Dr Bonjour Bay: Protestant Pneumatology in Historical Perspective Part 1.1

|PIC1|1. Introduction

Many Church historians say that the greatest event of the 20th-century must be the spiritual movement which contains the classical Pentecostalism, Church Renewal and the Third Wave. But, in the early twentieth century, there were very strong tendencies acted against the Pentecostal or charismatic movement.

In September 1909, some fifty-six leaders of the Gnadau Alliance(the Pietist-Holiness current in German evangelical protestantism) published the infamous Die Berliner Erklärung, which essentially maintained that the Pentecostal Movement was 'not from on high, but from below', and that demons were at work in it. Amongst the reasons for branding it so were the curious manifestations, notably speaking in tongues, and the alleged propensity for prophesy to replace obedience to the word of God. Likewise, the Classical Pentecostalism which rose in the early twentieth century has been strongly attacked by the main-line Protestants.

However, we now see the growing positive estimate regarding the Charismatic Christianity which includes the classical Pentecostalism, Charismatic Renewal and the Third Wave. Howard A. Snyder already mentioned that charismatic renewal movement was one of the main issues in the 20th century church history which had powerfully effected on Roman Catholicism and Protestant Church.

Then, what is the reason of such a powerful conversion? There must be some reasons, but I think that the most significant reason of those is the amazing expansion of Charismatic Christianity in the 20th century. Steven J. Land showed, in his statistics, that 332 million Christians in the world were charismatics in 1988. By 1990, the movement had grown to include more than 72 million Catholics world wide(over 15 million in America). It has official organizations in 120 countries around the world. And David B. Barrett also showed a statistics titled by "A Survey of the 20th-Century Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal in the Holy Spirit, with Its Goal of World Evangelization." In it, he showed that the number of Charismatic Christians in 1988 were approximately 330 million.

As we express some periods of the 20th-century Charismatic Christianity, we find many confusing terminologies has been used in this field. However, because of their indistinctness, we need to classify those terminologies clearly. Generally, the term Pentecostalism or Classical Pentecostalism denotes the First Wave Spiritual Movement which occurred at Azusa and Topeka in the early 20th century. And Neo-Pentecostalism, Charismatics or Charismatic Renewal means the Second Wave which started at 1960s not only in the Pentecostalism but also in Roman Catholicism and in many parts of Protestant Denominations. And the Third Wave means the spiritual movement which has effected on the mission field and the churches world-widely and inter-denominationally since 1980s.

And the term Charismatic Christianity is meant to encompass whole Christianity, from its beginning in the first century, that emphasized religious or spiritual experiences and the activities of the Holy Spirit. So this term can contain all the spiritual movement in church history and contemporary charismatic movement, for example, Classical Pentecostalism, Charismatic Renewal, and the Third Wave as well. Likewise, all these three stages of the 20th-century spiritual movement may be called the 20th-century Charismatic Christianity briefly.

I will especially concentrate the subject of Charismatic Renewal after 1960s in this essay, because I want to make clear the special situation of that in the spiritual movement, especially manifest the brilliant function of that which has accomplished in the ecumenical activities.

It is very much considerable that the activities of Charismatic Renewal movement tried to seek the way of inter-denomination dialogue between Roman Catholics and Protestants. When I started to study this subject, I especially tried to find the answers of the issues like below;

First, as generally speaking, did the traditional Pentecostals act negatively in the 20th-century ecumenical movement? Why do I ask such a question? Because of being shaped specific denomination, the traditional Pentecostal movement has been criticized as a closed sect. However, there are many opposite standpoints against it also, so I want to get the concrete answer about this question whether or not.

Second, there is a rapidly growing mood of reconciliation since later 20th century. Can we have any prospect that the 21st-century Charismatic Christianity will bring us the fluent dialogue and unity between those three large streams of Christianity?

Third, spiritual movements must heal the past wound of separation and misunderstanding, and contribute the promotion of unity to the Christianity from now on. Then, what will be the evangelical connection of diverse Pneumatologies which has been conflicted each other?

With those questions above mentioned, I will trace the historical and theological site of Charismatic Renewal movement, and investigate the theological resources about it. And further, I will meet some aspects of their inter-denominational activities. In conclusion, I will produce the prospect of the 21st-century Charismatic Christianity with the answers of the issues that I mentioned above.

Dr Bonjour Bay

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Dr Bonjour Bay is a Researcher in Spiritual Movement, and is the Church History Professor at Sungkyul University, South Korea. Dr Bay has published numerous books on Church History and Pneumatology.

'Charismatic Renewal and Its Inter-Denominational Dialogue' is a six-part series to be published by Christian Today, of which this piece is the first.