Walter J. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals: The Charismatic Movement in the Churches (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1972), xx + 572 Pps.
The purpose of this book is for the P. movement and the ecumenical movement to get to know each other better (xviii). Both wish to renew the church from within, and both consist of numerous denominations with differences that are sometimes considerable. One of the jobs of this book is to discover the rich variety of the P. movement. This book includes as P.’s all groups that subscribe to two crisis experiences: 1) baptism or rebirth, and 2) the baptism of the Spirit, the second being subsequent to the first and usually but not always associated with speaking in tongues (xix).
Since 1962, H. says, individual Catholics, laity and priests, have experienced some P.-type spirituality, but the breakthrough happened at Duquesne U. in 1966/67 over discussions re: deep prayer life and the vitality of faith. The Catholic ‘Pentecostals’ shattered the economic deprivation theory that often was laid forth to account for classical P. not only was their discussion of theological problems by these Catholics, but they also drank, smoked, and ate bountifully, which threw the classical P.’s for a proverbial loop. In the “Report of the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops” on “The Pentecostal Movement in the Catholic Church in the USA”, it was written 1) that the movement appeared to be theologically sound, 2) there were dangers involved in it, and 3) they wished more priests would take part in it.
The AG holds to a two-stage way of salvation, whereas the Church of God holds to a three-staged way of salvation. Most P.’s do not hold that the baptism of the Spirit is necessary for salvation, but merely for arming the person for missionary service instead (332). H. thinks that there can be no stages of salvation (335), but this does not necessarily entail a rejection of the P. movement. Rather he asserts that there are numerous examples of the experience of the Spirit without there being a correct understanding of the Spirit (335). He also agrees with Dale Bruner that that the idea of distinct stages to salvation is contrary to the teaching of Luther (414). One P. notes that the greatest and most important gift of the Spirit is the one that needed and necessary at that time, that is, the one that serves the most common good (337). Notably, Killian McDonnell thinks that the speaking in tongues by various pagans can be attributable to the Holy Spirit (343).
The conditions around the emergence of the P. movement were one of a kind: the Darwinian hypothesis had unsettled the convictions of some; higher criticism was undoing the faith of others; socialistic gospel appealed to more people than the gospel of Christ; and world war was about to explode. God’s answer was the P. movement (414).
In 1966, the WCC met with P. in Europe. It was remarked that many people agreed with the charismatic understanding of the church, but denied the fundamentalism and ecclesial separation of the P.’s. The charges made by the P. movement against the ecumenical movement at that time can be summarized, according to Hollenweger, as follows: 1) the WCC has a false understanding of the church; 2) the WCC is not based on a solid biblical foundation; 3) the WCC is growing increasingly close to Rome; 4)the WCC is a political association; and 5) the WCC values itself too highly (444–45). In response to this, it may be said that P. does not teach people to think, but to believe and to live instead (463). However, with the growth of the P. movement, bible schools became necessary, and they slowly became what they disliked originally in other churches and in the WCC itself (472).
The original AG founders did not wish to set up a denomination, but merely a fraternal fellowship instead (29-30). The P. movement spread like ‘wildfire’ over the whole world (63). H. contends that the statistics of membership are probably too low b/c there are P. bodies that are unknown to the Pentecostals themselves (63).