Sturla J. Stalsett, Spirits of Globalization: The Growth of Pentecostalism and Experiential Spiritualities in a Global Age (London: SCM, 2006), viii +229 Pps.
Pentecostal churches and charismatic spirituality resist easy categorization in both theological and socio-political terms. Stalsett follows Harvey Cox in calling them ‘experiential spiritualities’ (Cox, 1995), from which this book takes it cue. Many scholars see an affinity b/t globalizing forces and the spiritual worldview and practice of (neo-) Pentecostal religiosity. Do neoliberal, Western globalization and Pentecostalism mutually reinforce one another? This book seeks to explore these connections, if any exist. Similar to Max Webber , who posited that there was a connection b/t capitalism and the Protestant work ethic, this volume aims to address a similar question regarding the rise of ‘experiential religion’ and globalization (2). Globalization is characterized by transfers, travel, transport, flows and communication of unprecedented speed and magnitude.
In a splintered, postmodern world, P. invites people to plunge into the chaos in order to overcome it by the power of the Spirit, and thereby provide a bridge back to primal spirituality (cf. Cox, 1995). In his chapter, Cox notes that both P. and globalization are growing rapidly in the same part of the world: what was previously known as the ‘third world’. Indigenous religiosity, notes Cox, provides the richest soil for the expansion of P. worldwide (16), as they affirm the spirits of the folk religions, but only in the sense of having to defeat them by the true God. Cox claims that P. is not an extension of fundamentalism b/c it experientially-based, not as text-oriented, and affirms the present-day miraculous (19); they represent the re-oralization of a tradition that has become fixiated on texts. P., he claims, nourishes counter-cultural values, values that are in a sense linked to modernity, but resist capitulation to it.
Sung-Gun Kim in his chapter, “Pentecostalism, Shamanism, and Capitalism within Contemporary Korean Society” (23-38), claims that the Korean P. phenomenon, which began in the 1950s, has been successful on two fronts: it has experienced phenomenal growth, and there has been a generalization of P. beliefs within Korean society. He notes that this may be b/c the Korean P. movement inculcates and draws upon ancient Korean forms of shamanism and introduces Western capitalism simultaneously (33).
The next two chapters focus on the “Universal Church of the Kingdom of God” (i.e. IURD) that originated in Brazil. According to Berge Furre in his chapter, this P. church demonstrates that it is possible to survive and flourish in a society ‘without mercy’ (48). Furre prefers to speak of the IURD as Neo-Pentecostalism; as such, it focuses spiritual warfare, immediate healings, exorcisms, and personal prosperity. The IURD replaces the oldline P. emphases of speaking in tongues, pietistic morals and eschatology with these emphases for today. Mary Rute Gomes Esperandio continues to discuss the IURD in her chapter, noting that the central focus on sacrificial giving in IURD preaching often results in the believers and givers gaining a high degree of self-confidence and empowerment, understanding that they are ‘worthy’ to give gifts to the almighty God.
Moving on to South Africa, Sarojini Nadar and Gary Leonard argue that the Indian migrant P. population in the Durban area of S. Africa are still ‘indentured’ servants phenomenologically and ideologically to the imported N. American form of the faith gospel that is taught in the P. churches therein; as such, even though they may be liberated, they still are indentured to a white kingdom of sorts (65). This has resulted, they say, in an uncritical acceptance of an essentially Americanized fundamentalism. They note that P. in South Africa can be traced to the virtual flood of missionaries that came out of Azusa St. in 1906.
From her vantage point in Hong Kong, China, Wai Man Yuen takes another approach to interreligious dialogue, and asks what ways could charismatic Christianity engage in and learn from dialogue with another cultural tradition and living faith (?). In particular, she dialogues with Chinese charismatic Christianity in its attempts to dialogue with the Confucian concept of self-cultivation on the one hand (148), and the concept of self-transformation on the other hand (153–156). Andrew Thomas in his chapter, Pentecostalism and Normalization, asks whether tongues and other ‘strange behavior’ could be interpreted as liberation from ‘normalizing’ pressure (164). He stipulates that this may be an attempt to break out of what the West has depicted as ‘normal’ behavior, thus an attempt to redefine what normal in fact is (169). In a similar vein, Harold Wells in his essay suggests that Resistance to Domination could be seen as a Charism of the Spirit (170), and in this way he makes a linkage between liberation theology and P. theology. The P. movement, he asserts, must be seen as an empowerment for resistance and self-affirmation (172).
Sigurd Bergmann suggests a renewal of Christian doctrine on the Spirit that seeks to break out of violently reduced life spaces both in reference to humans as well as the rest of creation as a result of globalization, and thereby transform places of captivity into open plains of freedom. Bergmann suggests that the metaphor of the Spirit’s inhabitation as atmosphere is helpful, as an atmosphere can be seen as a vestige or trace of God’s presence on earth. As such, he claims that we could follow the Spirit into a transfigured creation. We cannot dwell in the Spirit, but the spirit dwells in us, in others and in the spaces-in-between them and us, he notes (196). To which I respond, even in other religions..? He wonders if the lost ecumenical vision of P. could possibly be recovered by revisioning the Spirit as atmosphere (?).
Stalsett returns to the theme of the book in her concluding chapter, the interrelationship between globalization and (Neo-)Pentecostal spirituality. She argues that there is a relationship b/t the ‘pathos’ of Neo-Pentecostalism and the neoliberal version of capitalism that has obtained a near global dominance in the recent decades. She notes that this link is expressed by an immediate satisfaction of desire, and success through sacrifice (201). She stresses the need for the development of a non-sacrificial pneumatology of the cross, one that could also make room for the experience of suffering, as “the Spirit is the indwelling presence of co-suffering, co-resisting God” (212).