Paul Tillich and Pentecostal Theology: Spiritual Presence & Spiritual Power ed. by Nimi Wariboko and Amos Yong (review)

This book, by thirteen Pentecostal scholar-practitioners, offers a thorough, critical analysis of Tillich’s last major and least assimilated publication, volume 3, part 4, of his Systematic Theology. This collection of essays examines and compares Pentecostal practices and beliefs that complement or call into question Tillich’s positions. The essays illustrate how much Pentecostalism is becoming part of mainstream Protestantism. Two Tillichians’ responses conclude the volume.

Amos Yong ably introduces Tillich’s method of correlation to situate his colleagues’ dialogical reflections on several themes, including: the divine, triune being; Jesus as the Christ; sacramental spirituality; African political and feminist orientations; ecstatic experiences and demonic challenges; the movement away from supernaturalistic fundamentalism toward modern liberal appropriations of evolutionary scientific conceptions of history and eschatology; Trinitarian and Unitarian notions of God.

The book as a whole shows how the experience of renewal through the Holy Spirit’s gift of life may constitute the basis for the contemporary doctrines of God and nature and affirmations of Jesus as the Christ, rather than, as with Tillich, treating the doctrine of the Spirit last, as a sequel to prior discussions of the work of Christ in the historical church(es).

Interestingly, however, the editors follow Tillich’s order in the chapter placement of the essays, beginning with studies of his conception of God as Being-itself, Tillich’s defence of Schleiermacher’s experiential apologetics and immersion in Schelling’s existential dialectics, while making spiritual presence the central symbol for a system keyed to an expressionist appreciation of the biblical portrait of Jesus.

A few authors dismiss what they misread as Tillich’s emphasis on ‘‘mere symbols’’ (63, 98–99) and Hegelian dialectic (55), but most follow Yong’s reminder that correlation is predicated on realistic participation in finite/infinite concerns (4). Missing for most authors is Tillich’s dialectical conception of the demonic, generally considered by these authors with their tradition’s battles with Satanism in mind. Nimi Wariboko, for instance, stresses that ‘‘politics is warfare in Africa,’’ in which context Jesus’s importance is that of a superpower (134–135). The cross is not their symbol of symbols. None of the authors reminds us that Tillich always considered modern capitalism a major instance of the demonic in our time, even as he deferred to Reinhold Niebuhr for comments on American politics. On Paul and Luke-Acts, scholars should study Tillich’s sermons for his concrete Lutheran emphasis on the prophetic thrust of the Protestant principle, not just his philosophical theology.

Regarding eschatology and the Toronto Blessing (1994), Peter Althouse notes that ‘‘Spiritual Presence, Kingdom of God and Eternal Life are symbolic indicators that point to possibilities for essential fulfillment as the kairos moments impinge on the historical process’’ (173). His appreciation for defining love ontologically (175) would be strengthened by acknowledging, as Wariboko does (127), that, for Tillich, love entails a demand for creative justice. None of these essayists, incidentally, notes how effectively South African theologians invoked Tillich’s conception of kairos and created goodness, when challenging Reformed Christian defenders of apartheid.

In response to the essayists, Mark Lewis Taylor underscores the religious socialist thrust of Tillich’s part 5 of volume 3, on history and the kingdom. John Thatamanil commends them for entering into serious dialogue with Tillich, challenging any facile dismissal of his work as an instance of ‘‘ontotheology’’ (232). For Tillichians, this book enriches our context for appreciating his theology of the Spirit.