Amos Yong: Discerning the Spirit(s)

Amos Yong, Discerning the Spirit(s): A Pentecostal-Charismatic Contribution to Christian Theology of Religions, Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series 20 (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 392 pages.

Amos Yong is a leading Pentecostal/charismatic theologian. This book helps explain why. There are a number of reasons why I think pastors, church leaders, missionaries, teachers, and students should read it. First, it skillfully grapples with one of the most important issues of our day: a theology regarding rival religions. Do you not agree that post 9/11 Christianity has a responsibility to address the issue of religions as a contemporary priority? Second, the missiological and evangelistic impulse and experience of a burgeoning and blossoming Pentecostalism demands sound biblical and theological underpinnings in order to increase depth and effectiveness. Third, globalization and modernization of contemporary society, making the world our neighbor, confronts Christianity with an unprecedented opportunity to apply the Golden Rule of Christ (Matt 7:12), an application that cannot occur without understanding ourselves in relation to religious others.

Dr. Yong, the son of first generation converts from Buddhism to Pentecostal Christianity, has perhaps been providentially prepared to help Pentecostalism develop a viable theology of religions. His work in an undeniably difficult area, a virtual theological minefield, is instructive and inspiring. A creative combination of testimony, history, philosophy, and theology, Discerning the Spirit(s) is at times challenging and stretching reading but always rewarding and worthwhile. Personal narratives show that theology of religions is not an abstract intellectual exercise for Amos Yong, but a burning personal passion. That spiritual passion is communicated through this writing and can be contagious to the reader!

Yong work wrestles with issues raised by implications for Pentecostal theology by the “primal spirituality” thesis of Harvard theologian Harvey Cox in Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-First Century (NY: Addison-Wesley, 1995). Yong approaches theology of religions pneumatologically without trying to “untangle the christological debates” (p. 25). He suggests that the generally negative rhetoric of Pentecostals against other religions belies an underlying attitude of openness. Yong’s own adventurous attitude shows when this work is said to set forth a “pneumatology of quest” (p. 32). He sketches the history of Christian theological reflection on non-Christian religions in light of the reality of contemporary religious pluralism, calling attention to tensions between competing truth claims in the context of universality and particularity issues raised regarding Jesus Christ. He suggests pneumatological approaches to theology of religions have an advantage in perceiving the Holy Spirit as cosmic divine presence, but argues that the problem of discernment becomes paramount. He then advances his idea of “pneumatological imagination,” or a Pentecostal/charismatic experience of and orientation toward the Holy Spirit. Yong describes the Pentecostal/charismatic movement and its historical responses to religions, and argues why Pentecostals need and should desire a theology of religions. He revises Cox’s primal spirituality categories to lift up religious experience, utility, and cosmology. A dialogical case study between Pentecostalism and Brazilian Umbanda religion is a bold application of Yong’s pneumatological approach. Finally, he expounds some important supportive theses for Pentecostal/charismatic theology of religions, sets forth some provisional theological implications arising from this study, and offers recommendations for further research. Throughout, Yong relies on a wide ranging grasp of a massive amount of relevant material as well as his own Christian experience of the Spirit and respect for the teachings and traditions of the Pentecostal/charismatic community of faith.

Dr. Yong has written a distinctively Pentecostal Christian theology of religions. Progress in theology of religions often halts because of apparently irresolvable issues regarding the person of Jesus Christ. Yong wishes to by-pass this Christological impasse by re-directing attention to pneumatology. He does not deny that this is only a temporary tactic. He himself insists on the necessity and desirability of a robust trinitarian theology of religions developing the ancient idea of the Son and the Spirit as the two hands of the Father (pp. 311, 315-16). But setting aside Christology, even temporarily, may be a sticking point for some Pentecostals. Viewing Christ as divine particularity (historic) and the Spirit as divine universality (cosmic) doubtless has much to offer Pentecostal theology of religions. An artificial isolation, however, of Christology and pneumatology may be neither plausible nor possible. For one thing, Christology is not without universality (cf. John 1:1) and pneumatology is not without particularity (cf. Rom 8: 11). More importantly, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Gal 4:6). Any attempt to separate or isolate Christ and the Spirit is doomed to distortion. Yong’s complaint about the lacuna in theology of religions regarding pneumatology is certainly legitimate. (The imbalance applies to many other areas as well!) His concept of pneumatological imagination is an exceedingly helpful corrective. But though Yong is himself absolutely orthodox, his isolationist approach may open up unwarranted and unwanted unorthodoxies breezily by-passing Christ altogether. Better than either isolating Christology, an obvious majority mistake of the past, or isolating pneumatology, a possible Pentecostal mistake of the present, is a simultaneous, systematic exegesis and exploration of both Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit in relation to the religions. Though this might not erase the Christological impasse, it may indeed show surprising results as the old, lop-sided Christology with its longstanding pneumatological lacuna is replaced with a more complete, comprehensive trinitarian perspective.

The goal is to realize that in some sense the Spirit “is at work in the religions, shaping and re-shaping them, or else mollifying their resisting spirits”, and to challenge us to follow the Spirit’s “lead and work with him to do the same” (p. 324). I heartily agree. More awareness of the Spirit’s work in the world and in the world’s religions has extremely important implications for Christian theology of religions. Yong is not unaware of or ambiguous about possible dangers in this project. As a spiritual safeguard, and in top Pentecostal style, he develops a practical doctrine of discernment of God’s presence or absence and also of the presence of the demonic in religions (pp. 312-15, 321-22). He does not stop with telling us the Spirit may be found working throughout the world, which is, after all, God’s creation, or even in the midst of non-Christian religions, with their mixture of the divine, human, and demonic. He goes on to help us identify when and where the Spirit is present and active, or not, and when and where demonic presence and activity occurs. His is not a naïve or nostalgic theology of religions but a practical, workable, and fully Pentecostal approach.

Yong’s description of his work as a “pneumatology of quest” requires remembering (pp. 32, 314; 323). The adventure is open-ended. He humbly acknowledges the provisional nature of his work, submitting it to peers for perusal and possible adjustments. He has left himself, and us, room to move and grow and change as the Spirit leads. In his own life, he allows uncertainty derived from the Spirit’s mystery to co-exist (comparatively!) comfortably with faith’s verity (John 3:8; cf. p. 310). Readers are invited to join in this Holy Spirit-guided quest. One could hardly do better than by tackling Discerning the Spirit(s).

Reviewed by Tony Richie

 

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