Pentecostalism and the Future of Christianity

that tradition-that to me is one ofthe three pillars uponwhich I would predicatethegood life. NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 1994 IVOJ,UME 9, NUMBER 6 Pentecostalism andthe Future ofChristianity by Harvey Cox T HERE IS A SEA CHANGE underway in American Christianity, a movement toward a more experiential, more emotionally expressive, organizationally less rigid form ofspirituality. Pentecostalism is the generic name for this religious wave. But it is not restricted to immigrants or to North America. In fact, pentecostalism is the fastest growing religious movement in the world. From its obscure beginnings one hundred years ago in a tiny Black church on Azusa Street in LosAngeles it has expanded, especially in the past two decades, until it now claims 400 million people , one out of every four Christians. It is growing faster than radical Islam. Pentecostals started outas rebellious antagonists of TIKKUN:We are nowbackin a worldthatis not too dissimilarfrom the one thatled to the creation of Tikkun-an unwantedwar, a retrogressive political regime. PETER:Yes, Butthere's an important difference. Atthe timeofthe creation ofTikkun, thebreakthrough in consciousnessthat I was speaking about was close, itwas recenthistory; ithad been part of manypeople's experiences inthe 1960sand1970s. Even though Reagan was the reaction againstthat, even though hewanted to containthosesocial forces, still the power and awareness ofthis social and historicalbreakthroughwaspalpable in the culture. So even though, atthattime, themagazine was just learningto articulate this spiritual dimension, the feeling ofitwasstill all around us. Now, we have made real progress inhowto talk and write aboutthe spiritual dimension ofreality, and we have made itmore legitimateto insistthatthat dimension is real. So the magazine's contentis more integrated , andthe magazine is better, buttheworld is worse.The feltawareness ofwhat Tiklcun is aboutis not as self-evident, not as palpablein theworld. I feel positivethatwe've helpedto createa spiritual/ the status quo, refusing to serve in the armies ofthis fallen age, but many have now become impassioned super-patriots, easy marks for the high rollers ofthe new religious Right. They startedout as a radically inclusive spiritual fellowship in which race and gender discrimination virtually disappeared. That is hardly the case today, atleast in the white pentecostal churches . In short, as I came to know the pentecostal movement in its present incarnation I discovered that the pentecostals themselves are facing a dilemma they may not survive, at least not without betraying their original vision. Butthere arealso signsofhope. Aspecial experience with the "Holy Spirit" or the "Spirit ofGod" was the crux ofthe early pentecostal movement. But this was notjustanyspirit. Pentecostalsbelieveditwasthe Spirit ofthe same God who had created the world, had called the people oflsrael forth, spoken through the prophets, and whose love had walked the Earth in political discourse, and discouragedthattheworldis nowso distantfrom itslastbreakthroughexperience. Thosewho are religious can call uponsome oftheir religious experiences forthefeeling ofwhatwe're saying, butinterms ofpolitics, thatfeeling is reallyinthepast. TIKKUN:So how doyou bringthe political sensibility back? PETER:Thatis whatthe spiritual activistmovementneeds to be. Wefounded the Network ofSpiritualProgressives to bringthe movementback. The synagogueexperience is part ofit, butthechallenge is to reshape theworld as a whole, the experience of everydaylife.You can'thave a private spiiitual experience thatcantake on the massive strength ofthe alienating effect ofthe culture. A purelyspiritual experience just leads to private solutions that arefilled with pathos. No matterhow longyou meditate, theworldis still outthere. TIKKUN:You are sayingthat Tikkunisfundamentally a movement magazine. PETER:Yes, there is an indispensable relationship 28 TIKKUN WWW. TIKKUN.ORG NOVEMBER /DECEMB ER 2006 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY Jesus Christ and-most important- the same God who had begun to fulfill all His promises by creating a new heaven and a new Earth where justice and compassion would reign. The early pentecostals sawthemselves positioned "between the already and the not-yet;'witnesses tothefirstfruits ofthekingdom but notyet to its fullness, living in the lightthatprecedes the dawn. In other words, the Spirit they testifiedto had a purpose for historyand was calling people to be partofthatpurpose. Thatpurpose,for the unemployed janitors and domestic servants who gathered atAzusa Street, was no less than the coming ofthe kingdom of God as it hadbeen taughtbythe prophets and demonstrated byJesus. And when it came, thepoor would be lifted up, the hungryfed, and thebrokenhearted comforted ; while the mightywouldbebroughtlowandthe rich sentaway empty. It is hard to imagine a more radical...