Pentecostals attract a non-uniform crowd of people, as they vary in color, gender, and nationality, as well as age and economic status. They are the discontents of modernity, not at home with today’s values or lifestyles. They are symbolic rebellion against the modern world. In another sense, they are merely modern but in a different way. The movement looks and feels different to outsiders than it does for insiders , to be sure, Harvey Cox notes in the preface (10). Cox thinks the Pentecostal movement is part of a global religious stirring that signals something larger and more significant. This text is a concert of mixed voices addressing the vast question of what the massive transformation known as Pentecostalism means. This book is essentially about P. as a global phenomenon, with over half its contents about P. movements in the third-world (Africa, Korea, & Latin America).
Anderson notes that Pentecostalism is predominantly and fundamentally a third-world phenomenon (20), as less than a quarter of its members are white, and it continues to decrease. Hollenweger states that Pentecostalism was originally ecumenical in its vision, but it has forgotten its roots (186-187). He posits 4 phases to ecumenism: 1) a movement breaks through all sorts of barriers; 2) local congregations are set up and evangelicalization begins; 3) national denominations are set up and it loses its ecumenical focus; and 4) the movement returns to its ecumenical roots He goes on to state that P. is at a cross-road today: the way forward is to remember its roots and its spirituality. In speaking of Africa, in “The Black Roots of Pentecostalism” (herein) Hollenweger notes that the main features of their spirituality are that it is orally and narratively based, inherently participatory, and believes highly in healing through prayer. In a later article, Hollenwegere notes how the catholic elements of P. were mediated via Wesley, particularly re: the teaching of ‘Spirit Baptism’. Hollenweger recognizes five roots of P.: the catholic, evangelical, critical, ecumenical, and the black oral root, and he focuses on the latter in this article. E.G., P. liturgy is oral. Also, their theology and witness is narrative. Thirdly, it is characterized by maximum participation at the levels of reflection, prayer, and decision making (communal, i.e.). Fourthly, it includes dreams and visions into personal and public forms of worship. Finally, it is black-influenced due to its focus on the intrinsic relationship b/t body and mind (dancing, healing, etc.; 37-40).
Gerloff notes that not only was Christianity and P. founded by non-whites, but also that the latter is directly descended from African forms of worship, as it centers on experience, not dogmas; songs of love, not rhetoric; and a sense of hope against all odds (67). It offers a thoroughly contextual theology, grassroots-based, much alike unto African religion. This article highlights how the early P. message and power unified diverse cultural and ethnic groups.
Amos Yong’s work of the last few years seemingly answers the concerns laid forth by Hollenweger in his last contribution: “Crucial Issues for Pentecostals” (176-192). For example, Yong’s SPF answers his concern for ecclesiology – i.e. who belongs to the church; and his SWC answers his concern re: hermeneutics – i.e. who interprets scripture correctly. And then, his whole project, of sorts, addresses his concern of the “lost ecumenical vision”.