The Scandal of Pentecost: A Theology of the Public Church

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Through a systematic analysis of the conflicts emerging when the public church encounters the public world, The Scandal of Pentecost argues that the public advent of the church stands in continuity with the public scandal of the incarnate and crucified Christ. The book traces the contours of this scandal in the confrontation of the dominant ruling hermeneutic of authority with a Christian hermeneutic of resistance. This highlights the brokenness of the human condition manifested by the church in the drunkenness of the disciples, the speaking in other tongues, the baptism with the Spirit, the empowerment of the flesh, and its public witness to a scandalized world. The effects of the scandal transform both the disciples individual and communal witness and their public recognition as the church. Through the lens of a symbolic hermeneutic, the public witness of the church at Pentecost reveals a Christian scandal of anthropological proportions: with the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh the church emerges as the symbol of humanity.

Reviews

The church has domesticated Pentecost! According to Vondey, modern-day Pentecostal Christianity has privatised and personalized Pentecost, comfortably establishing itself in the language of individualism, power and prosperity. The modern church prefers a theology of itself as symbolizing wholeness and unity. The scandal of Pentecost is that it was in its inconsistencies and struggles that the church emerged as a symbol of the brokenness and the transformation of humanity in all its dimensions. The modern church owns the Spirit. The forgotten scandal of Pentecost, according to Vondey, is that the church burst into public life. The scandal is that the Spirit was given to all flesh. The scandal of this important and finely argued book is that it challenges the church to be the scandal of Pentecost. * Graham H. Twelftree, London School of Theology, UK *
In this insightful book, Wolfgang Vondey offers the Christian community a way of restoring the integral link between the scandal of the crucified God and the feast of Pentecost. He carefully shows how, in distancing ourselves from the public scandal recorded in Acts 2, Christians have both diminished and domesticated the message of the full gospel. Moreover, Vondey offers a Spirit-baptized public ecclesiology that embraces the public outrage of the Spirits visitation upon all flesh as both necessary and redemptive. * Cheryl Johns, United Theological Seminary, USA *
The contribution of Pentecostal theologians to the ecumenical gift exchange of Christian dogmatics continues to accelerate. Vondeys careful and sophisticated study of the abiding scandal of the Spirits outpouring greatly enriches our biblical, hermeneutical, doctrinal, and apologetic confrontation with the reality of Pentecost and all its manifold consequences for the continuing public life of the church today. * Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen, UK *
Vondey builds a strong argument that the scandal of Pentecost is the springboard from which the church can exercise theology within a public sphere. ... Vondeys books challenge Pentecostals to think deeply and critically about the public dimensions of theology through the lens of Pentecost. * Australasian Pentecostal Studies *

Author Bio

Wolfgang Vondey is Professor of Christian Theology and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK.