Thinking in the Spirit ķĸ Thinking in the Spirit THEOLOGIES of the EARLY PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT ķĸ DOUGLAS JACOBSEN Publication of this book is made possible in part with the assistance of a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency that supports research, education, and public programming in the humanities. This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail [email protected] © 2003 by Douglas Jacobsen All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. manufactured in the united states of america Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jacobsen, Douglas G. (Douglas Gordon), date Thinking in the Spirit : theologies of the early Pentecostal movement / Douglas Jacobsen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-253-34320-8 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-253-21603-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Pentecostalism—United States—History—20th century. 2. Theology, Doctrinal— History—20th century. I. Title. BR1644.5.U6J33 2003 230′.994—dc21 2003005879 1 2 3 4 5 08 07 06 05 04 03 in memory of Oliver Jacobsen, 1896–1968 Andrea Jacobsen, 1899–1973 and Albert Jacobsen, 1925–2000 CONTENTS preface ix acknowledgments xv Introduction: What Is Pentecostal Theology? 1 1 Original Visions 16 2 Theologies of the Azusa Era 57 3 Holiness and Finished-Work Options 134 4 Oneness Options 194 5 Theology and Race 260 6 Theology at the Boundaries of the Pentecostal Movement 286 Conclusion 353 Notes 365 Bibliography 405 Index 409 PREFACE This book is about the early years of the American pentecostal move- ment, beginning about 1900 and ending around 1925. It is about the ideas that de¤ned that movement during these formative years and how a variety of creative pentecostal leaders rethought the Christian faith in light of their new experience of God. While these pentecostal theologians were relatively well known within their own religious spheres of in®uence, they were almost entirely un- known beyond those narrow con¤nes. If you weren’t searching for them, pentecostals could easily be overlooked. This is understandable, given the size and social location of the movement. The early pentecostal movement involved only a tiny percentage of the Christian population in the United States: In 1925, that meant something like 100,000 believers in a nation of 100 million. Pentecostals were, for the most part, solid working-class folks, though some poorer and some wealthier individuals were mixed in. Geographically, they came from all over the nation. But virtually none came from the ranks of the blue-blooded East Coast intellectual elite. If pentecostals were going to make their voice heard in the larger society during the early years of the twentieth century, they were going to have to do it on their own. They had no high-culture coattails to ride to promi- nence. But pentecostalism is no longer either small or socially invisible. It is the fastest-growing version of Christianity in the world, and the raw num- bers are huge. Current estimates range from 300 to 500 million adherents worldwide. That means that as much as one-quarter of the world’s Chris- tians are now pentecostal—almost 10 percent of the earth’s total popula- tion.1 In North America, the number of people who can be identi¤ed as pentecostal or charismatic is roughly 80 million out of a Christian popu- lation of 260 million and a total population of about 310 million. As for public visibility, well-known ¤gures such as Pat Robertson and John Ash- croft seem proof enough that pentecostals now rank among the power brokers of the nation (though it should be pointed out that not all pente- costals are conservative Republicans). In short, while intelligent observers x / Preface of the American scene might justi¤ably have been able to ignore the pen- tecostal movement seventy-¤ve years ago, that is not an option today. Be- cause of its sheer size and in®uence, pentecostalism now demands atten- tion and, like any other religious movement, it needs to be understood from its intellectual roots. This book focuses on the individuals who formed the original brain trust of this now gigantic religious movement. In a 25-year burst of crea- tive energy at the beginning of the twentieth century, these leaders articu- lated almost all the basic theological ideas that continue to de¤ne the pentecostal message in the United States and around the world. Theology is only one part of any religious movement, however, so it would be wrong to claim too much. The pentecostal movement would never have suc- ceeded if it had not been for the hard work of many institutional leaders and for the generous activism of the faithful. But the way a movement articulates its vision of the world, the way a religious tradition de¤nes its theology, is critical. Ideas have consequences, and the theological ideas of the key ¤gures discussed in this volume have had more consequential im- pact than most. The heritage of early pentecostal theology is not neat and tidy. Early pentecostal thinkers sometimes disagreed vehemently with each other; as a result, they bequeathed to their followers a pluriform tradition of faith. Internal diversity, which still de¤nes the movement as it begins its second century of existence, is part of what makes pentecostalism different from other theological traditions. To borrow a notion from Ann Swidler, pen- tecostal theology is much more like a mixed tool kit of ideas than it is a tightly-reasoned doctrinal system.2 And it is precisely this sense of theo- logical adaptability—that is, if one idea doesn’t work, use another—that has allowed the movement to span the globe so quickly. The ideas studied here have frequently been borrowed and appropriated in ways that were not necessarily foreseen or fully intended by the theologians who ¤rst pro- posed them. They have often been handed on without any theologian’s name attached to them. They have been eclectically integrated into the thinking of a wide variety of pentecostal communities in North America and around the world. This book examines those migrating ideas in their original forms of expression, and, in those original forms, they have a certain appeal and interest all their own. Early-twentieth-century pentecostal thinkers were creative thinkers who knew how to turn a theological phrase. Most had little or no training and were thus not beholden to what any theologian might or might not have said in years past; like many earlier American Preface / xi religious innovators, they were intent on doing their own thing in their own way. So when they took up the task of thinking in the Spirit—of rereading the Bible in the light of their own experience of God and the spiritual needs of the world—they wrote down exactly what they thought with whatever words seemed to work the best. The one thing that mat- tered was that the whole thing rang true to their own lived experience of faith and to the lived faith of others. This was not abstract speculation; it was theological re®ection grounded in real life. In contemporary terms, we might say that pentecostals came to un- derstand quicker than most twentieth-century Christians that there is a difference between being religious and being spiritual, and pentecostals generally opted for the more spiritual side of that divide. As de¤ned today, “religion” is associated with organized institutionalized faith while “spiri- tuality” focuses on personal values and practices. Religion is seen as pro- moting norms of belief and behavior that are codi¤ed and standardized for an entire group. By contrast, spirituality is more individualistic, dis- covered from within rather than learned from the outside. Religion is em- bodied in doctrines, creeds, and formal liturgies, while spirituality ¤nds better outlet in poetry, song, and dramatic performance. This distinction is helpful, but if argued too forcefully it deconstructs itself. Ultimately there is no such thing as pure spirituality or pure religion; they need each other. Spirituality needs religion to keep it from simply dissipating into thin air, and religion needs spirituality to keep it from becoming hollow. Religious forms and structures provide containers that help preserve spiri- tuality through time and help spark spirituality in others. The pentecostal theologians discussed in this book seemed to intuitively understand this relationship, and they were trying to devise new forms and formulations of religious belief that would preserve as much of the crackling lightening of ¤rst-hand spirituality as possible. In that task, their lack of formal training helped. It gave them the freedom to create new vocabularies of faith that more traditionally educated theologians might have avoided. More than just religion and spirituality were addressed, however. In their own ways, most of the thinkers examined in this volume were also folksy philosophers. They wondered about the world’s origins and mused about its future. They pondered the problem of evil. They speculated about the dynamics of human history. They analyzed the psychology of belief.