Pentacostal "Theology" in First Things

The article on Pentacostalism in April's issue of First Things reminded why I like it so much. The magazine, in my opinion, engages in precisely the sort of ecumenism that responsible Christians should.

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said of the various Christian denominations: "at the center of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice." I believe this to be true. There is a sincerity of belief in Jesus Christ's kingship and resurrection that seems most apparent among those believers who are most convinced and confirmed in their respective confessions.

The canons of the Catholic Church require me to recognize the sacramental boundaries of the Church, and I wholeheartedly do, but I am neither permitted to discount sincere Christian faith among those outside the Church. Only a tiny proportion of today's fundamentalists and evangelical Christians are apostate Catholics. For the most part, these genuinely "orthodox" members of the Reformation churches are striving to heed traditions they have received imperfectly from the Apostles (See II Thes. 2:15). Thus, I am not one to dismiss the experiences of faith of anyone who calls upon the name of Jesus, though I may find their doctrines or practices objectionable as a Catholic.

Along these lines, I've often found my fellow Catholics to be woefully unaware or uncharitably dismissive of the genuine differences between the myriad strands of Prostestantism. On the one hand we ought to strive to understand these differences so as to engage in respectful dialogue with our separated brethren. On the other we ought to strive to understand precisely what is in error from a Catholic perspective.

Back the article and why I appreciate it - I sense a tremendously unexplored commonality between sacramental/liturgical Christians, such as Catholics, and members of the Pentacostal or charismatic movements. Catholics ought to be interested in this end of the Protestant spectrum if for no other reason then the presence of a vibrant and mostly canonical charismatic renewal movement within our own Catholic Church.
posted at 9:05 AM by Jiminy
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