Surprises and Possibilities in A Diagram for Fire

Scholars who study the phenomenal global growth of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity over the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have long underscored the remarkable adaptability of the movement in various cultural contexts. Most adherents embrace an evangelical-style commitment to the truth and reliability of the Bible. But believers' unremitting desire for the miraculous—whether in the form of healings, prophetic words from God, encounters with spiritual beings, etcetera—fosters environments where experimentation and "divine disruptions" tend to be the rule rather than the exception. When coupled with the movement's sheer size and global reach, this malleability has contributed to a dizzying level of diversity that defies easy categorization.

On the one hand, Jon Bialecki's A Diagram for Fire provides a detailed ethnographic portrait of Charismatic Vineyard churches in Southern California, and in the process offers a meticulous analysis of the role of miracles in a limited slice of the much larger Pentecostal-Charismatic world. On the other hand, Bialecki's tenacious theorization of the miraculous, and in particular his conceptualization of an overarching pattern to Charismatic religiosity (i.e. the "diagram for fire"), culminates in a much broader comparative project as he teases out points of commonality and resonance between his primary subjects and other Christians and religious practitioners more generally. The end result is a strikingly original piece of scholarship that brims with fresh insights regarding the functions of miracles in this ever-expanding branch of Christianity.

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I should preface the remarks below by noting that I am a historian of American religion and of the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement. As such, many of my comments address the specific types of questions individuals with my training and research background inevitably bring to a text such as Bialecki's.

Vineyard Christianity crystallized in the late twentieth century when the movement's leaders carved out a niche right at the intersection of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, with its strong predilection for supernatural manifestations, and more conventional expressions of evangelicalism. Given this dual identity of sorts, successfully decoding the language employed by adherents requires a solid grasp of often fine-grained distinctions that subdivided twentieth and early twenty-first century evangelicalism over matters of eschatology, institutional norms, and methods of biblical interpretation, not to mention the possibility and meaning of present-day miraculous signs. From the start, Bialecki proves that he is more than up to the task.

Nuanced comparisons between Vineyard spirituality and closely related expressions of evangelical and Pentecostal religiosity constitute one of the most impressive features of Bialecki's analysis. As he notes, "what is particular about Vineyard Christianity is often only visible if it is contrasted with other forms of Christian religiosity, and to contrast is always to acknowledge both relevant difference and equally controlling similitude between the counterpoised social forms and practices" (19). To cite one of the more prominent insights generated by Bialecki's approach, at numerous points he painstakingly explores the decentralized, egalitarian ethos that frequently differentiates Vineyard-style expressions of the miraculous from other manifestations of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. And he usefully contrasts this ethos with conceptions of spiritual authority within other groups, such as the late Peter Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Despite both communities' shared emphasis on the Holy Spirit's activity, which is theoretically accessible to all, members of the NAR accept designated apostles, prophets, and the like as key loci of divine power. While such ideas are not entirely foreign within the Vineyard, Bialecki persuasively argues that baldly hierarchical arrangements run counter to the prevailing norms deeply embedded in the movement's culture.

Along similar lines, throughout the volume Bialecki effectively captures Vineyard adherents' atypical tolerance and even embrace of uncertainty regarding specific miraculous claims, especially when compared with the attitudes of many of their Pentecostal and Charismatic coreligionists. In a thoroughly convincing discussion of the "culturing of doubt" in Vineyard circles, he contrasts believers' absolute certainty regarding the reality of the miraculous in everyday life with their simultaneous refusal, at least in most cases, to...