Pentecostal Scholarship Observed: Amos Yong as Theological Type

My review of The Theology of Amos Yong and the New Face of Pentecostal Scholarship (Brill, 2013) edited by Wolfgang Vondey and Martin Mittelstadt can be found on Renewal Dynamics.

Michael Wilkinson

Comments

Review of The Rise of Network Christianity

The Rise of Network Christianity Brad Christerson and Richard Flory have written a highly readable account of the social changes in religion that are growing and expanding throughout the world. The authors argue that independent charismatic leaders like Che Ahn, Bill Johnson, and Mike Bickle, among others, illustrate a shift from organizational patterns associated with modern religion like denominations to networks of ministries that share common objectives through relational associations. The key characteristics of post 1970s social change, according to the authors, include globalization, the digital revolution, and the rise of networks with the decline of bureaucracies. The implications of these social changes for religion include increased cultural and religious pluralism, interactive media and religious participation, and declining loyalties to organizations like denominations. In other words, social change accounts for the decline of one form of religion in particular but als...

Pope Francis, Latin America, and Catholic Charismatic Renewal

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was announced as the new pope, Pope Francis. He is the first pope from Latin America where the Catholic Church has a long history and represents the largest group of Catholics in the world. Pope Francis is a member of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. He is not a member of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. I am not sure he is sympathetic to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Latin America either. However, no doubt, his election will bolster the Catholic Church in Latin America. In his home country of Argentina, the Pentecostals had little impact until the middle of the 20th century when Tommy Hicks was granted unprecedented access to stadiums for mass evangelistic meetings. Still, the Pentecostals do not represent a large number of Christians in Argentina. The Catholic Church in many countries is charismatic and the latitude Catholic charismatics are granted in Latin America keeps many within the fold. For example, ...

Pentecostalism and the Status of Global Christianity

The latest report on the status of Christianity in the world was published in January 2013 in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (IBMR Vol. 37, No. 1: 32-33). The two-page report is the twenty-ninth annual report following the publication of David Barrett’s World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford, 1982). The most recent report discusses an important change in counting Pentecostals and Charismatics. Moving away from the traditional three “wave” description of classical Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Independents, it discusses the Pew Forum strategy of lumping them altogether as a single type – “renewalist.” The IBMR report does not critique this approach or discuss any of the historical or theological or sociological implications of doing so (even if the three wave approach has its problems, which it does). While the IBMR report does not use the term “renewalist” in its table, it does count the different “waves” as a single type. The problem in doing so, is that trackin...

Global Pentecostal Studies

Search This Blog