14AR19-02

Apologia Report 19:2 (1,185)

January 29, 2014

Subject: African Pentecostalism: good news ... and bad

In this issue:

AFRICAN PENTECOSTALISM - far more controversial than in the USA

NEW TESTAMENT RELIABILITY - a scholar unintentionally reinforces the case for the Gospels' unique character and importance

------

PLEASE NOTE: The move of our household has experienced repeated delays. While we have been glad for the additional time, it looks like AR will again be delayed as well. We hope to send out another issue the week beginning February 9 (if not sooner).

------

AFRICAN PENTECOSTALISM

"Angels and Demons: Pentecostalism is the world's fastest-growing religious movement. But in much of Africa, it's fueling witch-hunts and the spread of HIV/AIDS" by Jill Filipovic and Ty Mccormick -- begins by reporting on "a 'deliverance' ceremony [in which petitioners are] anointed [sic] with holy water - a service in exchange for which many congregants are encouraged to make a donation." The authors explain: "The rise of Pentecostalism in Africa has been swift. Promising a direct relationship with God and often the performance of miracles, the radical form of evangelical Protestantism has made deep inroads on the continent, particularly in desperately impoverished countries...."

One striking example: "by the year 2000, some 20 percent of Malawians were attending Pentecostal churches, up from a little more than 1 percent in 1960. ... But the religious movement hasn't only touched the spiritual lives of Malawians; it has also elevated the already prevalent fear of witchcraft in local communities - often with tragic consequences for those identified as witches - and complicated the government's efforts to keep HIV and other diseases in check. Strong majorities of Malawians of all faiths believe in witchcraft, with more than 75 percent saying they know witches in their community. But Pentecostal churches have been especially aggressive in positioning themselves as guardians against the practice - so aggressive, in fact, that leading Catholic priests in Malawi have begun affirming the existence of witchcraft so that the laity doesn't continue to leave the church for Pentecostal and other congregations.

...

"From the beginning, Pentecostalism was preoccupied with occult and demonic powers. British anthropologist Henrietta L. Moore <www.henriettalmoore.com> explains: 'Many of the preachers' activities went hand-in-hand with witchcraft cleansing.' These practices were essentially foreign - to the extent that they often alarmed traditional authorities - but they piggybacked on deeply engrained beliefs in mystical forces. As a result, Pentecostal missionaries succeeded where many mainline churches failed, winning converts with promises of direct revelations from God, divine healings, and super-human powers. ...

"[D]eliverance ceremonies designed to bring children out from under the spell of witchcraft can be traumatic and even dangerous. ... Older people accused of witchcraft often fare even worse. Seen as taking advantage of younger witches, they also risk being run out of their communities. But often, they end up behind bars, despite the fact that Malawi's legal code doesn't recognize witchcraft as a real phenomenon and actually outlaws accusing people of the practice. ...

"In addition to stoking fears about witchcraft, Pentecostals, as well as other independent and charismatic churches, have undermined efforts to contain HIV by claiming to have healed congregants and encouraging them to go off of their antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). ... Just over 10 percent of the adult population of Malawi is HIV-positive. ...

"Some of those who think they have been cured stay off [their ARVs] so long that when they finally go back on them, it cannot be reversed. These people end up dying. ...

"The issue of Pentecostal followers going off their ARVs is so widespread that even a Malawian parliamentarian commented on it earlier this year, criticizing Pentecostal preachers who promote 'healing prayers' as HIV cures." One pastor "does not counsel followers to stop ARV treatment. But he does so because he believes that too often the faith of the individual is simply not strong enough to guarantee a miracle. ...

"Behind all of the mixed messages and misinformation, of course, there is often financial motive. In many cases, healing and witchcraft-cleansing ceremonies are not free -- in Kenya, for example, Pentecostal congregants have reportedly been asked to shell out their life savings in exchange for healing services -- and across the African continent, pastors have grown wealthy peddling the mystical powers of the Almighty." Foreign Policy, Dec 20 '13, <www.ow.ly/smVjq>

NEW TESTAMENT RELIABILITY

Jesus: The Human Face of God, by Jay Parini [1] -- another classic case of high contrast in review content. We begin with Kirkus which reports (Nov '13, #1): "As a prolific poet, novelist and English professor, Parini ... doesn't have much of a theological ax to grind, though neither fundamentalists nor atheists are likely to find themselves in accord with his stated attempt to find 'balance between the literal and the figurative, giving full weight to the concrete meaning while relishing the mythic contours of the story. ... Jesus never meant to found a formal church with rituals and organized practices, to ordain priests, or to issue doctrinaire statements that formed a rigid program for salvation,' writes Parini. 'Other than "follow me," his only commandment was "to love one another as I have loved you."' He also 'had little interest in damning anyone, and he certainly had no concept of hell as a place for perpetual torment.' Yet the author does not discredit the possibilities of miracles or resurrection, the divinity that makes Jesus more than a radical teacher. Those who believe that the essence of Jesus' message involves 'a change of heart' and 'a shift into a larger consciousness, a life-enhancing awareness of the mind of God' will find a view of Christianity that embraces the mystery. This 'big tent' version of Christianity proceeds from a generosity of spirit rather than didactic argument."

Library Journal finds (Nov '13, #2): "'Remythologizing' Jesus is the aim of this slim biography. Parini ... a much published professor of English and creative writing at Middlebury College, wishes to present neither a scholarly investigation of the historical Jesus nor another literalist retelling of biblical accounts. Rather, he sets out to explore Jesus' story in the context of 'the gradually realizing kingdom of God.' Consequently, the book is at its best when Parini shares his ideas of timeless, spiritual implications of the ancient Jesus stories and when he draws from non-biblical art and especially literature to reframe what he understands as the mystery and ongoing-ness of revelation. It is weakest when Parini (occasionally and against his own intentions) lapses into common assumptions based on the gospel stories as objective history. Scholars will find little new here, but seekers may be inspired to think differently about how the man from Nazareth might bear on lives today. Parini's non-literalist theology proves a gentle goad to reconsider the power of myth to tell truths."

In his Wall Street Journal review (Dec 23 '13), Barton Swaim explains that "Instead of 'demythologizing' Jesus, to use the German scholar Rudolf Bultmann's term, Mr. Parini sets out to 'remythologize' him by reviving the sense of sacredness and 'mythos' stripped from the Gospel narratives by prior scholarship." Parini says, "I'm not so much contradicting Bultmann's idea of demythologization as putting the emphasis more firmly on the balance between literal and figurative readings, while stressing the fictive aspect: the shaping spirit of the gospel narratives." Swain laments: "You're never quite sure what Mr. Parini thinks. [T]he author frequently relays Jesus' words as if their authenticity were undisputed, but then calls Herod's slaughter of male children 'mythical' and supposes Jesus' birthplace was Nazareth rather than Bethlehem, as Matthew and Luke have it.

"Mr. Parini is more sure of what he doesn't believe than what he does believe. What he doesn't believe, as he says on six or seven occasions, is anything associated with 'fundamentalism.' But he seems to have only the loosest grasp of the term's meaning....

"But the real trouble with Mr. Parini's stance isn't so much its incoherence as its banality. ... 'The Way of Jesus . . . ,' Mr. Parini writes, 'involves self-denial, a sense of losing oneself in order to find oneself, moving through the inevitable pain of life with good cheer, accepting gracefully the burdens that fall on our shoulders and the tasks that lie before us. This is true discipleship.'

"If that's all Jesus came here to tell us, it's hard to see what all the fuss was about."

Still, Swaim finds that reading this book makes a point that Parini never had in mind: "You can study the Gospels as 'literature' if you like, but their logic subverts any attempt to treat them as you would treat other literary texts." That literature "doesn't ask for radical changes in your thought and behavior and has no power to compel them.

"Three centuries of critical New Testament scholarship haven't changed this. [D]espite scholars' confident pronouncements [to the contrary], the Gospels' claims about [Jesus] are neither more nor less plausible than they were before. ...

"The point here isn't that the Gospels must be true. It is that the Gospels offer no easy way to explain away their content. They therefore demand one of two choices. ...

"C.S. Lewis, among others, made a similar argument about Jesus' self-descriptions: 'Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.' And while that argument has often been dismissed on the grounds that it assumes all the Gospels' quotations of Jesus to be authentic, its logic applies with equal or greater force to the four Gospel texts themselves. Either they are true or they are collections of precious fables. There is no third option. ...

"This point is powerfully made by Jay Parini's 'Jesus,' although Mr. Parini didn't intend to make that point at all." <www.ow.ly/sbnTO> (paywall-limited)

-------

SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Jesus: The Human Face of God, by Jay Parini (New Harvest, 2013, hardcover, 192 pages) <www.ow.ly/sbnYr>

--------

( - next issue - )