Pentecostal imagination and the retrieval of identity: Toward a pneumatology of history

How are we to ensure that our faith community is an authentic expression of that described in Scripture? As a movement originating in the twentieth century, without any clear ‘genealogical’ link with the first century Church, Pentecostalism provides a unique context for thinking through the question of identity. The associated methodological issues, relating to how we might recognize instantiations of the same community in different places and at different times, call for a thorough evaluation of our approach to the historical past. Bringing Pentecostal scholarship to bear upon the problem, it becomes clear that the conventional models, which conflate shared phenomena with shared identity, fail to take account of Pentecostalism’s central faith commitments. In exploring the possibility of discerning divine agency within history, Amos Yong’s theology is brought into dialogue with Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy. The outworking of the ensuing hermeneutic historiography ultimately points beyond a mere history of pneumatology, and toward a pneumatology of history.