Journal of Pentecostal Theology

Journal of Pentecostal Theology Volume 12, Number 2 April 2004 CONTENTS NORBERT BAUMERT ‘Charism’ and ‘Spirit-Baptism’: Presentation of an Analysis 147 PAUL ELBERT Pentecostal/Charismatic Themes in Luke–Acts at the Evangelical Theological Society: The Battle of Interpretive Method 181 DIANA CHAPMAN The Rise and Demise of Women’s Ministry in the Origins and Early Years of Pentecostalism in Britain 217 GERALD C. EDIGER The Proto-Genesis of the March for Jesus Movement, 1970–87 247 DALE T. IRVIN A Review of Amos Yong’s Beyond the Impasse 277 AMOS YONG Beyond Beyond the Impasse? Responding to Dale Irvin 281 [JPT 12.2 (2004) 147-179] ISSN 0966-7369 ‘CHARISM’ AND ‘SPIRIT-BAPTISM’: PRESENTATION OF AN ANALYSIS Norbert Baumert* Sankt Georgen, Offenbacher Landstrasse 224, D-60599 Frankfurt am Main, Germany ABSTRACT This article summarizes the results of a previously published two-volume investigation on the biblical meaning and the historical development of these two fundamental concepts, including a further discussion on contribu- tions to this subject which have appeared in this journal (see below section 4). In contradistinction to K. McDonnell a different catholic position is given here: The term ‘Spirit-baptism’ as used within the Pentecostal-charismatic movement means neither the sacramental grace of initiation nor the setting-free of it, but is a term on the experiential level denoting a special kind of infilling with the Holy Spirit in our time. It is not ‘normative’, but— although very widespread—something that the Holy Spirit ‘distributes as he wills’. Thus, the early Pentecostal two-stage model is far more appropriate than the sacramentalistic interpretation. In that sense Spirit-baptism— normally with the gift of tongues—is a special grace of God. Today there is much confusion about terms such as ‘charism’ and ‘Spirit- baptism’; one must ask in each case what the author means by these words. Therefore, I explored the history and the present importance of these concepts in a two-volume study done according to the semantics and the history of these terms.1 In the course of the inquiry it became clear that the * Norbert Baumert SJ is Professor emeritus of New Testament Theology at the Jesuit Faculty ‘Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule St. Georgen’ in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Since 1972 he has been involved in the Charismatic Renewal within the Catholic Church and took part in the Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue in the years 1993–97. Professor Peter Hocken, formerly residing in Northampton, England, now in Vienna, Austria, very kindly translated this article into English. 1. Baumert, Charisma, Taufe, Geisttaufe (for short ChTG). I. Entflechtung einer © The Continuum Publishing Group Ltd 2004, The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX and 15 East 26th Street, Suite 1703, New York, NY 10010, USA. 148 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 12.2 (2004) different threads only became an almost inextricable tangle in the last three centuries. Systematic theology had further developed and enriched such terms as ‘baptism’ and ‘charism’ over the course of time. Movements of awakening in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and finally the Pen- tecostal-charismatic awakening of the twentieth century looked for words in the Bible in order to give a name to a surprising experience: they spoke of ‘Spirit-baptism’ and ‘charisms’. Biblical exegesis, however, was looking for the original sense of these words;2 yet, have we really freed ourselves of all historical baggage? Did the theological terminology always grasp and express clearly and adequately the working of the Holy Spirit? Under the exigencies of contemporary theological questioning and the necessity of expressing spiritual processes with their inherent dynamic, language has a certain power to forge its own way, despite the efforts of individuals to clarify the semantics. Language narrows down words to a specific content through frequent use in a certain context (the origin of terms), changes their emphases (e.g. through translations), enriches them with new contents (e.g. because of new developments and experiences), or words receive a new connotation in a new context. These ‘natural processes’ must first be comprehended and described in order to arrive at the intended meaning and to become sure in the use of words. So there is a great difference between xa/risma in Paul and ‘charism’ nowadays. Something similar holds true for ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ (in New Testament Greek found only in the verb form bapti/zein e0n pneu/- mati). In order to untangle the semantic confusion step by step, I choose an approach to the subject which goes to the roots, and that is the examination semantischen Verwirrung; II. Normativität und persönliche Berufung (Würzburg: Echter Verlag, 2001). Chapters 6 and 7 of the second volume give an answer and represent an opposite position to that contained in the book of K. McDonnell and G.T. Montague, Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2nd edn, 1994), (German translation by Veronica Ruf and Norbert Baumert: Eingliederung in die Kirche und Taufe im Heiligen Geist [Münsterschwarzach, Germany: Vier-Türme-Verlag, 1998]); cf. also K. McDonnell, ‘The Pros and Cons of Dialogue with Roman Catholics’, JPT 16 (2000), pp. 90-101 (95-98) and Tak-Ming Cheung, ‘Understandings of Spirit-Baptism’, JPT 8 (1996), pp. 115-28 (121-22)— Chapter 8 gives my own systematic position and Chapter 9 deals separately with the wider Pentecostal, Catholic and Protestant literature. 2. On ‘charism’ see already in the first issue of this journal (1992): R.D. Moore, ‘Canon and Charisma in the Book of Deuteronomy’, JPT 1 (1992), pp. 75-92; on ‘baptism in the Spirit’ see the lively discussion since JPT 2 (1993), into which I look more closely in section 4 of this current study. © The Continuum Publishing Group Ltd 2004. BAUMERT ‘Charism’ and ‘Spirit-Baptism’ 149 of the meaning of the words in the New Testament, in history, and today. First of all, I try to describe: What was the intention of the faithful in the first century, of the Church Fathers of the first millennium, of the Christians at the end of the second millennium, for instance following the Pentecostal theology or the Second Vatican Council? 1. The Word Charism In the case of the Greek charisma (xa/risma) strange contrasts come up. Today, some see ‘office’ and ‘charism’ as two terms opposed to each other, while others claim that the office itself is a charism—and, thus, they dis- solve that difficult process of discernment. The result of my investigation: Charism in Paul is not a technical term for ‘certain capacities given by the Spirit for the upbuilding of the church’, as is usually said, but in all pas- sages it is translated correctly and sufficiently as ‘gift’ (something given), and this in an objective sense with a specific content (e.g. a prophecy, and not ‘the gift of prophesying’). Besides Rom. 1.11, where Paul himself ‘imparts the charism as a gift to the host’ (in German Gastgeschenk), always God (not the Spirit) is cited as the giver of these gifts, even if in 1 Cor. 12.4-11 they are given by him ‘through the Spirit’. In Paul, therefore, this word does not have a specific pneumatological connotation.3 The semantic leap from gift to ability lasted for almost 1000 years, and it took another 600 years for the concept of a ‘freely given ability for the service of the salvation of others’ (gratia gratis data) to be linked with ‘charism’. Thus neither in Paul nor in the church-fathers is ‘charism’ a technical term as has been wrongly claimed many times over in the Western church since the seventeenth century. Therefore, many conclusions that have been drawn from the texts of Scripture and tradition have to be criti- cally evaluated. Since ‘charism’ today has a strongly pneumatological connotation, reflections on ‘charism’ and ‘Spirit’ now always require a definition of terms.4 3. See further ChTG I, p. 75; similarly Turner, according to J.C. Thomas, ‘Max Turner’s The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts: Then and Now, Carlisle: Paternoster, 1996’, in JPT 12 (1998), pp. 3-21 (19-20); cf. below note 14. 4. See for instance M.F.G. Parmentier, ‘The Gifts of the Spirit in Early Christi- anity’, in J. den Boeft and M.L. van Poll-van de Lisdonk (eds.), The Impact of Scripture in Early Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 58-78. Cf. also Thomas, ‘Max Turner’s The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts’, p. 10. © The Continuum Publishing Group Ltd 2004. 150 Journal of Pentecostal Theology 12.2 (2004) So we have to distinguish clearly between the biblical meaning and the technical term today—a development that cannot be reversed. Our ‘propo- sal as to how to use the word today’ is: ‘Charism is an ability that proceeds from the grace of God, given by God the Holy Spirit, specifically and per- sonally in each case that is allotted for the life and service in the church as community of salvation, and in the world’. This is stated in differentiation to ‘sacrament, office, and virtues’ (LG 12).5 On the other hand, one should not confine the term to ‘for service’ or ‘striking, extraordinary abilities’.6 Thus, we have to accept that there is a gap between biblical language and the theological language of today,7 and we have always to determine the meaning of the word charism according to its context. Even where exegetes think they have found the Pauline use of language, they do not 5. LG = II. Vatican Council: Lumen Gentium = Constitution of the Church. 6. Similarly G.

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