Pentecost, empowerment and glossolalia

Abstract

The event of Pentecost marks the transformation of the community of faith into the living Body of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the will of the Father, thus establishing the Church as the image of the Trinity on earth. Through the Christoforming work of the Spirit, the Church becomes an extension of the koinonia of the Trinity, in-fleshed in the redeemed human community. In light of this, the present work offers an exploration of the ecclesiological implications of the event of Pentecost in view of the correlation between redemption, sanctification and the birthing of the Church as the Body of Christ in the power of the Spirit. It further reflects upon the significance of Pentecost in relation to the establishing of the Church as the visible charismatic icon of the Trinity on earth, and offers an articulation of glossolalia and xenolalia as audible signs of our eschatological destiny.

Keywords:

• Pentecost
• glossolalia
• xenolalia
• empowerment
• Christ-likeness (or the likeness of God)
• sanctification

Notes

¹Ouspensky, Theology of the Icon, vol. 1, 9.

²Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 243.

³Ibid., 239.

⁴Warrington, Pentecostal Theology, 107.

⁵For an overview of the Pentecostal/Charismatic view of the Church as a charismatic koinonia see Kärkkäinen, Introduction to Ecclesiology, 74–6.

⁶The term is used by Macchia in Baptized in the Spirit, 106.

⁷Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 33.

⁸Both Volf (After Our Likeness, 128) and Macchia (Baptized in the Spirit, 209–11) affirm that the marks of the Spirit-baptised church are not drawn from the local or global dimensions of the ecclesia, but from the eschatological fulfilment of the gathering of the people of God in the new creation. Through the presence of the Spirit this eschatological reality is experienced here and now. As Macchia asserts, this ‘priority of the eschatological Spirit in determining the marks of the church explains why a local body can be filled with the Spirit with all grace’ (210).

⁹Because of its limitations, this subsection cannot afford an in-depth discussion of sanctification and redemption, but just highlights their basic theological connection with the event of Pentecost.

¹⁰Lossky, Introduction to Orthodox Theology, 92.

¹¹Stavropoulos, ‘Partakers of Divine Nature’, 183–4.

¹²Lossky, Introduction to Orthodox Theology, 73.

¹³Stavropoulos, ‘Partakers of Divine Nature’, 188.

¹⁴Ibid.

¹⁵Lossky, Introduction to Orthodox Theology, 85.

¹⁶Stavropoulos, ‘Partakers of Divine Nature’, 188.

¹⁷Lossky, Introduction to Orthodox Theology, 85.

¹⁸Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 159.

¹⁹Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, 63.

²⁰For more on the theological significance of the event of Pentecost see my work on ‘Pentecost as the Church's Cosmopolitan Vision of Civil Society’.

²¹Bulgakov, ‘The Virgin and the Saints in Orthodoxy’, 67.

²²Stronstad (in Charismatic Theology of St. Luke) draws the parallel between Pentecost and the transfer of the Spirit from Moses to the 70 elders (Numbers 11.10–30). As Stronstad notes: ‘Both narratives record the transfer of a leadership from a single individual to a group … In both cases the transfer of the Spirit results in an outburst of prophecy’ (59).

²³On the prophethood of the Pentecost Community see Stronstad, Prophethood of All Believers, 65–70.

²⁴Wenk, Community-Forming Power, 242; Gaventa, Acts of the Apostles, 34, 62–3.

²⁵In relation to the connection between the giving of the Torah and the celebration of Pentecost, see: Johnson, Acts of the Apostles, 46; Stronstad, Prophethood of All Believers, 54; also Stronstad, Charismatic Theology of St. Luke, 58; Bruce, Commentary on the Book of Acts, 60.

²⁶For an in-depth discussion on the trinitarian sociality as expressed in the human socium, see Volf, After Our Likeness. Also see Soloviev, ‘’, 243–334, esp. in chap. 10, Soloviov's passage on the Social Trinity.

²⁷Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit, 125.

²⁸Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 156.

²⁹Irenaeus, Against Heresies, book IV, chap. X1V.

³⁰Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 171.

³¹Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 160.

³²Gregory Nazianzen, Fifth Theological Oration.

³³Zizioulas, Being as Communion, 131.

³⁴For more on the ethical implications of Pentecost in relation to the prioritisation of the other as an aspect of the development of Christ-like consciousness in the believers and producing ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ (Christ-like character) for the sake of the other, see Augustine, ‘Pentecost as the Church's Cosmopolitan Vision of Civil Society’.

³⁵Bakhtin, ‘Discourse in the Novel’, 293.

³⁶Morgan, ‘Tongues as of Fire’, 107.

³⁷Lyotard, ‘The Other's Rights’, 140–1.

³⁸Derrida, Of Hospitality, 91.

³⁹Ibid., 87, 89.

⁴⁰The work in this section originated with a paper I presented at the University of Wales in Bangor, at a conference on Pentecostal Ecclesiology. See Augustine, ‘The Empowered Church’, 157–80.

⁴¹Hodgson, Winds of the Spirit, 296.

⁴²Fernandez, ‘From Babel to Pentecost’, 41.

⁴³Guroian, ‘Fruits of Pentecost’, 684–6.

⁴⁴Macchia's work on speaking in tongues as a sacrament offers important insights into the liturgical practice of the charismatic gift. See his essay ‘Tongues as a Sign’. As Archer has stated, the sacraments ‘are prophetic narrative signs involving words and deeds through which the community can experience the redemptive living presence of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit’ (‘Nourishment for Our Journey, 10–11). Archer's definition clearly applies to both xenolalia and glossolalia as discussed in the present article.

⁴⁶Pfeil, ‘Liturgy and Ethics’, 127–8.

⁴⁵Meyendorff, ‘Doing Theology in an Eastern Orthodox Perspective’, 87.

⁴⁷Schmemann, Liturgy and Tradition, 125.

⁴⁸Ibid.

⁴⁹Ibid., 127.

⁵⁰Ibid.

⁵¹Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit, 253.

⁵²Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 114–21. The present section does not intend to discuss theosis, but to trace a theologico-ethical trajectory between Eden, Babel and Pentecost. The differentiation between ‘image’ and ‘likeness’ is utilised only as a starting point in tracing this trajectory.

⁵³Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 159.

⁵⁴Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness, 265.

⁵⁵Moltmann, Jesus Christ for Today's World, 101. Moltmann picks up the idea of cosmic evolving towards Christ from Teillhard de Chardin's ‘Christ the Evolver’.