Toward a Pneumatological Theology: Pentecostal and Ecumenical Perspectives on Ecclesiology, Soteriology, and Theology of Mission

As Amos Yong indicates in the introduction to this text, Pentecostal theology as a serious enterprise as systematic theology is just now reaching a standpoint of coherence and completeness. For much of the history of Pentecostalism, formal systematic theology has been a borrowed component from other Fundamentalist and Evangelical sources, often with an addendum tailoring certain aspects toward the Pentecostal paradigm. Perhaps part of this has been due to a distrust of academic enterprises by many churches (not just the Pentecostal church) as being somehow removed from relevance or fullness of the spirit, always the primary concern for Pentecostals.Karkkainen is a skilled theologian. On faculty at Fuller Theological Seminary and the University of Helsinki, he is conversant with the broader theological history of the Christian church, and has an ecumenical perspective. He has a strong language background (being fluent in many languages from different linguistic families) that permits more in-depth exploration of theological ideas beyond the English-French-German triad. This particular volume, 'Toward a Pneumatological Theology', is edited by Yong, and strives to pull together from Karkkainen's body of work a series of essays that builds a constructive theology informed by Karkkainen's foundational Pentecostalism. This represents not only a systematic approach to Pentecostal theology, but also represents a point at with Pentecostalism intersects with a broader ecumenical perspective, making this volume of interest to Pentecostals and non-Pentecostals alike.Pentecostalism, as the name implies, focuses heavily on the Holy Spirit as an important (and many would argue, almost forgotten) aspect of the Divine. Karkkainen points out an 'pneumatological renaissance' in the twentieth century, as more theologians (Barth, Tillich, Rahner) look for the silent member of the Trinity to be more important and active. Others such as Clark Pinnock and Donald Gelpi have been of influence in the charismatic aspects of ecumenical potential reaching across denominational divides. The first part of this text addresses hermeneutics from a Pentecostal perspective, and how this impacts identity, particularly as ecumenical activities increase. The second section looks at ecclesiology questions - doctrine of Church is important particularly in working through ecumenical relations, where a clear understanding of what it means to be 'Church' is necessary for fruitful dialogue to begin. The final section looks at mission, with some attention given to the relationship of the Christian mission in a Pentecostal framework and other world religions. This is not a text for beginners. It is an academic text, with a generous amount of footnotes, references, and theological terminology that can be intimidating to the academically uninitiated. Most of these essays were originally published as articles in academic journals, and so are written with the idea of other scholars a

This book is an excellent introduction to Pneumatological Theology especially as shown in the International Roman Catholic-Pentecostal dialogue as well as other ecumenical dialogues conducted with Pentecostals. The author does a great job of being able to draw together different church streams, such as Catholic, Orthodox and Pentecostal and show how they build a Theology with the Holy Spirit taking a major role. The theology is trinitarian but does not allow the Spirit to be just tacked on at the end. The Spirit has a central role in the foundation of the theology.The chapters move from Identity, to Ecclesiology, to Salvation, to Missions. The editting by Amos Yong has helped reduce the overlap dramatically (it is obvious where some of it was) and makes what was a series of essays almost read as a book written with one theme.If you are looking for a perspective on how Pentecostal Theology is thinking about the topics of ecumenicism, ecclesiology, soteriology and missiology, this book is for you.My only complaint is that there is no discussion of many Pentecostal practices such as speaking in tongues, worship or prophecy. As these are a major part of Pentecostal churches I was surprised to see them missing.