Bible Students

A personal reflection based on “Christianity’s Dangerous Idea” by McGrath (chapters 14 and 15)

This week’s section covered chapters fourteen and fifteen. These chapters discuss the change in America through Protestantism and the revival known as the rise of Pentecostalism. Chapter fourteen begins with trouble brewing in the West. The arrival of German biblical criticism was not welcome in the West. German biblical criticism, specifically form criticism and other types of biblical literary criticism, were seen as a direct attack against Christianity. This progressive understanding of the Scriptures (seen with a lower-case “s,” without its authority) led to the arrival of an opposite force on the theological scene:
Fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is often seen as a brute class of Christians who reject academia. Fundamentalism is much more complicated than that, however. Fundamentalism was the Christian withdrawal from the mainstream atheistic understanding of the Bible. They existed as an opposition against Liberalism. Liberalism in this sense is not necessarily not Christian, but rather a more progressive ideal of the Bible which was rejected by Fundamentals. In fact, Fundamentalism was actually a conservative revival of theology which brought back historic Christian beliefs, though was often seen in a poor light due to some unfortunate public debates, especially against the ideas of Darwin. Next, Neo-Evangelicalism was the new engagement with the mainstream. It was the second World War which resulted in the splintering of religion in the world. Evangelicalism, which is a historic faith going back to the Reformers, was reformed to the New Evangelicalism. This movement was headed by popular figures, such as Billy Graham. This reengagement with the culture viewed the Fundamentalists’ withdrawal as contrary to the gospel. Additionally, they viewed Fundamentalism as fighting many fights which were not worth the energy, and stood in the way of spreading the gospel. In order to solve this, New Evangelicalism focused more on evangelism than debates (especially around evolution). Next, there was the Revisionist Protestantism. After the introduction of German biblical criticism into the mainstream, many individuals sought to secularize the Christian faith and communicate it through secular means. If the Bible was not authoritative, was there anything in it which could be trusted? This was the new question. Additionally, individuals in the Revisionist Protestantism sought to speak about God in secular ways, including figures such as Bonhoffer. The future of the Protestant denomination is up in the air, though future reformation will inevitably reform some sects back to the historic understanding of the Bible. However, with the introduction of instant worldwide communication, the world has suddenly become an enormous melting pot of Christian and non-Christian ideas, leading to constant changes in both directions (progressive and conservative) for Protestantism. 

With this in mind, it is important to note that even today Christians do not often care much about individual denominations. Often, Christians attend a close church, not necessarily a church of a specific denomination. Denominations are finding that downsizing may be the best thing to do at the time, as denominational struggles are becoming less and less effective. Parachurch organizations are becoming more popular as they seek to unite denominational efforts into a main goal. Additionally, movements such as the Jesus Movement in the middle-late 20th century reformed the ecclesiological landscape into a more free-flowing scene. This was controversial for its time, though it has resulted in movements such as Calvary Chapel and Vineyard. Additionally, the positive (and negative) connection between Catholicism and Protestants has been reignited. Protestantism in the past had been held together by the common enemy, Catholicism, though this relationship has become more and less distant throughout the ages. Recently, some Evangelical authorities have been converted to Catholicism for its appeal to historical authority, as well as doubt of the biblical message of salvation through faith apart from works. 

Chapter fifteen now covers the Pentecostal revolution in Protestantism. Pentecostalism exploded in America, beginning with the holiness groups. The famous starting place of the Pentecostal revival is Azusa Street, and this kind of Protestantism appealed largely to the socially marginalized. It was seen as dangerous by many church denominations. After the revival, some other denominational church leaders felt they had the Spirit come on them and spoke in tongues, and many other denomination church leaders came out of the closet to agree. Korea had Pentecostalism explode as well. Diversity is an absolutely key aspect of the movement.  Pentecostalism has a few defining characteristics which set it apart from mainstream Protestantism. Mainly, Pentecostalism believes speaking in tongues will happen to believers and will be normative in the true church. Speaking in tongues is not to be confused with the biblical representation of speaking in tongues. There are at least two kinds of speaking in tongues, one for public edification and one for personal edification. The one for personal edification is the normative, and is not an understandable or translatable message, but rather a kind of ecstatic speech. After conversion, the individual will have a special indwelling of the Spirit where they speak in tongues, which again may sound like ecstatic gibberish, but is for personal edification. In reflection, I do believe this kind of ecstatic gibberish speech is biblical (1 Cor. 14:28) and is good for personal edification, though I do not believe the practice I have seen is a biblical use of the biblical gift. However, the context of 1 Cor. 14 seems to be with disrupting the church, so it may be possible the use of ecstatic speech out loud may have a place if it is a part of the order of the service. This is unclear. What is clear, however, is that Pentecostalism gives the expectation of personal experience of God, especially through ecstatic speech, and personal deliverance from sin. Only after these things (personal edification and the relationship with God) should one go out and do social work. The presence of God should be in all parts of the life of the believer, and should be practiced as such. While the Bible is the normative revelation to all Christians, Pentecostals expect the Spirit to be actively working, constantly, in the life of the believer. Some pentecostal groups reject trinitarian theology, which is then viewed by agitators as the whole of pentecostalism. Modalism is rejected by orthodox Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism is currently replacing liberation theology for the poor in the theological scene.