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The authors of this volume share a commitment to Scripture as God’s Word and recognize that their reading is always from and to a particular place, time, and cultural matrix. Contextualization is inherent in the affirmation that Scripture is truly God’s Word that is spoken in human words. The biblical scholars who speak in these pages—Zakali Shohe, Hua Wei, Samuel Ngewa, and René Padilla—all reflect on the biblical text in concert with their particular Sitz im Leben (situation in life), which gives rise to fresh questions and insights regarding the Spirit’s work as witnessed in the Word. The theologians from the Majority World—Ivan Satyavrata, David Ngong, and Oscar García-Johnson—as well the Asian American scholar Amos Yong who is the author of the opening chapter, all attend to the theological heritage from the West but recognize that the emphases and formulations developed there are not fully adequate to address the theological necessities of their communities. In other words, both the biblical scholars and theologians in this volume are connected deeply with Scripture and the tradition, but they also dialogue extensively with their context and their cultures. All theology, and all biblical studies, is contextual. We may embrace this fact without severing ourselves from Scripture or tradition. Indeed, the insights the authors present benefit the whole church since they are vital contributions to a genuinely catholic theology. Theology through the centuries has always been contextual. While we may read the ABCs of theology—Augustine, Barth, and Calvin—we always need to recognize that the theological alphabet ends with WYZ—Wei, Yong, and Zakali. And so it must be this side of the eschaton since now we know in part, awaiting that day when we will know even as we are fully known. Dimly reflected revelation will give way to face-to-face clarity (1 Cor. 13:9–12). Until that time we need one another, the voices of brothers and sisters through the centuries, and those that come to all of us from around the globe. We always get by with a little help from our friends. A few notes about each of the authors and chapters may help as you read along the grain of their concerns and questions that are related to the context of their reading and reflection.

Amos Yong is a familiar voice to anyone reading in the area of contemporary pneumatology. In his chapter he briefly surveys both the Western and Eastern Orthodox traditions regarding the Spirit before providing an overview of some Majority World pneumatology. The brilliance of Yong’s chapter is that he ties the traditions together with global developments while, at the same time, reflecting on their connection with the Nicene Creed. Of particular interest is his emphasis on life through the Spirit and its implications for our understanding of God’s agency in creation. He stands, along with Majority World theologians, in opposition to Enlightenment-inspired dualism that would want to preserve a sharp divide between spirit and matter. His concern is to show “the immanence of the divine breath within the fabric of created materiality.” In this he speaks as an Asian American theologian.

Ivan Satyavrata brings us into the heart of pneumatological reflection from India. In a world where the influence of advaitic Hinduism is pervasive, he takes pains to underscore that the Holy Spirit should not be “confused with the human spirit,” or be viewed as “an impersonal, immanent force.” He closely links the Holy Spirit with Christ—he is the Spirit of Christ. The themes here are familiar to anyone reading the fathers, but the turn comes in his dialogue between the biblical witness and the “personalist bhakti strand within Hinduism,” which he sees as offering “much more promise for Christian contextual engagement in India.” In other words, he finds resonances between the early Christian emphasis on the personality of the Spirit and a devotional strain within Hinduism. As he says, “the Holy Spirit is a means by which God makes his personal presence felt among his people, the church, the community of the Spirit.” He ties his argument up with Christology in stating, “the ultimate purpose of the Spirit’s ‘floodlight’ ministry is to mediate the presence of the risen Christ, and to create and deepen an awareness of the reality of Jesus in human experience.” His emphasis on personal relation and Christology melds historic theological orthodoxy with contextual insights. The seriousness with which he takes cultural influences derived from Hinduism in his theological reflection is characteristic of much Majority World theology. Cultural perspectives can be both critiqued and affirmed in this dance with Scripture and tradition.

Zakali Shohe writes from the Indian context as well, with special attention to Nagaland in Northeast India. She examines the role of the Spirit in Romans 8:14–17 from a relational perspective and draws out the significance of this passage for both Christians and society in India. The Spirit allows the believer to use the filial address “Abba Father,” thus identifying all believers as co-heirs with Christ. For her, life in the Spirit is not about power but relationship. This Spirit-inspired relationship is a manifestation of the eschatological unity of God’s people. Relationship and unity inspired by the Spirit lead to acceptance of the other. But Shohe is not content to stop at the doors of the church. While understanding that the church has not lived up to its full reality in the Spirit, she boldly states that, as unified community, “the church as an institution needs to be a model of openness by taking initiative in bridge building and creating platforms for meeting points.” In other words, the church is an eschatological sign to the wider community and this relationality is part of Christian witness and social renewal. Shohe sees a much broader role for the Spirit than personal piety and powerful evangelistic campaigns. Social hopes are tied to the Spirit’s work.

Wei Hua writes from a Chinese perspective on one of the enduring problems of Christianity in his country. How should Christians respond to the rites of ancestors and Confucius? After detailing the history of the controversy, Hua explains the meaning of these rites, understanding that they “have many dimensions, and these dimensions are clearly intertwined.” He vigorously denies that due reverence is the same as idolatry, which both Confucius and he reject. The surprise in his chapter comes as he examines 1 Corinthians 8–10, where Paul reflects on the practice of eating meat offered to idols. May one participate in these rites? Hua proposes that the answer Paul gives is not a simple “Yes” or “No,” as even a casual reading of 1 Corinthians reveals. This biblical reflection undergirds his discussion of the rites issue. Hua does not simply present a facile comparison between China and Corinth. He understands within Christian practice, both then and now, a fulfillment and renewal of culture. Thus, he concludes, “Just as the Jewish law had been fulfilled in the power of the Spirit by Gentile Christians, and the Roman customs had been renewed in Paul’s time, so also the Chinese commemorating rights can be renewed and obeyed by Chinese Christians as ‘humanizing’ etiquette (li) in the power of the Holy Spirit, who moves and works through all believers.” Hua, as other Majority World biblical scholars and theologians, is struggling and thinking deeply about how Christianity and culture can critically coexist so that the gospel becomes truly contextualized and is not seen as a foreign entity but as the fulfillment of hopes. His desire in the end is expressed in the final prayer: “May the Spirit of God help the global church in China not to be ‘Christianity in China,’ but to be Chinese Christianity.” He is able to get to this point because he understands that Christian identity is wrapped around the reception of the Holy Spirit. Christian koinonia is possible within a diverse community, one that includes Jews, Gentiles, and Chinese, without the dissolution of their cultures.

Samuel M. Ngewa brings his biblical expertise to bear on the work of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, 8, 10, and 19. Like Shohe, he focuses on inclusion as he discusses the Spirit’s work among Samaritans, Gentiles, and those who reside in the ends of the earth. “What God seems to be doing in the book of Acts” is “bringing people of all races and nations under the same umbrella.” In Acts that inclusion is not tied with ethnicity—Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles all gather together due to the work of the Spirit. While he celebrates the way that the Spirit brings together those of different ethnicities, Ngewa asks why it was that the location of the East African Revival, Rwanda, succumbed to genocide. “The unfortunate thing,” he says, “is that even persons who claimed to be Christians were involved in such killings. These serve as examples of many such conflicts all over the continent of Africa and beyond. Even within the church itself, there have been deep conflicts, with some of them centering on such matters as speaking in tongues and other such dramatic gifts of the Holy Spirit.” Ngewa’s essay is a realistic plea for the church to model and live the realities of its faith: one God for all the races of the world, one Savior, the same Spirit, and one family of God. And so he concludes, “All divisions on the basis of race, tribe, or the like have no place in the church of Christ.” He understands that perceptions must be changed by God. The Spirit’s presence should break down prejudice wherever it occurs.

David Tonghou Ngong traces the development of a Christian theology of the Spirit in Africa, beginning with the North African theologians. He, along with other African Christians, wants the global church to remember that the most significant trinitarian reflection came out of North Africa. He urges that the African church move beyond simply emphasizing the function of the Holy Spirit to examining the place of the Spirit in the Trinity, as did the early North African theologians. Ngong reflects on the Pentecostalization of African Christianity with its concomitant emphasis on pneumatology. He wants to draw together Nicea and contemporary African theology while at the same time rejecting Western Enlightenment rationalism. As part of this concern, Ngong notes that African cosmology is not otherworldly but deeply connected with life as it is lived here and now. For him, theology is worked out on the road of life but this does not divorce him from the Nicene Creed. In his discussion of African spirituality, he focuses on experience through the power of the Spirit and the transformative function of the Spirit. He emphasizes the belief in the existence of spirits and notes that it is not a superstition but rather a reality that can only be confronted via the power of the Spirit through Jesus Christ. Moreover, spirituality is not simply a question of the believer’s individual life but for the community and, indeed, the whole of society. Human flourishing that comes through the Spirit is communal and is connected to threats to its survival. His chapter ends with a question about religious pluralism in Africa, a theme taken up by García-Johnson as well.

Oscar García-Johnson pens what will be, for many readers of this volume, one of the most challenging chapters. Western theology commonly reflects on general and special revelation, with its overriding emphasis being on God’s revelation through Christ and Scripture. But the affirmation of general revelation brings with it entailments not often discussed in the West. Within African Christianity the question often arises: “Did God bring the missionaries to Africa, or did the missionaries bring God?” If we respond that God brought the missionaries to Africa, the question becomes: “Where, then, was God before the missionaries came?” García-Johnson presses the question within the frame of colonial theology. Was there a presence of the Spirit in the Americas before the colonial era? In answering the question, he moves toward seeing the Spirit outside the gate and, in doing so, wishes to uncover an indigenous theology of the Spirit. He reminds us of Melchizedek, Abraham, Balaam, and Paul’s quotation of a Greek poet at the Athenian Areopagus (Acts 17) as he tries to trace out the “pneumatological continuity” between the pre-conquest and post-conquest communities of the Americas.

García-Johnson takes a journey into ancestral folk traditions in the Americas. While he does not examine theological trends within contemporary indigenous communities in Central and South America, this could well be a further stage of reflection. While objecting to the West being the locus theologicus par excellence, he affirms the Nicene Creed since “early Christian teachers emphasize the Spirit as a Revealer and Giver of Life.” The concern expressed here is one every reader needs to take with the utmost seriousness. Does the gospel come into culture as an alien entity, or has God prepared the way, given perspectives, and raised expectations, which are then fulfilled in the gospel? The colonial mentality is one that see the gospel as a conquering and pulverizing force over indigenous peoples and beliefs. The consequence of this perspective has been the devastation of indigenous communities across the Americas, which lost life, land, and culture due to misconceived notions of Christian mission. García-Johnson, as a Central American, pushes back against that heritage and attempts to re-envisage the wideness of God’s agency while not losing hold of Christ and his centrality.

The final chapter of this anthology comes from one of the senior statesmen of Majority World theology, C. René Padilla. Since the first Lausanne Conference in 1974, Padilla has been a leader in the development of Latin American evangelical theology. That theology, which developed parallel to and is not derivative from liberation theology, places special emphasis on misión integral (integral mission). The gospel of Christ is the in-breaking of the kingdom, or the rule of God through both word and deed. As such, the gospel is transformative not only for the life of the individual or the gathered community of believers, but also for society as a whole. In his chapter, Padilla emphasizes the work of the Spirit “as the source of power for life and hope, especially among the poor.” The experience of the Spirit in Latin America, mostly among Pentecostals, occurs in the midst of deep poverty and social oppression. “The mission of the Messiah in the power of the Spirit,” Padilla states, “is oriented toward the most vulnerable persons in society: the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed.” So radical was Jesus’s ministry among these people that the socioeconomic changes were big enough to be regarded as signs of “the coming of a new era of justice and peace—‘the year of the Lord’s favor,’ the Jubilee year (cf. Leviticus 25)—a metaphor of the messianic era initiated in history by Jesus Christ.” Those who are swept up by the wind of the Spirit become part of an “empowered, transnational, multilinguistic, intercultural movement for justice.” The Spirit empowers the church and allows it “to experience the kingdom of God as a present reality.” The values of the kingdom are here present in history in anticipation of that final day when all will be complete.

The authors of these chapters take us on the journey of the Spirit whose workings are wider than the individual heart. Issues of community and relationality are paramount, often stemming from the relational dimension of the Trinity. The community where the Spirit works is not only the church but also the wider society, both before and after the coming of the gospel. The Holy Spirit is not antithetical to culture, as he both critiques and affirms. Each of these authors deeply appreciates the heritage of Nicea but understands that the Spirit is restless. There is work to be done in the world, healing and redemptive work, that began in the first moments of creation and continues in the present out to the eschaton. The Spirit was, and is, and will be over all the earth.

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This book, along with the other volumes in the Majority World Theology series, is the product of a strong community effort to facilitate the discussion about emerging Majority World perspectives in biblical studies and theology. We want to thank the authors for their literary contribution and for their willingness to gather in San Diego in November 2014 for the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Institute for Biblical Research (unfortunately, Ngewa and Satyavrata were unable to attend). We are all indebted to the Rivendell Steward’s Trust, ScholarLeaders International, and the SEED Research Institute for their financial support and tremendous encouragement. Many of the scholars could not have attended these gatherings without the gracious help these agencies offered. Thanks also goes out to the leadership of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Institute for Biblical Research for creating space for this important discussion about pneumatology. Michael Thomson of Eerdmans has been an indefatigable supporter and counselor all along the way, and, once again, we tip our hats to him. Thanks are also due to Langham Partnership International and Langham Literature for supporting the global publication and distribution of the Majority World Theology series. Pieter Kwant of Langham Literature has been an energetic ally and we offer him our thanks. Jessica Hawthorne, teaching assistant extraordinaire, prepared the indices. We are all indebted to her. And, as always, we are grateful to God for his answers to prayers so that this global project could move forward. Soli Deo gloria!