Pentecostals have not sufficiently worked out a distinctively Pentecostal philosophy of art and aesthetics. In Pentecostal Aesthetics, with a foreword by Amos Yong, Steven Félix-Jäger corrects this by reflecting theologically on art and aesthetics from a global Pentecostal perspective, particularly through a pneumatic Pentecostal lens
Preliminary Material /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Introduction /Steven Félix-Jäger -- The Broader Context /Steven Félix-Jäger -- An Ontological Foundation /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Inspired by the Spirit /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Universal Beauty /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Aesthetics of Hope /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Art and Creation as Play /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Serious Art /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Church Art /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Conclusion /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Bibliography /Steven Félix-Jäger -- Index /Steven Félix-Jäger.
Pentecostal theology is burgeoning in the academy, and a vast body of literature continues to grow. With precision and ease, Stephenson carefully leads readers through an array of theological topics, texts, and figures. Combining original analysis and constructive contributions, he classifies diverse and complex ideas in pentecostal biblical studies, systematic theology, and theological ethics. Whether they are beginning students seeking an accessible initiation into an area that newly piques their interests or established scholars who need a sophisticated crash course in a yet unexplored field of inquiry, readers will find Stephenson's accounts to be a reliable guide through this daunting topic
Nach der Dekolonisierung haben sich die unabhängigen christlichen Kirchen in Nigeria stark entwickelt. Insbesondere Pfingstkirchen verzeichnen in der jüngeren Vergangenheit einen großen Aufschwung. Der Autor gibt einen Überblick über die Entwicklung und versucht eine Typologisierung der verschiedenen Pfingstkirchen. Ihre Zahl wird auf über 1000 geschätzt; sie haben sich zu lukrativen Unternehmen entwickelt und spielen politisch eine gewichtige Rolle. (DÜI-Sbd)
The Pentecostal movement remains one of ambivalence, tensions and paradoxes. On the surface, worship and practice appear democratic, yet research shows that women and men do not occupy the same status because the movement endorses male dominance and submission of women to men. While there is a sense that men and women are equal because both can receive the Spirit, women still remain in the margins. Sometimes women are affirmed and accepted because of the emancipatory role of the Spirit, but at other times they are marginalised through oppressive interpretative practices of the Bible. Although women are given voice, especially because of the belief within Pentecostal churches that the Holy Spirit speaks through men and women, the same voice is taken away when women are subordinated to male power. As such the Pentecostal space is ambivalent, although women are not completely silenced, they occupy a subordinate position. In this article I seek to demonstrate that the marginalisation of Pentecostal women is due to a considerable extent to the ways in which the Bible is read and interpreted within the Pentecostal tradition. I seek to demonstrate that there is a link between the marginalisation of women and Pentecostal hermeneutical strategies such as literal readings and proof-texting of the Bible. I will also highlight how the interpretation of the Trinity is also implicated in the marginalisation of women. In the final section of the article I will demonstrate how Pentecostals' openness to the work of the Holy Spirit should be a destabilising principle for all Pentecostals' oppressive activities, especially Pente-costal hermeneutics which tends to favour men over and above women.
Pentecostal religious beliefs & practices consist of a complex set of strategies of transformation & personal renewal. Among other aspects of their experiences in the Church of Philadelphia, the social construction of Gypsy reality turns on the reform of the body. The present paper lies on aspects such as the body as object & subject of biopolitical & religious practices; the relationships between religious experience & body management; new social & community interactions; & autobiographical discourse as the ideological vehicle of personal conversion & transformation. All these processes reveal how social practices remake & shape bodily behaviour & its meaning. Pentecostal charismatic practices channel & express the community & individual demands of Church of Philadelphia converts, & represent central issues in the Pentecostal management of body & spirit. Our aim in this paper is to analyze the bodily practices which provide for believers transformation, & which shape community rituals & the congregation's interactions.
In Fijians in Transnational Pentecostal Networks, Karen J. Brison examines the Harvest Ministry, an independent Fijian Pentecostal church that sends Fijian and Papua New Guinean missionaries to East Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and elsewhere. After studying the ministry's main church in Suva for several years, Brison visited its missionaries and their local partners in East Africa and Papua New Guinea. The result of those visits, this book provides an unusual insight into Pentecostal churches in the global south, arguing that they seldom produce novel visions of Christianity and world inequality. It also offers new perspectives, by situating Pacific island churches within a global community and by examining social class formation, which is increasingly important in the Pacific. Pentecostalism has a consistent culture all over the world, but shared themes take on different meanings in the face of local concerns. In Fiji, Pentecostal churches are part of middle-class projects constructing leadership roles and highlighting transnational ties for a growing group of indigenous urban professionals. In Papua New Guinea, church leaders promote the idea that youths with blocked aspirations are tough and humble and therefore make invaluable missionaries. In East Africa, Pentecostal churches are part of a networking strategy that entrepreneurial individuals see as essential to survival. As these local groups each use Pentecostalism to advance their own agenda, they endorse Euro-American racial stereotypes and ideologies about social evolution and progress.
Pentecostals affirm the power of Pentecost in worship where they experience the Spirit's revelation of Christ and teach and preach about worship. However, Pentecostal theologians have not written much about a theology of worship, so Pentecostals' worship practices are not necessarily theologically well-grounded. This article argues that the development of such a theology is necessary and timely because it will serve to inform, evaluate and regulate Pentecostal worship. It is then argued that such a theology of worship should be based on two principles emphasised by the Pentecostal fraternity: the Spirit's equipment of all believers as priests and prophets, and their participation in all worship structures as part of the democratisation of the liturgy. Some elements of such a Pentecostal theology of worship are then explicated, specifically singing and praising God, preaching, communion and baptism, and Spirit baptism, in order to illustrate how the two main distinctive qualities of a Pentecostal worship service determine its contents. The purpose of the article is to theorise about the theological grounding of worship in the Pentecostal movement, hopefully in order to stimulate a South African debate among Pentecostals and interested parties. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Worship practices in Pentecostal services are varied but share some common perspectives. It is argued that the theology underlying these practices has not been described in a South African context, making it difficult to evaluate the worship practices in Pentecostal services. By defining a Pentecostal theology of worship it becomes possible to do such an evaluation.
Se habla de una "revolución pentecostal" en los barrios marginales de toda Centroamérica. Estas organizaciones DE los pobres, ¿son PARA los pobres? Rescatan moralmente, ¿pero promueven más participación, más organización, mejores economías? ¿Por qué esta expansión tan acelerada? ¿A qué necesidades responden? Una investigadora de aguda mirada decidió entrar en uno de los sectores de este amplio mundo y nos ofrece interesantes pistas para entender algunas de las expresiones de este movimiento religioso. (Envío/GIGA)
At first, the Pentecostal movement made no distinction between genders in the ministry. Anyone anointed by the Spirit was allowed to minister, whether to pray for the sick, testify about an encounter with God, preach or teach. The emphasis was not on the person of the one ministering, but on the Spirit equipping and empowering the person. Due to Pentecostals' upward mobility and alliance with evangelicals in order to receive the approval of the society and government since the 1940s, women's contribution to the ministry faded until in the 1970s some Pentecostals with an academic background started debating about Pentecostal hermeneutics; questioning also the omission of women from ministry. Although many Pentecostals still read the Bible in a fundamentalist manner, the article proposes a hermeneutical strategy-in accordance with the way early Pentecostals interpreted the Bible-that moves from the experience with the Spirit to the Bible, allowing one to experience the confusion and conflict necessarily associated with contradictory statements found in the Bible about issues such as women in the ministry. While the author agrees it is important that discrimination against women in the church should cease, the purpose of the article is not primarily to discuss this discrimination; it is rather to show how a movement's hermeneutical viewpoint and considerations can cause the movement to change its stance about an important issue such as women in ministry.
This book documents some of the pacifist and social justice convictions of early Pentecostals, many of whom were called traitors, slackers, cranks, and weak-minded people for extending Jesus' love beyond racial, ethnic, and national boundaries. They wrestled with citizenship and Jesus' prohibitions on killing. They rejected nation-worship, war profiteering, wage slavery, patriotic indoctrination, militarism, and Wall Street politics--and many suffered for it. They criticized governments and churches that, in wartime, endorsed the very thing forbidden in their sacred book and civil laws. They recognized the dangers of loving your country too much, even more than Jesus and his words, and viewed nation-loyalty as a distraction from a higher and more inclusive loyalty--devotion to God. These articles, once accessible only to academics, are now available to the public. These voices, often forgotten within today's mainstream Pentecostal history, offer an opportunity to revisit the passions of early Pentecostal leaders and to examine Pentecostalism in fresh ways