Pentecostalism and Englishness – on reading Harvey Kwiyani. # 127. 18/07/2023
Out of Many, One People
Welcome. Further thoughts on the running issue of how our cultures affect how we express our faith.
Pentecostalism and Englishness – on reading Harvey Kwiyani.
This blog is a reflection set off by a short passage in Harvey Kwiyani’s ‘Multicultural Kingdom: Ethnic Diversity, Mission and the Church’ (SCM Press 2020), in which he discusses the relationship between Pentecostalism and Western Christianity (pp 54-62). He starts by setting out the issue: ‘Let me add here something I feel the West (or Western Christianity) needs to understand and appreciate (and yet so far seems unable to do so): the world Christianity that has emerged is decidedly spirit-oriented in nature and this is not going to change any time soon. Indeed, it seems fair to say that world Christianity is Pentecostalism’. By contrast he writes later ‘To many in the majority world, it is non-Charismatic Christianity that is so out of the ordinary that it needs an explanation’ (p 55). Behind the Pentecostal/non-Pentecostal disjunction Kwiyani implies (on my reading) a contrast between the norms of mainstream western Christianity and those of the recently emerged Christianity of the Global South.
This reading of the situation raises three questions for me.
1. How far is it accurate?
Manifestations that are regarded as ‘spirit-oriented’ are by no means unknown throughout western church history. Vinson Synan’s ‘The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States’ (Eerdmans, 1971) records plenty of examples. Sinners falling ‘like dead men in mighty battle’, or shaking helplessly in every joint, some would crawl on all fours and bark like dogs, thus ‘treeing the devil’, or entire congregations would be seized by the ’holy laugh’ – all in an account of the Cane Ridge revival of 1801 (p 24). Perhaps a unifying factor here is not ‘race’ but of social deprivation, or to use the title of another history of Pentecostalism, the ‘Vision of the Disinherited’ (by Robert Mapes Anderson, OUP 1979). In the USA white and black forms of such expressive Christianity ran side by side and occasionally intermingled. (Sadly, I have been unable to find a quote from Johnny Cash describing white Pentecostal worship in the 1940s which is very similar to the worship you would find in many black Pentecostal churches in Britain today). Whereas in Britain the tradition of popular evangelicalism was dying out by the early twentieth century, so that today it seems strange to most British people, in the USA popular white evangelicalism, usually Pentecostal, still flourishes, including providing support for Donald Trump.
But today Pentecostalism is no longer just the faith of the ‘disinherited’ in the USA as members have aimed for and achieved higher social status (the dynamic that has destroyed Methodism in Britain). Paul Alexander writes about the recent glitzy mutation of Pentecostalism: ‘This may be why it is so hard for me, as a born and bred Pentecostal, to admire the huge, fancy churches that Pentecostals are now building and the quest for acceptability that dampens some of the enthusiastic worship’ (in ‘Signs and Wonders: Why Pentecostalism is the World’s Fastest Growing Religion’, 2009). But to take the sub-title of yet another book, Pentecostalism is ‘A Religion Made to Travel’ (Main title ‘The Globalisation of Pentecostalism’, eds Dempster, Klaus and Petersen; 1999). Thus in Britain a major impetus has come from its impact spreading to the affluent source of Holy Trinity, Brompton, in turn spread further afield in the Church of England through their church planting or revitalisation programmes..
Such developments simultaneously both qualify and yet broadly affirm Kwiyani’s starting position. ‘Western’ Christianity has by no means been untouched by the ‘spirit-oriented ‘ Christianity that he sees as the differentiating characteristic of ‘world Christianity’, and yet the appropriation of the Spirit’s work has softened its expression to make it closer to what Kwiyani a little too-dismissively describes as ‘non-Charismatic Christianity’, dampening enthusiastic worship, to use Paul Alexander’s words, and moderating the making of public supernatural claims. Or, it could be said, quite simply contextualising its ministry to sceptical, suspicious Britain. Nor is this again simply a race/cultural issue; it is also a class/cultural issue as increasingly better educated or more media-wary young people from majority world backgrounds seeks to make sense of the Christian faith. As I shall repeat below, the modern world raises questions, currently about scientific and historical knowledge, and sexual identity that will not be abated (but might be recontextualised) by enthusiastic worship.
2. Pentecostal/non-Pentecostal – what’s the Difference?
This is a largely personal reflection from a spirit-warmed heart but a secularisation-shaped mind, looking at five issues that Pentecostalism raises in my experience.
* Prayer.
I have been greatly blessed by praying with Pentecostals, especially by the readiness with which praise and adoration come to their lips. Connected to that, too, in humble parish prayer meetings the greater sense of dependence on God and the readiness to present needs before God by church members from non-Western backgrounds. Given that prayer is central to the life and vitality of the church this double source of Pentecostal/majority world faith is a great gift from God that all Christians ought to cherish.
But Pentecostal expressiveness in prayer has drawbacks too. Turning the volume up to 11 does not guarantee God’s attention, and can alienate less expressive Christians from joining with them in prayer.
* Expressive worship.
As with prayer, energy is not necessarily a sign of authenticity. If you come from a restrained culture then your worship is likely to be restrained. Certainly leading a multi-cultural church I found that an issue. Some members were disappointed that it didn’t go with my nature to raise the temperature in worship. Equally at times I was alarmed by the noise and intensity of our Tamil services. Did they fall within the boundaries of the Church of England? And ought they have done so? Some multi-cultural churches that cover a range of expressive identities solve the issue by simply setting a given way of doing things that the worshipper acceptingly slips into – I take it this is often the implication of Catholic worship, as also is the specific and supra-cultural form of worship in Islam. In contrast, churches that seek to be more contextualised need to realise the stretching agenda they set themselves when situated amidst cultural super-diversity.
* Vigorous evangelism.
Very little happens unless you consciously work at it. Pentecostal spirituality embeds a deep internalisation of the believer’s continuing identity in Christ. It is from this identity (constantly reinvigorated in public worship) that enables sharing the believer’s faith in everyday situations. Witness, like prayer, is closer to people’s lips. I think of the young Nigerian who told me that when he fasted he didn’t need to seek for opportunities to witness to his faith, they came to him naturally. Whilst Pentecostalism can put on over-hyped public evangelistic events, it is the everyday witness and service of its church members that is its main attraction.
* Ethical conservatism.
Majority world Pentecostals not only want to share their faith, they are prepared to stand up for what they see as its teaching. Most of the instances where British Christians have had to legally defend their rights – to wear crosses, express their views about same-sex marriage, or refuse to facilitate them – have involved ethnic minority Pentecostals. The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) for all its numerical strength has nonetheless been snubbed by first Boris Johnson and then Keir Starmer through their acceding to LGBTQI lobbying and publicly distancing themselves from the church.
Their ethical robustness sets them apart from an established church concerned not to alienate itself from a political establishment now seeing itself as having a missionary responsibility to propagate gay rights worldwide. Perhaps the nadir of English Christianity/majority world Pentecostalism occurred at the 1998 Lambeth Conference when the Bishop of Enugu, in full view of the television cameras, sought to exorcise demons from the Rev Richard Kirker, leader of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. The problem has not gone away, and remains the major source of the two-way suspicion between the leadership of the traditional churches and majority world Pentecostals.
* Social compassion.
The Anglican hauteur that we are the church that is committed to the whole community whereas they only concerned to increase their numbers ought to be recognised for the arrogant nonsense that it is. I have been struck by how often Anglican social service organisations have appointed Pentecostal leaders. Our local food-bank is run by an independent evangelical church. A friend who is a vicar on a north London housing estate distributes Christmas lunch hampers provided by RCCG.
Churches for whom evangelistic outreach is a given will sooner or later encounter people’s daily realities, with their share of emotional pain and material deprivation, and end up realising they need to respond. Which is why the contrast between evangelism or commitment to social justice is less stark than is often assumed. Pentecostals, partly because they often come from cultures that have a stronger sense of our physical groundedness, may more instinctively respond to need than non-charismatic churches and have more positive impact than churches with more developed social theologies but less local numerical heft.
3. What are the implications for the Church of England.
a) Recognise the difference.
There are significant cultural differences in the way that Christian faith is expressed, and the dominant culture of the Church of England differs from the culture of the ‘majority world’ in the significant ways listed above. The differences, of course, are not absolute. The phrase ‘majority world’ covers such an enormous range of not only specific ethnic or national cultures but also major variations, especially of social class and educational background, as well as of gender, that close range study attending to particular churches or contexts would reveal a complex map of blends, adaptations and outliers. But the big picture reveals the sort of broad-brushed contrasts that Kwiyani depicts.
One response is that the Church should be canny in identifying the occasional instances when our culture connects with the cultures of the majority world. Here the traditionalism of the Church of England may be more of a virtue than we suspect. Whilst in the West it is assumed that any involvement with issues of race or racism is somehow radical or ground-breaking, in fact the majority of people in the ethnic minorities around us (often unlike their ‘spokespeople’) have a high regard for tradition, inherited wisdom, authority. Thus formal worship or clerical robes may connect with cultures where symbols, attire, gestures still carry more weight than is now the case in the individualistic, innovative West.
Nonetheless we should recognise that for the most part there is a significant gap between the expression of Christian faith in most Anglican parishes and the spirituality and expectations of large swathes of Britain’s minority ethnic peoples. Thus, rather than constantly berating ourselves, or being berated, for our (institutional?) racism we ought to recognise that our supply is not meeting the needs of their demand. Racism in the church may still be an issue, but increasingly the harder truth may not be that we are rejecting but rather that we are being rejected.
b) Value our ‘Englishness’.
If then, in the hallowed account of institutional racism in the MacPherson Report, we are not providing an ‘appropriate service’ to ethnic minorities is it not then incumbent on the Church of England to change its ways? To adapt so that broadly we become more ‘Pentecostal’ in the ways that Kwiyani depicts as the default expression of spirituality and worship that are the norms in the majority world. Perhaps.
But are there aspects of the Church of England, indeed Englishness, that we should humbly but firmly believe we hold as a gift to global Christianity. ‘In Britain, I have come to learn that the ‘excesses’ of Pentecostalism go against the values of a culture that loves moderation’ Kwiyani writes (p 59). The severe buffetings that the church in Europe has received from the Enlightenment and consequent secularisation arose in part from the wars of religion that followed on from the Reformation. Being hard-edged about what you believe can bring short term effectiveness but long-term disillusion; a pain that I suspect is beginning to be felt at the edges of global Pentecostalism, and possibly even more deeply in the case of Korea or elsewhere. If the safeguarding problems that are seriously troubling the traditional western churches have stemmed from weak or ineffective accountability, then the almost complete lack of such structures in entrepreneurial and authoritarian Pentecostalism provides fertile ground for financial or sexual scandals that can even pass unnoticed because of low expectations. ‘The best way to make money in the Caribbean’ was a West Indian colleague’s comment to me many years ago on grass roots black churches. The slow, cumbersome, hierarchical procedures of the Church of England that have developed over centuries may be frustrating in many ways, but may also be a valuable, albeit never perfect way to reduce reputational damage.
More broadly a tradition that gives weight to reason and is prepared to give thought and time to facing difficult questions is the heir to a way of expressing faith that newer churches can not avoid facing, and which has resources that those churches need to draw from and develop in their own ways.
David Edwards’ words written in 1987 (which I have used previously) still bear quoting: “I am prejudiced because I am a European, but I cannot ignore this faith that has survived the acid-throwing by European modernity. It has survived the unromantic agony of doubt and the humiliation of the need to change one’s mind. . . I believe that a faith tested and purified in these fires still has something precious to contribute to continents where religion has not so far been challenged so harshly” (‘The Futures of Christianity’, p 356).
c) Learn.
‘Good leaders will take time to learn of Pentecostalism’, Kwiyani writes (p 58). We saw enough of the positive strengths in section 2 above to recognise that despite the misgivings I have just emphasised we have much to learn. Too often for the Church learning has been from people with whom we already have some congruence – black, yes, but from a theological tradition that, however critical it may be, has still emanated from and thinks in terms which though challenging are yet familiar. But learning from Pentecostals means learning from a supernatural worldview that is partly just unfamiliar, but also partly (and far worse) expresses a mind that we thought we had moved away from.
If it may be good for some of us to loosen up a bit and be a little more expressive; but far more challenging, and without easy ways of compromise being close at hand, we need to come to terms with the supernaturalism of Pentecostalism. What expectations do we have of identifiable healings? How do we understand miracles? How much time, focus and energy do we give to supernatural prayer? And does it really matter? How seriously are people lost, and how earnest are we to save them? Yes, western society does require us to in turn interrogate those questions, but Pentecostals may fairly argue that both the worldview of our scriptures and their daily experiences of life, whilst believing in a ‘spirit-oriented’ world carries means that we need to learn to go deeper, in Kwiyani’s words, to ‘understand and appreciate’ what grass-roots majority world Christians have to offer us.
Previous blogs which relate to this topic: # 22/01/2021 Institutional Racism in the Church of England; # 53 One River, Two Streams; Global Christianity in Britain; # 72 Black Majority Christian Groups at University; # 85 ‘Prosperity’; # 92 & 93 Diasporic Churches and Mission in Britain 1 & 2
John, I am just seeing this. Rather late, I know. Sorry. Great to see you engage my work in this manner. I look forward to seeing you soon.