, or academic discussion about spiritual experiences, suspect. It is one thing to have a theology of Holy Spirit baptism. It is quite another to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. These attitudes toward education, particularly of the rationalistic vari- ety, are clearly not unique to twentieth-century Pentecostalism. Tertullian, in the second century, differed with Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria as to the value of classical education, posing the famous ques- tions : “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?”6 For Pentecostals, to quote Cheryl Bridges Johns, the question might be rephrased, “What has Athens to do with Azusa Street?” Almost six hundred years ago, Thomas a Kempis wrote in his classic The Imitation of Christ: . Cease from an inordinate desire of knowing, for therein is much distrac- tion and deceit. The learned are well-pleased to seem so to others, and to be accounted wise… If thou dost more thine own reason or than upon that power which rely upon brings thee under the obedience of Jesus Christ, it will be long before thou become enlightened; for God industry will have us perfectly subject unto him, that being inflamed with his love, we may transcend the narrow limits of human reason.7 Apprehensions regarding formal education and the pursuit of knowl- 4 Luke 11:52 (New International Version). 5 Colossians 2:8 (New International Version). All subsequent biblical references are from the New Revised Standard Version. 6 Tertullian, “Prescription Against Heretics.” in D. Bruce Lockerbie, ed., A Passion for Leaning: The History of Christian Thought on Education (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 71. 7 Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (Chicago: Moody Press. 1984), 26; 48. 220 4 edge have been counterbalanced for Pentecostals by Jesus’ inclusion of the mind in the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”8 Moreover, Jesus and his biblical followers, including the writers of Scripture, embodied the Apostle Paul’s injunction, “Be trans- formed by the renewing of your minds.”9 Of special interest to Pentecostals is the scholarly approach of the writer of Luke-Acts, who frames his Gospel with these words: “I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.”10 Spirit and mind are clearly complementary for Luke. Likewise, church leaders and reformers through the centuries have drawn upon their formal education in the conviction, encouraged by leaders like Augustine, that “all truth is God’s truth.” Several of the early leaders of the twentieth century Pentecostal movement benefited from their own expe- rience in higher education, like E. N. Bell, first Superintendent of the U.S. Assemblies of God, who had a Bachelor’s degree, a seminary degree, and three years of graduate study at the University of Chicago. So despite ambivalence about formal education, Pentecostals recog- nized the need to prepare believers to be effective students of Scripture and articulate ambassadors of Christ. Pentecostals quickly began to establish Bible schools, then Bible institutes, then Bible colleges, then Christian lib- eral arts colleges, and, most recently, theological seminaries and compre- hensive universities. I I Pentecostals pursued and obtained advanced degrees and Pentecostal churches began to produce scholars. Each of the Pentecostal educators I interviewed for this paper has at least a Bachelor’s degree and almost 80 per cent have earned doctorates. They represent the large number of Pentecostals who combine a Pentecostal experience with advanced formal education ‘ 8 Mark 12:30. 9 Romans 12:2. 10 Luke 1:3-4. ‘ 11 For a summary of the development of higher education in the United States Assemblies of God, the largest denomination in Pentecostalism, see William W. Menzies. Anointed to Sen?e: The Story of the Assemblies of God (Springfield, MO: 12 Gospel Publishing House, 1971 ). For this paper, I interviewed 35 Pentecostal educators either in person or via telephone or email. The profile of my interview group is as follows: Pastors – 2 , Missionary Educators – 3 , 221 5 The responses of these educators have greatest relevance for Pentecostals in higher education, since over 70 per cent of my respondents fit that profile. In principle, however, many of the same findings apply to Pentecostals in other educational settings, as my respondents in these other settings tended to confirm. Future studies of this topic would do well to focus on and compare other populations of Pentecostal educators (e.g., those in two-thirds-world set- tings ; without formal higher education; in various academic disciplines; from different generations; from various Pentecostal and Charismatic move- ments). My interviews included five basic questions, which I will list below with summaries of the responses I received. These questions were meant to elicit personal reflection from Pentecostal educators about the impact of their Pentecostal experience and theology on their educational thought and practice. Thus the questions were open-ended, and in my analysis of their responses I try to let them speak for themselves. For each question I offer a major finding, sample responses, and some elaboration. Question 1: In what ways has your own education been a “Pentecostal education”? Finding: Pentecostal educators note a tremendous Spirit- inspired dynamic in their educational experience and practice. . This group of Pentecostal educators is impressive both academically Public school teachers – 3 ‘ Private Sector Human Resources Trainer – I Educational Consultant (focusing on Sunday Schools) – 1 . Professors at Pentecostal institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the U.S. – 13 3 Professors at Pentecostal IHEs outside the U.S. – 1 Professors at non-Pentecostal IHEs – 2 Administrators at Pentecostal IHEs in the U.S. – 3 Administrators at Pentecostal IHEs non-U.S. – 3 Administrators at non-Pentecostal IHEs – I K-12 Christian school leaders – 2 I did not attempt to select a statistically representative sample of Pentecostal educators. Instead, I sought to interview Pentecostal educators who had a formal educational experience that would have exposed them to diverse philosophies of education, them to reflect on the rele- vance of their Pentecostal experience and theology for their educational causing philosophy. Of my seven are women, five live outside the United States, and three are citizens of nations other than the United States. They are of diverse ethnicities, with seven sample, either have being non-Anglo. completed or are completing doctoral degrees. Approximately 70 per cent attend Assemblies of God churches, with others scattered among other Pentecostal and Twenty-six Charismatic churches. 222 6 and from the point of view of Christian service. Many in this group have obtained graduate degrees from prestigious universities in the United States and abroad. They are also impressive in terms of their commitment to the spiritual growth of their students and their desire to be instruments of the Holy Spirit in their teaching. Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of these Pentecostal educators had experience as undergraduate or graduate students in Pentecostal institutions of higher education (IHEs). Though most had attended Pentecostal IHEs for at least part of their undergraduate experience, most cited nonformal dimen- sions of their Pentecostal education (through mentors or family members) as more influential in their lives than the formal curriculum. Examples of their comments: ‘ I learned about the church and ministry from my grandfather and from my father. They taught me, informally, the Christian ethics of Pentecostalism. I also learned how to interpret the world and my reality Pentecostally. My Pentecostal education was enriched by the corporate model of the Ivoirian [Cote d’ Ivoire] church, which experienced a sovereign, nation- wide move of God. I was intluenced by the model of African some pastors, well-educated, others not schooled. Often when the formal education experience at a Pentecostal IHE was mentioned, the nonformal educational/spiritual experiences were highlight- ed : . I attended an Assemblies of God school at the undergraduate level and in that sense I suppose you could say I had a Pentecostal education. It . was not so much what was taught, but the ethos that surrounded the com- .. Belief that learning had to be enhanced by encounter with God. Belief that God munity. enriched the classroom that fullest dimension to what we were always by experiences gave leaming. The belief that chapel was a central experience, not because it was ‘more spiritual’ but because , there we actualized the relationship we had with God to include more than left brain activity. In that context there was the real expectation that God would regularly intrude into the humanly devised schedule that sur- rounds formal educational activity. Several noted a deepening of their “Pentecostal education” through influences not generally associated with classical Pentecostalism: Exposure to Catholic and Anglican Charismatics has broadened and resensitized me to the Holy Spirit’s work both personally and corporate- ly. ‘ 223 7 The great irony of my Pentecostal education is that I first to learn about seriously began my tradition’s history and theology when I attended a non- Pentecostal institution: Fuller Seminary! Responses to this question suggest that Pentecostal education has had a very strong mentoring orientation, with families, pastors, and faculty mem- bers personally engaging with their children/parishioners/students and pro- viding personal guidance in their spiritual growth. Conversely, responses to this question suggest that Pentecostal educa- tors have not been thoroughly engaged within their Pentecostal IHEs in reflection on the implications of their Pentecostal experience and theology for their formal education, per se. That is, none mentioned that the formal curriculum in their Pentecostal IHEs had engaged them in asking the ques- tion : “How does my Pentecostal experience and theology impact the way I understand my discipline, my academic field, my professional studies?” Whether at the graduate or undergraduate level or at the K-12 level, all those I interviewed, like most Pentecostal educators, have wrestled with their ideas about formal education in institutions (whether secular or affili- ated with other Christian traditions) whose philosophies of education were not informed by Pentecostal experience or theology (and which were, in some cases, hostile to Pentecostal experience and theology). Question 2: Describe a Pentecostal educator who had a particularly sig- nificant influence on your life. If more than one, would you pick one and tell about their influence on you? , Finding: Pentecostals have experienced Pentecostal education through the mentoring of their professors (as well as pastors, friends and family members) who modeled an integration of mind, spirit, and life. Responses to this question tended to focus on the life qualities of influ- ential Pentecostal educators (their relationship with God, integration of spir- it and mind, personal integrity). Examples of comments on the nature of their influence follow. I could cite a number of very useful influences in my life, but I will sin- out one: W. I. Evans. Evans was the academic dean at Central Bible Institute (now Central Bible College) when I was a student. His knowl- gle edge of the Scriptures, his obvious deep fellowship with the Lord, and his leadership in the chapel services had a great effect on me. He embodied the best features of the Pentecostal revival, in my judg- particularly ‘ 224 8 ment. Professor Daniel E. Albrecht, Professor at Bethany College, was one of the first models I had that one could be/remain Pentecostal and still sue the life of the mind. pur- , Dick Foth, Assemblies of God minister and former President of Bethany Bible College, represented a combination of passionate faith, joyful serv- ice, and an affirmation of the intellect integrated with the previous two disciplines. Dr. James M. Beaty and his wife gave me a great example of what to be a Christian is all about. In their life and practice they lived the values of the Kingdom. Their spiritual disciplines and their faith with vision and their sense of mission impacted my life. I had Murray Dempster for only one course. It was my senior year, a very important moment in my life… It was a turning point in my life. He was just fantastic, so passionate, so animated. He was inspiring a vision, inspiring a passion. ‘ Pentecostal educators interviewed for this study emphasized the char- acter, the passion, the embodiment of truth in the professors who shaped their lives at Pentecostal IHEs. Their mentors integrated mind and spirit and led lives of personal integrity and ministry. Those who mentioned other Pentecostal mentors emphasized these same traits. Question 3: As a Pentecostal educator, how does your Pentecostal expe- rience and/or theology shape the way your teach? Finding: Pentecostal experience and theology strongly influ- ence the ideas of Pentecostal educators about pedagogy, orient- ing instruction toward inspiration, transformation, and empowerment. ‘ In reflecting on their own teaching, Pentecostal educators described what they try to do in their pedagogy. Some of the contrasts they drew were as follows: Transformation rather than just information Practice rather than just cerebral knowledge Experience rather than just theory Inspiration rather than just information. In describing their ideals for teaching, the following words were fre- 225 9 quently used: Vibrant Gift Mentoring Empowerment Power Mission Sensitivity Dynamic Expectation Growth ‘ . . I have sought to pattern my teaching on I Thessalonians 1:4-10. In this passage, Paul reviews the object of his ministry among the Thessalonians, but also the manner in which he ministered to them. I see in this the following: ( 1 ) “with words”-he was articulate in his com- munication ; (2) “with power”-not simply with ‘words,’ but also with the empowering of the Spirit; (3) “with the Holy would under- stand this to mean exercising sensitivity to the Spirit”-I leading of the Spirit; (4) “with deep conviction”-In this I see that the faculty person has an obli- share with the students gation to [personal] convictions, although he must be careful not to insist that the students must how we lived agree with him; (5) “You know among you”-I see this as transparent model- ing of a lifestyle, outside the classroom as well as inside. ‘ The idea that when you’re equipped with God’s power, nothing is in the classroom. I have seen so many pessimistic teachers who can make a list of everything they can’t do. I had the genuine belief, impossible based on my Pentecostal that God could move mountains, that this vessel could be used experience, by God. Marie Brown and my mother [my mentors] also emphasized that the vessel needed to be equipped. God will use your talents. God works in history. Wonderful things can in that classroom. You have to hap- pen equip yourself. I teach from my own experience. I believe that is part of integrity. One should not teach something that isn’t part of her/his experience, in that that is particu- larly related to spiritual principles and values. Some of the educators I interviewed expressed concern that often these principles are not in practice in Pentecostal IHEs due at least in part to reliance upon pedagogical and philosophical models that are more Evangelical (or fundamentalist) than Pentecostal. Most of my ‘Pentecostal’ education could be characterized as classical Most of the teachers and pastors who had the influence on me were Pentecostal but had Evangelicalism. greatest largely embraced a philosophy . 226 10 and lifestyle that would represent more Evangelicalism than Pentecostalism. My ministry today has been shaped more ‘Charismatic’ theology and ecclesiology. This segment of by has Christianity impacted me and allowed me to re-embrace the theology and tice of prac- early Pentecostalism, which is fundamentally different from the suburban, Bible College Pentecostalism of the 1980s and 1990s. ‘ . ‘ Pentecostals have mostly adopted the methods and modes of the larger Evangelical church. And that adaptation does not only concern reli- gious, biblical, or theological education. This conformity to has its Evangelicalism strengths and weaknesses. On the plus side it has more recent Pentecostal taught generations to think, and to think criti- It has also cally. taught the Pentecostals some degree of humility about their own tradition (they are learning to appreciate those who are unlike them). It has caused them to be less myopic about Christianity and them- selves… On the negative side, Pentecostals have forsaken some of their own dynamics. In their desire to appear rational, they forsook their to the openness mystery of Christianity. In their desire to develop their minds, that is they adapted an overly rational, overly linear mode of thinking gutting them of the dynamics that birthed their movement. In their uncritical embracing of Fundamentalist American abandoned what to me was a natural Christianity, they byproduct of their ethos: an aes- thetic awareness, appreciation, and creativity. – Question Four: As a Pentecostal educator, how would you characterize your philosophy of education? In what ways might a Pentecostal phi- losophy of education be distinct or have emphases different from other Christian philosophies of education? Finding: With regard to educational philosophy, Pentecostal educators note Pentecostal influences and distinctives at a number of levels, but indicate that a need exists to further explore this topic. Without exception, the Pentecostal educators I interviewed thought that a Pentecostal philosophy of education could be distinguished, at least in its emphases, from other Christian philosophies of education and certainly from secular philosophies of education. What is less clear is the meaning of a phi- losophy of education. Pentecostal educators located the distinctives of Pentecostal educational philosophy at various levels. Some suggested Pentecostal distinctives at the metaphysical (ultimate reality) level. Pentecostals should have a worldview that informs their philosophy of education. This worldview includes an openness and embracing of the . 227 11 mystery of God and life. God can and does surprise us. God is both frighteningly transcendent and joyously immanent. We need to embrace a pre-Enlightenment scientific vista that sees God as present in the world. Some suggested Pentecostal distinctives at the axiological (value) level. The values of the Pentecostal experience are distinct and deeply rooted in our community: values of a devotion to God’s inerrant Word, to truth, to urgency, to the breadth of God’s people, to Christian to Christian to the of calling, to holi- ness, community, power the Holy Spirit. As we think back about these values, these ideals of Pentecostalism, we are bet- ter able to look forward. . Others see Pentecostal distinctives at the epistemological (knowledge) level. I take one of the hallmarks of Pentecostal theology to be its which calls into epistemolo- gy question any form of rationalism … think a distinct- Pentecostal ly philosophy of education would be grounded in the non- rationalist, experiential epistemology, coupled with an emphasis on lib- erating practice. . Some suggested distinctives with regard to our view of the student. It seems to me that Pentecostal education has to be holistic, all three of Bloom’s traditional taxonomies in the cultivation of mind and embracing spirit for the larger service of the Kingdom of God. Others emphasized the difference in the role of the teacher. A Pentecostal philosophy has to recognize the essential charismatic nature of the teaching gift, and cultivate that gift, realizing that the leads Spirit one, and energizes one, in the communication of truth and bonds the learner into a process of common discovery. . The role of the teacher is different from the role of expert pouring knowl- edge into the uninformed. I want to learn about learning more than about teaching. It’s a dynamic process, not a disengaged, content-driven There is a phi- losophy. dynamic between the content, the learner, and the educator. That’s where the role of the Spirit comes in. Others emphasized distinctives at the level of the curriculum. Truly Christian discipleship (training for mission) must involve the of acquisition spiritual skills: prayer, spiritual power, radical obedience to the Spirit, etc.-all usually regarded as ‘extra-curricular’ or assumed 228 12 . for the student rather than carefully taught as the core of the curriculum. The very method of teaching in Bible colleges and seminaries reflects a detached observation of the Christian phenomena ‘out there’ (a Western/Greek way of knowing) vs. the knowing-by-experience of nor- mative, New Testament Christianity. Several emphasized distinctives in pedagogy, discussed above. Others emphasized the nature and role of the school/educational community. . Pentecostal education has to be holistic. It is tied to an inclusiveness that comes out of Acts. It is global and cross cultural, uniting bond and free, male and female. It has to remember the margins as well as the center. The field in a class is never level. How do I help those for whom this does not come playing easily’? My philosophy of education focuses on stu- dent learning for empowerment. · – . Many spoke of the difference all this makes in practice. My philosophy of education as a Pentecostal educator is impacted by a sense of “present tenseness.” I am not so much wanting to characterize a humanly devised system of to discern cognition. I am dealing with a process of learning implications of information. I am much more aware of a full orbed dimension of education that includes both cognitive and affective and also a dimension of subsequent action. . . Several mentioned the need for Pentecostals at this stage of our history to give focused attention to the topic of educational philosophy. _ We have to learn from the rest of the church. They are centuries ahead of us in terms of developing Christian character; thinking about church- state issues; thinking about societal and ethical issues; thinking about the human person… Too quickly, we are embracing non-Christian ‘ approaches to these disciplines and questions and this will lead to our , demise. . Very little of the earlier approaches to Pentecostal pedagogy or of education remains. It philoso- phy probably is time once again (as the educational founders of our institutions had to original do) to raise the ‘What is an question, appropriate Pentecostal educational pedagogy for our insti- tutions today?’ It is useful to review the thoughts and educational philosophies and practices of our founding educators themselves. Question Five: What resources have been helpful to you in your devel- opment as a Pentecostal educator? . Finding: Most Pentecostal educators agreed that we are still in 229 13 the early stages of the work of bringing Pentecostal experience and theology to bear on explicitly educational issues of philoso- phy and pedagogy. Most of my respondents indicated that written resources on education- al philosophy and pedagogy authored by Pentecostals for Pentecostal edu- cators are lacking, especially for higher education. So what resources have been helpful to them in their development as Pentecostal educators? Eight mentioned colleagues and mentors as their primary resources. Eight men- tioned Pentecostal writers, leaders, and theologians, with each of the fol- lowing named at least once: Gordon Fee, Steven Land, Cheryl Bridges Johns, Myer Pearlman, Billie Ralph Riggs, Davis, Miroslav Volf, Opal Reddin, Robert Menzies, Walter Hollenweger, Roger Stronstad, Mel Robeck, Russell Spittler, Vinson Synan, Lyle Lovett, Murray Dempster, J. Robert Ashcroft, and Robert Cooley. Seven mentioned writers and thinkers not generally associated with pente- costalism, such as: Watchman Nee, Brother Lawrence, Thomas a Kempis, Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, C.S. Lewis, John Wesley, John Piper, Gustavo Gonzalez, Andrew Murray, Madame Guyon, Arthur Holmes, Harry Blamires, Thomas Groome, Parker Palmer, Jean Piaget, George Marsden, and James Burtchaell. Two mentioned “Third Wave” Pentecostal/Charismatic writers, such as: C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, John Arnott, Charles Kraft, and Guy Chevreau. . Two mentioned Pentecostal periodicals, such as Enrichment. Several men- tioned the Holy Spirit and Scripture. One mentioned worship music. Few of the Pentecostals mentioned have written specifically on educa- tion. Commenting on one of the challenges faced by Pentecostal educators within Pentecostal IHEs, one of the respondents wrote: “We have had limit- ed opportunity to study our own experience as Pentecostals because [of what might happen] if you don’t come up with the accepted perspective (approved by the denomination).” I conclude this section with a quote that summarizes much of the above: 230 14 ‘ . The creation of Christian higher education institutions outside of min- istry training will no doubt encourage the growth of a professional teach- Pentecostal in the new setting remains to be seen, as the ing class within pentecost. Whether that teaching class can remain roots of Augustinian tradition (Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist) are much more deep context of professional pentecostal educators…Beyond creating institu- powerful and widespread, providing both the training and the continuing tional space for the of Pentecostal training and continuing education and employment teachers, there needs to develop a flourishing interdisci- plinary concentration on the nature and function of Pentecostal a peda- gogy, fellowship between teachers and pastors, and appropriate resources such as journals, internet sites, conventions, etc. As well as an institutional approach to linked to pedagogy, it is essential that Pentecostal teach- ers remain strong local congregations where their gifting is both and relativized by its setting amongst other gifts. There is no room in Pentecostal pedagogy for elitism or showmanship…To some appreciated degree, we are having to invent pentecostal higher education as we go! . The same may likely be said of other forms of Pentecostal education as well. What Framework Might Allow Us to Formulate and Compare Philosophies of Education? A Proposed Framework Pentecostal educators rarely describe their ideas about education in terms of classical philosophies or contemporary educational theories. Their descriptions of the impact of their Pentecostal experience and theology on their educational ideas and practices more often refer to intuitive connec- tions than to systematically defined relationships. While this intuitive sense is both powerful and consistent with Pentecostal experience, it translates with difficulty into formal educational settings, where strategies for curriculum and instruction must be formulated in a systematic way. Consequently, Pentecostal educators often find them- selves lacking a specifically Pentecostal framework for educational philoso- phy, with the result that Pentecostals then borrow heavily from other educa- tional philosophies that do not fully capture the dynamic of the implicit edu- cational ideas undergirding Pentecostalism. Daniels has described this dilemma within the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), a historically African-American Pentecostal denomination. A system of Bible colleges was launched within COGIC in 1972 with the pur- pose of preparing ministers and missionaries. However, while successful numerically, the Bible colleges found themselves, in Daniels’ view, overly reliant upon curriculum and pedagogy insensitive to educational ideas and 231 15 practices implicit within the COGIC Pentecostal community. 13 3 Likewise, Pentecostal educators across formal education systems have been reliant upon books, curricular materials, and instructional methods rooted in other Christian and secular philosophies of education. 14 It would be of value, then, to have a framework within which to com- pare various philosophies of education, which would then allow Pentecostals to intentionally integrate their experience and theology with their educational ideas and practices. Thus we could draw on the wealth of ideas available to us within our own history and communion, as well as on other Christian traditions and other educational and philosophical schools of thought. I suggest that our search for such a framework might fruitfully begin with the questions that educators ask. What are some core questions per- taining to the educational process? I would suggest that the following ten questions are universal educational concerns. While this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of core questions, it does provide a common framework for our discussion of educational philosophies. 1. What is real? 2. What is true and how do we know? 3. What is of value? 13 David D. Daniels, Ill, “‘Live So Can Use Me Anytime, Lord, Anywhere’: Theological Education in the Church of God in Christ, 1970 to 1997,” Asian Journal of Pentecostal Theology 3:2 (July 2000), 303. Daniels writes: “The mission of the of the System of Bible Colleges is admirable, although the uncritical appropriation Evangelical curriculum is problematic.. . What is the best pedagogy to transmit the COGIC message and experience? Does an implic- it COGIC pedagogy exist that could be employed? The System of Bible Colleges promoted a pedagogy that was alien to the COGIC context. The pedagogy of the System of Bible Colleges mitigates against COGIC’s informal education processes of Bible discussion and mentoring.” 14 See, e.g., Cheryl Bridges Johns, Pentecostal Formation: A Pedagogy Among the Oppressed (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 7. Johns writes: “The area of Christian edu- cation reflects some of the best and most sincere attempts to fit in with more established churches. For many Pentecostals, the schooling paradigm, with its closely graded classes, cog- nitive and deductive approach to faith formation, four-color curriculum materials and stream- lined organization, is the wished-for ideal. We point to our untrained teachers, poor facilities and lack of good pedagogy as sure signs of our sectarian backwardness, all the while over- formational processes which have historically been part of our discipleship.” An example of this from looking powerful my own experience concerned the core textbook in the Basic Christianity class at Evangel University, an Assemblies of God institution in Springfield, Missouri, when I attended there in the late 1970s and early 80s. An book on edu- cational philosophy is entitled The Idea of a Christian College, by Arthur outstanding Holmes, a professor of philosophy at Wheaton College. Writing from a Reformed perspective, Holmes provided my classmates and me with a coherent and powerful evangelical philosophy of education, but we to relate it to our Pentecostal experience and theology, and no comparable philosophy of education from a Pentecostal Christian perspective was available. struggled 232 16 4. What are my goals as an educator? 5. How does my contextual setting frame and constrain my educational goals? 6. What is the nature of the student? 7. What is the role of a teacher? 8. What should be learned? 9. How should it be taught? 10. How do my ideas shape my educational practice (and vice versa)? Put simply, then, an educational philosophy involves an educator’s responses to, ideas about, and assumptions regarding these ten essential and mutually informing questions (and others). Within each of these questions there are sub-questions. For example, within the question “What is real?” one will find questions concerning the nature of the universe, the nature of God, the nature of human beings. These are all “metaphysical” questions, and, when one asks about distinctives for a Pentecostal philosophy of education, one might reflect on whether Pentecostals would answer these questions differently, or with different emphases, than others. Insofar as one is an educator, I would suggest, one has ideas about each of these matters. These ideas may be richly or slightly considered. They may be honed by consistent practice or relatively untried. They may be con- sciously related to a philosophical school of thought, a wisdom tradition, or . an educational theory, or not related. One may be said to have a formal edu- cational philosophy if these ideas are made explicit. If these ideas remain implicit, one may be said to have an informal philosophy of education. But educational practice is rooted in these questions and, in this sense, every educator has an educational philosophy. Often, the degree of formality in a statement of educational philosophy is a function of the formality of the educational setting, with formal systems demanding more explicit articula- tion of an educational philosophy and nonformal setting demanding less explicit articulation. 15 As for institutions, an institutional philosophy of edu- 15 Though we may not be explicitly aware of the labels and terminology of educational we are in phi many ways the products of one or some combination of these educational ideas and their working out in practice. For example, few have read the writings of John losophy, Dewey, the foremost American philosopher of education and author of books like and Democracy Education, but virtually all of us are products, at least in part, of reforms in American schools. Deweyian progressive Many Christian educators Alan Bloomri The Closing of the American Mind in the early 1980s, but just what enjoyed reading was the educational Bloom’s philosophy underlying thesis, and was it an educational philosophy that Pentecostal educators 233 17 cation may likewise be said to consist of the institution’s responses to these ten questions, with personal pronouns modified. Toward the end of this discussion, I will suggest a model that draws on depictions of a philosophy of education like the one below. Knight’s model, while lacking a reciprocal dynamic, does have the virtue of depicting the various components of a philosophy of education. Fig. 1. Components of a Philosophy of Education from Theory to Practicel6 The first three elements of Knight’s model are the classical questions of philosophy, organized around metaphysics (What is ultimately real?), axi- ology (What is of value?), and epistemology (How can we know?). Educational goals follow from our worldview, and these goals are shaped and reshaped by contextual factors, such as political dynamics, social forces, economic conditions, and the expectations of immediate family or commu- nity. Our goals then find expression in the framework of specifically edu- cational issues, such as the nature of the student, the role of the teacher, appropriate curricular emphases and teaching methodologies, and our ideas about the social functions of educational institutions. These ideas in turn underlie and shape our educational practices. Joldersma depicts that central place of Christian perspective for Christian educators below. could fully resonate with? Likewise, Paulo Freire’s 1986 book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed touched a responsive chord with many Christians in its appeal for justice, but how cognizant are Pentecostal educators of the underlying educational philosophy? Thanks to to Cheryl Bridges Johns and others, Pentecostals are beginning engage Freirian thought in just this kind of dia- logue, but overall we are in the early stages of this kind of reflection. 16 Knight, Issues and Alternatives, 34. – 234 18 Fig. 2: Influence Domains 17 of Christian Perspective on Various Educational – – Do Pentecostals have anything to add to Joldersma’s model? We will continue to explore this question below. The length limitations of this essay do not allow for a discussion of each of the historic and contemporary philosophies, ideologies, and educa- tional theories that have shaped our educational experiences. For summaries of the philosophies and their educational implications, I would recommend Knight and Gutek.lg In the next section, I provide a brief overview of the components of several contemporary educational philosophies and discuss ways in which they have been adopted and adapted by Pentecostal educa- tors. How Do Pentecostal Educators Adopt and Adapt Various Educational Philosophies? Pentecostals do not hold a single philosophy of education. Some Pentecostal educators would identify with a form of Pentecostal particular- ism. Others would tend to agree with essentialist approaches. Others are 17 Julia K. Stronks and Gloria Goris Stronks, Christian Teachers in Public Schools (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999), 45. 1 See Knight, Issues and Alternatives, and Gerald L. Gutek, Philosophical and Ideological on Perspectives Education, 2d ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997). 235 19 inclined to speak of their educational ideas in terms that resonate with peren- nialism. Some would consider themselves progressive educators. Still oth- ers are enthusiastic about educational goals and practices that correspond to reconstructionism. There are also Pentecostal educators who would identi- fy with critical pedagogy. They would typically not use this terminology, but I hope to show that the diverse ideas of Pentecostals about education res- onate with these widely divergent educational theories. Drawing primarily upon the history of Assemblies of God education in the United States, I suggest eight approaches to educational philosophy that have emerged in roughly chronological order, but that now coexist among (and within) diverse Pentecostal educators. All eight may be seen as adap- tations of philosophies of education that exist in the larger culture, and we will explore how existing philosophies of education have been adopted and adapted by Pentecostal educators over time. The eight approaches to edu- cational philosophy to be explored in this section are: 1. particularism 2. essentialism 3. perennialism , 4. progressivism 5. reconstructionism 6. critical pedagogy . 7. pragmatism 8. eclecticism. The earliest educational approaches among American Pentecostals may be described as “particularistic.” Particularism in education is characterized by a withdrawal from dominant and mainstream education systems, often a forced withdrawal made by minority groups whose values are not accepted in the dominant culture. Pentecostal particularism is related to forms of fun- damentalist and minority ethnic (such as Afrocentric) educational philoso- phy, in which marginalized groups embrace their separateness and distance themselves from the educational systems of mainstream (and oppressive) society. This Pentecostal separatism was also expressed in a pacifist stance toward war, which was the official position of the U.S. Assemblies of God, for example, until 1967, and in a code of personal piety that avoided involvement in many social activities of mainstream culture (e.g., movies, social dancing, involvement in party politics). Some of the characteristics of Pentecostal particularism are: – emphasis on Bible study and ministry preparation – emphasis on eschatological expectation that Jesus’ Second Coming 236 20 – may occur at any time – flowing from this eschatological expectation, an emphasis on short- term, intense, and practical training for – ministry likewise, a suspicion of longer-term academic pursuits that seem the oretical and insensitive to the shortness of time – use of fundamentalist curricula and theological models, even when such models seem inconsistent with Pentecostal experience and the – ology (e.g., dispensational theology and the Scofield Reference Bible) pragmatic emphasis on practical skills for evangelistic and mission ary endeavors; academic subjects are valued insofar as they give pragmatic assistance for Pentecostal mission (e.g., literacy for preach – ing, writing, and Bible study; math for financial and logistical efforts) formal degrees from academic institutions are considered unimportant and even undesirable. Pentecostal- education in its particularist form is often accused of being anti-intellectual, and in some senses this is true. Many young Pentecostals have been discouraged from “thinking too much.” Pentecostals have some- times seen the mind as an enemy of the spirit and the Spirit. However, as Jesse Miranda, Director of the Urban Studies and Ethnic Leadership Center at Vanguard University, stated in an interview, “They were reacting against pseudo-education and the lack of balance between the rational and the rela- tional. They wanted to go beyond the rational.” The hostility of early Pentecostals, and some contemporary Pentecostals, was not toward intellect or formal education per se, but rather toward the intellectual status systems of formal education from which Pentecostals, largely from lower social strata, had been excluded. Pentecostal anti-intellectualism, then, while sometimes an unbalanced rejec- tion of the mind, more often rejected the rationalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that sought to build great structures of truth upon human reason alone. In this sense, Pentecostal particularism antici- pated some of the postmodern critiques of both traditionalist and modernist education. Pentecostal particularism, then, was the educational approach most characteristic of Pentecostal education in the United States in the first few decades of the twentieth century, through the founding of the many Bible institutes and Bible schools. Beginning in the late 1930s, with the establishment of the first Assemblies of God four-year degree-granting institution, Southern California Bible College, and continuing into the 1940s, with the Pentecostal . 237 21 rapprochement with moderate Evangelicals in the various agencies related to the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Pentecostal educators began to explore other approaches to formal education. The figure below shows key elements of five other educational theories mentioned above. Other educational philosophers would use slightly differ- ent terminology and even different categorical labels, but for the point I wish to make here about diversity of educational opinion within Pentecostalism, I draw upon the educational theory taxonomy suggested by Gutek. (See Figure 3) While most Pentecostals would not describe their educational ideas in terms of the labels above, one often hears the elements of these various the- ories in Pentecostal descriptions of educational ideas. The following descriptions are compilations of comments from Pentecostals, past and pres- ent, that seem to resonate with core elements of these five educational theo- ries. E.ssentialist orientation ‘ ‘ In order to accomplish that Great Commission, we need to be prac- tical and we need to be skilled. To that end, we need to teach our young people to read and write and to calculate, to be able to have the academic skills necessary to spread the gospel through litera- ture, and through Bible study, teaching, and preaching. People without literacy skills cannot really study the Bible and are prone to error and immaturity. Furthermore, math skills are essential if we are to use modem methods of construction, technology, and other tools that allow us to take the message to all the world. In addition to their Bible education, our people need these basic aca- demic tools and we must make sure that they acquire these. These skills are also necessary for good citizenship. , Perennialist orientation God is the giver of gifts, and God’s gifts are of many kinds; super- natural gifts, leadership gifts, service gifts. The Body of Christ is very diverse and so must be the preparation of our youth for their unique callings. In addition to our Great Commission, which impels us to bring the gospel to all people, we have received a cul- tural mandate, which compels us to bring our Christian worldview to bear on all the activities of our lives. We must integrate our faith with our learning and with our lives. All truth is God’s truth. The Bible is wholly true, but it is not an encyclopedia of human knowl- 238 22 edge. We must seek out and understand the truth wherever it is found. To this end, our young people need to study the great works of literature, must understand that science is not opposed to our faith but is compatible with it. The Spirit of God is to lead us into all truth and so our educational endeavors are a sacred activity. . Progressive orientation Traditional education has been much too focused on abstract ideas of truth and too little focused on the child or the learner and her unique needs. As Pentecostals, we prize the soul and spirit as much as the mind. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit touches every aspect of a person’s life. Jesus models that compassionate concern for the whole person. His teaching is not full of abstractions, but is rooted in people’s real life experiences. We need to recover his gra- cious concern for the whole person. Moreover, the Biblical model associates the work of the Holy Spirit with the formation of a com- munity. The church in the book of Acts is a community of concern and love, which values each member, recognizes its diversity and treasures it, and seeks the full formation of each person within the context of the body of Christ. Our education should reflect this concern for body, mind, and spirit, so that we may reflect the love of Christ to the world. All our abstract ideas and great pronounce- ments tend to alienate people from Christ rather than attract them to him. Reconstructionist orientation The outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes with liberating power. When Mary learned from the angel of Jesus’ coming birth, she exclaimed that God has sided with the poor and brought down the proud oppressors. Jesus’ life modeled this identification with the outcast and his judgment upon their rich oppressors. When the Spirit of God came at Pentecost, the Spirit came upon men and women, slaves and free, Jew and Gentile, and most notably upon those outside the structures of political, social, and economic power. This baptism in the Holy Spirit lifted up oppressed people and brought them into a community empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak prophetically against their oppressive circumstances and for a community of equality before God. Our education should likewise empower the oppressed to receive God’s power and to 239 23 build a new society based on inclusion, gender equality, and peace- making. We should be involved in transforming society, not just seeking spiritual experiences for our own satisfaction. Critical 12edagogy orientation Both traditional and modem forms of education have asserted an ability to know and convey absolute truths about the world. They have constructed rationalistic systems and complex theories to explain the world, and then have attempted to force these systems of thought on generations of students. In fact, we should be suspi- cious of all these claims. The Apostle Paul said that we see through a glass, darkly. In other words, our knowledge is very limited. We should be humble about our assertions. What concerns God more than our epistemology and our rationalistic metaphysical systems are our relationships, our authenticity, our advocacy on behalf of the voiceless and the marginalized. We need to teach our children to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. The Holy Spirit comes with a power not rooted in rationalistic systems, but with authentic, personal, intimate, and liberating power. Each of these expressions of Pentecostal educational ideas represents a synthesis of Pentecostal experience and theology with educational philoso- phies rooted in other intellectual traditions. That elements of these educa- tional theories should be attractive to Pentecostal educators should come as no surprise, since all of these theories are informed by elements of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Many of the proponents of these theories have been and are believers in God and in Jesus Christ, while many other propo- nents within the same general philosophy are not (See Fig. 3). Two other varieties of Pentecostal philosophies of education that merit comment here are Pentecostal pragmatism and Pentecostal eclecticism. Pentecostal pragmatism would assert that the nature of the education system really is not all that important because the Spirit-filled believer can function within any of them, bearing witness to Christ in a dynamic and suc- cessful way, adjusting to the circumstances as need be, just as he or she would adapt and function within any culture. This pragmatism is especially compelling in cultures like the United States, in which the ultimate justifi- cation for most actions is whether it “works.” ” In secular society, the criteri- on to measure whether something works is usually whether it allows one to attain one’s desired outcome, usually defined in materialistic terms. This emphasis on ends can blur the worldview and ethical issues pertaining to the 240 24 Fig. 3. Elements of Five Major Educational Theories means by which those ends are to be achieved, leaving people in a frenetic competition for wealth, status, and personal gratification. The same danger exists for Pentecostal pragmatists, whether the desired end be a growing 241 25 church, a successful ministry, or personal spiritual fulfillment. Pentecostal eclecticism may be the most common philosophy of educa- tion among Pentecostals. The general American public tends to pick and choose elements of educational philosophies in an eclectic way, often with little opportunity to reflect on the larger issues of worldview. “Reflective” eclecticism makes good sense in that good ideas about education and worth- while practices come from a variety of sources and perspectives. However, one must be cautious about what George Posner calls “garbage-can eclecti- cism, in which practices based on contradictory or invalid assumptions are collected into a ‘bag of tricks.”‘ 19 9 Indeed, each of the educational philosophies discussed above has its merits. I believe, however, that Pentecostals are still in relatively early stages of reaching beyond these conventional or popular educational ideas to examine the educational possibilities inherent within Pentecostal experi- ence and theology. The current syntheses have often been forged in a prag- matic way and need to be reexamined. Menzies’s summary of the state of Assemblies of God education in 1970 continues to hold true ‘ thirty years later: ‘ The changes seem to have been occasioned largely by economic and social pressures, not matched by an overarching philosophy of educa- tion. The result of unassimilated changes has produced a degree of uncertainty and competition on the undergraduate level.20 A Possible Framework for Exploring the Impact of Pentecostal Experience and Theology upon Educational Philosophy and Practice It is a crucial time for Pentecostals to re-examine our educational philosophies in the light of our Pentecostal experience and theology. It is conceivable, of course, that Pentecostals may have little that is special to contribute to the discussion of philosophies of education. Some would argue that Pentecostalism merely reasserts orthodox Christian belief with a focus on practice and experience of those truths and not mere intellectual assent to them. The results of this survey and literature review, however, would seem to suggest otherwise. Perhaps Pentecostals do have something to contribute to retlection on educational philosophy, beginning with metaphysics, axiology, 19 George J. Posner, Analyzing the Curriculum, 2d ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1995), 3. 20 Menzies, Anointed, 373. 242 26 and epistemology and extending to the nature of the student, the role of the teacher, pedagogy, curricular emphases, and the relationship of practice to ideas. Based on my interviews, comments by Pentecostal writers, as well as other Christian and secular writers and the biblical text, I offer the following draft framework for envisioning a Pentecostal philosophy of education in order to suggest potential areas of reflection and study for Pentecostal edu- cators in various domains of a comprehensive philosophy of education. I look forward to dialoguing with and learning from my fellow educators and fellow Pentecostals in this exploratory process. ‘ Fig. 4. Draft Framework for Envisioning a Pentecostal Philosophy of Education In this model, God’s empowering presence becomes the framework for the entire educational process. The Holy Spirit informs our reflection and prac- tice. The relationships among worldview formulation, educational goals, issues, applications, and educational practice are dynamic and reciprocal. The Pentecostal theologian Gordon Fee writes, , We are not left on our own as far as our relationship with God is con- cerned; neither are we left on our own to “slug it out in the trenches,” as it were, with regard to the Christian life. Life in the present is ered empow- by the God who dwells among us and in us. As the personal pres- 243 27 ence of God, the Spirit is not merely some “force” or “influence.” The living God is a God of power; and by the Spirit the power of the 1 living God is present with us and for us.21 Like other Christians, Pentecostal educators draw on Scripture and the- ology for their perspectives, and become proficient in contextualizing their educational goals and activities. In doing so, Pentecostal educators see God through the Holy Spirit as One whose presence infuses one’s formulation of ideas, goals, strategies, and who not only guides the process and empowers the plan, but who might break into the process at any time to accomplish the unexpected. The teacher and learner, then, find themselves together in the presence of God, whatever the educational context. From this vantage point, one could suggest fresh ways in which Pentecostals might think and are thinking about their educational philosophy and various ways in which they may continue to engage in powerful educational practice. 21 Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 8. 244 28

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