Steven Félix-Jäger, Pentecostal Aesthetics: Theological Reflections in a Pentecostal Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics, Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies 16 (Leiden: Brill, 2015) ISBN 9789004285637.
Hardly a Christian tradition is more obsessed with the physical and embodied forms of the Christian life than Pentecostalism. The Pentecostal movement manifests a change among contemporary religious traditions in major part because of its emphasis on the holistic nature of human participation in the experience of God. All the more surprising is therefore that Pentecostals have not sufficiently developed a distinctively Pentecostal philosophy of art and aesthetics. In Pentecostal Aesthetics, with a foreword by Amos Yong, Steven Félix-Jäger addresses this lacuna by reflecting theologically on art and aesthetics from a global Pentecostal perspective and through a pneumatological lens. He contends that Pentecostal aesthetics emerges from the global, experiential, and Spirit-centered nature of the Pentecostal movement. The book proposes that Pentecostal aesthetics can be ontologically grounded in a relativistic theory of art that is sensitive to its ontological foundations. The surprising outcome of this endeavor is that from today’s contemporary artworld Pentecostals can gain abundant insight about the work of the Holy Spirit.
Hardly a Christian tradition is more obsessed with the physical and embodied forms of the Christian life than Pentecostalism.
The question of aesthetics offers increasingly significant contributions to conversations on contemporary theology and philosophy, religious experience, and worship. The origins of the idea of theological aesthetics may be traced back to early Christian debates on divine beauty and the vision of God to the critique and defense of divine images and the rise of Christian poetry, music, and architecture during the Middle Ages, and into early modern reflections on art and aesthetics. Pentecostals may feel somewhat detached from this stream of Christian history, were it not for the consistent emphasis the movement places on the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in visual and oral gifts, a characteristic playfulness of the Pentecostal life, and a vivid imagination inspired by the Spirit of hope and beauty. Félix-Jäger traces these connections in three parts: (1) the history and definition of art and aesthetics, (2) the nature of art, and (3) the purpose of art. Each part examines theological aesthetics through a pneumatological Pentecostal lens.
The first part of the book details in two chapters the broader history of art and the ontological grounds for a Pentecostal philosophy of art and aesthetics. The first chapter follows historical trends in art and aesthetics and traces the cultural conditions in the West. The second chapter seeks to ground aesthetics within an appropriate philosophical system for identifying Pentecostal contributions. Félix-Jäger argues that a Pentecostal philosophy of art and aesthetics is grounded in the pneumatocentric and experiential aspects of Pentecostal spirituality.
What is the nature of beauty?
The second part offers a theoretical conversation with classical aesthetic issues such as beauty, imagination, and inspiration. Chapter 3 explores the Spirit’s role in artistic inspiration and imagination; chapter 4 explores the nature of beauty; and chapter 5 addresses the eschatological nature of Christian art. Important for the author here is that the dominant Pentecostal emphases on the imagination, beauty, and eschatology can engage the traditional concepts of art and aesthetics in important ways that speak to Pentecostals.
The final part of the book focuses on issues of praxis and questions the purpose of art in the Christian world. Chapter 6 maintains that humans are inherently relational and that the purest non-functional form of relationality is play. The idea that art is play is then connected with the contemporary discussion of play in Pentecostal theology. Chapter 7 shows that, although not in all Christian art, the arts of redemption contain an eschatological purpose and are therefore important to Pentecostal aesthetics. The final chapter offers suggestions on how the church should approach art and how Pentecostals can make art that is faithful to God, the artist and artworld, and the Pentecostal worldview.
How should the church approach art?
The book is a timely addition to various interests among Pentecostal that explore the continuing viability and vitality of the movement and its integration in the broader Christian spiritual traditions. The theme of the annual meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies in 2016 on worship and the arts indicates that the importance of aesthetics has been recognized among Pentecostal scholars, not only in the theological fields. Félix-Jäger navigates different terrains in his attempt to bring together the field of aesthetics, philosophical domains, and the practices of the artworld. His chief intention appears to be the integration of Pentecostalism in these domains rather than the distinction of a uniquely Pentecostal aesthetic (a necessary task that he may undertake in the future). What emerges is the theological, soteriological, ecclesiological, and eschatological potential of the arts, which is not widely explored by Pentecostals and often seems drastically absent from the architecture and adornment of Pentecostal churches (whether in the austerity of storefront buildings or the abundance of megachurches). The book highlights well that Pentecostal can benefit from the use of art in their physicality of experience, their worship of God, and their witness to the gospel. From a Pentecostal perspective, artists can be assisted by God’s Spirit in the process of artistic creation as a form of participation in the divine life. What is needed further is a pneumatological model for the arts that offers practical guidance for Pentecostals to engage more deeply in the arts
as Pentecostals. The philosophical aesthetic offered in this book will need to be supplemented by a theological aesthetic reflecting on issues of embodiment and the primacy of kinaesthetic forms of expression in Pentecostal orality, narrative, dance, music, architecture, media, and art. Such an endeavour invites the larger global Pentecostal community to participate in forging what is perhaps a new form of Spirit-filled aesthetics, not exclusive to Pentecostals but driven by the Pentecostal experience and vision of participating in the divine life.
Reviewed by Wolfgang Vondey
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Wolfgang Vondey, Ph.D. (Marquette University) and M.Div. (Church of God Theological Seminary), is Professor of Christian Theology and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is an ordained minister with the Church of God (Cleveland, TN). His research focuses on ecclesiology, pneumatology, theological method, and the intersection of theology and science.
