What Has Wittenberg to Do with Azusa? : Luther's Theology of the Cross and Pentecostal Triumphalism

Abstract

Pentecostalism in North America has stalled. This dissertation seeks reasons for the current impasse in the triumphalism that has driven the development of Pentecostalism and proposes a critique of that triumphalism through the application of Martin Luther's theology of the cross. This work is intended primarily as a project of constructive theology. It comprises three movements. The first is principally historical, in which I survey the emergence of Pentecostalism. Chapter 1 finds that its development was driven by forces of restorationism and perfectionism, two dynamics that have a long history in American Protestantism. Together these two impulses account for the triumphalism that coloured not only the formation of Pentecostalism, but Evangelicalism, generally. The second chapter traces the development of Pentecostal triumphalism historically from Azusa Street, through the institutionalizing process and defines Pentecostal triumphalism as a form of spiritual immediacy. The second movement is an exploration in historical theology. Chapter 3 considers Luther as a resource for Pentecostal theology by situating him historically in his theological conflict with Roman Catholicism and the Radical Reformation and discovering resonances between his thought and that of Pentecostals. Turning to a contemplation of Luther's theologia crucis, chapter 4 establishes its value as a critique of both personal and institutional triumphalism. Furthermore, it considers the resurrection as an often undeveloped dimension of the theology of the cross. Connecting cross and resurrection in Luther's thought sets up the third movement, which is essentially an endeavour in constructive theology. Assisted by the work of Jiirgen Moltmann, chapter 5 expresses the theology of the cross in terms of two component dynamics, a pneumatologia crucis, and an eschatologia crucis, the nexus of which accounts for Spirit baptism, the central feature of Pentecostalism. In the final chapter, this model is applied to a variety of issues in Pentecostal theology including spiritual experience, sanctification, and the supernatural, with a view to mitigating its underlying triumphalism. Doing so establishes the basis of Pentecostalism on theological grounds rather than the two historical dynamics of restorationism and perfectionism, which appear to have driven its development.