AUTHORITY IN PENTECOSTALISM
COMPARATIVE THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Joseph Kenny, O.P.
[published in Tradition and compromises, Essays on the Challenge of Pentecostalism
ed. Anthony Akinwale, O.P. and Joseph Kenny, O.P.
The Michael J. Dempsey Center for Religious and Social Research, Dominican Institute, Ibadan, 2004

Pentecostalism appears to be a unique phenomenon standing apart from other religions or religious movements. At the core of Pentecostalism is a particular idea of prophecy. This essay attempts to look at prophecy as it is found in different strands of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, so as to bring to light how Pentecostalism resembles or contrasts with them.

Authority in any religion initially is prophetic. Scripture is a record of prophetic utterances and is a way of extending the time span of a prophetic event that occurred at a specific time in history. Thus Scripture becomes an authority in religion. A religion may stop with that, or there may be ongoing prophecy on the part of some leaders or among the people in general.

Ongoing prophecy among religious leaders

• Old Testament Judaism is noteworthy for ongoing prophetic experience in many different forms. Its oral transmission and eventual commitment to scripture is another facet of prophecy. For a time prophecy was deemed to have stopped, but scripture, whether deuterocanonical or purely apocryphal, was being produced right up to the New Testament.
• For Catholicism, Jesus is the final and complete prophet and revelation (Heb 1:1), but an explicative prophecy continues in an institutional way in the Pope and college of bishops. The Catholic Church stands out among all Christian churches for its "magisterium". This does not obscure the direct influence of the Spirit on all the faithful. Each of the baptized has a share of prophecy in a mystical communing with God through faith and understanding and by the witness of their lives (Lumen gentium, 12, 31, 35). Certain others also have various charismatic forms of prophecy for the benefit of others.
• In Islam, the Qur'ân is the fundamental scriptural authority recording the revelations Muhammad claimed to have received from God. For Shî`ites, the Imâm is the continuing infallible authority who opens the inner hidden meaning of the Qur'ân to the people. The line of real imâms, designated descendants of `Alî, only went to 7 according to the Imâmites, or 12 according to the Ismâ`îlites. There is the legend that the last imâm lives on hidden somewhere, but even while real imâms were around the principle emerged that the imâm regularly works through a deputy, who nevertheless has all the aura and practical authority of a real imâm. This is clear in the case of the Iranian ayatollahs, who represent the real imâm.

Prophecy confined to its scriptural record

Other religious communities revolve around a scriptural record of prophecy which becomes the sole authority, although some also have a secondary scripture representing tradition.

• This is the case with Judaism from New Testament times, when prophecy is deemed to have ceased. The Hebrew Bible is supplemented by the Talmud, while scholarship and private preference are the only interpretative tools.
• Protestantism is built around "sola scripture" and as such rejects the continuing explicative prophetic authority of the Pope and bishops. In "evangelical" tradition, religious experience generally does not touch on doctrine and, in spite of the right of private interpretation, the "plain sense" of Scripture as interpreted by the leader of a denomination tends to become the imposed norm. This phenomenon, and its Pentecostal opposite, are exhaustively studied by Ronald Knox, in Enthusiasm, a chapter in the history of religion.
• In Sunni Islam, there is the original Prophet Muhammad and the Qur'ân he left, but no continuing prophecy that can determine the meaning of Scripture. This is left to the private interpretation of the reader or to scholarship, as in Protestantism. Besides the Qur'ân there is a large body of traditions (hadîth) which, under the guise of records of what Muhammad said or did, have the authority of a divinely guided life which is an example for others. As in Protestantism, a kind of consensus about some things emerges in certain circles under the influence of a leader. Thus today many Muslims are attached to various schools of fiqh that gained ascendancy in the 9th century, while others campaign for a thoroughly revised fiqh that repudiates some of the historically conditioned accretions of the latter and takes into account the different circumtances of today.

Ongoing prophecy among any of the faithful

Another tendency emphasises private experience of God or the "inner voice", sometimes giving it greater authority than scripture:

In Judaism there is Hasidism, but this seems to be purely mystical, with no charismatic, much less doctrinal dimension.

In Sunnism, Sufism is a way of experiencing God by mystical contact; this however does not affect doctrine. Sufism has always encountered opposition in Islam, and has been reined in and its excesses, with their doctrinal implications, have been curbed. The Sufi turuq are formed around a shaykh who can carry immense authority, like a Pentecostal pastor.

Pentecostalism recognizes Scripture but also the prophetic inspiration of the individual, which sometimes is given more authority than Scripture. In theory it is egalitarian, but in practice certain "anointed" individuals arrogate to themselves more authority than any pope or bishop claims in the Catholic Church. It resembles unbridled Sufism.

Comparative observations

The institutional prophetic role of the magisterium is the distinguishing feature of Catholicism which other Christian bodies officially reject. Yet Pentecostalism brings it in by the back door, when it exalts the pastor to an infallible oracle of the Holy Spirit for any and all matters of faith and life. On the other hand, the democratic access to the gifts of Holy Spirit, which is the hallmark of Pentecostalism is strongly present in Catholicism, but with a different emphasis.

Among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Catholic theology places priority on those that assist the practice of the moral and theological virtues, which are the measure of the holiness of a person. These gifts are distinguished from those which are gratis datae, for the service of the community, such as tongues, prophecy, teaching, miracles etc., which we may designate "charismatic" gifts, and have no bearing on the holiness or lack of it in a person. Pentecostals, on the other hand, while sometimes stressing "holiness", seem to give much greater prominence to the charismatic gifts, which are taken as a measure of spiritual maturity. In its baser manifestations, Pentecostalism focuses on miracles that assure health, wealth, posterity and prosperity, first of all for the pastor as an example for the others.

Conclusion

In facing the challenge of Pentecostalism, Catholic preaching needs to stress clearly:

the necessity of seeking first the kingdom of God, which consists in the life of grace, drawing nourishment from instruction and the sacraments and bearing fruit in the practice of the virtues. Then all else, the material needs which we may legitimately pray for, will be added to us.

the fact that grace builds upon nature and does not destroy it. This principle is built upon orthodox Christology which recognizes the two natures of Christ in one divine person. In practice, it means that human effort or hard work combines harmoniously with reliance on divine help, and neither should be stressed at the expense of the other.