The use of Prosper's Rule in the development of Pentecostal ecclesiology

Abstract

Using Prosper's Rule as a guide, this article argues that in early Pentecostalism and especially in Pentecostalism in the Global South, there are certain spiritual impulses, namely their sacramental and ‘episcopal’ instincts, which would allow Pentecostals today to develop a coherent ecclesiology without undermining anything that is quintessentially Pentecostal.

Keywords:

• Pentecostal sacramentology
• Prosper's Rule
• Catholic–Pentecostal dialogue
• Pentecostal liturgy

Notes

¹Kärkkäinen, Spiritus ubi vult spirat, 273.

²Biddy, ‘Re-visioning the Pentecostal Understanding of the Eucharist’, 244.

³Macchia, ‘Tongues as a Sign’.

⁴Nuttall, Studies in Christian Enthusiasm.

⁵Alexander, ‘The Pentecostal Healing Community’, 200.

⁶Alexander, Pentecostal Healing, 83–4, 93–4, 110–11, 173–4. The pervasiveness of the use of anointed handkerchiefs has been noted by American cultural historian and ethnographer, R. Marie Griffith, ‘Material Devotion – Pentecostal Prayer Cloths’.

⁷Nelson, Bible Doctrines, 73.

⁸Ibid., 62, 74–5.

⁹Menzies and Horton, Bible Doctrines.

¹⁰Ibid., 111.

¹¹Ibid., 116.

¹²Bicknell, ‘The Ordinances’, 213–14.

¹³Ibid., 216.

¹⁴Ibid., 212–13.

¹⁵Ibid., 220–1.

¹⁶The logical end of this Finished Work theology is the ‘name it, claim it’ practice advanced by advocates of the Prosperity Gospel. Alexander, Pentecostal Healing, 198–215, passim.

¹⁷Alexander, Pentecostal Healing, 198–215, passim.

²⁰Schmemann, Church, World and Mission, 133–4.

¹⁸Migne, Patrologia Latina, 51, col. 209.

¹⁹‘obsecrationum quoque sacerdotalium sacramenta respiciamus quae ab apostolis tradita, in toto mundo atque in omni catholica Ecclesia uniformiter celebrantur, ut legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi’ (ibid.).

²¹Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 188.

²⁴Aina, ‘The Church's Healing Ministry’, 107–8.

²²Turner, ‘Primal Religions of the World’, 32.

²³Anderson, Zion and Pentecost, 290–300; Anderson, ‘African Initiated Churches’.

²⁵Jenkins, New Faces of Christianity.

²⁶This is the mistake of Walter Hollenweger who rightly regards the first 10 years of the Pentecostal movement as representing its core but then goes on to see subsequent doctrinal formulations as a departure from its original ideal. A distinction must be made between a genuine development of doctrine and bad theology which departs from the early Pentecostal theologia prima implicit in their practices.

²⁷Hütter, ‘The Church as Public’.

²⁸On the marks of the Church, see Luther, ‘On the Councils and the Church’. These marks relate principally to God (the first table of the Law) and are therefore the more primary. Luther also recognises ‘holy possessions’ according to the second table of the Law but they are secondary and not determinative of the Church as church (166).

²⁹This is how Orthodoxy views the relation of the Church and the cosmos as seen in the Orthodox reflections on the WCC Canberra Assembly. See ‘Orthodox Reflections on the Assembly Theme’.

³⁰ Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1330.

³¹The statement ‘the Eucharist makes the church’ originated with Henri de Lubac, Corpus Mysticum, 88.

³²Schmemann, Church, World, Mission, 135.

³³See above Schmemann's comment on ecclesial experience (n. 20).

³⁴E.g., Crichton, ‘A Theology of Worship’, 3–28.

³⁵Bradshaw, Two Ways of Praying.

³⁶See Percy, Words, Wonders and Power, 60–81; Smail, ‘In Spirit and in Truth’, 111–16.

³⁷The nature of the liturgy is not very different from what Kevin Vanhoozer says about the ‘drama of doctrine’. The liturgy is the primary place where doctrine is ‘performed’ by the entire congregation of the faithful. See Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine. Vanhoozer explicitly makes the connection between his dramatic view of doctrine and the liturgy (409–13).

³⁸E.g., Webber, Complete Library of Christian Worship, 8 vols.

³⁹For a survey of this shift, see Chan, ‘Spiritual Practices’.

⁴⁰The only exceptions in the Roman Missal where the personal singular is used are the prayer of confession at the beginning of the liturgy and the response to the invitation to receive the Body of Christ.

⁴¹Wolfgang Vondey acknowledges that the Pentecostal ‘atmosphere of play’ can be adapted to a broad range of liturgies; Vondey, Beyond Pentecostalism, 137.

⁴²E.g., the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church states that its aim is to be a church ‘whose worship is fully charismatic, fully evangelical, and fully sacramental and liturgical’. http://www.iccec.org. Accessed February 27, 2009.

⁴³De Arteaga, Forgotten Power.

⁴⁴Vondey, Beyond Pentecostalism, 129–40.

⁴⁵Webber, Divine Embrace, 230–3.

⁴⁶Huizinga, Homo Ludens, 10.

⁴⁷For some tragic examples of such abuse, see Parsons, Ungodly Fear.

⁴⁸Riss, ‘Latter Rain Movement’.

⁴⁹Anderson, Zion and Pentecost, 312.

⁵⁰Ibid., 315.

⁵¹‘Clergy and Laity in the Orthodox Church’, November 8, 2006, p.5. Emphasis author’s. http://www.schmemann.org/byhim/clergyandlaityinthechurch.html.

⁵²Lathrop, Holy Things, 195.

⁵³Afanasiev, The Church of the Holy Spirit, 37.