Roman Catholics and Pentecostals in Dialogue

Veli-Matti Karkkainen: The final scholarly work I shall mention is by Veli-Matti Karkkainen.(21) His post as director of the Finnish Bible College is paid by the state - no doubt a unique situation in Pentecostalism. When I asked Karkkainen where it says in the New Testament that the director of a Pentecostal Bible College should be paid by the state, he replied, "New Testament Christians did not pay such massive taxes as we do!" Indeed, it can be argued that well-trained Pentecostal pastors are indeed in the interest of society!

Karkkainen's public defence of his thesis at the University of Helsinki was a visible ecumenical event. His supervisor, Prof. Tuomo Mannermaa, appeared in the traditional Luther-frock with a violet top-hat (the doctoral hat of the theologians of the University of Helsinki), the candidate wore a frock with tails, a stiff white shirt and white bowtie, and the external examiner was dressed in a Geneva gown. The hundred guests (mostly in black or evening dress) included the secretary of the Finnish Ecumenical Council, half a dozen university professors and many Pentecostal and Lutheran pastors.

From the outset it was made clear to everyone present that it is because of Pentecostalism that Christianity is growing more quickly than the world's population(22) - but this growth is not in those sectors of Pentecostalism which have been represented in the Vatican-Pentecostal dialogue. The dialogue has taken place between representatives of the stagnant or even diminishing sectors of Pentecostalism - and of Catholicism for that matter. This will have to change soon. One is reminded of the cynical remark by the British sociologist Brian Wilson that churches only become ecumenical when they are in trouble.

Karkkainen's work is a meticulously researched and superbly documented analysis. He is well aware of the critical questions Pentecostals ask Catholics and vice-versa. He has grasped the relevance of this ecumenical dialogue mostly in theological terms, sometimes also in general social and political terms.

The description and analysis could hardly be better. It is a work strictly within the European theological tradition, with a penchant for abstractions and definitions. Karkkainen looks at facts less often than at documents. But that is the European theological tradition, and it is highly relevant that a Pentecostal expresses his convictions also in these categories.

All these publications on the Vatican-Pentecostal dialogue pose a number of questions on which I now want to concentrate.

Questions raised by the dialogue

Scriptural inspiration

Sandidge reported some heated discussions on the question of inspiration and the right exegesis of the Bible.(23) Karkkainen also devotes a long chapter to this question.(24) That is understandable, for it needs some clarification.(25) The oldest declaration of faith by Pentecostals, the one made in 1906 by the Apostolic Faith movement (William J. Seymour, Azusa Street revival) has no paragraph on the inspiration of scripture. I have no doubt that Seymour believed in the reliability of scripture, but he did not think it was necessary to spell this out. In fact, the topic of inspiration or even the verbal and full inspiration of scripture is a later import into Pentecostalism, mainly under the influence of evangelicalism and fundamentalism - the arch-enemies of Pentecostalism at that time.(26)