|PIC1|1.4 - Studies on the Inter-Denomination Dialogue

In 1972, Steve Durasoff, an Oral Roberts University professor, himself a Pentecostal, published Bright Wind of the Spirit, a popular history of Pentecostalism. Although in a book of thirteen chapters, he devoted one chapter each to sketching the introduction of the charismatic renewal in Protestant and Roman Catholic Church.

Beginning in the mid-1970s a few scholars attempted to provide broad surveys and assessments of the charismatic movement; Margaret Poloma, charismatic sociologist; Vinson Synan, classical Pentecostal historian; and Fr. Peter Hocken, Roman Catholic charismatic scholar.

Quebedeaux published The New Charismatics in 1976 and seven years later came out with an organizationally problematic and somewhat repetitive but very informative revised edition entitled The New Charismatics II. Although he viewed the new Pentecostalism as grounded in the same religious experience - baptism in the Holy Spirit- as was classical Pentecostalism, he chose to stress the contrasts between the early and later Pentecostal movements; the charismatics were theologically more moderate and nonsectarian, remained as a renewal force within their historic churches, stressed order and respectability in their meetings, integrated intellectual concerns with spirituality, and were largely white middle and upper-class fork who comfortably embraced American culture and society.

Sociologist Margaret Poloma published a book-length sociological analysis of the charismatic movement. That it was a volume in Twayne's Social Movements Past and Present series suggests the extent to which secular society had taken notice of the new Pentecostal Movement. Poloma provided only a brief history of the movement as a backdrop for her sociological analysis, but like Quebedeaux, she noted the distinct histories of and differences between classical Pentecostals and the new Protestant and Roman Catholic charismatics; despite this diversity, however, she too viewed all three groups as part of the same larger 20th-century movement of Christians who emphasized a personal experience of the Holy Spirit.

Vinson Synan, the classical Pentecostal historian, has been in the forefront of effort to promote spiritual unity among charismatic believers and to understand the connection between the modern charismatic movement and the early 20th-century Pentecostalism. In several writings he has viewed the development of classical Pentecostalism, the Protestant and Roman Catholic renewal movement, and so-called Third Wave or evangelical practitioners of signs and wonders as phases of a singular Pentecostal movement. Especially, he has acted as one of the core members in the International Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue.

Peter Hocken, a Roman Catholic theologian and an active participant in the charismatic movement, suggested the chronological scaffolding for analyzing the changes in the movement's history; Earliest Stirring(pre-1960) locates the roots of the movement in religious developments in the 1940s and 1950s; The Emergence of the Movement(1960-7) focuses on the rise of the Protestant charismatic renewal, beginning with Episcopal priest Dennis Bennett's public announcement to his congregation in Van Nuys, California, that he spoke in tongues; The Movement Take shape(1967-77) traces the rise of the Catholic Pentecostal movement from its beginnings at Duquesne University and the University of Notre Dame and its impact on the larger charismatic movement, recounts the expansion of the renewal among mainline Protestants and nondenominational groups, and concludes with the 1977 Conference on Charismatic Renewal in Kansas City; and Consolidation(1977-87) treats recent trends and acknowledges that the movement, if it had not peaked by the late 1970s. In an article published in 1994 in Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, Hocken updated his understanding of contemporary developments and reflected on where the charismatic movement was heading.

And Karla Poewe recently sought the point of evaluation and application in Charismatic Christianity, not only in the context of America but also in that of Asia and Africa. He used the tools of Cultural Anthropology and of Comparative Religions.

Dr Bonjour Bay

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Dr Bonjour Bay is a Researcher in Spiritual Movement, and is the Church History Professor at Sungkyul University, South Korea. Dr Bay has published numerous books on Church History and Pneumatology.

'Charismatic Renewal and Its Inter-Denominational Dialogue' is a six-part series to be published by Christian Today, of which this piece is the second.

Please view the first here: Part 1.1

Please view the second here: Part 1.2

Please view the third here: Part 1.3