Review Essay

Saul's Armor: The Problem and the Promise of

Pentecostal Theology Today

D. Lyle Dabney

Like young David of old, Pentecostalism has arrived at a turning point in its history; and not unlike that boy who would be king, it is faced with the problem of Saul's armor. This is the conclusion, I con- tend, that one is forced to draw upon reading two excellent volumes by Veli-Matti Karkkainen on the Theology implicit in the interna- I tional Pentecostal/Roman Catholic dialog.? In this dialog with Karkkainen I will explain that conclusion and explore some of its implications for Pentecostal theology today.2 The problem of Saul's armor was revealed for David in his encounter with that first king of Israel- and with his foe, Goliath. Having been sent by his father to visit his brothers in the camp of

1 Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Spiritus ubi vult spirat: Pneumatology in Roman Catholic- Pentecostal Dialogue (1972-1989), Schriften der Luther-Agricola-Gesellschaft 42, (Helsinki: Luther-Agricola-Society, 1998); Karkkainen, Ad ultimccm terrae: EvangeliZlltion, Proselytism and Common Witness in the Roman Catholic- Pentecostal Dialogue (1990-1997), Studies in the Intercultural History of Christianity 117 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang,1999). 2 Here I must note that I do so as one who is no stranger to these issues, for they have long concerned me at both a personal and professional level. Bom and raised in the home of an Assemblies of God pastor, I was educated in theological institutions rep- resenting the North American Evangelical and the German Reformation traditions, and I now teach as a United Methodist in the department of theology at a Catholic university. Pneumatology is the focus of my own research and writing, and I am con- vinced that the issues that surface in these texts are vitally important not just for Pentecostal theology but for all Christian theology today. _ 115 Israel's army, young David, in what his siblings dismiss as "childish presumption" (and what the text makes clear is anything but), stands before Israel and demands to know, "Who is [this Goliath] to defy the armies of the living God?", and suddenly finds himself appointed Israel's defender against the fearsome champion of the Philistines. In a parody of Goliath's armament, David is equipped by Saul in his own royal costume, which apes that of the Philistine. As 1 Samuel 17 narrates the story, Israel had longed for a king like all the other nations about them, a mighty warrior who would defend his people and defy their enemies. Saul styled himself as just such a man, and equipped himself accordingly in the weaponry of the heroes of the age. But now, too cowardly or perhaps simply too realistic to actual- ly attempt to face Goliath himself, he is only too glad to "assist" David by lending him his mighty armor. It is precisely in this encounter that David comes to recognize where his own true hope lies. In Saul's powerful armor he is immobilized and helpless, "I can- not [even] walk!," he cries. But with the contemptible weapons of a shepherd-the very weapons with which God had enabled him to slay the lion and the bear-he triumphs over the foe, declaring the name of the Lord. The words of Zechariah might well have been writ- ten as a reflection on just such a story as this: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD of hosts" (Zech 4:6). There are few events in life more revealing than a genuine encounter with an other; and as Karkkainen's work demonstrates, that is as true for movements and institutions in the present as it is for fig- ures from the past. Karkkainen has rendered a signal service to every- one who is involved in Pentecostal or Charismatic theology or sim- ply interested in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit by presenting us with an analysis of almost three decades of dialogue between Pentecostal and Roman Catholic theologians. It is the first time that such a study has been undertaken by a Pentecostal scholar, and the encounter he depicts with such clarity and grace is revealing indeed. For in these volumes we come face to face with both the problem and the prom- ise of Pentecostal theology today. The problem consists in the fact that the Pentecostal theologians in this dialogue are clearly immobi- lized by a set of cultural and theological assumptions that render them virtually helpless before the theological task that now faces them: they, like David of old, are clothed in "Saul's armor." But the prom-

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