Methodology
Methodology
Methodology describes the way things are to be carried out. Clark Pinnock compares the term with the recipe for baking a fine cake, or the blueprint for constructing a sturdy house. (1) The description of one's theological method can be limited to a few pages as in Paul K. Jewett's God, Creation & Revelation or almost omitted as in Barth's Die christlich Dogmatik in Entwurf, or located at the end as in Thomas Oden's book on theology, The Living God. There are no rules for how to write or not write the prolegomena or the methodology. However, this paper will follow Clark Pinnock's advice when he states that "method in a certain sense comes first, if not in the order of doctrine, at least in the order of theorizing, and it can hardly be pushed aside inasmuch as it affects everything we do in theology subsequently." (2) In view of what been said, the theological method gives to theology its scientific touch. However, only because theology is a science does not mean that it is intended only for people belonging to "an esoteric circle made up of some particular enlightened people. It must be open-ended and pursue clarity." (3) But of course, method has to be laid out logically and rationally, giving reasons for cause and effect, pointing out concepts and truths that are important in the theological process. (4) It also includes a motive which keeps the whole theology together, and it is basically this motive that gives theology its special and personal stance. (5)
As a science, theology is based on its own principles (6) (the historical revelation in a personal form), means, and methods. These may vary from scholar to scholar, depending on each pre-understanding, assumptions, or convictions. Therefore, there are a great number of ways of doing theology. Evangelical rationalists like Ronald Nash, Norman Geisler, or Carl Henry draw upon presuppositions and assumptions that are different from those of fideists like, Karl Barth, Donald Bloesch, or from a correlationist, like Paul Tillich. On the other hand, Pentecostals are doing theology with a methodology that differs completely from postliberals, existentialists, feminist theologians, or liberation theologians. Besides the emphasis upon the verbal inspiration and the authority of the Scripture, Pentecostals have always underlined the role of the Holy Spirit, assisting believers in the interpretative process. "Because the Holy Spirit says so it should be interpreted so." The experiential part in Pentecostals' interpretation of the Word of God is well known.
This work is a dissertation on historic theology. It covers an analysis of the Swedish Pentecostal Movement in its difficult, and to some extent, painful development into a denominational structure. The Swedish Pentecostal Movement (SPM), earlier an eager advocate of non-denominationalism, is actually very close to becoming a denomination-like organization. Therefore, one of the reasons behind his paper is to offer theologians, students, or common readers, the possibility to follow one of the last existing radical congregational Pentecostal fellowships in its journey toward a structure that would have been opposed to by the majority of the leaders in the SPM ten years ago.
Early Pentecostalism especially in Europe, (7) rejected any tendency towards a central organization of any kind. The chapter on Dispensationalism and Ecclesiology will clearly show that the original intention of Pentecostalism was not to lock up the "New Movement" behind denominational walls. Instead, the early stage of Pentecostalism pursued to influence the traditional or mainline churches to restore the apostolic faith and life and focus upon the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit.
But what made the Pentecostal fellowship in Sweden make such an unexpected turn towards denominationalism? In order to get an answer to that question it is imperative to look into the way the SPM approached hermeneutics. In this hermeneutical process, it is possible to see how the SPM in the late 1960's begins to challenge traditional way of reading the Bible and even challenges the belief in "Godīs model" as an eternal blueprint for the church government.
A. Hermeneutics in the Swedish Pentecostal Movement
The ecclesiology of the SPM is based upon some particular hermeneutical premises. The literal and pragmatic interpretation characterized the first sixty years of the Pentecostal theologies in both America and Europe and is still the prevailing method at the grass-root level in most Pentecostal churches worldwide. The early Pentecostals all over the world considered themselves instruments of the end-time revival, which would come through a restoration of the apostolic church pattern and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it became important to interpret the Bible correctly in order to see what the apostolic faith looked like. In this interpretative process, the understanding of the biblical text was derived from the literal method and a proof-texts theology. That is, the text was understood from its plain meaning. Since this a-historical and many times pragmatic theology set the rules for the understanding of the local church concept in the SPM, it becomes imperative to analyze its content.
a. Restorationist pragmatism and literalism
During the first 60 years of Pentecostalism in America and Europe, the a-historical and pragmatic method was never questioned. (8) Instead, it was considered sound and biblical. (9) The literal understanding and interpretation of the biblical texts led Pentecostals to advocate restorationist arguments, through which they saw the 20th century Pentecostalism as a direct continuance of the apostolic tradition. Radical congregationalism became the "apostolic" way of viewing the local church and its government. What is more, they frequently let pneumatologic experiences guide their interpretations. Consequently, these experiences became evidences in support of an ecclesial church life, which they believed was in perfect line with that of the early church. (10)
In the last twenty-five years Pentecostal and Charismatic issues have interested a great number of theologians from evangelical and mainline churches in USA. This interest has motivated Pentecostal theologians to redefine previous standpoints from a new theological perspective, built upon a fuller appreciation of biblical theology, and a willingness to approach hermeneutics from a historical contextual view. This new situation has also motivated movements such as the Assemblies of God (11) to meet the educational needs in their own movement, leading to an increasing amount of accredited schools for theological training.
The early years of the SPM were similar to those of American Pentecostalism, at least regarding the understanding of theology. The biblical texts were taken literally, (12)
with the firm purpose to establish a movement upon clear restorationist grounds. The theological approach was pragmatic, leaning upon proof-text hermeneutics, distanced, and sometimes strongly opposed to academic theology. (13) This restorationist view led pastors and leaders in the SPM to think that the only way of growing numerically and spiritually was upon a faithful interpretation and acceptance of the Word of God. This view was opposed to the one of the mainline churches, which had been influenced by liberal theology. (14) Automatically, restorationism distanced the SPM from an ecumenical relationship with other denominations. (15) Later on, this research will discuss and analyze the SPM's position on organizational issues. Therefore, it suffices here to say that in 1919 (16) the SPM stated that the original intention was not to become a new denomination. Instead, it took a firm stand in favor of William Durhamsīs non-organizational congregationalism. (17)
Pragmatic theology is still a reality in the SPM, and it is obvious how the lack of academic training affects many pastors and leaders in their opinions and attitudes towards academic theology. This is not to imply that the SPM did not have trained theologians. During the early years, many ministers who came from mainline denominations had got their degrees from either universities or theological seminaries. (18) In the last 15 years, several Pentecostal theologians have been awarded with doctoral degrees from Swedish universities. (19)
That the biblical texts ought to be interpreted at face value has been taken for granted and is still well accepted in the Pentecostal Movement, at least at the "grass-roots" level. The a-historical and pragmatic view of Scripture, (20) so frequent among those pursuing a restorationist return to apostolic patterns and structures (without considering the social, historical, and cultural changes), may still find advocates among Pentecostals. However, the historical understanding of the texts have improved considerably in the last years. (21)
Beyond doubt, the 1970īs became an important and exiting decade for Pentecostalism and its
theology. (22)
Until then, very little academic theology had been done among Pentecostals. It was
probably James Dunn, (23) Fredrick Bruner, (24) and their publications (25) that increased the interest in
pneumatology. At the same time they forced Pentecostal theologians to step forth and evaluate
the formers' arguments against the significance of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the initial
evidence of the Holy Spirit. Both Bruner and Dunn contend that there is no Baptism of the Holy
Spirit separate from regeneration. Beyond doubt, both theologians have had a decisive influence
upon the present debate on pneumatology among Pentecostals through articles in academic
journals like
b. Contextual Theology (27)
Along with the attack on speaking in tongues as the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit appeared the contextual theology,, (28) which in some areas was understood as a frontal attack on the authority of the Bible. "Some of the evangelicals experienced contextualization as a deceit." (29) All of a sudden, it was difficult to decide who were "true" evangelicals, since the authority and the inerrancy of the Word "competed" with contextual theology. However, contextualization became a powerful tool to apply old biblical truths to the mind-set of modern society. But since contextualization is built on several different social, historical, and cultural variables, it was evident that theologians would arrive at different results. This does not mean that contextualization equals theological relativism. It operates on the basis of a true and thorough knowledge of both "the biblical and the modern worlds in order to bridge their differences." (30) It is interesting to notice how both denominationalists and non-denominationalists have used contextualization to defend their points of view.
However, the practical consequence of the contextual theories changed hermeneutics completely. Through the use of a contextual approach, it became possible to confront old problem-texts in a new way. The understanding of the historical dimension of the texts increased and Pentecostal theologians had to respond to new hermeneutic problems. (31) Old problem-texts, for example in the Pauline epistles, were studied and viewed differently. (32)
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1. Clark Pinnock and Delwin Brown, Theological Crossfire, An Evangelical Liberal Dialogue (Grand Rapids, IL.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), p. 37.
2. Pinnock and Brown, pp. 37-38.
3. Per Axel Sverker, Teologi, Församling och Vetenskap - Några positionsbetsämningar (Örebro, Sweden.: Örebro Missionsskola, June, 1996), p. 34.
4. Ibid., p. 34.
5. Stanley Grenz, Revisioning Evangelical Theology (Downers Grove, IL.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), pp. 137-162.
6. Ibid., p. 31.
7. The author is aware of the fact that before the formation of the Assemblies of God in America in 1914, the anti-organizational spirit prevailed also among the early Pentecostal groups.
8. Cf., Roger Stronstad, "Trends in the Pentecostal Hermeneutics,"
Paraclete, Summer, 1988, p. 4. By pragmatism Stronstad understands a hermeneutics that was dominated my a non-analytical interpretation and confirmed by experience. The term a-historical, refers to a view that the 19 centuries, lying between the apostolic and the modern eras, do not influence in the understanding of the biblical text. The text is plain and should be taken literally, without considering the intermediate years. The a-historical view had very little understanding for the historical dimension of the biblical text. Cf. Edith Blumhofer, Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American Culture (Chicago, IL.: University of Illinois Press, 1993), p. 50. Blumhofer comments that "On October 15 the twenty-seven-year-old Parman began conducting classes at his new school. Like Sandford, his school had only one text, the Bible, and one teacher, ostensibly the Holy Spirit (using Parman as his mouthpiece)."10. Cf. William Menzies "The Methodology of Pentecostal Theology: An Essay on Hermeneutics," in Essays on Apostolic Themes: Studies in Honor of: Howard M Ervin, edited by Paul Elbert (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1985), p. 4. "At the outset of the Pentecostal revival, an important task was to give biblical support to the concept of the availability of the New Testament gifts of the Spirit of the modern church. Today this is not nearly the issue it once was." Cf. William Menzies, Anointed to Serve (Springfield, MO.: Gospel Publishing House, 1971), p. 24: "The Pentecostal movement is that group of sects within the Christian Church which is characterized by the belief that the occurrence mentioned in 2 on the Day of Pentecost not only signaled the birth of the church, but described an experience available to believers in all ages." Cf. also Steven J. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), p. 60 where he states: "Pentecostals referred to themselves as an apostolic faith movement due to their desire to recover for the present age the faith and the power of the apostolic church." Cf. Edith Blumhofer, Pentecost in My Soul (Springfield, MO.: Gospel Publishing House, 1989), p. 16: "Born of the conviction that the concluding years of human history would be marked by a restoration--in intensified form--of New testament power and practice, Pentecostalism heralded the arrival of the restored apostolic faith."
11. Hereafter AG.
12. Evangelii Härold, August 5, 1920. For example, during the National Conference in Kölingared (1920) the
following was said:
A congregation is biblical when it is set in order according to the principles mentioned in Acts 2:38. New
members ought to be accepted on the same grounds, that is, in order to become a member of the church of the
Lord, one needs to be baptized after the conversion in accordance with the Jesusī commands. Likewise, the
church should always be on fire, so that the souls who have not been baptized by the Holy Spirit, might have
that experience. The elders, or the overseers, ought to be filled with faith and Holy Spirit and thus depend on
the guidance of the Spirit. Doing it this way, God and not man will be in control.
13. Carl-Gustav Carlsson,
Människan samhället och Gud: Grunddrag i Lewi Pethrus kristendomsuppfattning (Lund: Lund University Press, 1990), p. 40. Arthur Sundstedt, Pingstväckelsen, dess uppkomst och första utecklingsskede (Stockholm: Normans Förlag, vol.1, 1969), pp. 119-126.15. It is important to keep in mind that the SPM (as well as most Pentecostal Movement worldwide), was isolated by most denominations in the initial phase or decades of its history. So, the isolation was not always something they wanted but had to accept based upon many Christians and Christian groupsī radical attitude towards the new sect.
16. Artur Sundstedt, Pingstväckelsen, dess uppkomst och första utvecklingsskede (Stockholm: Normans Förlag, vol. 2, 1969), p. 229. The Pentecostal National Conference in Sweden during June 22-26, 1919, was held in Grönebro, Kölingared. It was an extremely important Conference since the SPMīs position to the denominations was clarified. After an animated debate the delegates felt the guidance of the Spirit to make a pronouncement through which they refused to create any kind of denomination or National Board, which they believed would have a restraining influence on the work of the Holy Spirit in the world . . . and [the denomination] produces self-trust and leads both individuals and churches away from the dependence of the Lord which is so important for spiritual progress. The pronouncement was signed by 102 preachers and evangelists and was published in Evangelii Härold.
17. See Lewi Pethrus,
När du stjärnorna räknar (Stockholm: C. E. Fritzes Bokförlag AB, 1953), p. 175.18. For example, Henning Thulin, G. E. Söderholm, Oscar Haglund, and Nils Ramselius came all from the Swedish State Church where they ministered as parish priests. G. E. Söderholm authored
Den svenska pingstväckelsens historia, I-II, Stockholm, 1927-1928.19. Among the Pentecostal theologians who have gotten doctoral degrees in theology from the Swedish universities are, for example, Alf Lindberg, Rhode Struble, and Göte Olingdahl.
20. Cf. Roger Stronstad, "Trends in the Pentecostal Hermeneutics," p. 4. One striking peculiarity of Brumback's discussion to those who read it 40 years later is that this pragmatic Pentecost as pattern hermeneutics is simply assumed to be self-evident and self-authenticating. Nowhere does he analyze or explain this hermeneutics; he simply asserts it. Nowhere does he betray any self-awareness that, in a book of Pentecostal apologetics, he needs to discuss, defend, and justify his hermeneutical base for developing 'a contemporary Pentecostal answer to the ancient Pentecostal question. See Roger Stronstad,
The Charismatic Theology of Luke (Peabody, Mass.: Hendricksons Publishers, 1984), for an extensive study on the difference between the pneumatologies of Luke and Paul and their historical normativeness. Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee, eds., s.v., "Hermeneutics, Historical Perspectives on Pentecostal and Charismatic," by F. L. Arrington,., (Grand Rapids, MI.:: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988) p. 380:22. Russel Spittler, "Theological Style among Pentecostals and Charismatics," in
Doing Theology in Today's World, John D. Woodbridge and Thomas E. McComiskey eds. (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991), p. 302:
24. H. T. Trulear. "Fredrick D. Bruner." of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, p. 100. Fredrick D. studied
at Princeton Theological Seminary and completed a Th.D. in 1963 at the University of Hamburg. His dissertation was
revised for publication as "A Theology of the Holy Spirit: The Pentecostal Experience and the New Testament Witness."
25.
Fredrick D. Bruner.
26. Frank Maachia told me that it was probably James Dunn, who through his book, ignited the debate on biblical
theology among Pentecostals and obliged them to get out of their defensive dogmatic positions in order to formulate and
clarify their beliefs especially in Pneumatology.
27.
Decisive for the outcome of the interpretation of the Word of God in contextual theology is the underlining
theories.
28.
Walter Kaiser & Moises Silva, An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning (Grand
Rapids, MI.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 176. "Contextualization is a technical term related to contextual
theology on the mission field." It came into use in the 1970s and "it appears to have been used first in a document
prepared in 1972 by the directors of the Theological Education Fund with reference to offering theological education in
the third world." Bruce Nicholls later defined it as "the translation of the unchanging content of the gospel of the
kingdom into verbal form meaningful to the peoples in their separate cultures and within their particular existential
situations."
29.
Per Axel Sverker, Bibelsyn och frälsningslära i John Stotts teologi (Lund: University of Lund, 1999, doctoral
diss.), 239.
30.
William, Klein; Craig L. Blomberg; Robbert L. Hubbard, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (Dallas, TX.:
Word Publishing, 1993), p. 174.
31.
See Robert Menzies, Roger Stronstad and Gordon Fee. Theologians, through the influence of evangelical
theology, began to talk about the evangelicalization of the Pentecostal Movement.
32.
With problem-texts the author of this paper refers basically to the Pauline text such as 1 Corinthians. 14:34-35; 1 Corinthians. 11:3ff; 1 Timothy. 3:1-15 etc.; Cf. Nils-Olov Nilsson, Contextualization and Literalism in the
Swedish and Norwegian Female Debates, 1978-1995 Unpublished Ph.D. diss., at the Bethany Theological Seminary,
Dothan, AL, 1996: