(Journal of Pentecostal theology. Supplement series _ 2.) Freire, Paulo_ Johns, Cheryl Bridges_ Freire, Paulo - Pentecostal formation _ a pedagogy among the oppressed-Wipf & Stock Publishers (2010).pdf

Journal of Pentecostal Theology
Supplement Series
2
Editors
John Christopher Thomas
Rick D. Moore
Steven J. Land
Pentecostal
Formation
A Pedagogy among
the Oppressed
Cheryl Bridges Johns
W IP F & S T O C K • E u g e n e , O re g o n
To Jackie
full partner in ministry and study,
mentor, husband, friend;
a tangible expression of agape
Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W 8th Ave, Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
Pentecostal Formation
A Pedagogy Among the Oppressed
By Johns, Cheryl Bridges
Copyright© 1998 by Johns, Cheryl Bridges
ISBN 13: 978-1-60899-899-9
Publication date 7/23/2010
Previously published by Sheffield Academic Press, 1998
CONTENTS
Preface 7
Acknowledgments 10
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION 11
Background of the Issues 14
Chapter 2
f r e i r e ’s e d u c a t io n a l p a r a d ig m 24
Introduction 24
Overview of Life and Works 24
Reality: A Text to be Interpreted 29
The Interpreters: Human Subjects 30
A Biblical Epistemology 35
A Dialogue with Praxis 37
Chapter 3
FREIRE’S THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK 46
Early Formation 47
A Theology of Liberation 48
The Church as Historical 52
Critical Evaluation 56
Conclusions 61
Chapter 4
PENTECOSTALISM AS A MOVEMENT OF CONSCIENTIZATION 62
D efinitio n o f th e M o v em en t 63
H istorical R o o ts o f C o n scien tizatio n 65
T he S p read o f P en teco stalism in L atin A m erica 71
C harism atic G ro u p s 78
6 Contents
Theological Dimensions of Conscientization 82

Sociological Factors for Conscientization 101
Conclusions 108
Chapter 5
A PENTECOSTAL PARADIGM FOR CATECHESIS 111
The Meaning of Conscientization for Christian Education 111
The Nature of Pentecostal Catechesis 119
A Pentecostal Approach to Group Bible Study 130
Conclusions 138
Bibliography 141
Index of Biblical References 152
Index of Authors 153
PREFACE
There is inherent within the ranks of Pentecostal believers an inferi

ority complex which assumes that non-Pentecostals know more than
we do and do things better than we can. Many of us have so internal
ized the assumptions and conclusions of those who have attempted to
provide external accounts of the movement, that we have failed to
develop an inner sense of history and identity. We have thought that to
drink from our own wells would be to justify those who label the
movement as sectarian. We have therefore become good at borrowing
paradigms which project acceptance and success.
Like David in Saul’s armour, second- and third-generation
Pentecostals have tried to fit into Evangelical approaches to hermeneu
tics, education and worship. The result has at times been disastrous and
even humorous.
The area of Christian education reflects some of the best and most
sincere attempts to fit in with more established churches. For many
Pentecostals, the schooling paradigm, with its closely graded classes,
cognitive and deductive approach to faith formation, four-color cur
riculum materials and streamlined organization, is the wished-for
ideal. We point to our untrained teachers, poor facilities and lack of
good pedagogy as sure signs of our sectarian backwardness, all the
while overlooking powerful formational processes which have histori
cally been part of our discipleship.
It is my contention that Pentecostals employ a powerful process of
formation which has enabled millions of believers to own and articu
late the Christian story. This volume attempts to state from a limited
standpoint in history and religious experience a confessional statement
of how Pentecostal communities accomplish this faith formation. Lest
this confessional statement be purely subjective and done in isolation, I
have engaged as a dialogue partner, a critic of the movement’s impact
8 Pentecostal Formation: A Pedagogy among the Oppressed
on the historical struggle toward full humanization.1 The ideas of

Paulo Freire, whose writings and teaching have caused me to re-think
the nature of education, especially among the marginalized, are
dialectically engaged in order to consider the nature of formation
among Pentecostal believers. This work is also greatly influenced by
the contributions of John Westerhoff regarding the nature of
catechesis.
I bring to this task my heritage as a fourth-generation Pentecostal
whose great-grandmother, after being expelled from a Methodist con
gregation for her tongue-speaking and shouting, organized and built a
Pentecostal church. It was in this community of faith, consisting of
textile mill workers and farmers, that I was discipled by brothers and
sisters who recognized ‘God’s hand on my life’. They encouraged me
to fulfil my ontological vocation as a subject of holy history.
This vocation has taken me to massive street services in Chile, to
prayer vigils in Korea, and to church services in the mountains of
Guatemala. In these places I found those of like faith, who, within
their context, were responding to ‘God’s hand on their lives’ with
great dignity and hope. These people have become my teachers.
Through this pedagogy among the oppressed, I have learned to drink
from wells which contain living water. Such water can unleash one’s
passion for the holy and bestow a sense of worth even when this worth
is not reflected in the dominant culture.
Many of my colleagues at the Church of God School of Theology,
in particular, Jackie Johns, Steven Land, Chris Thomas and Rick
Moore, have taken much of the same journey toward a ‘second
naivete’. After learning the ways and the language of the academy, we
found that in some ways its wells contained stagnant waters. We have
taken both personal and corporate journeys back to the fire of
Pentecost, discovering renewed vision and mission. We have also
learned from our students, many of whom are from the so-called
Third World. We are learning to respect the voices of the oppressed,
not only for their pathos, but also for their logos which has been
forged through suffering.
This work is also written with appreciation for the critics of
Pentecostalism who have pointed out our escapism, our naivety and
1. For the inspiration to have both the inner confessional history and to attend to
the outer history I am indebted to H.R. Niebuhr, The Meaning o f Revelation (New
York: Macmillan, 1941).
Preface 9
our tendency to let heart rule over head. Pentecostalism is an ethos

which has more than its share of arrogant evangelists who use the
masses for material gain. We have experienced scandals of great pro
portion and witnessed unholy marriages between military dictators
and Pentecostal congregations. Such things temper any attempt to pre
sume to have arrived at any plateau of spirituality.
Nevertheless, our story is one which is filled with peasant women
singing their own magnificats, factory workers who have testimonies
of visions and dreams and children who experientially grasp that God
has placed his hand on their lives. It is because of such things that this
volume is offered in the hope that Pentecostalism can both retain and
recapture its revolutionary nature as a movement which can change
the course of human history.
The body of this book consists of five chapters. The first chapter
discusses the issues surrounding a dialogue between Pentecostalism
and the educational model of Paulo Freire. Chapter 2 gives an
overview of Freire’s life and major concepts. Chapter 3 discusses the
theological basis of his model. Chapter 4 analyzes Pentecostalism in
regard to historical and theological dynamics as a movement of
conscientization. Chapter 5 may be of particular interest for
Pentecostals who are concerned about the nature of Christian
formation within their own context, inasmuch as a paradigm for
Pentecostal catechesis is proposed.
This volume is also offered as a contribution to the broader discus
sions regarding the nature of catechesis and its components. In par
ticular, the process of formation is explored. Also there is an attempt
to move beyond the rationalism found in a praxis epistemology.
Chapters 2 and 5, in particular, discuss these issues. Finally, I have
attempted to join in the dialogue regarding the implications of the
ideas of Paulo Freire to church education as a means of empowering
the oppressed. In many ways, this volume offers an alternative to
Freire which would take seriously the religious expressions of the
marginalized in order to articulate more faithfully a pedagogy among
the oppressed.
Ac k n o w led g m en ts
Any writing project is certainly no isolated journey. Along the way

many people serve as facilitators, critics, encouragers and fellow
travelers. I am grateful for the contributions of my former professors
at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—Ralph Hardee, Robert
Proctor, William Cromer—who served as supervisors when this work
was in the dissertation stage. The contribution of John Sims at Lee
College has been of particular help. I wish to acknowledge the support
and encouragement of my colleagues at the Church of God School of
Theology. In particular, the editorial work of Chris Thomas has been
the primary catalyst behind this publication. This journey through the
writing process has been made alongside my husband, Jackie, who has
served as mentor, friend, critic and encourager. He has been a partner
in ministry and study in the truest sense. Our daughters, Alethea and
Karisa, who are discovering for themselves the meaning of a
Pentecostal faith identity, have added the dimension of hope to this
project and have made what has been written contain a deeper sense of
mission. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the assistance of my teaching
assistant, Deana Thompson, whose skills at research and typing made
the process smoother and the load lighter.
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
The field of Christian education1 has never been an exclusive area of

study strictly dominated by its own ‘experts’. Historically, the disci
pline has gleaned from the social sciences as well as theology.
A recent example of this openness may be seen in the influence of
Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educational philosopher. Freire is best
known for his revolutionary pedagogical process involving the
dynamics of ‘conscientization’, which may be defined as learning to
examine social, political and economic injustices in order to take
action to correct them.2 He has asserted that his educational process is
Christian and prophetic and should be part of the church’s ongoing
educational activity.
Freire’s educational paradigm was developed within the context of
the Third World, and it reflects a view of education as a tool either
for liberation or for oppression. Within this same context was bom
liberation theology, which sees the task of religion as offering free
dom to the oppressed.
The same revolutionary ferment which gave rise to education for
conscientization and a theology for liberation has also been the context
for the rapid growth of the Pentecostal movement. This religious phe
nomenon has not gone unnoticed. For some, the growth of
Pentecostalism reflects an attempt by ‘the masses’ to escape the harsh
realities of the world and to form a ‘haven’ of submerged religious
protest. For others, the movement represents a legitimate religious
1. For this study, the term ‘Christian education’ has been used rather than the
more generic ‘religious education’.
2. P. Freire, Pedagogy o f the Oppressed (New York: Herder & Herder, 1970),
p. 19. The term ‘conscientization’ is the English version of the Portuguese word
‘conscientizacao’, which literally means ‘making conscious’.
expression, with the potential for both personal and social

transformation.
The purpose of this study is to relate Freire’s theory of conscienti-
zation to the context of education within the Pentecostal movement.
The problem which this study addresses is the need to develop an
approach to Pentecostal catechesis1 for conscientization. This need is
demonstrated from the following.
First, a Pentecostal theory of Christian education has not been
articulated. There is currently a need for a theory of Christian catech
esis which is in harmony with Pentecostal experience.
Secondly, Pentecostals are a major force in the so-called Third
World where theories of conscientization are having their greatest
impact.
Thirdly, there have been studies exploring the relationship between
conscientization and church education. Yet, to date, thqre has been
little attempt to relate Pentecostal Christian education to con
scientization.2
Fourthly, there have been studies which suggest that Pentecostalism
is a movement of social transformation, offering a unique approach to
change.3
The thesis of this study is that Pentecostalism as a movement offers
a social-spiritual climate for conscientization which calls for a re
interpretation of Freire’s paradigm to include a greater degree of the
affective, oral and communal dimensions of human interaction.
Pentecostal catechesis emphasizes the formation of persons within the
context of a Spirit-filled faith community. Conscientization arises
1. The term ‘catechesis’ has historically been exclusively a Roman Catholic

term. However, it has become a popular term among some Protestant educators as
well. John Westerhoff suggests that Protestants and Catholics unite in identifying
educational ministry in the church as ‘catechesis’. See J. Westerhoff, ‘A Call to
Catechesis’, The Living Light 14.3 (Fall 1977), pp. 354-58.
2. In the early 1970s, the World Council of Churches sponsored a project
applying the method of Paulo Freire to theological education among Pentecostals in
Chile. See W.G. Homing, ‘Paulo Freire’s Contribution to the Theological Education
of Protestant Laity in Chile’ (DMin dissertation, School of Theology at Claremont,
1974).
3. On the other hand, there have been studies which suggest that Pentecostalism
in both the first and Third World is a movement contrary to social transformation.
These studies will be cited later.
1. Introduction 13
from and works within this ethos as an unveiling of alternative

realities and readings of the world1.
Primarily, the scope of this research involves Pentecostalism within
the context of the Third World. It is understood, however, that the
Third World does not only exist in a geographic sense, but also in the
sense that there is the Third World within the first. This Third World
is seen in the poverty and injustice in ‘developed’ countries.
Therefore, implications for this study are not limited to geographic
locations but should be broad enough to cover the educational con
cerns of Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
Definition of Terms
In order to clarify the nature and purpose of this study, three key
terms need to be defined.
Conscientization. This term refers to the process whereby persons
become aware of the socio-cultural reality which shapes their lives
and their ability to transform that reality. The term implies that action
will be joined with this awareness.
Catechesis. For this study, catechesis is defined as the activity of the
church toward developing faith in which all members of the church
take part according to their particular gifts and responsibilities.
Catechesis thus involves the whole person in both cognitive and non-
cognitive ways. Pentecostal catechesis suggests an approach which
would be similar to Westerhoff s understanding of formation as ‘the
intentional process of initiation and incorporation into a Christian
faith community with distinctive understandings and ways of life
which differentiate it from the general culture’.2 This definition,
which focuses more on the community in worship as a means of cate
chizing, does not negate, however, the more formal means of re
echoing the story of Christian faith.
1. While this study addresses the educational theory of Paulo Freire, it does not
specifically investigate his detailed process of developing literacy. The focus of the
study is on Freire’s concept of conscientization as understood in its broader meaning
of developing critical awareness for social transformation. Also, this study is not a
detailed sociological investigation concerning Pentecostalism. Rather, it focuses on
the movement as an environment for conscientization, specifically analyzing the
formational ethos unique to Pentecostalism.
2. J. Westerhoff, ‘Formation, Education, Instruction’, Religious Education
82.4 (1987), p. 585.
Pentecostalism. For this study, Pentecostalism is defined as a world

wide movement which has as its common denominator the baptism of
the Spirit following what is known as the re-birth, or salvation, expe
rience. This definition includes ‘classical’ Pentecostal denominations
which arose at the turn of the twentieth century and the more recent
‘charismatic’ groups within Catholic and Protestant circles. Such a
definition is based on an understanding of Pentecostalism as a move
ment rather than merely as a specific denomination. As a movement,
therefore, certain characteristics can be isolated as common among
many groups.1
Background of the Issues

Paulo Freire is a renowned educator whose pedagogical process is
known and utilized worldwide. He first drew international attention
due to the literacy programs he developed in Northeast Brazil and
later in Chile. These literacy programs were successful in teaching
peasants to read and write within forty-five days. What was unique
about his educational methodology was the process of helping make
the peasants aware of their social and political context in order to
work at changing the status of their existence.
Freire has been the subject of several dissertations as well as
numerous journal articles and books seeking to understand better the
nature of his theory.2 The implications of Freire’s thought for church
education have also been explored.3 In this respect, Freire’s influence
1. This broad definition of Pentecostals is the one utilized by such researchers as

Walter Hollenweger, Luther Gerlach and Virginia Hine. See W.J. Hollenweger, The
Pentecostals (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972). See also L. Gerlach
and V. Hine, People, Power and Change: Movements o f Social Transformation
(Indianapolis: Bobs-Merrill, 1970).
2. For the application of Freire’s thought to American education see
H. B. Sherwin, ‘Paulo Freire: His Philosophy and Pedagogy and its Implication for
American Education’ (PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkley, 1973);
R.A. Steckel, ‘The Transferability of Paulo Freire’s Educational Ideas to American
Society’ (EdD dissertation, Boston University, 1975). See also J.W. Donohue,
‘Paulo Freire—Philosopher of Adult Education’, America (September 16, 1972),
pp. 167-70. For a concise but thorough treatment of Freire see D. E. Collins, Paulo
Freire: His Life, Works and Thought (New York: Paulist Press, 1977).
3. See J.L. Elias, ‘A Comparison and Critical Evaluation of the Social and
Educational Thought of Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich, with Particular Emphasis upon
1. Introduction 15
may be compared to that of John Dewey, whose democratic-

progressive model of education so greatly challenged the shape of
education, both secular and religious.1
As with Dewey, Freire’s influence on Christian education cannot be
considered minor. The Religious Education Association gave its
William Rainey Harper Award to Freire in 1983, and the
Association’s journal, Religious Education, has devoted several arti
cles to the implications of Freire’s thought for the educational task of
the church.2
Freire’s influence can be seen in Thomas Groome’s ground
breaking Christian Religious Education? Groome’s ‘shared praxis
approach’ to Christian education reflects an acknowledged indebted
ness to Freire’s understanding of the political nature of all educational
activity and his understanding of a ‘praxis’ way of knowing.4
In his earlier writings, Freire did not specifically address the rela
tionship of the church to his educational theory. This relationship was
largely deduced by others, particularly in Catholic circles. However,
more recently Freire has begun to discuss this issue, becoming a
the Religious Inspiration of their Thought’ (EdD dissertation, Temple University,

1974), and his ‘Paulo Freire: Religious Educator’, Religious Education 71.1
(January-February 1976), pp. 40-56. Also D. S. Schipani, Conscientization and
Creativity: Paulo Freire and Christian Education (Lanham, MD: University Press of
America, 1984); Religious Education Encounters Liberation Theology (Birmingham,
AL: Religious Education Press, 1988). Also W.B. Kennedy, ‘Education for
Liberation and Community’, Religious Education 70.11 (January-February 1975),
pp. 5-44.
1. For a detailed analysis of the relationship between Freire and Dewey, see
D. R. Streck, ‘John Dewey’s and Paulo Freire’s Views on the Political Function of
Education, with Special Emphasis on the Problem of Method’ (EdD dissertation,
Rutgers University, 1977).
2. See in particular Elias, ‘Paulo Freire: Religious Educator’; Kennedy,
‘Education for Liberation and Community’, and his ‘Conversation with Paulo
Freire’, Religious Education 19 A (Fall 1984), pp. 511-22.
3. T. Groome, Christian Religious Education: Sharing our Story and Vision
(New York: Harper & Row, 1970).
4. Groome has given a historical overview of the usage of the term ‘praxis’ by
tracing the term from its origin with Aristotle to its modem recovery in Marxist
thought. He has shown how Freire has emphasized the political and social
implications of the term.
willing partner in the attempt to relate his ideas to the church’s educa
tional activity.1 It is to be noted that he has often referred to himself
as a person in the process of ‘becoming Christian’2 and has considered
himself a Christian humanist.
Because Freire’s primary concern has not been education within the
context of the church, there may be the obstacle, therefore, of making
him a ‘religious educator’ in a strict professional sense. John Elias has
attempted to overcome this obstacle through the use of deductive rea
soning. Elias has defined the central religious problem as being that of
humankind’s relationship to God and has noted that Freire affirms a
transcendent being and speaks of one’s relationship to this being as
central to his view of humankind. Therefore, Elias concludes, Freire
is a ‘religious educator’.3 This seems to be a myopic attempt to make
Freire something he is not.
While one may not agree with Elias that Freire is a ‘religious
educator’ in the professional sense, it is evident that Freire has
addressed himself to the educational activity of the church. Dialogue
with him is credible for anyone concerned about the role of the
church as it exists in human history.
Freire’s Challenge
Freire has made clear his belief that churches are institutions involved
in history and are not abstract entities. As historical institutions, they
must take into consideration the concrete situation in which they
exist.4
Freire’s geographical point of reference has primarily been that of
Latin America. However, he considers the ‘Third World’ to exist
wherever there are the ‘oppressed’ and his theory as being universally
applicable. The role of churches is to be the same wherever they exist.
From this perspective, Freire has defined the role of the church as
commitment to the dominated classes and as active movement toward
the transformation of society.5
1. Freire, 'Education, Liberation and the Church’, Religious Education 19A

(Fall 1984), pp. 524-45.
2. See J.W. Donohue, 'Paulo Freire: Philosopher of Adult Education’, America
127.7 (1972), pp. 167-70, for reference to Freire’s discussion of his Christianity.
3. Elias, 'Paulo Freire: Religious Educator’, p. 41.
4. Freire, 'Education, Liberation and the Church’, p. 524.
5. Freire, ‘Education, Liberation and the Church’, p. 537.
1. Introduction 17
Freire identifies three types of churches existing in Latin America:

the traditional, the modernizing and the prophetic. The traditional
church is described as having a colonialist bias and a dichotomizing
rejection of the ‘world’. For Freire, this type of church becomes a
‘haven of the masses’ rather than a force of continuing social revolu
tion. Education in this context is, in Freire’s terms, ‘paralyzing,
alienating and alienated, denying praxis to its people’.1
The modernizing church is the type of church which Freire
describes as having abandoned its traditional perspective to one of ‘do-
goodism’ and populism rather than to one of true social change. This
type of church has improved ‘working tools’, such as mass media, but
rejects radical social transformation in favor of structural reform.2
For Freire, it is the prophetic church which identifies itself with the
struggle of the oppressed and actively pursues radical social transfor
mation. This church clearly aligns itself with the poor but is not naive
in its world-view. It knows that its role is to ‘make history’ for the
cause of liberation.3
Pentecostalism and Conscientization

In Freire’s description of the traditional church, it is obvious that he is
speaking of the traditional Catholic Church as it has existed for cen
turies in Latin America. However, his references to this type of
church and the language used to describe it are supported by data
supplied by Swiss sociologist Christian LaLive d’Epinay’s study of the
Pentecostal movement in Chile.4
LaLive’s study suggests that Pentecostalism in Chile is a factor
favoring the status quo, rejecting any form of social involvement.
LaLive concludes that Pentecostalism as a movement is antithetical to
the conscientization process, stating that it offers ‘an ideology of order
and not of movement, of conservation and not change’.5
Contrary to LaLive’s conclusions are studies which suggest that the
1. Freire, ‘Education, Liberation and the Church’, pp. 535-37.

4. C. LaLive d’Epinay, Haven o f the Masses: A Study o f the Pentecostal
Movement in Chile (London: Lutterworth Press, 1969). Freire also refers to
B. Muniz de Souza, A experiencia da salvacao: Pentecostais em Sao Paulo (Sao
Paulo: Duas Cidades, 1969).
5. LaLive, Haven o f the Masses, p. 225.
Pentecostal movement is one of personal transformation and revolu

tionary change. The most prominent of these studies are the ones
conducted by Luther Gerlach and Virginia Hine.1 Gerlach and Hine
conclude that the traditional deprivation and social disorganization
theories concerning Pentecostals are biased in that they are based on
the presupposition that the supernatural did not exist and that the
studies of Pentecostalism are approached with the built-in assumption
that the movement provided a release for those who were deprived
economically and/or emotionally.2 Instead, Gerlach and Hine approach
their studies with an examination of the structure and function of
Pentecostalism as a system and analyze how Pentecostalism forms a
movement of change.3
Gerlach and Hine identify five subsystems which are conducive
toward developing personal and social transformation. They conclude
that:
Pentecostalism can be described as a movement of personal transforma
tion and revolutionary change; that is, as a group of people who are
organized for and ideologically motivated and committed to the task of
generating fundamental change and transforming persons, who are
actively recruiting others to this group, and whose influence is growing in
opposition to the established order in which it develops.4
It cannot be disputed, however, that Pentecostalism is largely a

movement among, in Freire’s terms, ‘the oppressed’.5 At issue is
1. See L.P. Gerlach, ‘Pentecostalism: Revolution or Counter Revolution?’ in

Zaretsky and M.P. Leone, Religious Movements in Contemporary America
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), pp. 669-99. Also Gerlach and
Hine, People, Power and Change; and V. Hine, ‘The Deprivation and
Disorganization Theories of Social Movements’ in I.I. Zaretsky and M.P. Leone
(eds.), Religious Movements in Contemporary America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1974), pp. 646-66.
2. See Gerlach, ‘Pentecostalism: Revolution or Counter Revolution?’
3. A fascinating aspect of Gerlach and Hine’s studies is their comparison of the
Black Power Movement and Pentecostalism as movements of change. They conclude
that the two groups are both religious and revolutionary for social transformation
with the same generic characteristics. In particular see People, Power and Change.
4. Gerlach, ‘Pentecostalism: Revolution or Counter Revolution?’, p. 684.
5. The Pentecostal movement is rapidly growing in Third World countries and
among ethnic groups in America and Europe. However, alongside this growth is the
rise of the charismatic groups among Roman Catholics and within mainline churches,
in particular the Episcopal Church.
1. Introduction 19
whether or not the movement is destined to become a ‘haven’ for

those who wish to deny their historical existence, or if the movement
can be a catalyst for personal and social transformation. Because
Pentecostalism is growing rapidly in the Third World and among
ethnic groups in America and Europe, there is a particular need to
explore the meaning of conscientization for Pentecostal catechesis.1
The relationship between Pentecostalism and the conscientization
process has already been noted by W.J. Hollenweger, a noted author
ity on Pentecostals and author of the ten volume Handbuch der
Pfingstbewegung.2 Hollenweger reached conclusions similar to
Gerlach and Hine:
Pentecostalism is revolutionary because it offers alternatives to ‘literary’
theology and defrosts frozen thinking... it allows for a process of
democratization of language by dismantling the privilege of the abstract,
rational and propositional systems.3
Hollenweger views Pentecostalism as offering a means for ‘oral’ peo

ple to replace imported ideologies and to develop political literacy. It
gives a voice to those who have been reduced to silence by intellectual
concepts and racial prejudices.4 In reference to this ‘voice’ for ‘oral’
people, Hollenweger notes that, ‘this too is what Paulo Freire is
after...for men who are aware of their dignity and significance are
more dangerous than armed slaves’.5
Furthermore, Hollenweger proposes that an understanding of the
gifts of the Spirit (charismata) be broadened to see them as the Holy
Spirit’s activity in the world, making no distinction between the sacred
1. For example, around the middle of this century, Pentecostals comprised

around 25 percent of all Protestants in Latin America. Now, in the 1980s the figure is
over 70 percent. For data on Pentecostal growth see P. Wagner, On the Crest o f the
Wave: Becoming a World Christian (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1983), pp. 21-22.
See also D. Barrett’s exhaustive World Christian Encyclopedia (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1982); and S.E. Mumper, ‘Where in the World is the Church
Growing?’ Christianity Today (July 11, 1986), pp. 17-21.
2. Handbuch der Pfingstbewegung (New Haven, CT: Yale University). In
English, The Pentecostals (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972).
3. W.J. Hollenweger, ‘Pentecostalism and Black Power’, Theology Today 30
(October 1973), p. 234.
4. Hollenweger, ‘Pentecostalism and Black Power’, p. 234.
5. W.J. Hollenweger, ‘Flowers and Songs: A Mexican Contribution to
Theological Hermeneutics’, International Review o f Mission 60 (April 1971),
pp. 232-44 (238).
and the profane.1 When the concept of charismata is understood this

broadly, gifts of the Spirit can serve, in Hollenweger’s view, ‘for the
conscientization of the people of God’.2 These gifts ‘can liberate
people and free them from authoritarian structures’.3
According to Hollenweger, this type of conscientization process is
developed and articulated by means of cognitive-critical analysis, but
it is more often developed by means of ‘non-literary’ modes of
expression, such as dance and song, and is wrapped in the imagery of
story.4 This mode of communication transcends barriers of education,
color, social class and nationality, making it the basis of the
Pentecostal oikoumene. Shared experience becomes the focal point
rather than printed and defined doctrine.5
Cognitive Critical Aspects of Conscientization

For Freire, however, the conscientization process is directly linked to
developing cognitive awareness, especially through the literacy pro
cess. Freire views the oppressed as existing in a state of ‘semi-intran
sitivity’. This mode of consciousness is characterized by the inability
to objectify reality in order to know it critically. Events in life are
generally explained by some superimposed reality, often with a fatal
istic attitude such as, ‘It is God’s will that I am poor and the
landowner is rich’.6
Conscientization occurs when the oppressed learn to achieve
‘critical transitivity’, which may be defined as the capacity to perceive
reality objectively and to devise options for the interpretation of the
problems of reality.7 This form of cognitive awareness is not to be
seen as a passive state. Rather, it is to be understood in the meaning of
‘praxis’ which calls for action and reflection to be viewed
dialectically.
1. W. J. Hollenweger, ‘Creator Spirit’, Theology 81 (1978), pp. 32-40.

2. Hollenweger, ‘Creator Spirit’, p. 39.
3. Hollenweger, ‘Creator Spirit’, p. 39.
4. W.J. Hollenweger, ‘Charismatic and Pentecostal Movements: A Challenge to
the Churches’, in D. Kirkpatrick (ed.), The Holy Spirit (Nashville: Tidings, 1974).
5. Hollenweger, ‘Charismatic and Pentecostal Movements’.
6. P. Freire, Cultural Action fo r Freedom (Cambridge: Harvard Educational
Review, 1970), p. 36.
7. Freire, Cultural Action fo r Freedom, p. 46.
1. Introduction 21
Knowledge, according to Freire, emerges through invention and re-

invention of reality as it is critically considered. People are active
subjects engaged in the task of unveiling reality.1 It must be noted,
however, that praxis is guided by critical awareness and not so much
by the affective domain, reflecting the Kantian concept of the rule of
reason.2 Daniel Schipani has proposed that Freire’s conscientization
process is designed to enhance what Jean Piaget has described as the
‘formal operational’ level of cognitive development.3 Schipani
describes the conscientization process as necessitating and enhancing
the capacity of combinational thought, the ability to utilize a second
symbol system (to think about thinking) and the capacity to construct
ideals (Freire’s ‘utopias’).4 Schipani states that Freire’s method
‘recapitulates the stage transition process: it gets the developmental
process going again. Hence, in this sense it is truly liberating’.5
A Question of Equality
While Schipani sees Freire’s conscientization process as liberating,
Peter Berger argues that it assumes a hierarchical view of human con
sciousness. In Berger’s opinion, Freire has assigned different cogni
tive levels to human beings, with the oppressed having a lower level
of consciousness (awareness) concerning reality.6
Berger holds that the process of conscientization is in fact a ‘trade
off of one type of world-view (the oppressed) for another (the one
who raises the consciousness of the oppressed). The oppressed are not
any less aware of reality. They only express their reality differently,
perhaps in more mystical or intuitive ways. Berger calls for cognitive
respect of all modes of consciousness based on his belief that there
1. Freire, Pedagogy o f the Oppressed, p. 56.

2. The basis of Freire’s ‘problem-posing’ methodology is the belief that humans
can critically perceive their existence. This methodology is a cognitive-narrative
dialectical process. However, the emphasis of Freire is upon the creation of greater
cognitive awareness toward the emergence of critical consciousness which would in
turn achieve critical intervention of reality. He down-plays the affective elements of
this type of ‘knowing’. See Pedagogy o f the Oppressed, in particular pp. 68-74.
3. Schipani, Conscientization and Creativity, p. 24.
4. Schipani, Conscientization and Creativity, pp. 25-26.
5. Schipani, Conscientization and Creativity, p. 28.
6. P.L. Berger, ‘Consciousness Raising and the Vicissitudes of Policy’, in
Pyramids o f Sacrifice (New York: Basic Books, 1975), pp. 121-44.
is in reality no such thing as conscientization.'

Berger’s critique relates to Hollenweger’s analysis of the challenge
of Pentecostalism in both theological inquiry and social and political
structures. Hollenweger concludes that besides allowing for the
‘democratization of worship services’, Pentecostalism allows for
groups to develop their own unique approach to socio-political devel
opment without having to rely upon external sources to inform them
of their dignity.12
Furthermore, Hollenweger calls for the literary-critical and the
non-literary to be united, giving acknowledgment to the role of both
in order to achieve a truly liberating and just theology for human
development. He states that:
Pentecostal movements confront us to acknowledge equal rights to a non-
literary theology. Only in the encounter between ‘literary’ and ‘oral’ cul
ture can we find out how far our ‘literary’ theology (our critical analytical
methods) relates to pre and post-rationality and what the relationship is
between the ‘logic of the guts’ and the ‘logic of the brain’. Then we can
ask how does the dance speak to us and how does the word move us?
How does the guitar talk and how does the thesis provide the variation of
a theme?3
The Need for a Synthesis

There is at present a need to place into dialogue Freire’s conscientiza
tion process involving the cognitive-critical dimensions and aspects of
Pentecostalism involving the oral-affective dimensions, in order to
develop an educational paradigm for Pentecostal catechesis which
would lead to a more holistic model for personal and social
transformation.
Such a model would provide ‘equal rights’ for the oral and affective
dimensions of persons yet would not negate the valuable role of
developing critical awareness through cognitive-literary means.
Hollenweger suggests that Pentecostals must be taken seriously at
the level in which they are best, namely in alternatives for theological
education and in alternative development programs.4 This study
attempts to provide a basis for the development of a paradigm for
Pentecostal catechesis which is conducive for the development of
1. Berger, ‘Consciousness Raising’, p. 129.

2. Hollenweger, ‘Charismatic and Pentecostal Movements’, p. 222.
3. Hollenweger, ‘Pentecostalism and Black Power’, p. 237.
1. Introduction 23
conscientization and which would be an authentic pedagogy among the

oppressed. Such a paradigm focuses on the formational aspects of
catechesis.
The method for this study involves application of a dialectical
hermeneutic to the study of both Paulo Freire and Pentecostalism.
Thomas Groome describes this process as involving the three move
ments of ‘affirming’, ‘refusing’ and ‘moving beyond’.1He notes that:
In a dialectical hermeneutic of any ‘text’ there is an activity of discerning
its truth and what is to be affirmed in it, an activity of discerning the limi
tations in our understanding of it that are to be refused, and an attempt to
move beyond it, carrying forth the truth that was there while adding to it
in the new understanding.2
This method allows for an analysis to be positive and creative in that it

affirms that which is being analyzed and creates a new way of under
standing.3 The method is also in keeping with the dialectical spirit of
Freire.4
First, Freire’s educational theory is presented and critiqued in order
to affirm aspects of his theory for Pentecostal catechesis. His theory is
also analyzed in order to determine its limitations.
Next, Pentecostalism as a movement is examined in order to
determine those factors which are conducive for the conscientization
process. Factors which would inhibit the process of conscientization in
Pentecostalism are also critiqued.
This study attempts to move beyond both Freire’s theory and
Pentecostalism to form a dialectical relationship in which there is
mutual enlightenment from both perspectives. Finally, an attempt is
made to create a paradigm for Pentecostal catechesis which would be
unique in its approach to conscientization. This paradigm is con
structed from an analysis of the aim, content, context and method of
Pentecostal catechesis. Through an analysis of these areas, there
should surface aspects which are unique in Pentecostalism’s approach
to catechesis and, consequently, to the conscientization process.
1. Groome, Christian Religious Education, p. 196.

4. Freire’s dialectical view of reality has been strongly influenced by Hegel and
others. His dialectical approach will be discussed later in the study.
Chapter 2
F r e ir e ’s E d u c a t io n a l P a r a d ig m
Introduction
In order to dialogue adequately with the ideas of Paulo Freire, it is
necessary to review briefly his educational paradigm as to its histori
cal and philosophical framework. Special attention must be paid to
Freire’s emphasis on the development of cognition, which is analyzed
in the light of biblical epistemological issues as well as in regard to the
epistemological ethos of Pentecostalism.
Overview o f Freire’s Life and Works

The radical educational philosophy of Paulo Freire did not develop in
a vacuum. His views reflect a sum total of his experiences of poverty,
imprisonment and exile. In this respect, Freire’s life has been an
exercise in praxis, for from his own experiences there has arisen
reflection upon the depth and meaning of human suffering of all those
who are marginalized. From this reflection has emerged concrete
action toward helping others to overcome their oppressive situation.
What has undergirded Freire’s reflection and action is a deep sense
of optimism. In spite of evidence to the contrary, he has expressed a
firm belief that men and women are capable of becoming fully human
and undertaking the responsibility of becoming subjects of change
toward just societies.
Early Years
Freire was bom in 1921 in Recife, Brazil, a city of extreme poverty.
His middle class family suffered great hardship following the eco
nomic disaster of 1929, and it was then that Freire began to know
2 . Freire’s Educational Paradigm 25
firsthand the painful existence of the poor.1

Largely because of his enforced poverty and hunger, Freire fell
behind in academics and barely qualified for secondary school. After
his family’s economic status improved, he was able to finish school
and to enter the University of Recife. There he majored in law, but he
also studied philosophy, analyzing the diverse positions of Sartre,
Mounier, Fromm, Ortega, Mao and others.2 During this period,
Freire developed an interest in education and philosophy which was
soon to become the dominant passion of his life.
After passing the Bar, Freire abandoned his law career and went to
work as a welfare official. He later became director of the Department
of Education and Culture of the Social Service for the state of
Pernambuco. In this position Freire came into contact with extreme
poverty and suffering and began to formulate a means of communi
cating with the poor which would later be the basis for his dialogical
methodology.
Freire’s Literacy Campaign

Freire’s native Brazil had for centuries existed as a colonized, closed
society dominated by estate lords whose kingdoms consisted of huge
plantations. The modernization of Brazil gave power to wealthy
urbanites as well as the land owners, and these two groups were the
only ones who could vote in national and local elections. The rest of
Brazil, some nineteen million people, were illiterate and voiceless.
During the 1960s, Brazil was a nation of transition and turmoil.
Populist and reform movements flourished, hoping to provide the
answer to Brazil’s economic and political problems. In 1961, Joao
Goulart was elected President, inspiring literacy groups such as the
Basic Education Movement to intensify their efforts.3
1. Material concerning Freire’s life has been taken primarily from D. Collins,
Paulo Freire: His Life, Works and Thought. Collins has done an excellent job of
compiling an orderly account of Freire’s life from various scattered references.
2. Freire has maintained an eclectic spirit, often to the dismay of his critics. He
quotes freely from such varied sources as Mao, Mounier and Chardin.
3. For an in-depth analysis of reform attempts in Brazil see J.J. DeWitt, ‘An
Exposition and Analysis of Paulo Freire’s Radical Psycho-Social Andragogy of
Development’ (unpublished EdD dissertation, School of Education, Boston
University, 1971). Also note E. DeKadt’s Catholic Radicals in Brazil (London:
Oxford University Press, 1970) for a thorough treatment of the origins of the
Movement for Basic Education.
It was during this period of transition that Freire became the first
director of the University of Recife’s Cultural Extension Service. In
this position, he began to develop and utilize his now-famous literacy
program. Freire’s first work, La educacion como practica da la
Libertad, describes his understanding of events in Brazil at this time.
He critiques the attempts to create a democracy, noting that Brazilians
did not possess the critical awareness necessary to develop a democ
racy. Brazil was faced with the challenge of new growth, industrial
ization and urbanization and was inexperienced in the democratic
process. What was needed, in Freire’s opinion, was an educational
program which would help make people socially and politically aware
and create democratic thinking. Freire criticized traditional Brazilian
education for failing to provide this form of education. He noted that
the traditional methodology consisting of rote memorization was
unrelated to the life of the peasant.1
In contrast, Freire’s curriculum centered around the life of the
peasant. Consequently, it had rapid success. The Brazilian learned to
read and write and to define his or her own reality. Freire saw this
process as providing the basis for the reconstruction of society,
involving the full participation of the masses.2
In 1962, Freire’s literacy program was expanded and came under
the patronage of the federal government. By 1964 there were courses
for program coordinators in every Brazilian state. A master plan was
drawn up to establish two thousand cultural circles to reach two mil
lion illiterates.
In 1964, a military coup took control of the reins of the Brazilian
government. Consequently, all populist movements came to an
enforced stop. Freire was accused of ‘subversive’ action and was jailed
for seventy days. He was then exiled from Brazil.
1. See P. Freire, ‘Education as the Practice of Freedom’, in Education fo r

Critical Consciousness (New York: Continuum, 1982). In Spanish published as La
educacion como practica de la libertad (Mexico, DF: Siglo Veinticinco Editores,
S.A., 1971).
2. Denis Collins has compared the ‘reconstructionist’ philosophy of Theodore
Brameld to that of Freire. He concludes that the basic differences stem from the
choice of terminology used by each and the cultural origin of each. Both wanted to
reconstruct society through the educational process. See his ‘Two Utopians: A
Comparison and Contrast of the Educational Philosophies of Paulo Freire and
Theodore Brameld’ (EdD dissertation. University of Southern California School of
Education, 1973).
Life After Brazil. After Freire was expelled from Brazil, he went to
Chile where he spent five years working with adult education pro
grams sponsored by the government of Eduardo Frei. While in Chile,
Freire completed two more works which addressed the problems of
Chilean adult education: Sobre la accion cultural and Extension o
communicacion? These works discuss the issues involved in cultural
change, contrasting traditional educational practices with Freire’s
own.12
Freire was invited by Harvard University in 1969 to become a guest
lecturer for the Center for Studies in Education and Development.
This move provided him exposure to the radical ferment in America
during the late 1960s, and his writings at that time reflect a growing
concern for the political dynamics involved in oppression and the
relationship of violence to liberation. This visit to Harvard also
provided exposure of Freire’s ideas to the English-speaking
world. During this time, Freire developed two papers which for the
first time explained in English some of his basic ideas: ‘Adult Literacy
Process as Cultural Action for Freedom’ and ‘Cultural Action and
Conscientization’. These two articles were first published in the
Harvard Educational Review and were later combined in book form
under the title Cultural Action for Freedom?
While at Harvard, Freire’s best known work Pedagogy o f the
Oppressed was published. This book gave Freire exposure to a wider
audience than he had previously experienced. Pedagogy o f the
Oppressed provides a synopsis of Freire’s beliefs that men and women
are made to fulfill their ontological vocation of being fully human and
that education can either foster this vocation or hinder its develop
ment. Freire contrasts traditional education with his model, denoting
the former as the ‘banking model’ of education and the latter as
‘problem-posing’ education. Problem-posing education is a pedagogy
of the oppressed while the banking model is a tool of the oppressors.3
After leaving Harvard, Freire became Special Educational
Consultant to the World Council of Churches. This post afforded the
opportunity to participate in helping develop educational programs
1. See Sobre la accion cultural (Mexico, DF: Secretariadosocial, Mesicano,

1970), and Extension o communicacion? (Guerravace: CIDOC Cuadero, 1968).
2. See Cultural Action fo r Freedom (Cambridge: Harvard Educational Review,
1970).
for newly emerging countries such as Guinea-Bissau.1 Freire spent a

total of ten and a half productive years in Geneva, enjoying the ecu
menical atmosphere and the freedom to express himself.
In 1980, Freire returned to his native Brazil to teach at the Catholic
University of Sao Paulo. After sixteen years of alienation, his return
to Brazil was characterized by the same eagerness, optimism and
humility which had previously guided his life. Reflecting on this
event, Freire made the following observation:
The sixteen years had changed my face, made me lose my hair. I left
Brazil with black hair, no beard, and I came back really old, but at the
same time young. They were like me, too. I had to discover them. I said
to the newspapers that I came back to Brazil in order to relearn it, to
relearn the country. Before relearning my country, 1 could not say any
thing, because its impossible for anyone to stay almost sixteen years, far
from his country, and afterwards on arriving to begin to want to teach
those who stayed there. It’s ignorance. I am engaged in this process of
relearning in my country... and I’m very, very happy to be there.2
Freire’s life has been a quest to develop a means whereby all people
can become fully human. From his experiences with the oppressed, he
has formulated a pedagogy which would enable people to see them
selves as subjects of history with the ability to transform reality.
Freire’s writings reflect an attempt to develop a pedagogy which
would liberate people from structures of oppression. Such a pedagogy
must be utopian and revolutionary inasmuch as struggle and pain is
involved whenever one seeks to liberate. His life reflects an ongoing
dialectic between pain and hope. His writings and pedagogical style
have been permeated by a love of people and a zeal for life. His warm
but revolutionary spirit has caused his students to refer to him lov
ingly and possessively as ‘Paulo’. For indeed, Paulo Freire has
attempted to bring out in all of us comradeship and partnership in our
ontological vocation of being fully human.
There are certain convictions regarding the nature of reality and of
being human which undergird Freire’s pedagogy. There follows an
analysis of these basic presuppositions followed by a critique of his
praxis epistemology.
1. Freire’s experiences with Guinea-Bissau are recorded in Pedagogy in Process

(trans. Carmen St John Hunter; New York: Continuum, 1983).
2. See Kennedy, ‘Conversation with Paulo Freire’, p. 513.
Reality: A Text to be Interpreted

The view of reality which guides Freire’s pedagogical paradigm is one
which sees human experience as the focal point. For Freire, reality is
a process—an ongoing dialectic between human consciousness and the
world.
The ongoing dialectic of reality is maintained as social construction
and reconstruction occur. Thus, for Freire, humans are not immersed
in the world nor can they bypass concrete existence in their mediation
of reality.1 Therefore, reality is a human process of becoming. Both
humans and reality are unfinished and are striving for completeness.
Humans have a past, present and future—a biography. Animals do
not.2
Freire maintains the Marxist concept of the ongoing dialectic of
praxis with human action changing the environment so that there
arises a new problem which will interact with human mental life.
Reading the text of one’s reality, therefore, involves bringing to bear
upon that text critical reflective powers to achieve dominance over the
world. The text may contain conditions which limit one’s freedom to
be a subject in the world. These limitations are described by Freire as
limit situations, which are not to be viewed as unsurmountable obsta
cles. Rather, they are to be seen as challenges toward historical action.
Limit situations are thus a reflection of human consciousness as it
exists in a dialectical relationship with the world, initiating the quest
for praxis.3
Contained within limit situations are what Freire has described as
generative themes. He uses the term ‘generative’ to describe these
themes because they contain the possibility of unfolding into many
other themes, which in turn call for new tasks to be fulfilled.4
Generative themes are historical manifestations of the ideas, con
cepts, hopes and values and of the obstacles to full humanization. As
1. Freire, ‘Cultural Action and Conscientization’, in Cultural Action fo r

Freedom, p. 29.
2. The evolutionary thought of Teilhard de Chardin has influenced Freire’s
understanding of the meaning of being human. See P. Teilhard de Chardin, The
Appearance o f Man (trans. J.M. Cohen; New York: Harper & Row, 1963). See also
Freire, Cultural Action fo r Freedom, p. 28.
historical, they are not isolated and static, existing apart from reality.
Rather, they dialectically exist, interacting with other themes. This
interaction of themes constitutes what may be described as a thematic
universe. Freire has been careful to note that the dissonance created
within the thematic universe calls for some type of response: either
antagonism and an effort to maintain the structures of reality or criti
cal reflection and action to transform reality in favor of liberation of
humanity.1
The Interpreters: Human Subjects

To be human is to have the power of reflective thought and free
choice. It is to be a subject in the world, achieving dominance over it.
Therefore, humans exist in a dialectical relationship between their
own freedom and the determination of limits.2 It is the ability to tran
scend reality rather than be submerged within it which Freire has seen
as the prime attribute which God has endowed humankind. In a theo
logical sense, this ability is the essence of the human spirit.
Levels of Consciousness
How is it then that some people can ‘read their reality’ and others can
not? Rather than labeling the inability to reflect critically and act as
pure ‘ignorance’, Freire believes human consciousness is historically
conditioned through what he has defined as the ‘inversion of praxis’.3
Therefore, how we know our world depends on the manner in
which we experience reality as mediated through thought-language.
Crucial to understanding conscientization is the noting of various lev
els of consciousness, each of which extends to a particular relationship
with reality.4

3. Freire, ‘Cultural Action and Conscientization’, p. 32.
4. The relationship of Freire’s educational paradigm to cognition has previously
been explored by Daniel Schipani who contrasts the work of Freire with Jean
Piaget’s theory of cognition. He notes the similarities in the type of thought which
both Piaget and Freire have designated as the highest for human development and
proposes that Freire’s method recapitulates the stage transition process by enhancing
the development of formal operational thought. See D. Schipani, Conscientization
and Creativity. See also his Religious Education Encounters Liberation Theology
(Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press, 1988). In terms of understanding the
2 . Freire 's Educational Paradigm 31
Those people who exist in societies which are characterized by

rigid, hierarchical social structures with their economics controlled by
the outside exhibit a level of consciousness which Freire describes as
semi-intransitive. Such a consciousness is characterized by ‘quasi
adherence’ or ‘quasi-immersion’ in reality. The dominated conscious
ness has developed no sufficient distance to objectify reality in order
to know it in a critical manner.1 There is no ability for structural per
ception—the objectifying and reshaping of reality in the form of facts
and problems. The ‘text’, therefore, is read magically, attributing sit
uations in life to a ‘super reality’ or to some fault within the people
themselves. Consequently, it is in the interest of the ruling elite that
this consciousness be maintained, for it fosters a ‘culture of silence’.
Thus, the oppressed and the oppressors exist in a dialectical relation
ship, with one being the antithesis of the other.
Naive transitive consciousness is that mode of awareness which cor
relates with the emergence of modernization and with the politics of
populism. This mode of consciousness indicates that the masses have
emerged to a state of new critical awareness, an unmasking of reality
which holds for both the oppressed and the oppressors the element of
surprise and the evoking of anxieties. Populist leadership as a political
style emerges during this period, providing mediation between the
powerful elites and the emerging masses.
For Freire, the populist style of leadership exhibits a manipulative
character by not allowing the masses to speak on their own behalf.
They are not allowed to ‘handle the text of their world’ and are still in
need of someone to interpret its meaning for them. The masses have
moved from a state of quasi-immersion to that of simplistic vision of
the world and of humankind and the relationship between the two.
This movement creates the opportunity for leaders to emerge who
define reality utilizing the masses’ simplistic answers, all the while
dynamics of cognitive development and social development, Freire’s method also

needs to be compared with the psychology of A.R. Luria who takes the Marxist con
cept of the historical conditioning of thought as a basis for his work. He enlarges
Piaget’s concepts to include a greater degree of sociopolitical factors in the develop
ment of verbal and logical schemes. Luria’s thesis is that as people experience new
spheres of social experience, there are dramatic shifts in the nature of cognitive activ
ity and in the structure of mental processes. A.R. Luria, Cognitive Development: Its
Cultural and Social Foundations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976).
1. Freire, ‘Cultural Action and Conscientization’, p. 36.
manipulating people by denying them an authentic voice.1

Critical transitivity is achieved when humans become subjects and
engage themselves in shaping reality through cultural action. Action is
now based upon a critical perception of reality, with authentic praxis
as the outcome.
Thus, conscientization has occurred when there is movement toward
critical transitivity and movement away from naive consciousness.
The outcome and the process of conscientization has been character
ized by Freire as ‘cultural action for freedom’ in as much as consci
entization demands concrete historical action. Freire’s definition of
conscientization reflects this emphasis: conscientization is more than a
simple prise de conscience. While it implies overcoming, that is a
semi-intransitive or transitive state of consciousness, it implies further
the critical insertion of the conscientized person into a demythologized
reality. There can be no conscientization of the people without a radi
cal denunciation of dehumanizing structures accompanied by the
proclamation of a new reality created by men.2 In light of this
definition, conscientization involves more than a mere awareness of
one’s socio-political reality. It demands action based upon that aware
ness. Such action reflects a true conversion to the demands of the new
reality which had emerged.
The Tools o f Interpretation: Problem-Posing Pedagogy

As a hermeneutical inquiry, conscientization requires the interpreter
to read for himself or herself the text of reality and to engage in
action toward its ongoing reconstruction. The interpreter, therefore,
exists in a dialectical tension within the text, experiencing the possi
bilities of, as well as the limits to, transformation. Liberating educa
tion gives one the interpretive tools necessary to transform the world.
For Freire, education is never neutral. It fosters either humaniza
tion or oppression. His ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’ attempts to make
the causes of oppression objects of critical reflection. The problem-
posing model suggested by Freire encounters and investigates reality
by identifying those conditions which limit people’s freedom. Once
these situations are identified, there can be action toward overcoming

2. Freire, Pedagogy o f the Oppressed, p. 46. It should be noted that Freire no
longer uses the term ‘conscientization’, due to its misuse and application to all sorts
of conscious-raising endeavors which do not result in social transformation.
the obstacles they present. This process involves both coding reality
and decoding reality.
Coding is the investigating of themes by means of abstraction. It is
representing a situation in order to show its constituent elements while
maintaining the concrete and the abstract in dialectical tension.
Decoding involves movement back to the concrete as one would move
from the part to the whole and then return to the part.
Denis Goulet defines the essential elements of Freire’s method as the
following:
• participant observation of educators’ tuning in to the vocabular universe
of the people;
• their arduous search for generative words at two levels: syllabic

richness and a high charge of experiential involvement;
• a first codification of these words into visual images which stimulate

people ‘submerged’ in the culture of silence to ‘emerge’ as conscious
makers of their own culture;
• the decodification by a ‘culture circle’ under the self-effacing stimulus

of a coordinator who is no teacher in the conventional sense, but who has
become an educator-educatee in dialogue with educatee-educator too often
treated by formal educators as passive recipients of knowledge;
• a creative new codification, this one explicitly critical and aimed at

action, wherein those who were formerly illiterate now begin to reject
their role as mere ‘objects’ in nature and social history and undertake to
become ‘subjects’ of their own destiny.1
While the above elements deal specifically with developing literacy,

there are methodological implications for all educational tasks.
Perhaps the best-known attempt to interface Freire’s idea with
Christian education is Thomas Groome’s shared praxis approach,
which he defines as ‘a group of Christians sharing in dialogue their
critical reflection on present action in light of the Christian story and
its vision toward the end of lived Christian faith’.2
1. D. Goulet, ‘Introduction to Paulo Freire’ in P. Freire, Education fo r Critical

Consciousness (New York: Continuum, 1982), p. viii.
2. See T. Groome, Christian Religious Education (San Francisco: Harper &
Row, 1980), esp. ch. 10. Groome’s shared praxis approach utilizes five
hermeneutical movements: (1) naming present action, in which participants are
invited to name their own activity concerning the topic for attention; (2) the partici
pant’s stories and visions, a movement in which participants are invited to reflect on
Groome is only one of many, both Catholics and Protestants, who

have interfaced Christian education with the ideas of Paulo Freire.1
There has been little dialogue, however, with Freire’s ideas among
Evangelicals or Pentecostals.2 His criticisms of Latin American
Pentecostals has not invited that dialogue.3 Conversation, however, is
needed, for Freire does challenge us to reconsider our knowledge of
reality. As ‘people of the Book’, Pentecostals have attempted to
develop skills in understanding the biblical text, unveiling its meaning
why they do what they do, and what the likely or intended consequences of their
actions are (critical reflection); (3) the Christian community story and vision, in
which the educator makes present to the group the Christian community story con
cerning the topic at hand and the faith response it invites (story and its vision); (4)
dialectical hermeneutic between the story and participant’s stories, in which partici
pants are invited to appropriate the story to their lives in a dialectic with their own
stories (dialectic between story and stories); (5) dialectical hermeneutic between the
vision and participant’s visions, in which there is opportunity to choose a personal
faith response for the future dialectic between vision and visions.
1. See Schipani’s Conscientization and Creativity and his Religious Education
Encounters Liberation Theology. See also B.O. Boston, ‘Conscientization and
Christian Education’, Learning fo r Living 13.3 (January 1974), pp. 100-105, and
Elias, ‘Paulo Freire: Religious Educator’, pp. 40-56.
2. T.M. Moore’s analysis of Freire from an evangelical perspective gives four
areas of intersection between Paulo Freire’s philosophy and that of ‘a distinctively
Christian philosophy’: (1) the notion that education cannot be treated as a completely
neutral enterprise; (2) the insistence that there must be a close tie between learning
and life in the educational program; (3) the insistence that each individual learner is a
person of worth, with potential for making a significant impact on his or her world;
(4) the insistence that education cannot be satisfied with the simple transference of
data or the making of nonthinking beings for the maintenance of society.
Moore also sees three primary areas ‘in which it is virtually impossible to reconcile
the process pedagogy of Paulo Freire with a distinctively Christian approach to edu
cation.’ Those areas are: (1) the question of Freire’s existential view of ultimate real
ity as opposed to a more ‘propositional standard against which all our endeavors
must be measured’; (2) the question of the nature of truth and knowledge in which
Freire approaches truth as a process as opposed to a more objective view of truth and
knowledge; (3) the model of social change that Freire sets forth which is ‘more
dependent on the teachings of Marx than those of Christ’. T.M. Moore,
‘Conscientization and Christian Education: The Process Pedagogy of Paulo Freire’,
Journal o f Evangelical Theological Society 31.4 (December 1988), pp. 453-64.
3. See Freire’s ‘Education Liberation and the Church’, especially noting his
descriptions of the ‘traditional church’. This observation is also based on personal
conversation with Freire, Boston College, July 1982.
in personal experience. They have not, however, applied hermeneuti

cal skills to the text of their existence as social beings, thereby often
negating the interface between the text of Scripture and the textual
landscape of their socio-political reality. Furthermore, dialogue is
needed because Freire’s paradigm, when evaluated in terms of biblical
epistemological and ontological images, reveals serious flaws which
hinder the development of an authentic pedagogy among the
oppressed. Therefore, before analyzing Friere’s praxis epistemology,
it is important to give a brief treatment of a ‘biblical way of
knowing’.
A Biblical Epistemology1
Scripture itself is clear that there is a unity in the nature of ultimate
reality (God) and the way in which that reality is to be known. The
Old Testament word for ‘to know’ is yada, which is ‘a knowing more
by the heart than by the mind, a knowing that arises not by standing
back from in order to look at, but by active and intentional engage
ment in lived experience’.2 It is significant that yada was used as an
euphemism for lovemaking and that the past participle of yada was
used for a good friend or confidant.
This dynamic, experiential, relational knowledge stands in stark
contrast to the Greek approach to knowledge characteristic of the
word ginoskein, which involves a standing back from something in
order to objectively ‘know it’.3
Within the understanding of yada, if a person knows God, she or he
is encountered by the one who lives in the midst of history and who
initiates covenant relationships. Knowledge of God, therefore, is mea
sured not by the information one possesses but by how one is living in
response to God. A person is ignorant or foolish not because of the
lack of awareness of facts about God but rather because of a failure to
do the will of God. Ignorance, then, implies guilt, as Bultmann
explains.
1. The material in this section and the following sections is largely taken from
J.D. Johns and C.B. Johns, ‘Yielding to the Spirit: A Pentecostal Approach to
Group Bible Study’, Journal o f Pentecostal Theology 1 (1992), pp. 109-34.
3. See R. Bultmann, ‘genosko’, Theological Dictionary o f the New Testament
(ed. G. Kittel; trans. G. Bromley; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans), I, p. 698.
This knowledge has an element of acknowledgment. But it also has an

element of emotion, or better, of movement of will, so that ignorance
means guilt as well as error... To know Him or His name is to confess or
to acknowledge Him, to give Him honor and to obey His will.1
The New Testament, while employing Greek terms, continues the

Hebraic understanding of ‘to know’. Knowing the Lord is still viewed
as being in relationship with God and in submission to his will. Thus,
the Christian view of knowledge is in keeping with the Old Testament,
and to know God requires obedient and grateful acknowledgment of
his deeds and demands. Therefore, ‘Christian knowledge is not a fixed
possession but develops in the life of the believer as lasting obedience
and reflection’.2
John’s first epistle provides a rich illustration of the epistemological
grounding of the New Testament. He seems to play intentionally
against the Greek understanding of knowledge and attacks its implica
tions for the Christian life, that is, that it is possible to know Jesus
without conforming to him. For John, knowledge of God is grounded
in a loving relationship (1 Jn 4.7-8, 16, 20), and this knowledge is
manifest through obedience to the known will of God (2.3-5; 5.1-5).
God is known through his entering into human history as flesh, and
knowledge of him is inseparable from the manifestation of his lord-
ship over life (5.6-12). Thus, we know that we know him if we keep
his commands (2.3).
Covenant community forms the context for an encounter with God
and for an interpretation of the resulting transformation. The
covenant God offers to people is a covenant to be the people of God.
He dwells in the midst of his people so that the church, being
grounded in covenant relations, operates within an epistemology not
of detachment and manipulation (which is a result of operating only
with facts and principles) but rather of participation and accountabil
ity. There is, therefore, the avoidance of privatized subjectivism on
the one hand and totalitarian objectivism on the other.
How does Freire’s praxis epistemology relate to the biblical under
standing of knowledge? Many liberation theologians and educators
understand praxis to be the type of knowledge called for in Scripture.3
1. Bultmann, Theological Dictionary, I, p. 698.

2. Bultmann, Theological Dictionary, I, p. 707.
3. For an overview of the epistemological grounding of liberation theology see
Schipani, Religious Education Encounters Liberation Theology, ch. 3, ‘A Praxis
While there are affinities between praxis and a biblical way of

knowing, there are some critical areas of divergence.
A Dialogue With Praxis

The concept of praxis is central to Friere’s thought. He understands
praxis as reflective engagement in history which transforms the
world. In order for one to understand praxis there must first be a con
scious move away from dichotomizing theory and practice, and a cor
responding move toward seeing them as twin moments of the same
activity that are united dialectically. Instead of theory leading to prac
tice, theory becomes, or is seen in, the reflective moment in praxis.
Theory arises from praxis to yield further praxis.
Historical Overview of Praxis

Aristotle saw praxis as a way of knowing which was basically related
to one’s reflective engagement in a social situation.1 It was one of
three ways of knowing, the other two being theoria and poesis.
Theoria was the highest form of knowledge which utilized only the
intellect. Praxis merged thought with doing in the sense of interaction
with society. Poesis merged thought with making, for example, the
artisan’s shaping of material objects. While praxis was beneficial and
useful for moral training, it failed to allow one to attain the highest
form of wisdom, sophia. Only theoria could do this. Therefore,
Aristotle retained the essence of the platonic system which elevated
pure reason above the material realm.
G.W.F. Hegel re-introduced the term praxis in modem times. Hegel
took the term and adapted it to the Enlightenment’s emphasis on criti
cal reason. He placed theory and practice together in a manner even
more dialectical than Aristotle. Hegel saw praxis in relation to Geist,
the all-powerful and encompassing Spirit which guided the universe
toward the actualization of itself. Praxis, according to Hegel, became
the praxis of Geist. Human knowing was not realized by speculative
theorizing apart from the world, but rather was attained through
reflection on and participation in the praxis of Geist within history.
Way of Knowing’.
1. The following brief historical overview of praxis is condensed from Groome.
For a more detailed account see Groome, Religious Education, in particular ch. 7, ‘In
Search of a Way of Knowing’.
Groome points out that Hegel’s understanding of praxis left little

room for self-initiated active/reflective engagement in the world.
Knowledge comes instead by phenomenological observation of Geist’s
activity in the world. Thus, Hegel remained functionally caught in a
Greek theory-centered manner of knowing.1
Karl Marx was influenced by Hegel’s concept of praxis. He, how
ever, put humankind in the place of Geist, calling for humans to
influence and shape their own history. Thus praxis became totally an
endeavor within nature, void of any transcendent authority. Human
critical reflection and action would be sufficient for the ongoing of
social reality.
Freire bases a great deal of his understanding of praxis upon Marx.
He divides the world into economic categories and calls for human
activity in transforming these structures. People are to be active sub
jects in the historical process, not passive objects caught in a world in
which they have no control. While Freire considers himself a
Christian, he leaves most of the responsibility for praxis up to
humanity. At best, God is a subjective presence in the historical
process.2
The Limitations and Problems o f Praxis

There are problems and limitations with a praxis epistemology, espe
cially when compared to a biblical understanding of knowledge. In
general, these problems are grounded in its origin in Hellenistic
thought. In spite of all efforts to join theory and practice into a singu
lar moment, there remains in praxis a fundamental dualism between
matter and reason. Because of this dualism, praxis assumes an
unbridgeable distance between the knower and the known. The entire
system elevates theory (in the form of reasoning skills) above all other
forms of knowledge.3 The objectification of others is an unavoidable
aspect of this knowledge and the power of transformation is of
necessity grounded in the ‘spirit’ of the individual.
Praxis is, therefore, an insufficient means of knowing God and
achieving human transformation. Human reflection-action, while
1. Groome, Religious Education, p. 166.

2. Freire, ‘Letter to a Theology Student’, Catholic Mind 70 (Sept 1972), pp. 6-8.
3. C. Bridges Johns, ‘Affective Conscientization: A Pentecostal Response to
Paulo Freire’, a paper presented to the 21st Annual Meeting of the Society for
Pentecostal Studies, Lakeland, Florida, November, 1991.
important, is distorted and may become self-serving, thereby hin

dering true knowledge of God. Without an authority beyond the self
that transcends and even negates reflection-action, we are left, in spite
of our worthy intentions for the transformation of society, with sinful
praxis. In contrast, there is within the meaning of yada a basis for the
grounding of the self in a personal God who defines the nature and
outcome of the knowing event. This grounding does not relegate
human knowing to the passive posture found in Hegel’s paradigm.
Neither does it limit God to the role of a subjective partner in human
historical processes.
Another problem with praxis springs from our inability, also due to
sin, to know truly ourselves as subjects in the world in which we live.
Transformation of the knower has to occur before that person can
contribute to the righteous transformation of the world. This trans
formation requires the knowing person to be known and exposed and
changed, thereby becoming an object as well as an active subject in the
historical process. There is no room for passiveness or resistance
toward critical reflection upon the world. If the basic nature of per
sons remains unchanged and human praxis remains separated from
responsiveness to revelation, a self-serving, sinful praxis will emerge.
This seems to be the case in histories of revolutions which began with
transforming praxis but soon became hardened by dogmatic ideology
which prevented further praxis.
While Pentecostals have historically emphasized that they are the
objects of God’s transforming grace, they often neglect to acknowl
edge that via transformation humans become partners with God in the
redemptive process. They have failed to respond appropriately in
obedience as historical subjects.1 The solution may well rest in the
integration of praxis methodology into the epistemology of yada.
1. Theodore Runyon and others have pointed out that John Wesley’s concept of
sanctification included an anthropology which saw humans as active agents in life
and as partners with God in the redemptive process. For Wesley, Christianity was a
social religion set in a world that was to be critically analyzed and acted upon. He
strongly criticized the mystics for their advice to cease outward action and to with
draw from the world. See T. Runyon (ed.), Sanctification and Liberation (Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1981). A Wesleyan-Pentecostal faith should take seriously this
social dimension of redemption.
The Integration o f Praxis with Yada

Realization of the inherent limitations of praxis has caused some lib
eration theologians to speak of an ‘epistemological break’ which
‘consists in the existential and historical following that yields a praxis
knowing which is distinct from ‘natural understanding’ as well as
contrary to it’.1 Daniel Schipani has reformulated liberationist praxis
into an ‘epistemology of obedience’, which is characterized by disci-
pleship as ‘the dynamic, dialogical, and discerning following of
Jesus’.2 He asserts that the liberationist’s view of praxis must be eval
uated in the light of the criteria derived from revelation and from
biblical revelation, especially ‘lest doing the truth becomes equivalent
to making the truth through historical praxis, rather than practicing
the truth which is ultimately being revealed to us’.3
It is evident that a praxis epistemology must be modified in order to
be incorporated into the Pentecostal faith tradition. Schipani’s revision
would come close to capturing the necessary dynamics. God must be
understood to be the ultimate source and judge of all truth.
Knowledge of God involves encounter with and participation in the
divine nature which results in the transformation of the knower. The
praxis that would flow out of such encounter would generate a fresh
vision of the kingdom of God, a vision that incorporates an ethic that
is consistent with an epistemology which joins knowing and loving.
Since a Pentecostal epistemology understands the knowledge of God
to be experiential and relational, and since it facilitates loving obedi
ence to the known will of God, it should be seen as compatible with
human praxis that is judged and transformed by the word of God.
Still, the nature and goals of biblical knowledge are best seen in the
Hebrew word yada; to know is to encounter. Yada stresses the interre
latedness of the knower and the known. Praxis, on the other hand,
offers the modem, Western mind a practical approach to the
1. J. Sobrino, The True Church and the Poor (trans. M.J. O ’Connel; Maryknoll,
NY: Orbis Books, 1984), p. 25. See also his Jesus in Latin America (trans.
R.R. Barr; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987), esp. ch. 5, ‘Following Jesus as
Discernment’. For the most comprehensive treatment to date on the epistemological
grounding of liberation theology see C. Boff, Theology and Praxis: Epistemological
Foundations (trans. R.R. Barr; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987).
2. Schipani, Religious Education, p. 125.
3. Schipani, Religious Education, p. 136.
2 . Freire ’s Educational Paradigm 41
encounter. The best solution seems to be the integration of a praxis

methodology into the broader epistemological grounding of yada.
A Hierarchy of Consciousness
Perhaps the greatest controversy over Freire’s concepts center around
his ideas dealing with the oppressed’s state of consciousness. Such
criticism is based on Freire’s professed solidarity with the oppressed
while holding a negative view of their perception of reality.1
Basic to Freire’s concept of conscientization is a hierarchial under
standing of human consciousness. According to Freire, forces of
dehumanization and oppression rob people of their humanity.
Therefore, those who exist in oppressive situations manifest less than
human tendencies, such as an inability to objectify reality, a lack of
consciousness of themselves, and a fear of freedom. Submerged in
reality, the oppressed exist in a less than fully human existence.
Peter Berger has challenged Freire’s view of the oppressed’s con
sciousness. For Berger, ‘every human world must be deemed in prin
ciple as being equal to every other human world in its access to
reality’.2 Therefore, Berger sees conscientization as the ‘exportation
of the cognitive contents from one world to another’.3 He has sug
gested that a better term would be ‘conversion’, inasmuch as a group
of people are being converted from one way of perceiving reality to
another. Berger has called for ‘cognitive respect’—taking with utmost
seriousness the way in which others define reality.4
Freire has stressed that those involved in educating the oppressed
must do so in a relationship of solidarity, noting that even in solidar
ity, there exists the possibility of paternalism. To counter this prob
lem, he has insisted on the necessity of a profound rebirth in which
those in the First World die and are reborn in the Third World. This
rebirth calls for a radicalizing of one’s perspective on the world and a
commitment to experience reality as it is experienced by the
oppressed. However, it is difficult to align Freire’s concepts of the
historical conditioning of consciousness, which at times lead to
1. P. Berger, ‘The False Consciousness of Consciousness Raising’, Worldview

18 (1975), pp. 33-38.
2. Berger, ‘The False Consciousness’, pp. 33-38.
descriptions of the oppressed in less than affirming terms, and his

insistence on solidarity with them. Such a tension can be seen in the
following statement:
Only through comradeship with the oppressed can the converts under
stand their characteristic ways of living and behaving, which in diverse
ways reflect the structure of domination. One of these characteristics is the
previously mentioned existential duality of the oppressed who are at the
same time themselves and the oppressor whose image they have
internalized.1
Furthermore, Freire discounts ‘magic and myth’ among the

oppressed. For him, such a perspective on reality is often coupled
with a distorted view of God and leads the oppressed to see their suf
fering as the will of God.2 Freire is, therefore, discounting any type
of knowledge which is not a critical perception of reality. In doing so,
he exhibits a bias against other ways of viewing reality, especially by
delegating the thought processes of the oppressed to a lower, less than
fully human perception of reality.
The end result of the conscientization process is commitment to
radical revolutionary change in social structures. Such a commitment
reflects the highest level of awareness—a critical awareness of reality.
Thought patterns of conceptions of reality which do not lead to radical
social action are, according to Freire, less than fully human and in
need of assistance toward developing a better understanding of reality.
Therefore, the oppressed are approached with a pre-determined set of
agenda, rather than a real and authentic conversion to their way of
thinking. Schipani notes this difficulty in Freire’s thought:
One can seriously raise the question about the actual goal of education/
conscientization to what extent is human freedom indeed facilitated or
people conditioned to that they ‘freely’ assume the political option of the
educators/catalyzers? Freire’s own personal choice seems to condition
radically the educational process as he perceives it, by insisting on the
assumption and the conviction that some kind of revolution is the only
1. Freire, Pedagogy, p. 467.

2. Concerning the oppressed’s perception of God, Freire has stated that the
oppressor is ‘housed within the people, and the resulting ambiguity makes them fear
ful of freedom. They resort (stimulated by the oppressor) to a magical explanation or
a false view of God, to whom they fatalistically transfer the responsibility for their
oppressed state. It is extremely unlikely that these self-mistrustful, downtrodden,
hopeless people will seek their own liberation’ (Pedagogy, p. 163).
true and trustworthy alternative freely chosen as soon as reality is per
ceived demythified. But since he also states that the commitment to radi
cal, revolutionary change is prior to conscientization as such, the question
arises as to the integrity of Freire’s approach on logical and ethical
grounds.1
The hierarchial concept of human consciousness which Freire

espouses raises serious questions as to Freire’s true solidarity with the
oppressed. A tension exists in Freire’s thought which, while valuing
the oppressed, describes their perception of reality in terms which
seem to negate this professed esteem.
This existing tension indicates a need for further study in the area
of Third World perceptions of reality, which would have as a basis
‘cognitive respect’ for modes of thought which may be less abstract,
more intuitive. Therefore, the mode of thought described by Freire as
‘naive’ needs to be re-evaluated and incorporated into a paradigm for
conscientization. Such a paradigm would then be a powerful tool for
conscientization inasmuch as it arises from and retains the people’s
own perceptions of reality.
Conclusion
Paulo Freire’s life and writings have reflected a utopian vision for the
full humanization of all people. His educational paradigm has as its
goal the empowerment of people to become aware of their role as
subjects of history, with the ability to transform reality.
The eclectic spirit of Freire has caused him to draw from a variety
of sources, all of which blend together to form a gestalt that is a pow
erful descriptive myth regarding the nature of the world and of being
human. A key element of his descriptive myth is a view of reality as a
process which is mediated by human consciousness. The reflective
power of human consciousness is a central concept of Freire’s
thought. The oppressed, because of their historical conditioning, exist
in a state which is immersed in reality, dominated and unable to
objectify their world in order to know it in a critical manner.
Through the process of conscientization, in which the oppressed
learn to problematize reality and see themselves as agents of change,
the oppressed’s consciousness moves from a naive state to a state of
1. Schipani, ‘Conscientization and Creativity’, p. 229 .

critical transitivity. This mode of consciousness creates concrete

engagement in the world.
Freire’s method enhances the development of a more rational mode
of thought, moving away from object-oriented reasoning. Thus, for
Freire, praxis is an active-reflective way of knowing which is guided
by the praxis of critical reflection as reality is experienced.
Consequently, Freire places little emphasis upon the affective domain
of knowing and places little value upon definitions of reality which are
not grounded upon a scientific humanistic explanation of events.
In relation to education among the oppressed, there is little attempt
to incorporate their perceptions other than utilizing their experiences
of reality as the basic content for thematic investigation. Thus, the
richness of human life is narrowed into critical reason.
Conscientization becomes sterile, and praxis, while arising from
experience, is a praxis which denies the dimensions of the spiritual/
affective elements.
Furthermore, a praxis epistemology retains a fundamental
Hellenistic dualism between matter and reason. Theory is elevated (in
the form of reasoning skills) above all other forms of knowledge.
Human transformation through praxis is an incomplete transforma
tion, inasmuch as it fails to negate the self-serving nature of human
critical reflection.
The dynamic, experiential, relational knowledge found in the
meaning of the Hebrew word yada stands in stark contrast to the
Greek approach to knowledge. Therefore, a knowledge of reality
which is first grounded in a covenantal knowledge of God, demanding
lasting obedience and reflection, will be transformational not only of
an individual but also of the world as well. A revision of a praxis
epistemology, which is grounded in the broader meaning of yada,
would call for an ethic that joins knowing, loving and doing.
There also needs to be a re-appraisal of Freire’s hierarchy of con
sciousness in order to allow for an appreciation of views of reality
which are not always grounded in astute scientific analysis of social
structures. The realm of ‘magic and myth’ may indeed be more reve
latory of the true nature of reality than human critical perception.
There is a need, therefore, especially in the area of Pentecostal cate-
chesis, for an expanded understanding of conscientization which,
while not denying the validity of critical abstract reasoning, would
include more of the affective-spiritual dimensions of human interac

tion. Furthermore, for a pedagogy to be truly a pedagogy among the
oppressed, there needs to be an incorporation of a process which is
unique to the people and which arises out of their expressions of
reality.
Chapter 3
f r e i r e ’s T h e o l o g ic a l f r a m e w o r k
Shall the primary purpose of Christian education be to hand on a religion

or create a new world?1
George Albert Coe
In order to reveal the religious nature of conscientization this chapter

examines the theological dimensions of Freire’s thought. This task is
accomplished by an analysis of Freire’s enunciated religious beliefs
and by an analysis of the inferred religious dimensions of his thought.
Freire does not consider himself a theologian, but he has freely
reflected upon the religious implications of his educational theory.
The most direct consideration of the relationship between his educa
tional paradigm and theological considerations came after his theory
and corresponding methodology had been fully developed.
Consequently, there is no systematic, well-defined ‘theology of consci
entization’.
As a consequence, those who wish to understand Freire’s religious
framework must glean from his major writings for religious
influences or refer to the short, but somewhat rambling articles such
as ‘Know, Practice, and Teach the Gospels’,2 or ‘Letter to a Theology
Student’. Interviews that Freire has granted also provide insight into
his religious beliefs. His ‘Education, Liberation and the Church’ and
‘The Role of the Churches in Latin America’3 provide the most com
plete version of Freire’s view of the relationship which exists between
the churches and the oppressed’s struggle for liberation.
1. G.A. Coe, What Is Christian Education? (New York: Charles Scribner’s

Sons, 1929), p. 29.
2. P. Freire, ‘Know, Practice, and Teach the Gospels’, Religious Education
19A (1984), pp. 547-48.
3. P. Freire, ‘The Educational Role of the Church in Latin America’
(Washington, DC: LACOD III, 14, 1972).
3. Freire’s Theological Framework 47
From the above mentioned sources, it is evident that Freire’s theo

logical framework would be linked to his experience and under
standing of the religious ferment in Latin America. He has considered
his theology a utopian one, a theology of denouncing and announcing
which implies both the prophetic and hope. It is a theology which, like
his pedagogy, does not serve the bourgeois but rather attempts to
reflect a theology of the oppressed.
Early Formation
Freire’s early religious ‘ethos’ may be described as that of a tradi
tional Latin American Catholic. Yet, it is evident that he rejects much
of the ‘oppressive’ nature of this religion. He has recalled catechism
classes in which ‘a dear but ingenuous priest spoke of the everlasting
damnation of lost souls in the (ires of an eternal hell’.1 However, he
has noted that ‘in spite of the fear which filled me, what really stayed
with me was the goodness, the strength to love without limits, to
which Christ witnessed’.2 It is obvious that Freire’s radicalizing yet
utopian view of religion had its beginnings early in his life.
While a college student, Freire departed from practicing the
Catholic faith. He returned to Catholicism largely due to the lectures
of Tristao de Atayde and from reading the works of Maritain and the
Christian personalist Mounier.3 What began to emerge in Freire’s life
was a religion strongly influenced by Catholic personalism yet tied
existentially to the experiences of an emerging Third World nation.
It was Freire’s literacy campaigns in Brazil which brought him into
contact with his church and identified him with the Catholic radicals
of that country. The Basic Education Movement in Brazil was jointly
sponsored by the government and by the Brazilian Bishops
Conference. It soon became evident that the meaning of conscientiza-
tion was not strictly pedagogical and political. Rather, religion could
be either a means of liberation or a means of oppression, fostering or
hindering the awakening of the masses toward their liberation. In a
sense, God was in need of liberation.4
1. Freire, ‘Know, Practice’, p. 547.

2. Freire, ‘Know, Practice’, p. 547.
3. See Collins, Paulo Freire, pp. 5-6.
4. In a 1970 interview, Freire expressed the need for theology to be liberated
from myths which would deny historical action. It was God who was in need of
For many, this realization caused tremendous difficulty. Henrique

de Lima Vaz described the dilemma as follows:
In developing a critical awareness of conditions in Brazil, the program
tended to produce a kind of ideological split, with the two visions of the
Church: one of the traditional Church, bound up, by their common his
tory, with the Brazil that had been, and one of the church undergoing
renewal, committed to a radical transformation of the country.1
Freire aligned himself with the latter group and in a very real sense
helped produce the church’s commitment to the transformation of
society by providing a powerful educational tool for this process.
A Theology o f Liberation
Freire’s theological reflections have been greatly influenced by libera
tion theologies as they have emerged within the context of the Third
World. This relationship between Freire’s religious thought and lib
eration theology grew when he was with the World Council of
Churches, for it was then that he was able to reflect upon a broad
spectrum of theological inquiry—a task he found enjoyable.2
The various theologies of liberation have several tenets in common.
First, liberation theology is a theology from the ‘other’ side, namely
from those forced to live on the margins of society. Theological
reflection has arisen usually within the context of a revolutionary
struggle by people who, in Gutierrez’s terms, ‘are less and less willing
to be the passive objects of demagogic manipulation.. .they want to be
the active subjects of their own history and to forge a radically dif
ferent society’.3
liberation, or at least the traditional concepts of God had to be ‘demythologized’. See

P. Freire, 'Education for Awareness: A Talk with Paulo Freire’, Risk 6.4 (1970),
pp. 7-19.
1. H.C. de Lima Vaz, T he Church and Conscientizacao’, America 118 (1968),
p. 580.
2. See Freire, ‘Education for Awareness’.
3. See G. Gutierrez, ‘Liberation Praxis and Christian Faith’, in Frontiers o f
Theology in Latin America (ed. R. Gibellini; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979),
p. 1. R. McAfee Brown has described liberation theology as (1) an open ended pro
cess, involving ongoing reflection; (2) a corporate process, with input from many
different sources and disciplines; (3) a self-correcting process, with creative out
comes out of conflicts; (4) an engaged process, which insists that those who ‘do
theology’ must be doing it with their lives as well as with their minds, engaging
Liberation theology is inductive, with human suffering as its

starting point, denying the ahistorical nature and abstract principles of
traditional theological inquiry. Its new epistemology is one of praxis
in which people re-create their world and forge their own reality.
This process may be described as ‘critical reflection on praxis in the
light of the Word of God’.1
Another common tenet among the various liberation theologies is
the seriousness in which the criticism of Marx is taken concerning the
role of religion as a tool for oppression or as an ‘opiate’. By utilizing
the social and political sciences, the oppressed are to look critically at
their socio-political context in order to address themselves to the
factors which cause their oppression.2
Freire aligns himself with many of the above mentioned positions,
modifying them in order to fit his own existential struggle with the
oppressed for their liberation. What follows is an analysis of some of
the major theological concerns of Freire. There is no attempt to
develop a thorough and systematic ‘Freireian theology’. Rather, the
process is to look at some of the key concerns expressed by Freire
himself.
Anthropology as a Beginning
For Freire, the reference point of theological reflection must begin
with humankind. He has noted, ‘Just as the Word became flesh, so the
Word can be approached only through man. Theology has to take its
starting point from anthropology’.3 Therefore, the prime purpose of
Christianity is to make all people fully human.
Humankind exists only within the possibility of either humanization
or dehumanization, the former state being the vocation of all people.
This vocation is constantly being either negated or affirmed. It is
negated by injustice, exploitation, violence and oppression. It is
affirmed by the oppressed’s yearnings for freedom and justice and the
struggle of the oppressed to recover lost humanity.
thinking and doing (praxis). See Brown’s Preface to Theology in the Americas
(ed. S. Torres and J. Eaglesm; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976), pp. ix-xxvii.
1. See R. McAfee Brown, Preface to G. Gutierrez, The Power o f the Poor in
History (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983).
2. For a thorough analysis of the relationship between Marxism and Christianity
see J. Miguez Bonino, Christians and Marxists (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976).
3. Freire, ‘Letter to a Theology Student’, p. 6.
It is the ability to transcend reality rather than be submerged within

it which Freire has seen as the prime attribute with which God has
endowed humankind. Following the thought of Chardin, Freire has
concluded that it is this 'consciousness of reality’ which sets humans
apart.1 In a theological sense, it is the essence of the human spirit.
This ability, however, is distorted and abused so that those who exist
in a state of oppression (and also those who oppress) are not ‘fully
human’. Salvation, then, is freedom to be fully human, to transcend
reality.
True humanization, according to Freire, is a historical quest not to
be removed from history. It cannot take place internally because it is
objective reality which denies humanization. Reality has to be
changed. Therefore, it is the ontological vocation of all people to
‘make history’ toward the utopian future.2
A Historical God
Because human kind has an ontological vocation to make history,
Freire’s concept of God is that of the one who is a presence in history,
empowering people to transform reality. God endows humans with
the ability to become subjects in history.
Unlike the Hegelian Geist who is moving and shaping history, with
humankind as more passive objects in the dialectical transformation of
reality, Freire has understood God as the one who invites humans to
become subjects in order to change the world through reflection-
action.3 Also, unlike Marx who removed Geist from the process of
history and made humankind the initiator, Freire has a God as partner
with people.4
1. Freire, ‘Education for Awareness’, pp. 7-19.

3. Thomas Groome gives an insightful analysis of Hegel’s concept of the rela
tionship between human praxis and the ongoing dialectic of ‘Geist’. Groome has
noted that ‘for Hegel all praxis is the praxis of Geist as it realizes itself in history...
If human knowing is no more than consciousness of Geist’s praxis, then it does not
arise from self-initiated active/reflective engagement in the w orld... Hegel remained
caught in a Greek theoretical mode of knowing or what Dewey called the spectator
theory of knowledge’. Groome, Christian Religious Education, pp. 164-65.
4. Groome notes the following concerning Marx’s rejection of Hegel’s self-
actualizing Geist. ‘Following Feuerbach, Marx rejected Geist as a mystification in
Hegel’s thought. But still fascinated with Hegel’s grand synthesis, he inserted
humankind in the place of Geist, so that the ideational evolutionary process now
3. Freire*s Theological Framework 51
For Freire, it is the word of God which actively invites people to

re-create the world for liberation.1 This word demands from us a
historical commitment. The word of God is not content to be poured
into static recipients. It is historical, concrete demands on humankind
to transform reality. It is the voice of God for the oppressed.
For this reason, not everyone is willing and able to hear and to
respond to the word:
Only the Third World, not in the geographic sense, but in the sense of the
world that is dominated, dependent, voiceless—is able to hear the Word
of God. For the First World to hear that Word it must previously undergo
an Easter. It must die as the First World and be reborn as Third World.2
The Easter Experience

It is, therefore, the experience of an Easter which is demanded of the
First World in order to hear God’s word. Freire has been careful to
define the full implications of this experience.
This Easter, which results in the changing of consciousness, must be
existentially experienced. The real Easter is not commemorative rhetoric.
It is praxis, it is historical involvement. The old Easter of rhetoric is dead
with no hope of resurrection. It is only in the authenticity of historical
praxis that Easter becomes the death which makes life possible.3
Using the term ‘necrophilic’ (death-loving) for the mentality of the

bourgeois, Freire has contrasted this mentality with the ‘biophilic’
(life-loving) meaning of Easter. The bourgeois mentality kills the
historical dynamism of Easter, turning it into a mere date on the cal
endar. The lust to possess on the part of the bourgeois denies the
became a human and historical one’. Groome, Christian Religious Education,

p. 166.
It should be briefly noted that while Freire has a belief of God as active in history,
he has leaned heavily upon Marx’s interpretation of ‘historical materialism’ and his
concept of praxis as the self-initiated activity of human beings. Therefore, Freire has
been more articulate concerning the role of humankind in history rather than the pur
pose of God. With Hegel, human praxis is submerged within the dialectical activity
of Geist, while with Freire, God is submerged within the praxis of humankind. This
aspect of Freire’s thought will be considered in greater detail in the critical evaluation
of Freire’s theological framework.
deeper meaning of the resurrection—the rebirth. Rebirth can only be

experienced on the side of the oppressed.1
Jesus as Incarnate Word

The focal point of the word for Freire is the Gospels and the witness
they contain of Jesus Christ. Just as the word became flesh, so can the
word be approached through humankind. This belief is the basis for
Freire’s insistence that the starting point of theology be anthropology.
Freire has regarded Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Word, an example
of the teacher who was the Truth.2 Consequently, just as Jesus lives
the Gospels, so we come to know the truth through practicing their
message. Teaching the Gospels involves living ‘humbly as an eternal
apprentice, a permanent learner of the Word’.3 Thus, in the act of
learning the Word comes the authority to teach it. In this manner,
authority never becomes authoritarianism.45
The Church as Historical

As historical institutions, churches either foster the experience of
Easter by taking a prophetic stance for the oppressed’s sake or deny
its transforming ability by siding with those who oppress.
Those who insist on the neutrality of the church are in actuality
siding with those who, in Freire’s words, ‘refuse to allow the
oppressed classes to be’.s It is a church which ‘forbids itself the Easter
which it preaches’.6
Freire has insisted that in no matter what part of the world a church
exists it still has to face the risk of historical existence. The exact form
of this risk will vary and cannot be ‘concretized’.7 Bruce Boston
addresses this theme of Freire and has noted that it is often more
difficult to identify oppression outside the Third World, especially for
upper and middle class Americans. He concludes, however, with
Freire that the oppression must be discovered in the surroundings of

2. Freire, ‘Know, Practice, and Teach the Gospels’, p. 547.
affluence, technology and political and economic structures.1

Freire has commented that Americans
need only go to the outskirts of their big cities, without ‘naivete’ or
‘shrewdness’ and there they will find sufficient stimulus to do some fresh
thinking for themselves. They will find themselves confronted with vari
ous expressions of the Third World.2
For Freire, it has been impossible to define the educational role of

Latin American churches as being unified and coherent. Rather, he has
seen differing and sometimes opposing forms of church education. He
has identified three distinct types of churches, each with its own corre
sponding form of education.
The Traditional Church

The type of church which is still intensely colonialist is identified by
Freire as traditionalist. He has been pointed in his description of this
church:
It is a missionary church, in the worst sense of the word—a necrophilic
winner of souls, hence its taste of masochistic emphasis on sin, hell-fire
and eternal damnation. The mundane, dichotomized from the transcenden
tal, is the ‘filth’ in which humans have to pay for their sins. The more
they suffer, the more they purify themselves, finally reaching heaven and
eternal rest. Work is not for them, the action of men and women on the
world, transforming and re-creating, but rather the price that must be paid
for being human.3
Furthermore, using the descriptive terms of Swiss sociologist

Christian LaLive, Freire has referred to the traditionalist church as a
‘haven of the masses’.4 He has presented it as a womb in which the
oppressed hide from an aggressive society, fostering a religion which
takes revenge on the oppressors by rejecting the world over which the
oppressor holds sway. The oppressed are subsequently fooled into
thinking that their prayers and religious experiences are a genuine
form of speaking out.5
1. Boston, ‘Conscientization and Christian Education’.

4. See LaLive d’Epinay, Haven o f the Masses.
From a sociological perspective, Freire has portrayed the tradi

tionalist church as representative of the deprivation model which is
often used to describe religion among the disinherited. This model
presupposes that religious manifestations are directly related to socio
economic status. Consequently, religion among the oppressed serves to
compensate for a general lack of well being or social status.1
Thus, for Freire and others, the traditionalist church, as found in
movements such as Pentecostalism, never encounters the root causes
of oppression. By refusing to struggle with oppression on a material
level and by relegating it totally to the spiritual, those within the
‘womb’ of the traditionalist church are used by the shrewd (the
oppressors) to serve their own aspirations. Consequently, in their
rejection there is conformity and complacency.
Education in the traditionalist church. It is unfortunate that Freire
has not been specific as to the nature of education within the tradi
tionalist church. He describes it as being ‘paralyzing, alienating and
alienated, being conditioned by a particular view of the world, of
religion, and of human beings and their destiny’.2 It must, therefore,
be deduced that education for the traditionalist church may be
described as anti-dialogical, following in the tradition of Freire’s
description of the ‘banking model’. It would be an education which
would deny praxis to its people. Without such reflection-action upon
the world, there would be no process of conscientization.
The Modernizing Church
Freire identifies those churches which have responded to the indus
trialization of Latin America as modernizing. These churches have
made the transition from a traditional perspective to an ‘ideology of
development’. Therefore, the modernizing church can only be under
stood in the context of Latin American attempts to develop beyond a
rural agricultural based society. Freire has been sharply critical of
modernization. He notes that
1. LaLive’s study of Pentecostalism in Chile is representative of the classic

deprivation model of religious analysis. He has paralleled the rise of Pentecostalism
in Chile with that of the Marxist-socialist movements and concluded that both have
arisen from the same need, nourished by the same rebelliousness, but have very dif
ferent orientations. Pentecostalism, according to LaLive, is an expression of real
misery, and Marxism is a protest against real misery. LaLive, Haven o f the Masses,
p. 35.
the modernization process of the dependent society never gets translated
into fundamental changes in the relationship between the dependent soci
ety and the master society, and that the emergence of the masses does not
by itself constitute their critical consciousness. In the same way, it is
interesting to note, the churches’ pilgrimage toward modernization never
gets translated into historic involvement with the oppressed people in any
real sense that leads toward that people’s liberation.1
It is apparent that Freire has considered the modernizing church as

having the same perspective as the traditional. It is only a newer ver
sion with improved working tools and a view of societal change which
favors ‘structural reform’.
Freire parallels the rise of popularism with the rise of the modern
izing church. Just as popularism became the new political action style,
replacing the traditional, submerged society, the modernizing church
replaced escapism with ‘do-goodism’ and reform activities. According
to Freire, the modernizing church is, therefore, a conservative
church, maintaining the status quo yet giving the impression of
movement and reform.2
Education in the modernizing church. The modernizing church has
improved educational tools but uses them for the purposes of indoc
trination and control. The banking model is still predominant, and
critical reflection is not fostered. Freire has concluded that education
within the modernizing church
means no more than liberating the pupils from their blackboards, from
passive classes and bookish curricula; it means just providing slide projec
tors and other visual aids, dynamic class plans and technico- professional
instruction.3
The Prophetic Church

The third type of church which Freire identifies is prophetic in its
stance. He notes that this church ‘does not separate worldliness from
transcendence or salvation from liberation’.4 Rather, it has a scientific
knowledge of the reality of the world, knowing that this reality is in
need of the denunciation of the present order and the birth of a new

3. Freire, ‘The Educational Role of the Church in Latin America’, p. 11.
order through a state of permanent revolution.1

The prophetic church is, therefore, a church of the oppressed and
for the oppressed. But unlike the traditionalist church, it does not
offer a ‘haven’ as much as it offers a means whereby ‘metanoia’ can
occur. It has a dual function of both announcing and denouncing,
incarnating the word of God.2
Education in the Prophetic Church. Education in the context of the
prophetic church would be an ongoing process of praxis as reality is
continually being reflected and acted upon. It is education leading to
the conscientization of the people of God toward the fulfillment of
their ontological vocation—that of making history.
Freire has made the following statement concerning the nature of
prophetic education:
From the prophetic point of view, the specific subject matter of education
is of little importance: whatever the subject matter, education is always an
effort to understand something that is concrete. As they focus on it
together, the educator-educatee and the educatee-educator will be joined in
creative, active, presence, in a clarifying praxis that, as it unveils the real
ity of awareness, will help to unveil the reality of reality, too.3
Critical Evaluation
This section critically evaluates the religious framework of Freire’s
thought in order to shed light on aspects which are in need of
reflection, in particular those aspects which are of concern with
regard to Pentecostal catechesis. Therefore, this evaluation is selective
in the attempt to pinpoint areas for consideration which would be of
particular concern. Criteria for selection of these areas are based upon
perceived relatedness to the context of Pentecostalism in regards to
conscientization.
The Centrality o f Humankind

From the influence of personalism and existentialist thought, particu
larly that of Martin and Marcel, Freire developed a view of life with
humankind at the center. His literacy campaigns in Brazil and in Chile
were largely inspired by a deep concern for the full humanization of a
1. Freire, ‘Education, Liberation and the Church’ p. 543.

2. Freire, ‘Education, Liberation and the Church’ p. 543.
3. Freire, ‘The Educational Role of the Church in Latin America’, p. 19.
people who had been reduced to silence by a society which denied

their right to exist fully. This humanistic view of reality was also
coupled with a disdain for a religion which emphasized the wrath of
God rather than the gospel of love. What emerged was the insistence
that theology is part of anthropology. As such, theology must begin
with an astute socio-political awareness of reality. For a paradigm for
this awareness, Freire has incorporated a Marxist view of history.
Marx’s critique of religion as the ‘opium of the people’ is based on
his belief that the concept of God was a creation of humankind, pro
jecting upon the ultimate being the alienation experienced within his
torical existence.1 Religion, therefore, as viewed by Marx, is utilized
to alienate and control the suppressed classes.
Daniel Schipani insightfully notes that had Marx been more consis
tent with his dialectical method, he would have noticed the elements of
protest included even in ‘alienating religion’.2 Thus, Marx negates a
God created for idolatrous reasons but fails to affirm a God who lib
erates. It can be concurred with Schipani that ‘Marx’s potentially
prophetic affirmation gets collapsed and exhausted in his peculiar
anthropology’.3
Freire has clearly integrated Marx’s analysis of the socio-political
construction of religion, noting that false notions of God have fostered
fatalism in oppressed peoples.4 But he has moved beyond Marx to
affirm a God who is inviting humans ‘to recreate the world’ for
others’ liberation.5
However, as with Marx, Freire negates the value of religious
expressions of the oppressed. The oppressed are fooled into thinking
1. In particular see Marx and Engels on Religion (New York: Schocken Books,
1967).
2. D.S. Schipani, ‘Conscientization and Creativity: A Reinterpretation of Paulo
Freire, Focused on His Epistemological and Theological Foundations with
Implications for Christian Education Theory’ (PhD dissertation, Princeton
Theological Seminary, 1981), p. 106.
Groome notes that Marx saw religion as a authentic protest against real distress in
the sense that religion offered hope in the midst of misery. Groome, Christian
Religious Education, p. 89. However, this ‘protest’ for Marx was useless and would
be abandoned in the revolutionary struggle to bring about a just society.
3. Schipani, ‘Conscientization and Creativity’, p. 107.
5. Freire, ‘Letter to a Theology Student*, p. 7.
that their prayers for salvation are legitimate.1 Both Marx and Freire
insist that analysis of religion must begin a socio-political critique and
not vice versa.2
By dismissing the elements of social protest found in the
‘traditional’ religion of the oppressed, Freire, while affirming a God
‘/ o r the oppressed’, fails to affirm a ‘God o f the oppressed’. God can
only speak through concrete historical action for liberation, not
through the groanings of those who have not abandoned their
‘naivete’.
Emilio Willems, who is widely known and respected for his
research in the field of cultural change, has concluded that there is
legitimate social protest within the religion(s) of the oppressed, espe
cially among Protestant bodies in Latin America. Willems postulates
that Protestantism exists in Latin America as a form of symbolic
rebellion against the status quo. Pentecostalism in particular, with its
emphasis on lay leadership and its democratization of worship ser
vices, exists as a substitute classless society, subverting the traditional
social order in the language of religious symbolism.3 Others, such as
LaLive, have rejected Willems’ theory and have seen passivity rather
than protest in Protestant religion, particularly Pentecostalism within
the context of Latin America.4
Black religious experience in America has shown that the expres
sions of ‘speaking out’ found within the context of worship have pro
vided a ferment for later, more concrete, historical action. James
Cone’s analysis of the ‘speaking out’ which has occurred within ser
mons and testimonies of black worship suggests that it represents not
passivity but the black person’s experience of liberation as hope for a
new heaven and new earth.5

2. See Freire, ‘Education, Liberation and the Church’. Also, Marx saw the crit
icism of religion as the ultimate criticism, in the sense that it mirrored the concerns of
politics, economics, etc. Marx asked ‘that religion be criticised through a criticism of
the political situation, rather than the political situation be criticised through religion’.
See K. Marx, Werke, vol. xxvii (Berlin: Dietz-Verlag, 1956), p. 412.
3. See E. Willems, ‘Protestantism and Culture Change in Brazil and Chile’ in
W. D’Antonio and F. Pike (eds.), Religion, Revolution and Reform (London:
Bums & Oates, 1964).
4. See LaLive, Haven o f Masses, and Souza, A experiencia da salvacao.
5. Cone has stated that when black people sing ‘When the Roll is called up yon
der, I’ll be there’, they are referring to more than a metaphysical reality about heaven.
3. Freire*s Theological Framework 59
Cone affirms that the black concept of liberation is both historical

and transcendent over history:
It is important to note that Black Theology, while taking history with
utmost seriousness, does not limit liberation to history. When people are
bound to history, they are enslaved to what the New Testament calls the
law of death... if the oppressed, while living in history can nonetheless
see beyond it, if they can visualize an eschatological future beyond the
history of their humiliation, then ‘the sign of the oppressed’, to use
Marx’s phrase, can become a cry of revolution against the established
order.1
For Cone, liberation has both a historical and an ahistorical nature.

Rather than dismissing the ‘speaking out’ done by generations of
blacks who never knew concrete liberation, he has considered it as a
legitimate form of announcing liberation. Furthermore, Cone has
asserted that ‘if this “over-worldliness” in freedom is not taken with
utmost seriousness, then there is no way for the oppressed to be sus
tained in the struggle against injustice’.2
Freire’s insistence on a purely socio-political analysis of religious
expressions in Latin America and his refusal to consider the religious
phenomenon itself deny the validity of the oppressed’s experience—
their consciousness of reality. For Freire, consciousness of the
oppressed, submerged, unable to transcend and to objectify reality, is
characterized by a religion which manifests the same characteristics.
Conscientization leads not only toward the liberation of humankind
but also to the liberation or the ‘demythologizing’ of God.3
On God in History
Freire considers God as a presence in history, inviting humankind to
participate in the transformation of the world. John Elias concludes
that Freire’s ‘God’ is the active, dynamic God of the Hebrews and
For the ‘roll up yonder’ is not about an object but about black subjects who have
encountered liberation’s future. The people are talking about an experience of free
dom that has already broken into their present, and the signs of its presence are
reflected in the rhythm and the dance of the people. J. Cone, God o f the Oppressed
(New York: Seabury, 1975), p. 159.
1. Cone, God o f the Oppressed , p. 160.
2. Cone, God o f the Oppressed, p. 161.
3. Freire, ‘Education for Awareness’, p. 17.
Jesus Christ and not the unmoved mover of Aristotle or the subsistent
being of Aquinas.1
Yet, for Freire, while the presence of God can be found in all of
human existence, God does not impose himself upon human history.2
In this respect, Freire has reduced God’s activity to human history
making and, in doing so, makes no distinction between secular aspira
tions for a just society and the image of the kingdom of God.
The God of the Hebrews clearly chooses to impose himself upon
human history in order to alter events. The presence of God in the
exodus event was an imposition not only upon the royal court of
Egypt but also upon the lives of the Hebrews and called for a radical
re-ordering of events. (However, it must be affirmed with Freire that
God’s intervention did not negate human action.) Also, in the birth of
Jesus, there was a radical 'breaking in’ upon the events of human
history.
What Freire fails to enunciate is a concept of revelation—a concept
of how God relates to human history. His silence on this matter leaves
many unanswered questions.3
Conclusions
It is evident that Freire’s theological framework is one which has the
elements of personalism and humanism coupled with liberation
theology. As such, the theological dimension of conscientization calls
for a strong emphasis upon the historical nature of the church and
upon the full humanization of the oppressed.
1. Elias, ‘Paulo Freire: Religious Educator’, p. 43.

2. Freire, ‘Education for Awareness’, p. 17.
3. Walter Brueggemann has insightfully noted that the role of the prophetic
within history consists of ‘letting people see their own history in light of God’s free
dom and his will for justice’. Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978).
H.R. Niebuhr struggles to frame a working dialectic between historical relativism
and revelation. He concludes that revelation is ‘an event that happened to us in our
history which conditions all our thinking and that through this happening we are
enabled to apprehend what we are, what we are suffering and doing and what our
potentialities are. What is otherwise arbitrary and dumb fact becomes related, intelli
gible and eloquent fact through the revelatory event’. In this respect, Niebuhr tries to
maintain the integrity of human history and the sovereignty of God. See Niebuhr,
The Meaning o f Revelation, p. 101.
3. Freire ’s Theological Framework 61
When considering the relationship between Pentecostalism and

Freire’s paradigm, there emerges a need for a re-appraisal of Freire’s
Marxist interpretation of the role of religion for the oppressed and
also upon the nature of revelation and the role of God in history.
Rather than discounting the ‘mystical’ and non-rational expressions
as found in Pentecostalism as illegitimate means of speaking out, these
elements need to be incorporated into a concept of ‘liberating catech-
esis’ which is both historical and ahistorical. On the other hand, there
is evidence to support the need for more critical awareness within the
‘religion of the oppressed’.
The following chapter attempts to explore further the relationship
between Pentecostalism and the meaning of conscientization in order
to draw more specific conclusions as to the nature of the conscientiza
tion process within the context of Pentecostalism.
Chapter 4
PENTECOSTALISM a s A MOVEMENT o f CONSCENTIZATION
A political theology rooted in the idea of liberation is inherently a product

of the self-conscious and sophisticated political classes, more particularly
the ‘knowledge class’, and contemporary Pentecostals are neither
‘conscious’ nor ‘sophisticated’.1
This chapter argues that Pentecostalism incorporates the affective-

spiritual and oral dimensions of human interaction in a manner which
offers an environment conducive to conscientization. Conscientization
in the context of a Pentecostal environment is initiated and maintained
by the Holy Spirit who unveils reality in a manner which incorporates
but supersedes human praxis. Pentecostal conscientization is thus an
ongoing dialectic of humanity and deity.
Pentecostalism is first analyzed in relation to conscientization by an
analysis of the historical roots of the movement in order to determine
aspects of the Pentecostal story which directly relate to the meaning of
conscientization. Secondly, theological aspects of the movement are
examined in order to determine how Pentecostalism has expressed its
understanding of ultimate reality and how these expressions would
relate to the meaning of conscientization. Thirdly, Pentecostalism as a
movement is examined briefly in relation to sociological aspects for
conscientization. Fourthly, the possible contributions of Freire’s
thought to the educational context of Pentecostalism are explored.
Finally, conclusions are draw as to the meaning of conscientization
from the Pentecostal perspective.
1. D. Martin, Tongues o f Fire: The Explosion o f Protestantism in Latin America

(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990), p. 266.
4 . Pentecostalism as a Movement o f Conscientization 63
Definition o f the Movement J

Pentecostals represent many denominations and a variety of theologi
cal beliefs. Among the movement’s adherents one can find trinitarians
and non-trinitarians, those who practice adult baptism only and those
who utilize infant and adult baptism. Not all Pentecostals speak in
tongues, but none would forbid the practice. There are Catholic
Pentecostals, Anglican Pentecostals and a host of separate Pentecostal
denominations. There exists no worldwide Pentecostal organization
which serves to unify all its adherents. Clearly it is difficult to identify
theologically or sociologically Pentecostalism.
What has generally unified these divergent groups is a belief in the
experience known as the baptism of the Holy Spirit following conver
sion. Many Pentecostals believe that the initial evidence of having
received the Pentecostal baptism is that a person will speak, under the
Spirit’s influence, in unknown tongues. This experience is seen as the
bestowing of power for service and the ability to live a holy life. It
becomes a ‘transforming moment’ in a believer’s life.
Peter Wagner has defined Pentecostalism ‘not as a set of well estab
lished doctrines, but rather as a particular Christian life style...a
more dynamic mood than crystallized theology’.1 It is possible, how
ever, to categorize aspects of the movement. Walter Hollenweger has
divided Pentecostalism into three main streams: the classical
Pentecostal denominations, the charismatic movements within tradi
tional churches and the new emerging indigenous non-white
churches.2
The classical Pentecostal denominations grew out of the Pentecostal
revival at the turn of the century in the United States. These denomi
nations have become quite institutionalized with streamlined
bureaucratic systems, well defined creeds, and movement toward a
conceptual theology which is acceptable in evangelical circles.
Charismatic or neo-Pentecostal groups are those who have accepted
some of the elements of traditional Pentecostal liturgy and belief but
who have chosen to remain within the confines of the mainline
1. C.P. Wagner, What Are We Missing? (Carol Stream, IL: Creation House,
1973), p. 39.
2. W. Hollenweger, ‘After Twenty Years Research on Pentecostalism’,
International Review o f Mission 75 (Jan 1986), pp. 3-12.
churches or to separate themselves entirely from ecclesiastical

control.1
The indigenous (nonmissionary) Pentecostal churches of the Third
World represent the most vital and fastest growing segment of the
movement. In many Latin American or African countries,
Pentecostals represent the largest Protestant body of believers.2
David Barrett has observed that the total adherents of Pentecostalism
in 1980 was over 100 million and that it is expected to grow to 250
million by the year 2000.3 A large part of Pentecostal believers are
composed of the indigenous Third World churches. Hollenweger has
projected that if this trend continues, Christianity as a whole will no
longer be a predominantly white person’s religion.4 Whether or not
this will be the case remains to be seen, but it can be stated that
Pentecostalism is definitely not predominantly a white, western phe
nomenon. This fact alone reveals the need to articulate a Pentecostal
approach to catechesis which would take seriously Third World theo
ries of education such as Paulo Freire’s. Indeed, the two countries in
which Freire has directly worked in developing adult literacy pro
grams—Brazil and Chile—are the two Latin American countries
which are experiencing the most rapid growth of Pentecostalism.
Pentecostalism is thus a primary context for the development of a true
pedagogy of the oppressed, in spite of the fact that at the present, the
movement is being largely ignored by those who wish to develop such
a pedagogy.
1. For this study, the term charismatic or neo-Pentecostal will be used inter
changeably.
2. Hollenweger observes that indigenous churches constitute a large percentage
of Pentecostals in Third World countries such as Brazil, Chile, the Caribbean,
Indonesia, Korea, and many countries in Africa. He is critical of those who discount
both the political and liturgical significance of these movements.
3. Barrett’s figures are as follows:
198 0 2000
Charismatics 11,005,390 38,861,300
Non-White Indigenous 82,181,070 154,140,440
Pentecostal denominations 21,909,779 50,000,000
Total 115,096,239 243,001,740
See Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia,, pp. 1-104, 815-48.
4. Hollenweger, ‘After Twenty Years’, p. 3.
4. Pentecostalism as a Movement o f Conscientization 65
Historical Roots of Conscientization

This section offers a brief overview of the development of
Pentecostalism in order to determine aspects of the Pentecostal story
which directly relate to the meaning of conscientization. As such, this
evaluation is not intended to be a complete history of the movement. It
is proposed that there exists within Pentecostalism the dynamics of
conscientization; however, these dynamics are initiated and maintained
by a transforming encounter with God, which refigures the corre
sponding historical action.
From its inception at the turn of the century, Pentecostalism has had
a revolutionary and prophetic character. As early as 1906, the Los
Angeles Revival, the very cradle of Pentecostalism, indicated that the
movement had at its heart the dynamics of conscientization.
Hollenweger observes that ‘in the revival in Los Angeles, white bish
ops and black workers, men and women, Asians and Mexicans were
equal (1906)’.' Hollenweger also notes that the Pentecostal revival has
its roots in the Catholic spirituality of the holiness revival of the
nineteenth century and also in the post-Civil War black spirituality.
What follows is a synopsis of how these two influences were
antecedents to the dynamics of conscientization within the Pentecostal
movement, followed by a brief analysis of how they merged to make
Pentecostalism a potential power for the transformation of the world.
Wesleyan Roots
As precursor to the Pentecostal movement, the Wesleyan revival of
the mid to late 1800s had a radicalizing and prophetic character. The
movement, which was a mixture of revivalism and Methodism, paid
special attention to the doctrine of Christian perfection. The holiness
revivals developed largely out of a cry against the ‘embourgoisement
of Methodism’ or a perceived abandonment of Methodism to the cause
of the masses and the quest for personal piety.12
For holiness adherents, the experience of sanctification brought
about a new moral and social sensibility. Sanctification thus became a
process of consciousness raising whereby people answered God’s call

2. D.W. Dayton, Discovering an Evangelical Heritage (New York: Harper &
Row, 1976), p. 151.
to a holy life and to co-create with God in the transformation of soci

ety. Reality was to be critically perceived and injustice was to be the
object of reflection and action guided by the Holy Spirit. Therefore,
such issues as slavery, women’s rights, child labor, slum conditions,
and illiteracy were problems addressed by many adherents of this
movement.1 For instance, the Salvation Army saw itself as a living
critique of bourgeois churches, revealing the sickness and pain of
society and daring to side itself with the oppressed. Dominant in the
holiness revival was a utopian vision of reality. Christians were to be
instruments of the ushering in of the kingdom of God. This movement
preceded the ‘social gospel movement’ of the early twentieth century
and differed in several key areas. First, unlike the social gospel
movement, the holiness movement sprang from among the poor. The
holiness movement held a high view of Scripture, interpreting liter
ally passages which dealt with both social and personal piety. The
holiness movement viewed sin and evil as very real and present reali
ties. Redemption was to begin with a changed heart, but it was not to
end there.
This revolutionary and reformative dynamic within the holiness
movement waned after the Civil War. Donald Dayton has proposed
that the Civil War had helped to dissolve earlier utopian visions and
that as the adherents rose in social class and economic level, the
movement was transformed into a bastion against those who would
threaten its life, especially the lower classes that were once a source of
vitality.2 Theologically, the movement went from a post-millennial
utopian eschatology to that of a pre-millennial stance. The vision
became to rescue souls from a fallen world rather than to restructure
society. There was still, however, the emphasis upon the necessity of
sanctification of a person’s moral life.3
1. The theological and political center of the Wesleyan revival was Oberlin
College. Timothy Smith, historian of this period, observes that ‘Oberlin immediately
became the vital center of Christian reflection and action aimed at the liberation of
black people from slavery and racism, of women from male oppression’. See his
‘Holiness and Radicalism in the 19th Century’, in T. Runyon (ed.), Sanctification
and Liberation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1981), p. 117. See also his Revivalism
and Social Reform (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1957).
2. Dayton, Discovering an Evangelical Heritage, pp. 123-35.
3. Vinson Synan notes that the holiness revival of the late 1800s paralleled the
rise of populist movements occurring in the South and the rural Midwest. He con
cludes that ‘it appears that the rise of the holiness denominations after 1894 was a
Roots of Black Spirituality

Although not widely acknowledged, Pentecostalism has deep roots in
black spirituality which developed after the Civil War. One of the first
leaders of Pentecostalism was William James Seymour, a son of for
mer slaves. Many see Seymour as the father of the Pentecostal
movement.
Seymour was the initiating leader of the Azuza Street revival.
Concerning his leadership, Hollenweger notes,
The roots of Seymour’s spirituality lay in his past. He affirmed his black
heritage by introducing Negro spirituals and Negro music into his liturgy
at a time when this music was considered inferior and unfit for Christian
worship. At the same time he steadfastly lived out his understanding of
pentecost. For him pentecost meant more than speaking in tongues. It
meant to love in the face of hate, to overcome the hatred of a whole nation
by demonstrating that pentecost is something very different from the suc
cess-oriented American way of life.1
Until the 1920s, Pentecostalism was inter-racial and, as Vinson Synan

observes, because of this unheard of phenomenon, ‘its adherents were
subjected to a great deal of pressure to conform to the pattern of seg
regation which with the beginning of the twentieth century dominated
most aspects of American life’.2 This pressure caused Pentecostal
denominations to segregate their churches into black and white orga
nizations. This segregation, however, was not without regret by
many.3 Hollenweger summarizes the black influence on Pentecostalism
as follows:
—orality of liturgy ;
—narrativity of theology and witness;
—maximum participation at the levels of reflection, prayer and decision
making and therefore a form of community that is reconciliatory;
—inclusion of dreams and visions into personal and public forms of wor
ship; they function as a kind of icon for the individual and the community;
religious revolt which paralleled the political and economic revolt of populism’.
Synan, The Holiness Pentecostal Movement (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971),
p. 52. It should be noted that both movements stress the rights of the individual over
against the establishment.
2. Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement, p. 166.
—an understanding of the body/mind relationship that is informed by

experiences of correspondence between body and mind; the most striking
application of this insight is the ministry of healing by prayer.1
In regard to the dynamics of conscientization, black spirituality adds

to Pentecostalism the emphasis that there can be no dichotomy
between the social self and the spiritual self. Leonard Lovett, an
ordained minister in a black Pentecostal denomination, the Church of
God in Christ, has noted that
Black Pentecostalism affirms with dogmatic insistence that liberation is
always the consequence of the presence of the Spirit. Authentic liberation
can never occur apart from genuine Pentecostal encounter.2
Likewise, he has challenged that ‘authentic Pentecostal encounter does

not occur without liberation’.3
The black experiences of oppression and alienation have brought
about a clear understanding that reality must be overcome for justice
and that justice over oppression must come by the Holy Spirit in and
through the people of God. Black Pentecostals have not been satisfied
with attempts to solve the social problems with individual piety. They
insist, along with James Cone, that ‘liberation is not only a relation
ship with God but an encounter grounded in the historical struggle to
be free’.4
With its roots firmly in black spirituality and in the holiness move
ment, Pentecostalism was another cry against the abandonment of the
historical churches to authentic spirituality and to the cause of the
masses. The movement was driven by a utopian vision, such as seen in
the charter of the Church of God which mentions its purpose as being
to ‘restore primitive Christianity and bring about the union of all
denom inations’.5 The Pentecostals saw themselves as a direct
fulfillment of Joel 2.28. In regard to the vision of the early
Pentecostals, Hollenweger observes that

2. L. Lovett, ‘Black Origins of the Pentecostal Movement’, in Aspects o f
Pentecostal Charismatic Origins (ed. V. Synan; Plainfield, NJ: Logos International,
1975), p. 140.
3. Lovett, ‘Black Origins’, p. 140.
4. Cone, God o f the Oppressed, p. 146.
5. C.W. Conn, Like a Mighty Army (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 1955),
the time before the birth of the pentecostal movement is accordingly

painted in dark and hopeless colors and in fact as ‘a Babylonian captivity
of the church’. Then came the miraculous liberation movement, the pente
costal communities, to put an end to all strife within Christendom... Prior
to the return of Jesus on the clouds of heaven there was only one legiti
mate goal: the sanctification and unification of the children of God and the
evangelization of the world within a generation.1
From the holiness revivals Pentecostalism inherited an emphasis upon

sanctification. The church was to be a light exhibiting the inherent
characteristics of the kingdom of God. Negatively this meant
abstaining from ‘the world’. Positively this concept meant to be an
expression of the force of God’s Spirit in the world.
From black spirituality, Pentecostalism retained the emphasis upon
an oral, ongoing liturgy, maximum participation of the body, and the
freedom to include such things as visions and dreams.
The active presence of the Holy Spirit called for a radical equalizing
of blacks and whites, males and females, the rich and the poor. All
people were in need of salvation and all could be participants together
of the Tatter rain’ of the Spirit. It was, therefore, one’s standing with
God which was important. Thus, Pentecostalism stood as a contrast to
the dominant order of its day. It was a subversive and revolutionary
movement, not based upon philosophic ideology nor totally upon
critical reflection. It was a movement that experienced through the
Holy Spirit God’s divine liberation. Vinson Synan notes the subversive
nature of Pentecostalism:
In an age of Social Darwinism, Jim Crowism, and general white
supremacy, the fact that negroes and whites worshipped together in virtual
equality among the Pentecostals was a significant exception to prevailing
racial attitudes. Even more significant is the fact that this interracial accord
took place among the very groups that have traditionally been most at
odds, the poor whites and the poor blacks.2
Thus, Pentecostalism had a dual prophetic role: denouncing the domi

nant patterns of the status quo and announcing the patterns of God’s
kingdom. Because of its ecstatic religious practices and its ‘abnormal’
social behavior concerning the roles of blacks and women,
1. Hollenweger, ‘Charismatic and Pentecostal Movements: A Challenge to the

Churches’, in The Holy Spirit (ed. D. Kirkpatrick; Nashville: Tidings, 1974),
pp. 210-11.
Pentecostalism was opposed by the society at large and by the estab

lished churches. Consequently, many Pentecostals developed a ‘siege
mentality’, avoiding as much contact as possible with ‘the world’.
After World War II, much of the prophetic zeal of Pentecostals
waned, and there was a gradual acceptance of them by the society at
large and by the more traditional churches. Pentecostals were part of
the formation of the National Association of Evangelicals in 1943, and
there were many second generation Pentecostals who had risen into
middle class, accepting its values and norms. Following the sect-
church typology, Pentecostalism was losing many of its ‘sect-like’
characteristics.1
In spite of these changes within the movement, there exists within
Pentecostalism a ‘corporate memory’ of its revolutionary roots. It is
the task of Pentecostalism today to reconsider its own ‘story’ critically
and to make itself available to the radicalizing presence of God’s
Spirit. Thus, the conscientization needed among Pentecostals is one
which would ignite what Walter Brueggemann has labeled as the
‘prophetic imagination’. Its task is ‘to move back into the deepest
memories of...community and activate those very symbols that have
always been the basis for contradicting the regnant consciousness’.2 It
is important that the symbols utilized in conscientization not be
‘general and universal but...those that have been known concretely in
this particular history’.3 Thus, conscientization would not be the
tacking-on of a new ideology to serve a crisis but the involving of
what Brueggemann has called ‘the primal dimension of every memo
ry’4 of the Pentecostal community.
The task of conscientization is a prophetic task. It is the task of
offering symbols of hope in order for people to make history.
1. H.R. Niebuhr spoke of the ‘religion of the disinherited’ as having the quali
ties of solidarity and equality and the ‘religious evaluation of simplicity of dress and
manners, of the wisdom hidden to the wise and prudent but revealed to babes, of
poverty of spirit, of humility and meekness’. Niebuhr, The Social Sources o f
Denominationalism (New York: Henry Holt, 1929), p. 25. Niebuhr was following
the basic thesis of Ernest Troeltsch ‘that the really creative, church-forming religious
movements are the work of this lower strata’. See Niebuhr, The Social Sources of
Denominationalism, p. 27.
2. W. Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1978), p. 66.
3. Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, p. 66.
4. Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, p. 66.
Brueggemann describes this process:

In offering symbols the prophet has two tasks. One is to mine the memory
of this people and educate them to use the tools of hope. The other is to
recognize how singularly words, speech, language, and phrase shape
consciousness and define reality. The prophet is the one who, by use of
these tools of hope, contradicts the presumed world of the kings showing
both that presumed world does not square with the facts and that we have
been taught a lie and have believed it because the people with the hardware
and the printing press told us it was that way. And so the offering of
symbols is a job not for a timid clerk who simply shares the inventory but
for people who know something different and are prepared, out of their
own anguish and amazement, to know that the closed world of managed
reality is false. The prophetic imagination knows that the real world is the
one that has its beginning and dynamic in the promising speech of God
and that this is true even in a world where kings have tried to banish all
speech but their own.1
Following the thoughts of Brueggemann, it can be concluded that con

scientization among Pentecostals begins and maintains its dynamic in
the ‘speech of God’. This speech comes through the presence of the
Holy Spirit, actualizing the kingdom of God among a people who
‘know something different and are prepared out of their own anguish
and amazement’ to expose the falseness of the closed world of man
aged reality and to make God’s history upon the earth.
v
The Spread of Pentecostalism in Latin America
The Pentecostal movement quickly spread throughout'the world,
much in the same manner as it did in the United States. Hollenweger
observes that in the period following the Azuza Street Revival, the
Pentecostal movement ‘succeeded in becoming a church of the poor in
Africa, Latin America, and Indonesia, primarily because it worked
with the poor’.2
Following is a brief synopsis of the rise of the Pentecostal move
ment in Latin America, particularly in Brazil and Chile.
Characteristics of the movement in relation to the dynamics of consci
entization are highlighted.
Pentecostalism spread to Latin America in 1906, the same year of
1. Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, pp. 66-67.

the great Azuza Street Revival in Los Angeles. In Latin America the
movement found fertile soil, and its growth and development has been
phenomenal, especially in recent years. In 1969 William Read’s
exhaustive study Latin American Church Growth indicated that over
63 percent of all Protestants in Latin America were Pentecostal.1
More recent figures indicate that Pentecostals compose either the
largest church or the largest natural grouping of churches in Brazil,
Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, El Salvador,
Honduras and Mexico.2 In particular, Brazil and Chile have had the
most outstanding growth. The growth and development of
Pentecostalism in these two countries will be briefly highlighted.
Chile
Pentecostalism in Chile began with William C. Hoover, a Methodist
missionary-pastor. Hoover was fascinated by reports of outpourings
of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in India, Venezuela and Norway. He
formed a prayer group in his home for the purpose of seeking this
‘deeper experience’. The group experienced an outpouring of the Holy
Spirit and the movement spread to more and more Methodist churches
in Valparaiso and Santiago. These renewal activities created a public
reaction and generated comments from the press.
Methodist leaders attempted to calm Hoover’s revival movement. At
the Annual Conference of April, 1910, Hoover’s position was labeled
‘unscriptural, un-Methodist and irrational’. He was requested to leave
Chile for a furlough, but he chose to stay and end his ties to the
Methodist Church. He organized the Methodist Pentecostal Church.
The newly formed sect recruited its members from the lower
classes of Chile and it emphasized native leadership. Today this
Pentecostal body exists as a completely indigenous movement and is
the largest Protestant church in Chile. Warren Homing has provided a
description of Chilean Pentecostalism:
The Pentecostal movement is seen as one which is national, popular and
self-supporting. There is a high degree of cohesion and intense participa
tion by the members, most of whom come from the lower strata of the
1. W. Read, V. Monterrose and H. Johnson, Latin American Church Growth

(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969), p. 387. See also Read, New Patterns o f Church
Growth in Brazil (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965) and his Brazil 1980: The
Protestant Handbook (Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1973).
2. Wagner, What Are We Missing?, p. 26.
population. Church services are characterized by excitement and a high

degree of expectation. Meetings are held, not only in church buildings but
on the street comers, accompanied by lively music performed on a variety
of instruments, and group singing. Preaching is simple and direct and
invariably accompanied by an invitation to join the group as it proceeds
toward the local church for service.1
The Pentecostal churches of Chile have afforded dignity to those who

are integrated into them. They call for full participation of everyone,
regardless of education, income or gender. The Chilean Pentecostal
churches have been in touch with the Latin culture and its composi
tion. Services have a high degree of spontaneity but are controlled and
in order.
Sociologist Emilio Willems characterizes the Pentecostal sects of
Chile and Brazil as class organizations. He notes that
like most sects, the Pentecostalists refuse to accept the traditional symbols
because these are symbols of the upper class. The Pentecostal sects are
protest movements against the existing class structure.2
Chilean Pentecostalism, therefore, has had a strong appeal to the

masses, offering love and acceptance and dignity. LaLive describes
this appeal:
1. W.G. Homing, Paulo Freire’s Contribution to the Theological Education of

Protestant Laity in Chile’ (DMin dissertation, School of Theology at Claremont,
1974), p. 159. Homing’s research deals with the World Council of Churches’ ‘Pilot
Project’ for theological education among Chilean Protestants. Homing attempts to
utilize the organizational structure of the Methodist class meeting as adopted by the
Pentecostals, combined with the educational philosophy of Paulo Freire, and also
modem group dynamics to develop a program of theological education for personal
growth and social action. It was Homing’s thesis that the Pentecostal churches of
Chile ‘have prepared an environment and organizational system which is ideally
suited for the utilization of the philosophy and method of Paulo Freire in a program
of adult theological education which will combine the best features of both
Pentecostalism and Freire’, p. 163. What Homing observed was that Pentecostalism
was conducive toward conscientization. The Pilot Project, however, did not
sufficiently take into account the meaning of conscientization as defined by the
Pentecostals. Social action and critical reflection must be defined by Pentecostals and
not for Pentecostals.
2. E. Willems, Followers o f the New Faith: Culture Change and the Rise o f
Protestantism in Brazil and Chile (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1967),
p. 218.
From the moment of his first contact with the community, the sympathizer
finds himself to be an object of interest and surrounded by human
warmth. He finds that other people attribute to him an importance which
he himself never suspected and learns that God is interested in him! Men
and women confided to me that they wept the first time they attended a
Pentecostal service, ‘not because of the beauty of the ceremonial— oh no,
it is not as beautiful as with the Catholics—but because people spoke to
me, the pastor shook my hand, and I was able to sing and pray with
them’.1
LaLive divides Pentecostalism in Chile in terms of three major

aspects: the conquering community (evangelism), the praying com
munity (spiritual life) and the teaching community (education).2 The
conquering community is a dynamic organization of men, women and
young people who descend on a city for the purpose of evangelism.
Street services are the hallmark of Chilean Pentecostalism.3 In regard
to the praying community, worship is the heart of community life.
Services are characterized by loud singing, usually accompanied by an
orchestra, testimonies, greeting of visitors, and the famous salutation
of Chilean Pentecostals—the triple Gloria a Dios. Preaching during
the service is
not in the form of a lecture but rather that of a dialogue; the speaker chal
lenges his followers and asks for their approval, which they show both by
a barrage of stereotyped phrases: ‘It is so’, ‘Yes, amen’, ‘alleluia’, and
also by repeating whole sentences after the pastor.4
LaLive has observed that of the three dimensions of congregational

life, the teaching community is the least well defined.5 His difficulty in

4. LaLive, Haven o f the Masses, pp. 51-55.
5. LaLive, Haven o f the Masses, pp. 51-55. LaLive observes that only the
Sunday School ‘inherited from traditional Protestantism offers some analogy with
what is commonly called teaching’. Furthermore, ‘this teaching is a matter of
teaching not in ideas, but in a way of living, based on exemplary character of the
Bible personages and on Bible stories’, p. 55. It can be observed that the above
described form of education is based on a ‘community of faith—enculturation’
paradigm as described by John Westerhoff. Such a paradigm is ‘an intentional
covenanting, pilgrim, radical, counter-cultural, tradition-bearing faith community’.
J. Westerhoff, Will our Children Have Faith? (New York: Seabury Press, 1976),
p. 49. This model as proposed by Westerhoff has the Christian story passed on
describing this aspect of church life stems from the fact that for the
Pentecostals, there is no structured theology and no formal body of
catechetical material. Education in the context of Chilean
Pentecostalism is what Wagner has labeled as ‘seminaries in the
streets’. Instruction is carried on through the services and evangelistic
activities. A person leams how he or she should live as a Christian by
actively participating in the life of the church.1
Pentecostalism in Chile, for the most part, remained on the outside
of political power, existing in its own ‘free space’ until the turbulent
seventies. The Pentecostals were divided among themselves regarding
supporting the revolutionary program of Salvador Allende (1970-
1973). Many Pentecostal pastors, however, did not support the social
ist agenda of Allende and saw his murder as an act of God.2 The
assassination of President Allende and the military takeover of 1973
marked drastic changes for the Methodist Pentecostal Church. The
new dictator, Augusto Pinochet, actively courted the church and
became its patron. This marriage between the military government
known for its violent suppression of human rights and Chile’s largest
Pentecostal church resulted in worldwide criticism. Perhaps it is
Martin’s assessment of Latin American Pentecostals in general which
best describes (not excuses) the passivity and naivete of the Chilean
Pentecostals:
That is what you would expect from a movement which picks up the mute
and the strangled voices of those unheard throughout Latin American his
tory. At least in the sphere of faith they are now giving ‘tongues’. They
are making their voices heard in vast assemblages where they finally count
for something.3
If a military dictator promises to allow these ‘free spaces’ to remain

free, then for those who feel powerless, such freedom is often enough.
through the ritual and life of the community. Therefore, the means of Christian
education ‘is best understood as the actions between and among faithful persons in
an environment that supports the expansion of faith and equip persons for radical
life...as followers of Jesus Christ’, p. 50. More is said in ch. 5 on how a
‘community of faith-enculturation paradigm’ relates to Pentecostal catechesis.
1. Wagner, What Are We Missing ?, p. 89.
2. D. Stoll, Is Latin America Turning Protestant? (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1990), p. 112.
3. Martin, Tongues o f Fire, p. 108.
Brazil
The Pentecostal movement was introduced to Brazil by an Italian and
two Swedish men. Louis Franceson was an Italian immigrant who
after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit felt a strong leading to
go to South America. After spending some time in Argentina,
Franceson then went to Sao Paulo, Brazil. There he was befriended by
an Italian who invited him to his home in Platina. It was there that ‘the
Lord opened the hearts of eleven persons who were baptized in the
water, confirmed by revelations, cures and manifestation of the Holy
Spirit’.1
Franceson returned to Sao Paulo and spoke to an Italian
Presbyterian Church. He was ordered out of the church by those who
disagreed with his method and message. There were those, however,
who supported Franceson and left with him and together founded the
Congregacao Crista no Brasil. At first the only Pentecostals in Brazil
were Italian, but the movement spread rapidly to other Brazilians.
Congregacao has existed as a fully indigenous church and has today a
total membership of 360,000. As a self-supporting Brazilian congre
gation, its constituents come from both the lower and rising middle
classes of Brazil. The church has no paid pastoral leadership; all
church activities depend upon the gifts of lay leadership.2
The Assemblies of God began a work in Brazil in 1910 through the
efforts of Daniel Berg and Gunner Vingren, two Swedish immigrants
from South Bend, Indiana, who felt a call to go to Brazil during a
Pentecostal revival in Chicago. Their early labors resulted in the
founding of Brazil’s largest church which has about 1,500,000 adher
ents. There are numerous other Pentecostal churches in Brazil, such as
the indigenous ‘Brazil para Cristo’ which evolved in the city of Sao
Paulo with an estimated 200,000 members.
Pentecostalism in Brazil has been predominately urban centered. It
is largely a movement of the masses, rising from the lower classes and
reaching the lower classes. It has not been a missionary dominated
movement. Emilio Castro comments concerning the indigenous nature
of Pentecostalism in Latin America:
1. Read, New Patterns o f Church Growth, pp. 22-23.

2. Read, New Patterns o f Church Growth, pp. 22-23. See in particular ch. 1 for
details concerning the growth of Congregacao Crista.
It is safe to say that Pentecostalism is probably the most indigenous Latin

American kind of Protestantism... because they are not institutionally
bound to churches in other parts of the world and consequently not eco
nomically dependent on foreign groups—Pentecostal churches may be
said to represent authentic Latin American Protestantism.1
Wagner notes that because Pentecostals have been allowed to become

indigenous very early in their development, they developed a
‘culturally relevant liturgy’.2 This liturgy reflects the oral culture of
Third World countries.
In his description of Brazilian Pentecostalism, David Martin
observes that the movement has been able ‘to provide an all encom
passing worldview for marginalized people’, and it represents ‘the
religious form of a raised consciousness and quite literally of a raised
voice’.3 According to Martin, Pentecostals in Brazil offer both accep
tance and full participation and a strong sense of discipline. Within the
‘free space’ of a Pentecostal church, people could ‘rise to the top’, if
equipped with spiritual gifts.4
Brazilian Pentecostals are known for being more socially active
than other Latin American Pentecostals. The Congregacao Crista of
Sao Paulo is noted for its active provisions for the poor, and other
Pentecostal groups echo the sentiment that the gospel is both social and
spiritual.
Conclusions
The Pentecostal movement in Latin America, particularly in Chile and
Brazil exists as a liberating movement of the masses. Within the
movement are inherent dynamics conducive toward conscientization.
These dynamics are a culturally relevant liturgy, a high degree of
participation of everyone in both worship and mission, a radical
equalizing of the barriers of social status, and an emphasis upon the
ongoing transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Within these expres
sions is the creation of what David Martin refers to as ‘free spaces’,^
which serve as powerful gestalts of freedom and dignity.5
1. E. Castro, ‘Pentecostalism and Ecumenism in Latin America’, Christian

Century (September 27, 1972), p. 955.
Many of these characteristics are in common with the characteristics

of American Pentecostalism during its early period. In Latin America,
Pentecostalism exists as a powerful movement of the poor, with a
first-generation religious zeal. As such, the movement is pregnant
with potential for the transformation of society. It cannot be over
looked as a useless escape but rather needs to be viewed as a revolu
tionary movement in its own right. This revolution, however, is to be
understood on its own terms, and to do that one must be willing to
respect its interpretation of ultimate reality. Such respect and under
standing comes about only when there is authentic conversion to the
side of the oppressed.
Charismatic Groups
The advent of the charismatic revival during the 1960s shattered the
generally accepted stereotype that Pentecostalism was totally bound to
the milieu of the poor. Today, Pentecostalism is also a movement
among Catholic intellectuals and American business persons and has at
times totally consumed Episcopal parishes.
The charismatic or new-Pentecostal revival was preceded by the
rise of many Pentecostals into the middle class during the years fol
lowing World War II. Also, Pentecostal leaders such as Oral Roberts
introduced the movement to many American families via the televi
sion. Groups such as the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship, which
brought the Pentecostal message to American businessmen, helped to
further Pentecostalism among the middle class.
It was David DuPlessis who helped spread the Pentecostal experi
ence among non-Pentecostals around the world, especially among
‘liberal’ churches and member churches of the World Council. In
1947, du Plessis took the leading role in convening the first
Pentecostal World Conference in Zurich, Switzerland. Consumed with
a passionate zeal for ecumenism, he was often criticized by many
classical Pentecostals. Du Plessis attended Vatican II as the only
Pentecostal observer and has worked as chairman of the Roman
Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue team.1
The charismatic revival has found fertile soil within the Catholic
1. See D. DuPlessis, They Bade Me Go (Oakland, CA: D. DuPlessis, 1963).

See also D. DuPlessis as told to Bob Slosser, A Man Called Mr. Pentecost
(Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1977).
Church. Vinson Synan notes that Vatican II paved the way for the
Catholic charismatic renewal movement. Many of its documents
reflected an emphasis on the Holy Spirit.1 The influence of the Primate
of Belgium, Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenen, was especially notable for
opening up Catholicism for charismatic manifestations. After Vatican
II, there were experiences of the baptism of the Holy Spirit among
Catholics in Pittsburgh and at Notre Dame. By 1974, there were an
estimated 1,800 charismatic Catholic prayer groups in America and a
total of 2,400 worldwide. In 1973, Pope Paul VI appointed Cardinal
Suenen of Belgium as his advisor concerning the charismatic
movement.2
Charismatics and the Dynamics of Conscientization

When analyzing neo-Pentecostalism in relation to the dynamics of
conscientization, there arises both great hinderances and great poten
tial for its actualizaton. Both of these are evaluated briefly.
Such movements as the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Association have
married the aspirations of the ‘nouveau riche’ to Pentecostal experi
ence. Hollenweger observes that this marriage seems ‘incompre
hensible’ to many, especially when it is said that ‘the person who is
full of the Holy Spirit will prove more successful in business, make
better tractors and automobiles than his competitors, live in a finer
house...than the person who is not converted or is not baptized with
the Spirit’.3 Also, with the rise of fundamentalism as a political force
in American culture, charismatics such as Pat Robertson have married
its political aspirations of the New Right with the Pentecostal
experience. The result has been little emphasis on the social critique of
Pentecostalism as a voice for the poor and oppressed. Rather,
Pentecostals in many regards have become one with ultra-conservative
1. See V. Synan, In the Latter Days (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1984),
especially ch. 8, ‘The Rain Falls on Catholics’, for an excellent overview of the
Catholic charismatic renewal. See also D.F. Wells, Revolution in Rome (Downers
Grove, IL: Creation House, 1972); K. and D. Ranazhan, Catholic Pentecostals (New
York: Paulist Press, 1971); and D.D. O’Conner, The Pentecostal Movement in the
Catholic Church (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1971).
2. For an excellent synopsis of Cardinal Suenen’s thoughts on the relation
between charismatic theology and social action, see Cardinal L.J. Suenen and
D.H. Camara, Charismatic Renewal and Social Action: A Dialogue (Ann Arbor, MI:
Servant Books, 1972).
3. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals, p. 7.
Republican politics. What critique there has been on society has been
limited to the moral issues of abortion and concern about the rise of
humanism. With regard to this phenomenon, Paul Valliere observes
that the unhappy Carter presidency, the rightist politics and the
developments abroad, such as the revolt of Islam, have disposed the
party of liberal culture in America to feel much less sympathy for
charismatic religion than they did in the days of the Civil Rights
Movement.1
Furthermore, Valliere has called the new marriage of charismatics
and the New Right a ‘sorry misalliance’.2 Instead, Valliere proposes
that by its very nature, Pentecostalism is opposite of the militarism
and rigidity of the New Right. For Valliere, Pentecostal religion is a
religion of freedom whereas fundamentalism represents an authoritar
ian morality. He has called for greater dialogue between Pentecostals
and theological liberals inasmuch as both would gain from this
experience.
Both liberalism and Pentecostalism stand to gain from a new dialogue.
Liberalism stands to gain a deeper appreciation of the presence of the Holy
Spirit and a stronger sense of the reality of the church, both of which are
needed to check its tendency to put mere culture ahead of the Gospel, and
even to try to domesticate the Gospel to make it safe for civilization,
democracy, human rights, or for that matter, socialism. Pentecostalism
stands to gain theological breadth, intellectual maturity... all of which are
needed to counter its tendency to mistake the mere anarchy of sectaranism
without culture for the holy anarchy, or Pentecostal freedom which the
Gospel celebrates.3
It is within the circles of Catholic charismatics where there is the most

potential for the dynamics of conscientization. Cardinal Suenen has led
the way by initiating dialogue between Catholic charismatics and
advocates of social action, stating that
The Christian needs the Spirit and his gifts, his charisma, not only for his
personal spiritual life, but that he may contribute to the healing of soci
ety’s ill... The ‘social’ Christian and the ‘charismatic’ Christian both need
to surrender with the same humility, to the action of the Holy Spirit in
them, so that through their human and technical collaboration the world
may be renewed in depth... for the sanctifying Spirit and the creative
1. P. Valliere, Holy War and Peace (New York: The Seabury Press, 1983), p. 2.
2. Valliere, Holy War and Peace, p. 9.
3. Valliere, Holy War and Peace, p. 3.
Spirit are one and the same person. The Spirit respects our human condi
tion, he deepens and strengthens its value. He does not invalidate the play
of our human faculties.1
Hollenweger has observed that among Catholic Pentecostals there is

'not only speaking in tongues but critical discussion of theological and
social problems’.2 Also, there exists within the Catholic Pentecostal
movement experiments with Christian communities.
In his forward to Shelia Macmanus Fakey’s groundbreaking
Charismatic Social Action, Marvin A. Mottet observes that ‘the church
and the world would be richly blessed if the very best from charis
matic renewal and from social action could be fused’.3 He provides a
statement issued by a meeting of twenty-six persons who met near
Phoenix, Arizona, in order to move in the direction of combining
charismatic renewal and social action, which called for greater
reflection and action, social structures and a recognition of the power
of the Holy Spirit for effectiveness for social justice and individual
transformation.4
Conclusions
Despite its tendencies toward emphasizing personal experience over
social witness, there is the potential within Pentecostal-charismatic
circles for a radical witness of the meaning of Pentecost for the world
in which there is exhibited justice, peace, dialogue and authentic self
giving love and in which there is no oppressed-oppressor distinction.
Vinson Synan notes that no group in America has a ‘greater oppor
tunity to challenge the existing order’.5
In 1979, Jeremy Rifkin observes that within the charismatic move
ment, there are possibilities for challenge to the existing order of the
modem industrial order. In regard to those possibilities he states:
While it’s too early to tell which way the charismatic movement will
eventually lean, a great deal will depend on their understanding of the
nature of our secular-materialist culture. If they see the problem simply as
1. Suenen, Charismatic Renewal and Social Action, p. 38.

3. M.A. Mottet, Foreword to S. Macmanus Fakey, Charismatic Social Action
(New York: Paulist Press, 1977), p. xii.
4. Mottet, ‘Foreword’, pp. xii-xiii.
5. Synan, In Latter Days, p. 143.
one of saving fallen individuals from an evil world, leaving the institu
tional basis of materialism untouched, then it is likely the existing world
will change them, rather than they it. If, however, the evangelical partici
pants in the new awakening are able to introduce the biblical notion of
fallen powers and principalities as a dual concern along with individual
renewal, then this new awakening may, indeed, combine liberation with
covenant and change the course of history.1
Today, charismatics face the choice of embracing the ethos which

gave rise to the Pentecostal movement, namely the world of the
marginalized. Unless this is done in such a manner that there is
authentic conversion to the cause of the oppressed and to a desire for a
radical return to primitive Christianity, the charismatic movement
will continue to be trapped in the milieu of the middle class and hence
fail to transform even its own corporate existence into a just society.
Theological Dimensions of Conscientization

Within the nature of Pentecostalism there is present not only the his
torical precedent for conscientization, but there is also present a
means of theologizing which speaks toward this end. This section,
therefore, offers an analysis of certain aspects of Pentecostal theology
in relation to the dynamics of conscientization. This analysis is
accomplished by examining hermeneutical issues, the oral nature
of Pentecostal theologizing, and the role of the Holy Spirit in
transformation.
As a whole, and especially in the Third World, Pentecostals have
not formulated a systematic set of theological beliefs.2 Rather, theol
ogy has been forged within the life of the church.3 Pentecostal theol
ogy is largely what a Pentecostal does. It is an ongoing exercise of
1. J. Rifkin and T. Howard, The Emerging Order: God in the Age o f Scarcity
(New York: Putman’s Sons, 1970), p. 231.
2. Russell Spittler observes that 4so far as any published systematic theology is
concerned a self-conscious effort to frame religious truth for the Pentecostal tradition
within its own time and space—something remotely comparable to Donald Gelpi’s
work for Roman Catholic charismatics, not to mention Karl Barth’s magisterial
Church Dogmatics for the Reformed tradition—there simply is no such Pentecostal
theology. Even the intent to produce such a work has barely surfaced’. See his ‘Bar
Mitzva for Azuza Street: Feature, Funtions and Fitness of a Renewal Movement
Come of Age’, Theology News and Notes 30 (March 1983), p. 17.
3. Spittler, ‘Bar Mitzvah’, p. 17.
praxis inasmuch as reflection arises out of experience, put into

dialogue with Scripture and the witness of the community, and then
flows back into concrete action. William McDonald has noted that
Pentecostal theology has primarily a character of ‘witness’, with
‘purity of doctrine...preserved by checking to see that the new wit
ness has experienced all that was experienced by the first witness and
that both conform to the primary “witness” of the Holy Scriptures’ . 1
Defining a Pentecostal Hermeneutic

Gordon Fee observes that Pentecostals are ‘noted for their bad
hermeneutics’.2 His reference is to their reputation among Protestants
for a lack of regard for developing a systematic understanding of
Scripture. Fee has seen Pentecostalism employing a kind of pragmatic
hermeneutic, meaning, ‘obey what would be taken literally; spiritual
ize, allegorize, or devotionalize the rest’.3 Noting that Pentecostal
experience has preceded a Pentecostal hermeneutic, he calls for the
development of a more articulate Pentecostal hermeneutic.4
1. W.G. McDonald, ‘Pentecostal Theology: A Classical Viewpoint’, in

R. Spittler (ed.), Perspectives on the New Pentecostalism (Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House, 1976), p. 62.
2. G. Fee, ‘Hermeneutics and Historical Precedent—A Major Problem in
Pentecostal Hermeneutics’, in R. Spittler (ed.), Perspectives on the New
Pentecostalism p. 119.
3. Fee, ‘Hermeneutics’, p. 121.
4. Fee, ‘Hermeneutics’, pp. 119-23. Fee attempts to define some general prin
ciples for the development of a Pentecostal hermeneutic. He proposes that
Pentecostals should take into account the literary meaning of the Scripture passage by
investigating grammar, philosophy and history. Furthermore, Pentecostals should
categorize ‘doctrinal statements’ derived from Scripture as relating to (1) Christian
theology, (2) Christian ethics, (3) Christian experience and to categorize further these
into primary and secondary considerations. Fee further proposes some principles for
the use of ‘historical precedent’, primarily for aiding Pentecostals define their
meaning of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. While Fee’s suggestions are intended to
help clarify a Pentecostal hermeneutic, Fee largely chooses to bypass the benefits of
the inductive nature of the Pentecostal approach of Scripture. Attempts to make the
Pentecostal understanding of Scripture relate to conservative evangelical theology
have been made by Fee and others. This attempt is especially apparent in the inclu
sion and active participation of Pentecostal scholars in the Evangelical Theological
Society which is dominated by the Princeton formulation of biblical inerrancy. It
would seem that modem evangelical rationalism as represented by ETS does not do
justice to the transformational function of the Scriptures. For an excellent analysis of
Other Pentecostals, however, are not disturbed by the Pentecostal

approach to Scripture. Michael Dowd observes,
When the only 'language game’ in town is rationalism it is not hard to
understand why an experiential, relational, emotional and oral faith would
choose not to play by the rules. Not only is any mystical experience to one
degree or another incommunicable, but just as many metaphors, myths
and stories communicate truth in other than rational, propositional ways,
so do Pentecostal experiences frustrate attempts to categorize, systematize
and theologize.1
Timothy Cargill observes that ‘Pentecostals within the academy have

tended to align themselves with evangelicals in their move toward
adopting the methods of historical criticism while maintaining a
commitment to the reliability of biblical narrative’.2 Cargill also notes
that Pentecostal preachers have continued the traditional modes of
Pentecostal interpretation ‘with their emphasis on the immediacy of
the text, and that this precritical stance is more amenable to a post
modern paradigm than to the modem paradigm dominated by posi
tivism and historicism’.3 He concludes that Pentecostalism’s emphasis
upon the role of the Holy Spirit in interpreting/appropriating the
multiple meanings of the biblical texts is an important contribution
‘as the Western church seeks to reclaim its sense of mysticism and
the immanence of the transcendent which was diminished by
rationalism’.4
French Arrington identifies three major characteristics of
Pentecostal hermeneutics: pneumatic illumination, the dialogical role
of experience, and emphasis upon the narrative texts.5 The pneumatic
the influence of the Princeton School of evangelical theology, see D. Dayton’s

‘Whither Evangelicalism?’ in Sanctification and Liberation (Nashville: Abingdon
Press, 1981), pp. 142-63.
1. M.B. Dowd, ‘Contours of a Narrative Pentecostal Theology and Practice’
(paper presented at the Society for Pentecostal Studies Fifteenth Annual Meeting,
Mother of God Community, Gaithersburg, MD, 1985).
2. T. Cargill, ‘Beyond the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy: Pentecostals
and Hermeneutics in a Past Modem Age’ (paper presented at the Society For
Pentecostal Studies, Lakeland, FL, November 1991).
3. Cargill, ‘Beyond the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy’, p. 8.
4. Cargill, ‘Beyond the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy’, p. 21.
5. F. Arrington, ‘Hermeneutics, Historical Perspectives on Pentecostal and
Charismatic’, in Dictionary o f Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (ed.
S.M. Burgess, G.B. McGee and P.H. Alexander; Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
mode ‘recognizes a spiritual kinship between the ancient authors of the

text and the modem reader’.1 This kinship comes via the experience
of the Holy Spirit which serves as a common context in which the
reader and the author can meet ‘to bridge the historical and cultural
gulf between them’.2 The experiential mode reflects the Pentecostal
emphasis on an ongoing continuity with the New Testament church.
Thus, the Bible is not merely a historical record of God’s actions in
the past; it is the primary source book for life. As such, personal and
corporate experience is not to be divorced from the hermeneutical
task. Pentecostalism’s emphasis on historical narrative gives authority
to the narrative sections of the biblical text, which allows for the text
to become part of the total person. This understanding of knowledge
incorporates the Hebrew meaning of yada which means to know in an
experiential, active manner. With this understanding, there is, thus, a
hermeneutical dialectic between present experience and the biblical
witness. The dynamic of this relationship is created and maintained by
the presence of the Holy Spirit who actualizes the written word into
life and who makes real the presence of the living word.
Such a mode of biblical interpretation is pregnant with implications
for the dynamics of conscientization. Reality is not abstracted from
religious inquiry. Truth is not contemplative truth, removed from
actual experience. Rather, experience becomes the material which is
put into dialogue with God’s word. There is, therefore, an ongoing
dynamic of interpreting experience by the norm of Scripture.
Speaking as a Pentecostal, John Sims observes that
the theological task of the church ought never to be approached as a mere
intellectual exercise. The only kind of theological inquiry that can lead to
purposeful and spiritual ends is that which is done in an atmosphere of
prayer, worship and openness to the Holy Spirit.3
In the field of Christian education, there have been attempts to

broaden the meaning of the task of hermeneutics for education.
Thomas Groome’s ‘shared praxis approach’ incorporates a dialectical
understanding of hermeneutics.4 Walter Wink proposes a new
1988), pp. 376-89.

1. Arrington, ‘Hermeneutics’, pp. 376-89.
2. Arrington, ‘Hermeneutics’, pp. 376-89.
3. J. Sims, Power with Purpose (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 1974),
p. 132.
4. Groome, Christian Religious Education, pp. 196-97. Groome has developed
hermeneutical paradigm which restores communion and genuine dia

logue between the interpreter and the text. This paradigm would
replace the historical-critical approach with one which maintains the
subject-object relationship. The context for the new paradigm would
be a vital Christian community.1
There are great similarities between what Groome and Wink have
proposed and actual Pentecostal praxis.2 LaLive observes that for
Pentecostals in Chile, teaching the Scripture is ‘a matter of teaching
not in ideas, but in a way of living’. The teachers (interpreters of
Scripture) are described by LaLive as ‘group animators’ who relate
the Bible text and encourage an exchange of reactions, which take the
form of testimonies, examples and illustrations from daily life.3
Summary
A Pentecostal hermeneutic is one which is praxis-oriented, with expe
rience and Scripture being maintained in a dialectical relationship.
The Holy Spirit is the one who maintains this ongoing relationship.
Scripture is the final authority as truth, but most Pentecostals insists
that even biblical truth is not to be abstracted nor viewed philosophi
cally. The truth must be fulfilled in life experience. Lived faith is the
result of a knowledge of the Scripture.
a four-part process: (1) the Christian story (Scripture and tradition) which serves as a
source of critique for the present; (2) movement from present praxis to the story,
bringing its own consciousness, needs to the appropriation of the story; (3) the
dialectic between the vision which arises out of the meaning of the story and our pre
sent praxis; and (4) movement from present praxis to vision, with the future being
shaped by our appropriation.
1. W. Wink, The Bible in Human Transformation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1973). Historical biblical criticism, according to Wink, was ‘based on an inadequate
method, married to a false objectivism, subjected to uncontrolled technologism, sepa
rated from a vital Christian community’, p. 15. Thus, ‘biblical criticism became cut
off from any community for whose life its results might be significant’, p. 10.
2. Drawing on the above consideration of a Pentecostal hermeneutic, Jackie and
Cheryl Johns, in collaboration with colleagues at the Church of God School of
Theology have proposed an approach to Bible study which includes four interactive
movements: sharing our testimony, searching the Scriptures, yielding to the Spirit,
and responding to the call. More will be said regarding this approach in ch. 5. See
Johns and Johns, ‘Yielding to the Spirit’.
Such a dynamic keeps one from being submerged within historical

experience or removed from life in contemplative exercise. It is con
ducive for conscientization inasmuch as one’s own reality is constantly
being critically analyzed in the light of the norms of Scripture which
call for the sanctification of the individual and ultimately the world.
An Oral Theology
Closely related to an experiential, praxis-oriented Pentecostal
hermeneutic is a way of theologizing which may be defined as oral-
narrative.1 This oral-narrative dynamic allows for the Christian
‘story’ to be integrated with life experiences. It gives a ‘voice’ to
every believer inasmuch as it is the responsibility of everyone to par
ticipate in the telling of his or her experience.
An oral-narrative theology allows for theology to become part of
the life of the community of faith. Hence, belief is forged in the con
text of community with everyone having a voice in the ongoing
dialectic of the kingdom of God.
With the rise of conceptual theologizing among many American
Pentecostals, this oral nature is on the decline. But Third World
Pentecostalism retains its oral-narrative dynamics. Hollenweger
describes this oral quality of Third World Pentecostals:
For them the medium of communication is, just as in biblical times, not
the definition but the description, not the statement but the story, not the
parables, not a systematic theology but a song, not the articulation of con
cepts but the celebration of banquets.2
A narrative theology has implications for the conscientization process.

First, stories have a remarkable ability to represent reality. Dowd
notes that ‘truth is far less powerful when it is represented analyti
cally, propositionally or systematically’.3
Stanley Hauerwas proposes that story or narrative provides a means
1. An oral theology does not mean illiterate or non-literary, although it is inclu

sive of those who are non-literate. It basically means that high value is placed on the
oral means of communication over the literary. Information is stored and passed on
in the form of stories, testimonies, etc.
3. Dowd, ‘Contours of a Narrative Pentecostal Theology’ (paper presented at
the Society for Pentecostal Studies Fifteenth Annual Meeting, Mother of God
Community, Gaithersburg, MD, 1985), p. 12.
of enabling the person to make proper decisions as well as under

standing the depth of human nature. Such a narrative shows how
human action and reason connect to form a person’s character. For
Hauerwas, stories form who we become and affect our decisions and
actions. It is not our ability to reason logically which causes us to
become who we are in our deepest selves.1
Hauerwas makes the distinction between a false story and a true one.
A true story is one that gives us the courage to go on and empowers
us to know ourselves in a transformative way. ‘Such a knowledge is
like a skill that gives us the ability to know the world as it is and
should be—it is a knowing that changes the self.2 False stories offer
no transforming ability. For Pentecostals, it is their stories in relation
to the stories of the Scriptures which give the ability to understand
oneself and the world and God’s critique on both. Stories provide for
a fleshing-out, an understanding of how God is at work on the earth.
Pentecostals utilize this form to give each other the ‘courage to go on
and the will to live in a transformative way’.3
Steve Land places Pentecostal narrative within the larger context of
an eschatological vision of reality which connects the biblical drama,
the church history and the individual history as an unfolding of God’s
historical revelation. He further notes,
The Pentecostal narrative-beliefs under the influence of this apocalyptic
vision of imminent fulfillment called forth distinctive practices which,
upon being done, were themselves signs, confirmations, and celebrations
of the power and legitimacy of the beliefs. And, at times, they became the
basis for the refining, correcting, and supplementing of the beliefs.4
When Pentecostal narrative beliefs are placed within this larger apoca
lyptic vision, they become more than communal stories or creeds.
They are transformed into announcements of holy history. This his
tory may appear insignificant to those who regard the socio-political
world as ultimate realities. But to many Pentecostal believers, this sal
vation history makes them significant in the larger drama. While they
may be voiceless in the political realm, they speak with an eloquent
1. S. Hauerwas and R. Bondi, Truthfulness and Tragedy (Notre Dame:

University of Notre Dame Press, 1977), p. 71.
2. Hauerwas and Bondi, Truthfulness and Tragedy, p. 71.
3. Hauerwas and Bondi, Truthfulness and Tragedy, p. 71.
4. S J. Land, ‘A Passion for the Kingdom: An Analysis and Revision of
Pentecostal Spirituality’ (PhD dissertation, Emory University, 1990), pp. 137-38.
passion in the spiritual, and they understand that their actions and
prayers are taking down spiritual strongholds. They make holy his
tory, and narrative is thus the language of this historical empower
ment. It announces and denounces, critiques and uplifts, blesses and
curses. The voice of the people is, therefore, empowered by the Holy
Spirit to become the speech of God.
An Oral Liturgy
Corresponding to a narrative theology is a liturgy which reflects the
ongoing ‘re-making’ of the Christian story. ‘Pentecostal’ and ‘liturgy’
are often viewed as contradictory terms. However, Hollenweger
observes that Pentecostal worship has most of the elements of histori
cal liturgies: Invocation, Kyrie, Confession, Gloria, Eucharistic Canon
and Benediction.1 This liturgy is, however, not in fixed, written form.
It is a liturgy much like the early Christians developed: ‘a liturgy in
the making, constantly being shaped and reshaped by the people of
God’.2 Pentecostal liturgy is, therefore, a ‘third way’ between chaos
and a rigid, fixed liturgy. This third way allows for variations within
a framework of the whole liturgical structure.
The key element of Pentecostal liturgy is the full participation of
every member. This participation may take a variety of forms. The
form is not as important as the fact that everyone is involved in some
significant manner. Such a liturgy bridges the gap between laity and
professional. It is the equalizing aspect of Christ’s body. Wagner con
cludes that a participatory form of worship is an important aspect of
Latin American Pentecostalism, noting that
Pentecostal worshippers who do not participate in a direct way participate
indirectly, but nevertheless actively. Worship is not a passive experience.
It is people centered rather than platform centered.3
For a Pentecostal, worship is not an end in itself, but rather what

LaLive calls the ‘bestowing of a capacity of action’.4 Worship, there
fore, results in an altered perception of reality. Pentecostal ritual is,
1. W. Hollenweger, ‘The Social and Ecumenical Significance of Pentecostal

Liturgy’, Studia Liturgica 8 (1971-72), pp. 207-15.
2. Hollenwenger, ‘Pentecostal Liturgy’, pp. 207-15.
consequently, not a means of escape but a representation of how life is

to be lived.1
Hollenweger proposes that Pentecostal liturgy is revolutionary and
can serve ‘for the conscientization of the people of God’.2
Furthermore, he notes that
If the inarticulate peon in Latin America realizes that he has something to
say, if the despised Indian of Mexico begins to sing and make music with
the instruments of his persecuted ancestors, if the Chilean begins to dance
the dances of his forefathers... if these people realize that what they have
is good enough for the worship of God, that God accepts the 'thank
offerings of their lips’, this seems to me to be of a more revolutionary
quality than the copying of Western revolutionary theories, which makes
them again puppets of a foreign ideology, albeit a so-called revolutionary
ideology.3
Worship, therefore, becomes the place for dialogue for all people of
all backgrounds, ethnic and economic levels. The task of liturgy is to
'make dialogue possible and to enable the voice of the Spirit to be
heard in these contradictions, in relation to the tradition of the
church’.4 It is a coming together in God’s presence who makes himself
known.
Hollenweger observes that early Christians broke down the barriers
between rich and poor, men and women, the slave and the free. These
barriers were broken down ‘not logically nor on the basis of a social
theory, but in the actual event of worship’.5 Furthermore,
in their salvific communion they anticipated something which the world
did not know. No one can imagine what a dynamic power would flow
from such a worship today into our world tom asunder.6
Harvey Cox calls for liturgies which contain rituals which would iure
people into festive fantasy, put them in touch with the deepest longings
1. See J. Wilson and H.K. Clow, ‘Themes of Power and Control in a

Pentecostal Assembly’, Journal fo r the Scientific Study o f Religion 20.3 (1981),
pp. 241-50. Wilson’s and Clow’s study of a Pentecostal church concluded that
Pentecostal ritual ‘reconceptualizes reality’ and ‘gives the believer a way of dealing
with it in his daily life’.
2. W. Hollenweger, ‘Creator Spiritus’, Theology 81 (1978), p. 39.
3. Hollenweger, ‘Pentecostal Liturgy’, p. 213.
of the race, help them step into the parade of history, and ignite their
capacity for creation’.1 Cox further postulates that religion as a
protest against injustice often takes the form of a vision of a new
epoch. Religion can symbolize the ideal for which society needs to
strive, especially by enactment and demonstration. In order for politi
cal fantasy (utopia) to proceed in society, it cannot do so in a vacuum.
Cox proposes that it needs a special form of flexible institution in
order to live and to interact creatively with the political world. Such
an institution needs to link the two worlds of fact and fantasy.2 It must
teach people to celebrate and to fantasize and include affective and rit
ual components.3
Such elements as enactment and demonstration are present in
Pentecostal worship, igniting people’s capacity for creation. Often
corporate religious communities within the context of Pentecostalism
protest against the injustice of the social order, manifesting in a highly
symbolic manner God’s ideal for the world.
The Dynamic of the Holy Spirit

The role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church is, of course, a
dominant theme of Pentecostalism. The Holy Spirit is the one who
initiates conversion and fills a life with power for service. These two
areas indicate that the Holy Spirit is at work to create and maintain the
ongoing dynamic of ‘metanonia’.
Conversion. Generally, Pentecostalism is a conversionist religion.

Conversion is primarily defined as a phenomena which Peter Berger
describes as ‘the passing from one level of experience and perspective
to another that is totally new and different’.4 LaLive portrays the con
version experiences of Chilean Pentecostals in the following manner:
1. H. Cox, Feast o f Fools (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969),

p. 81.
2. Cox, Feast o f Fools, p. 95.
3. Cox, Feast o f Fools, p. 95. Josef Studbrack relates Pentecostal spirituality
within the Catholic Church to Cox’s Feast o f Fools. He observes that political and
social topics are not excluded from their discussions, with the charismatic prayer
meetings serving to build a mature community of Christians. See J. Studbrack,
‘Streiflichter des Nordamerikanischen Christentums’, Geist und Luben 43.5
(November 1970), pp. 369-87.
4. P.L. Berger, T h e Sociological Study of Sectarianism’, Social Research 21
(1954), p. 482.
All accounts of conversions which we have been able to gather underscore

the convert’s physical sensation of change. The world, their own neigh
borhoods and streets, as well as the people close to them appear to be
transformed. The experience is a strong psychological shock which
demands expression. Conceptual language is inadequate to convey the
ineffable nature of the experience.1
For Pentecostals, conversion constitutes a bridge-burning act. One

enters into a new realm and into a dynamic relationship with the cre
ator. Negatively, a person is to renounce his or her former life.
Positively, a person is to demonstrate change by a lived life of faith.
Conversion and Conscientization. Freire describes the conscientization

process toward liberation in traditional metaphorical terms of con
version. 'Liberation is thus a childbirth, and a painful one. The man
who emerges is a new man’.2
For Freire, in order for the oppressors to join in solidarity with the
oppressed they must undergo a radical re-orientation. ‘Conversion to
the people requires a profound rebirth. Those who undergo it no
longer remain as they were.’3 Richard Tholin parallels the biblical
conversion process and Freire’s conscientization process and con
cludes that the biblical experience of the Spirit introduces a crisis
similar to the crisis of decision required in Freire’s concept of con
version to the oppressed:
The biblical experience of the spirit introduces a similar crisis of decision
that could lead to a radical change, to a turning around, to conversion. To
the prophets, use of power to exploit the helpless came under God’s
judgment. Only if one repented and then acted with justice could God’s
salvation com e... Jesus’ preaching of the kingdom required a similar kind
of radical decision.4
Manoel de Mello, leader of the ‘Brazil para Cristo’ describes the type
of conversion which Pentecostals seek as one which creates a new per
spective in the individual:
1. C. LaLive d’Epinay, ‘The Pentecostal Conquista in Chile’, The Ecumenical

Review (January 1968), p. 30.
4. R. Tholin, ‘The Holy Spirit and Liberation Movements: The Response of the
Church’, in D. Kirkpatrick (ed.), The Holy Spirit (Nashville: Tidings, 1974), p. 62.
This form of evangelism does not produce a Sunday Christian, but rather
a believer who is able to witness to the society in which he lives. I t ...
creates a new consciousness. The gospel of the Kingdom is here and
now .1
Clearly, the Pentecostal concept of conversion is not antithetical to

Freire’s concept of conversion. It is, however, rooted in a historical
experience with God who calls people both a subject of history and an
object of God’s forgiving grace. Therefore, conscientization is not
self-grounded but grounded in the dynamic of the Holy Spirit. The
Pentecostal believer makes history, but the route of the historical
journey is determined by God. The dialectic of history is, therefore,
not a materialistic dialectic as Marx would propose. But neither is it
entirely the dialectic of Hegel’s Geist. It is a dialectic of humanity’s
ontological re-creation by the Holy Spirit which consummates in a
holy partnership with humankind.
Sanctification. For many Pentecostals, the experience of sanctification

has signified the ‘seeking all the will of God for one’s life, loving the
Lord with a whole heart and joyfully bearing burdens without
grumbling or complaining’.2 In sanctification, the believer learns to
walk in perfect love and to exist in harmony with the will and nature
of Christ.
Sanctification is to be the ultimate goal for the world inasmuch as
the coming consummation of the Kingdom of God will result in all
things being brought into a harmony of God’s reign. God will one day
be all in all, and for the Pentecostal believer, this holy consummation
can occur in believers’ lives as a sign of the age to come. Therefore,
issues of racism, sexism, oppression and violence are issues of
sanctification. It is not within human ability alone that these issues are
to be resolved, for greed and the desire for power are always present.
Pentecostals have historically noted that there is a need for a faith
which overcomes the world which is grounded in the crucifixion of
these human passions and desires as they are submitted to the cleansing
power of Christ.
The experience of sanctification has created utopian visions among
people who do not employ critical-reflective, principled, formal
1. M. de Mello, ‘Participation in Everything’, International Review o f Missions

60.238 (April 1971), pp. 245-48.
2. Land, ‘A Passion for the Kingdom’, p. 128.
operational thought processes. They have experienced what Craig

Dykstra has called ‘imaginal transformation’.1 By experiencing the
holy, there is a creative reorganization of the imagination (self) and
the emergence of a new gestalt. The corresponding action, therefore,
is directed by this altered perception of the world. Dykstra notes that
through experiences in which the mystery of God’s holiness is
revealed, there emerges transformation of character—‘our fundamen
tal way of seeing and living’.2
Sanctification and Conscientization. This concept of sanctification

addresses Freire’s call for a utopian vision of justice. Human justice,
however, must be grounded in the justice of God. Holiness, as the
essential nature of God, must be allowed to define the character and
nature of humanity as well. Apart from a convenantal relationship
with God, there can be no true justice. While Freire calls for a
changing of consciousness through existentially experiencing Easter,3
he fails to ground adequately such an experience in the mystery and
the otherness of God. Therefore, the rebirth of a life-giving reality
which aligns one with the oppressed fails to take a person to the heart
of the God of the oppressed.
In sanctification, orthopathy, as it refers to right affections, is
joined with orthopraxis. One’s nature is altered and one’s affections
reflect the heart of God. This leads not just to personal piety but also
to social transformation inasmuch as the eschatological goals of the
Kingdom are paralleled in a social level.4
Pentecostals need to recapture this social dimension, which was
more present during the early years of the movement. In doing so,
they will gain an ability to transform not only personal evil but also
social and structural evil.
Power for Service. For Pentecostals, the experience of the baptism of

the Holy Spirit is for the purpose of empowering a believer’s life for
service. Sims notes that ‘the Spirit’s power was never given nor
1. C. Dykstra, Vision And Character (New York: Paulist Press, 1981), p. 81.
See also J. Loder, The Transforming Moment.
2. Dykstra, Vision And Character, p. 69.
4. T. Runyon, ‘Wesley and the Theologies of Liberation’, in T. Runyon (ed.),
Sanctification and Liberation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1981), p. 10.
demonstrated merely to amuse or impress the creatures but to trans

form human life and shape history in accordance with the divine
will’.1
Furthermore, Sims observes that one of the primary functions of
the power of the Holy Spirit is the empowerment for mission.2 This
concept of mission corresponds with the Pentecostals of Chile who
have the mentality of a conquest or a crusade. LaLive records that
‘faces lined by a difficult life.. .glow with the flame given by the great
certainties. We are out to conquer Chile, Chile for Christ is our aim’.3
Therefore, rather than being ahistorical, the ‘spirit baptism’ is rooted
in concrete action in human history. This history is to make known
God’s presence and will upon the earth.
The power of the Holy Spirit is also given that a believer might
experience the reality of what Sims has called ‘suffering power’.4 This
paradox is actualized in the ability to suffer and to relinquish the will
which desires self-power and self-actualization. This is the power of
renunciation which Valliere has noted as having a transforming power
upon society. He states that:
Renunciation is the spiritual act by which human beings confess their limit
and so doing discover that the limit is the threshold of a broader related
ness. .. the name for renunciation when it becomes a habitual attitude of
mind and heart is humility. The constructive task of a Pentecostal social
gospel is to show that an ethic of humility, cultivated conscientiously in
the field of social action, can have a formative impact on the progress of
justice and peace.5
Spirit Baptism and Conscientization. For Pentecostals, Spirit baptism

is the unveiling of a new reality and the realization of an altered con
sciousness. Such a consciousness does not allow for a person to
become ‘submerged in reality’. Rather, the mode of awareness may be
described as critical consciousness. However, this critical conscious
ness is not primarily developed as one learns to abstract reality. It is
the result of an encounter with the Creator Spirit who enlists
humankind in the unveiling of the lies of the established order. A
1. Sims, Power with Purpose, pp. 101-102.

2. Sims, Power with Purpose, p. 102.
4. Sims, Power with Purpose, p. 106.
5. Valliere, Holy War and Pentecostal Peace, p. 135.
person, therefore, has a sense of mission and a willingness to suffer

with the oppressed in order that God’s reality might be unveiled.
The Role of the Holy Spirit in Social Action

Pentecostals are often perceived as not being concerned about social
problems, retreating to a ‘haven’ or passively waiting to be taken
away to a ‘heaven’. There is present, however, in Pentecostalism an
emphasis upon maintaining a dialectic between the social and the spiri
tual. Susana Vaccaro de Petrella, a leader of the Dimension of Faith
Church of Argentina, summarizes her church’s reflection and action
concerning the role of the Holy Spirit in social action:
Every spiritual experience in a community that is part of the Pentecostal
movement leads to the discovery that fellowship gives rise to mission.
Thus, while we are involved in the life of worship, evangelism, and
Christian education, we also engage in social work in the form of
receiving and welcoming the marginalized, literacy training, housing cam
paigns, care of the sick, dealing with social problems, etc. We do this
because we believe that the response given by the Holy Spirit is a true
response to the problems o f our day (author’s emphasis).1
She further emphasizes that the ‘Pentecostal experience does not cause
men and women to withdraw from the world in which they live.
Rather, they are the instruments of God’s intervention in that world.’23
Petrella emphasizes that there must be an ongoing dialectic between
the spiritual and the social. This dialectic, however, is maintained by
the Holy Spirit:
We believe that there are two elements that are indispensable to any
Christian community: spiritual renewal and commitment to freedom, jus
tice and peace. If we limit ourselves to the first, we reduce the gospel to
an otherworldly state of glory. If we limit ourselves to the second, we fall
inevitably into the error of attempting to do good for its own sake(Put our
spirit-inspired Pentecostal message is charged with the strong desire both
for spiritual renewal and for the liberation that every human being needs
so as to live in a climate of freedom, justice and peace.^j
1. L.S. Vaccaro de Petrella, T h e Tension between Evangelism and Social

Action in the Pentecostal M ovement’, International Review o f Mission 75
(Jan 1986), p. 36.
2. Vaccaro de Petrella, T he Tension between Evangelism and Social Action’,
p. 36.
3. Vaccaro de Petrella, T he Tension between Evangelism and Social Action’,
p. 36.
Thus, for Pentecostals, it is only by the Holy Spirit that a true vision
of reality can be perceived. This vision sees both the spiritual and
social needs of humankind. There needs to be no dichotomy between
evangelism and social action inasmuch as the same Spirit inspires and
unveils the need for both. With such an understanding, the gifts of the
Spirit can be understood to include all tasks of life that believers are
empowered to undertake. Acts of justice and peace are, therefore, acts
of the Holy Spirit.
Hollenweger explores the same concepts, centering them around the
role of the Holy Spirit as ‘Creator Spiritus’. He calls for an under
standing of ‘charisma’ to include all activities of the Spirit which
would serve the common good of humanity. This would lead to a
recognition of the Spirit in the church and in the world so that
‘demonstrations, political analyses, land reform...are understood and
labeled as “charismata”, gifts of the Spirit’.1
Most Pentecostals would take exception to Hollenweger’s broad
ening of the Spirit’s activity apart from the church. They would see
that the body of Christ is a mystery of God’s presence on the earth in
a peculiar manner. This is not to deny the activity of God in all of the
affairs of the world, but it is to say that the church is to be the escha
tological sign of God’s intentions for the world. This concept parallels
that of the social ethics proposed by Stanley Hauerwas who notes that
the task of the church is not to seek to control history but ‘to be faith
ful to the model of life of the peaceable kingdom’.23Hauerwas pro
poses that the church should exist as a visional alternative to society:
I am in fact challenging the very idea that Christian social ethics is primar
ily an attempt to make the world more peaceable or just. Put starkly, the
first social ethical task of the church is to be the church—the servant
community.. .the church does not have a social ethic; the church is a
social ethic.3
For Hauerwas, it is important that justice ‘be displayed and imagina

tively construed by a people who have been formed to know that
genuine justice derives from our receiving what is not due us’.
Therefore, the cause of justice is served by a people who exemplify in
1. Hollenweger, ‘Creator Spiritus’, p. 38.

2. S. Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom (Notre Dame: University of Notre
Dame Press, 1983), p. 99.
3. Hauerwas, ‘The Peaceable Kingdom’, p. 99.
their own lives how to help one another.12Hauerwas’s insights parallel

that of Gerhard Lohfink, who asserts that the final goal of the
Christian witness is ‘the eschatological transformation of the entire
world’} However, ‘this transformation presupposes that the people of
God first live the new reality in its own midst’.3 Furthermore,
Lohfink observes that the antisocial and corrupt systems of a dominant
society cannot be attacked more sharply than by the formation of an
antisociety in its midst. Simply through its existence, this new society
is a much more efficacious attack on the old structures than any pro
grams, without personal cost, for the general transformation of the
world.4
Pentecostal praxis has exhibited radical concepts of justice and
equality often in a world which is antagonistic to the development of
either. In the Third World, Pentecostalism embodies the reality that in
Christ’s kingdom ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male
nor female’ (Gal. 3.28). Within its ranks, a protest against the
oppressive-hierarchial political systems is actualized.
David Martin reworks the conception of Pentecostalism as a haven.
He notes that these havens provide for the dispossessed ‘a new cell
taking over from scarred and broken tissue’. Within these new cells, a
‘new faith is able to implant new disciplines, re-order priorities,
counter corruption and destructive machismo, and reverse the indif
ferent and injurious hierarchies of the outside world’.5 Within these
havens, Martin postulates that a person may re-invent himself or her
self in an atmosphere of fraternal support. Peaceability is the essence
of the cell’s existence, which defines a cultural logic opposed to vio
lence. These peaceable kingdoms help to change the template of cul
ture as the latent becomes manifest and the limited free space devised
by religion is enlarged. Therefore, the ‘havens’ may be protean in
their potentials.6 Within the inner cities of the United States, the
presence of store-front churches, most of which are indigenous ethnic
minority Pentecostal congregations, serves as a priestly community
1. Hauerwas, ‘The Peaceable Kingdom’, pp. 113-14.

2. G. Lohfink, Jesus and Community (trans. J. P. Calvin; Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 1984), p. 85.
3. Lohfink, Jesus and Community, p. 85.
4. Lohfink, Jesus and Community, p. 85.
6. Martin, Tongues o f Fire, pp. 286-88.
which in a deep and mysterious way sacralizes the ‘barrios’.1 Eldin

Villafane notes that the presence and location of these churches speaks
theologically of a missional commitment to the poor. Among Hispanic
congregations, the ‘cultos’ serves as a context of hope and community
in an otherwise alienating experience.2 While these functions are
important, Villafane sees the need to extend the Hispanic Pentecostals’
understanding of a social ethic to include sinful social structures as
well as personal struggles. He proposes a ‘pneumatological paradigm’
for a broader social ethic which includes a holistic spirituality which
incorporates both a vertical focus—the continual transformation into
the likeness of Jesus—and a horizontal focus—the following of Jesus
in obedience to the Father’s missional calling, the metaphors of the
Spirit’s grieving over sin and the Spirit’s brooding as a sign of the
active reign of God in creation.3
Martin’s and Villafane’s observations relate to Hauerwas’s under
standing of the social ethic of the church. In many places around the
world, Pentecostals are displaying and imaginatively construing jus
tice, knowing that genuine justice comes from ‘receiving what is not
due’ and that it is best embodied by a people who ‘exemplify in their
own lives how to help one another’.
Such a perspective calls for justice and liberation, but it avoids
becoming submerged within historical struggles. The church remains
a critique, a prophetic witness to both the oppressors and the
oppressed. Pentecostals have understood that only the Holy Spirit can
keep revolutionary activity from degenerating and freezing into hard
ened ideology with a new group of oppressors. There must be a con
stant call to conversion from the Other who stands in and above
history. The challenge for Pentecostals in the future will be to main
tain a sense of existing as a ‘community of the Spirit’ while becoming
more upwardly mobile. Structural evil and socio-political agendas
must be addressed by both the presence of counter-societies as well as
by concrete historical action in the world at large.
1. E. Villafane, The Liberating Spirit: Toward A Hispanic American Pentecostal

Social Ethic (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1992), p. 127.
2. Villafane, The Liberating Spirit, p. 163.
3. Villafane, The Liberating Spirit, pp. 168-90.
Conclusions
Pentecostal theology is an ongoing exercise in praxis within the larger
epistemological structure of divine-human encounter. A Pentecostal
hermeneutic involves a dialectic between present experience and bibli
cal witness. ‘Knowledge’ in the context of Pentecostal experience
involves the response of the total person, especially when that knowl
edge concerns ultimate reality. Pentecostalism, therefore, calls for all
truth to be fulfilled in life experience with no dichotomy existing
between theory and practice.
The mode of communicating ‘truth’ within the context of
Pentecostalism may be classified as ‘oral narrative’. This mode offers
a way of representing reality in a manner which connects reason with
experience. The medium of story thus becomes a means of ‘fleshing
out’ one’s understanding of reality. Thus, reality becomes a process
and not an abstract entity. Story gives meaning and coherence adds the
experience of the past and the hope of the future to a dynamic present.
Pentecostal liturgy is a liturgy in the making, constantly being
shaped and reshaped by God’s people. The key element of such a
liturgy is the full participation of every person. This participation
may take a variety of forms, with the intention of bestowing a capac
ity for action. Therefore, Pentecostal liturgy is revolutionary, serving
for the conscientization of the people of God. Worship thus becomes
the context for dialogue and the common ground on which everyone
is equal.
The role of the Holy Spirit is that of one who activates conversion
in which a person enters into a new realm, and new level of con
sciousness. The Holy Spirit is the agent of sanctification and also gives
power for service with a concept of mission being grounded in histor
ical experience but with consequences which go beyond present his
tory. The Holy Spirit enables a person to experience the paradox of
suffering and the power of renunciation. One is enabled to side with
the oppressed and to become a servant of the poor by becoming poor
in spirit (humility).
Therefore, the theological context of Pentecostalism is conducive
toward the development of the dynamics of conscientization. In this
context, theological reflection is not abstracted from reality but rather
serves as an ongoing exercise in praxis. Knowledge is not viewed in
terms of possession of information; it is the response of the total per
son to God and is grounded in concrete historical experience. The
Holy Spirit provides the force which maintains the ongoing dialectic
between experience and the witness of Scripture. Such a dynamic
keeps one from being submerged within historical experience or
removed from life in contemplative exercise.
For Freire, the process of reality is mediated by human conscious
ness. For Pentecostals, the process of reality is mediated by a divine-
human dialectic with the belief that the reflective-critical power of
human consciousness alone is not sufficient to understand and trans
form reality. This dialectic is not passive as some would propose, but
rather it calls for an active participation of people as both subjects of
history and objects of God’s divine initiative. The ability to transcend
reality, therefore, comes about not only by having the powers of criti
cal reflection, but also by negating their ultimate control over human
history and by affirming God’s control. Thus, in the context of
Pentecostalism, the relating of ultimate reality often takes the form of
‘story’ with the narrative representing truth and showing how reason
and human action connect to make history.
Sociological Factors for Conscientization

The rise of religious movements are generally defined by the gener
ating conditions which give rise to such movements. The three most
common models are those of social disorganization, deprivation and
the psychological maladjustment model.12For the sociologist of reli
gion, it is usually assumed that religious expressions which are
classified as ‘ecstatic’ or ‘highly emotional’ offer a temporary escape
from life’s hardships and humiliations. Therefore, studies of
Pentecostalism have generally been approached with one of the above
assumptions as an operational ‘given’.
Manifestations such as glossolalia or fervor in worship have been
viewed as an outlet for what Niebuhr describes as the ‘socially disin
herited’? Deprived of status or the necessities of life, the oppressed
1. For an analysis of these models in relation to Pentecostalism see V. Hine,

‘The Deprivation and Disorganization Theories of Social Movements’, in
1.1. Zaretsky and M.P. Leone (eds.), Religious Movements in Contemporary
America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974), pp. 646-59.
2. See H.R. Niebuhr, The Social Sources o f Denominationalism (New York:
Holt & Rinehart, 1929). See also R.M. Anderson, Vision o f the Disinherited: The
Making o f American Pentecostalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979).
seek a release, and often this release is found in ecstatic worship.

Gerlach describes this prevailing concept existing among social
scientists:
If an informant explains his religious behavior and the growth of the reli
gious movement as the will of God, the typical anthropologist smiles
knowingly and searches for the ‘real reason’. If the informant describes
his religious experiences, his visions, the prophecies uttered through his
lips and interpreted by his spiritual brothers, the anthropologist does not
shout ‘eureka’ and write an article explaining these activities as truly the
workings of the supernatural. Instead he happily continues the search for
evidence of psychological disturbance. And if he observes informants
actually having a religious experience, perhaps speaking in tongues... he
becomes even more certain that this tells us much about their ‘real world’
problems.12
By utilizing the deprivation model to explain the religious expressions

of the oppressed, Paulo Freire and others have assumed the role of
those who discount the role of the supernatural and the validity of the
oppressed’s interpretations of reality. Instead of making the cause of
religious behavior some internal deprivation, Freire sees the cause of
the oppressed’s religious behavior as being the basic alienation arising
from class divisions. The oppressed, therefore, seek their revenge not
on the oppressors but direct their frustrations toward a God who will
take revenge out on the oppressors for them.
In despising this world as a world of sin, vice, and impurity, they are in
one sense taking their ‘revenge’ on their oppressors, its owners. It is as if
they were saying to the bosses: you are powerful—but the World over
which your power holds sway is an evil one and we reject it.2
In contrast to Freire’s observations, Dom Helder Camara, known as

the ‘bishop of the poor’ in Brazil, remarks that:
We are discovering with astonishment that the Holy Spirit can act power
fully in the hearts of the poor, crushed by hunger and squalid deprivation.
In those areas of destitution where the situation is most subhuman, one
finds not submen, not empty-headed human creatures incapable of
thinking, but men with ideas capable of reflecting and open to the Lord’s
inspiration. This, too, is a surprise of the Holy Spirit.3
1. Gerlach, ‘Pentecostalism: Revolution or Counter Revolution?’, p. 671.

3. Suenen and Camara, Charismatic Renewal, pp. 76-77.
Freire would agree with Bishop Camara that the poor are not subhu
man and that they are capable of thinking and reflecting, but he has
indicated that they must have aid to be able to think critically and to
see the world as it really is. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned by
Freire as one who is enabling the poor to perceive reality. Rather, he
discounts any valid action among the poor religiously. First, they need
to demythologize their God, and then the poor can understand reality.
Freire’s conscientization process would, therefore, negate any super
natural role of the Holy Spirit that does not result in critical reflection
toward revolution.
Marx understood religion as a creation of humankind, a projection
of alienation. Thus, for Marx, religion served as a reflection of
oppression. Religious alienation was but a reflection of economic
alienation which was the most basic form of estrangement.
In regard to religion, especially the religious expressions of the
oppressed, Freire follows Marx’s basic thesis. For Freire, religion is a
reflection of one’s socio-political status. The three types of churches
which he identifies as existing in Latin America are prototypes of
three distinct lines of socio-political thought.
The traditional church corresponds with the ‘culture of silence’
which is dominated by the ruling class. It reflects the anger, humilia
tion and the estrangement of the oppressed and is a channel to further
their alienation.
The modernizing church reflects the Latin American attempt at
modernization. Church action corresponds with populism as a political
action style, defending structural reform over radical transformation
of structures.
The prophetic church, however, reflects the Marxist interpretation
of reality. It supplies the prophetic vision for the ongoing revolution
of society toward a better order. It has abandoned its naivete for
astute analysis of society’s dilemmas, utilizing philosophical and sci
entific tools to interpret historical struggles.
Furthermore, Freire views churches as reflections of the ongoing
dialectic of class struggle. He has, therefore, failed to make the dis
tinction between involvement in history and the role of actualizing
God’s kingdom which stands both in and over historical struggles.
A determining factor in an analysis of movements such as
Pentecostalism is the admittance of the existence of God or the factors
of the supernatural. Without such presuppositions it is, therefore,
necessary to attempt to describe religious behavior as resulting from

malfunctions of the personality or from deprivations of the
environment.
Hollenweger observes that the mushrooming charismatic groups
within main-line churches, especially among Roman Catholic intellec
tuals, have destroyed the generally accepted theory that Pentecostalism
is a haven for the materially poor.1 Luther Gerlach points out that
speaking in tongues is less frequent among Pentecostal Mexicans than
among white, middle-class Americans.2 These facts and other studies
point out that the deprivation model needs to be seriously re
evaluated.3
The deprivation model, therefore, excludes a true phenomenologi
cal understanding of religious behavior. In regard to Freire’s assess
ment of religion of the masses, the deprivation model has led Freire
and others to discount the religion of the oppressed as having any
valid meaning for the transformation of history. Therefore, there is a
need to move beyond the deprivation model in order to understand the
dynamics of change involved in movements such as Pentecostalism.
Subsystems for Change

Gerlach and Hine’s numerous studies on Pentecostals have supplied
data which discounts the generally accepted theories concerning the
religious behavior in the movement. Their studies have shifted the
focus to analyze the movement in relation to the causes of social
change.4 Utilizing a systemic model, they compare Pentecostalism

2. Gerlach and Hine, People, Power, Change, p. 125.
3. For studies which discount that events such as speaking in tongues is a
pathological experience among marginal people see L.M. Viviervan Eetvebut,
‘Glossolalia’ (PhD dissertation, University of Witwatersrand, Africa, 1960);
G.R. Jennings, ‘An Ethnological Study of Glossolalia’, Journal o f the American
Scientific Association (March 1968), pp. 5-16; V.H. Hine, ‘Pentecostal Glossolalia:
Toward a Functional Interpretation’, Journal fo r the Scientific Study o f Religion 1
(1969), pp. 211-26; W.J. Samarin, Tongues o f Men and Angels: The Religious
Language o f Pentecostalism (New York: Collier-Macmillian, 1972).
4. Gerlach and Hine first attempted (1965) to study Pentecostalism with the
assumption that Pentecostal behavior was a type of defense or compensation mecha
nism. Their shift in emphasis came after several discoveries: ‘Pentecostals were not
using Pentecostalism as a refuge in the face of economic deprivation, but rather as a
lawmaking pad to thrust into the middle class. Certainly we found no evidence to
with such groups as the Black Power movement and find that there are
several ‘subsystems’ which groups conducive toward social change
have in common: organization, recruitment, ideology, opposition and
recruitment process. They conclude that both Pentecostalism and
Black Power are movements of social transformation.1 What follows
is a synopsis of their findings in each of these areas.
Organization. Gerlach and Hine find that Pentecostal groups have

segmentary organization with new cells being formed by a splitting of
ongoing cells, cells overlapping and fluid cells. Secondly, in organiza
tions such as Pentecostalism and Black Power, leadership tends to be
viewed as ‘first among equals’. Leadership thus becomes dependent
upon the proved worth of an individual and not upon inherent right.2
Thirdly, Pentecostalism has a reticulate networking organizational
pattern, meaning that there is a loose interaction of ‘cell leaders which
is caused by overlapping membership, common ideology, common
cause and common opposition’. A Pentecostal in a very real sense thus
becomes a ‘world Christian’, with a shared vision and story.3
Recruitment. In movements of change, recruitment tends to be from

face-to-face contact with members following the lines of significant
pre-existing social relationships. Recruitment is not limited to leaders.
In Pentecostalism, ‘the concept of the “priesthood of all believers”
makes of every convert a potential recruiter’.4
support our propositions that Pentecostalism was best explained as a haven for the
disorganized or confused’. See Gerlach, ‘Pentecostalism: Revolution or Counter-
Revolution?’, p. 675. See also Gerlach and Hine, People, Power, Change.
1. Gerlach and Hine note that in both Pentecostalism and the Black Power
movements, there are the same generic characteristics for change. They further state
that ‘we find the same basic type of organization and the same methods by which
they are spreading’. They also find basic similarities in the type of ideologies as well
as the fact of personal transformation being the same. They conclude that
‘Pentecostalism may be considered revolutionary and Black Power religious’
(People, Power, Change, p. xviii).
2. Gerlach, ‘Pentecostalism: Revolution or Counter-Revolution?’, pp. 580-81.
3. This factor is important to note, especially inasmuch as Pentecostalism is
largely becoming a Third World religion. It thus serves as a constant call for ‘First
World’ Pentecostalism to conversion and ownership of the oppressed’s story.
Opposition. When groups are opposed by the established order, there

often is an increase in their growth. Gerlach and Hine observe that
‘without opposition from the established order, there would be no
risk, no bridge-burning and hence no commitment required for
participation’.1
In regard to the dynamics of conscientization, opposition to the
established order creates a climate for critical analysis of the struc
tural dynamics of a given society. Often in such instances, reality in
all of its harshness is graphically revealed.
Ideology. Ideology provides a vision which give groups such as

Pentecostalism their certitude. This certitude enables people to counter
the existing order. Gerlach and Hine note that ‘at points of radical
change, when fundamental social innovation or personal transforma
tion of any magnitude is required, there must be an ideological basis
for decisive action’.2 In relation to movement ideology, there is
included a concept of personal power and control over one’s destiny
and/or the destiny of the world. This sense of personal power may be
combined with what appears to be a fatalistic or passive attitude
toward control over events. Gerlach and Hine observe further that
Pentecostals, for example, take very seriously the Christian theory of an
omnipotent God. They frequently use phrases such as ‘I am powerless
without God’, ‘God wants a yielded vessel’...A typical Pentecostal
possesses the orientation of one who believes himself acted upon by a
power external to the se lf... this orientation is often assumed to be an
indication of psychological weakness, or lack of ego strength... It is to an
outsider, indistinguishable from the fatalism that results in lackluster
acceptance of everything that happens as something willed by the gods.3
For Gerlach and Hine, the significant difference of this type of sur
render to an outside power as seen in Pentecostalism is the commit
ment experiences. A person has a sense of personal power, but it is
restricted personal power inasmuch as all is to be done under the
direction of God’s will. If a person is convinced that God is leading in
such a direction, he or she will attempt, even at great personal
sacrifice, to accomplish what is willed.
Freire’s descriptions of a traditional church indicate his reluctance
1. Gerlach and Hine, People, Power,Change, p.183.

at any attempt to relegate control over history outside of human con

trol. The conscientization process among Pentecostals, however, must
be a conscientization of the Spirit, unveiling God’s will for the world.
This relates socio-political dynamics to the ideology to which
Pentecostals are already committed. When these two dimensions
merge, there is, consequently, a solid commitment toward changing
the world.
Commitment Process. Gerlach and Hine identify two components

existing in social, political, or religious movements: an identity-
altering experience, and a bridge-burning act. From an altered view
of self, there develops cognitive restructuring—a real or symbolic
destruction of the old way of life, and a real or symbolic transition
(bridging) to the new.1
For Pentecostals, the cognitive restructuring and changes in self
image result in behavior as if God is all powerful and in control in
spite of the fact that the existing social order says otherwise. Freire’s
observation that the traditionalists ‘fool themselves that the prayers
for salvation they voice in their haven is a genuine form of speaking
out’,2 indicates an awareness of this phenomenon. For Pentecostals,
such expressions as prayer, fasting, songs and dance are seen as gen
uine expressions of a newly perceived concept of self and the world.
These behaviors become a way of expressing a commitment to God’s
control. They are positive expressions of God’s sovereignty and a
negation of the human will. In this negation, the human will is freed
to express God’s actions in history. Therefore, such manifestations are
powerful statements that God is the God of history whether or not that
fact is realized by the existing order.
The numerous studies conducted by Gerlach and Hine and by
Hollenweger have drawn conclusions concerning the historical validity
of ecstatic religious behavior among the oppressed. Gerlach and Hine
conclude that
Pentecostalism can be described as a movement of personal transforma
tion and revolutionary change; that is as a group of people who are
organized for and ideologically motivated and committed to the task of
generating fundamental change and transforming persons, who are
1. Gerlach, ‘Pentecostalism: Revolution or Counter-Revolution?’, pp. 682-83.

See also Gerlach and Hine, People, Power, Change, pp. 99-158.
actively recruiting others to this group and whose influence is growing in

opposition to the established order within which it develops.1
Conclusions
This chapter proposes that Pentecostalism offers an environment con
ducive to conscientization that includes the spiritual-affective and oral
dimensions of human interaction. An analysis of the historical roots of
the movement, of the theological aspects of Pentecostalism, and finally
of some sociological aspects of the movement, demonstrates this point.
It was shown that there is historical precedent within the Pentecostal
story, both in its Wesleyan roots and in its roots of black spirituality,
for the dynamics of conscientization.
From its Wesleyan roots, the movement inherited a strong emphasis
upon the transforming power of the Holy Spirit for both personal and
social critique. Also, there was present within the holiness revival the
ability to actualize within the ranks of the church the meaning of
gospel as an equalizer of the oppressors and the oppressed.
From its roots in black spirituality, there is present in
Pentecostalism an emphasis upon the liberating power of the
Pentecostal experience and an emphasis upon the oral-narrative char
acter of the gospel which involves active participation of everyone.
The history of the Pentecostal movement in Latin America indicates
that the movement has a culturally-relevant liturgy which stresses the
dignity of all people, acceptance, dialogue and mission, all of which
are powerful components for conscientization.
Within the ranks of the charismatic movement, there are signs of
political alphabetization, especially among Catholic charismatics.
However, there also exists within the charismatic and Pentecostal
movement in the First World the tendency to equate the agenda of the
‘New Right’ with the agenda of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, within the
charismatic realm, there is both potential and problems for
conscientization.
There is in Pentecostalism theological precedent for conscientiza
tion. This precedent can be found in a praxis-oriented hermeneutic
which views knowledge and truth as being fulfilled in life experience.
Therefore, truth is not abstracted from reality. Truth is also grounded
1. Gerlach, ‘Pentecostalism: Revolution or Counter-Revolution?’, p. 684.

in a covenantal relationship between God and humanity. It is, there

fore, relational and experiential. It is powerfully transformational.
Closely related to an experiential, praxis-oriented hermeneutic is a
way of theologizing which may be defined as oral-narrative. This
mode of doing theology allows for theory to become part of the life
of the community of faith. Story becomes the medium of expression
in such a community.
An oral liturgy, involving the participation of everyone, is an
equalizing aspect of Pentecostal worship. Rather than becoming an
escape, such a context for worship bestows the capacity for action in
concrete historical experience. Hollenweger has seen such a liturgy a
revolutionary force, serving for the conscientization of God’s people
with worship becoming the place for dialogue of all people.
The dynamic of the Holy Spirit is that which initiates conversion,
causing one to enter a new realm of perception. This new mode of
consciousness calls both the oppressors and the oppressed into the
ongoing dialectic of metanoia, a constant conversion to the justice of
God. Sanctification, which joins the human heart with the passion of
God, creates the space for utopian visions to be actualized, both indi
vidually and corporately. The Holy Spirit also bestows power for
service which is grounded in and should respond to concrete human
suffering.
The deprivation theories of religious movements have failed to
account for the growth and spread of Pentecostalism. In order to
understand the relation of the dynamics of change in relation to
Pentecostalism, there must be movement beyond deprivation analysis
to an analysis which includes incorporating the religious expressions
of Pentecostals.
The systems approach of Gerlach and Hine concludes that
Pentecostalism offers an environment for personal transformation.
Their conclusions are based upon analysis of the factors of organiza
tion, ideology, commitment, recruitment and opposition. All of these
factors relate to the dynamic of conscientization inasmuch as they gen
erate transformation against the established order of society and offer
a critique by actualizing an alternative.
Within the context of Pentecostalism, conscientization, therefore,
involves making known ‘true stories’ which give courage, unveiling
the lies of the established order and empowering people to know
themselves in a transformative way. The method of conscientization,
consequently, includes dialogue and reflection on a cognitive-critical

level but goes beyond this to the telling of God’s actions and purposes
and the testifying of how humans can join in these actions for the
transformation of the world.
Therefore, the context of conscientization among Pentecostals
should incorporate all of the life of the community of faith as a wor
shipping community, a learning community and a serving community.
It should involve the active participation of everyone in a paradigm of
liberating catechesis. The description of such a paradigm is proposed
in the following chapter.
Chapter 5
A PENTECOSTAL PARADIGM FOR CATECHESIS
This chapter draws conclusions as to the nature of conscientization

within the context of Pentecostal catechesis. These conclusions are
developed and presented in the form of a paradigm utilizing the cate
gories traditionally utilized to describe educational philosophies: (1)
goals, (2) content, (3) view of the teacher, (4) view of the student, (5)
settings for learning, and (6) curriculum.1
Pentecostal catechesis is evaluated in each of these areas, with sug
gestions as to how the nature of each category relates to the meaning
of conscientization. A composite description is offered which incorpo
rates both the distinctive nature of Pentecostal catechesis and the
meaning of conscientization. Finally, a four-movement approach to
group Bible study is proposed which incorporates distinctive
Pentecostal hermeneutical and epistemological characteristics.
The context of the paradigm for Pentecostal catechesis may be
specifically understood to be that of both the First and Third World,
inasmuch as both have elements of oppression. Pentecostal catechesis
should, therefore, have generic features which would challenge people
within their own context to consider critically their reality in the light
of the kingdom of God.
The Meaning o f Conscientization for Christian Education

There are concrete and forceful implications of the meaning of Paulo
Freire’s concepts for the context of church education, especially
within the setting of the Third World. Christian educators such as
Daniel Schipani, Bruce Boston, John Elias and Thomas Groome have
1. These categories are utilized by J.L. Seymour and D.E. Miller,

Contemporary Approaches to Christian Education (Nashville: Abingdon Press,
1982).
explored the relationship between Freire’s ideas and Christian educa

tion. Schipani notes that a theory of Christian education which takes
into account Freire’s contribution must take into consideration the
following curricular questions:
Who are the persons that are partners to the educational process and what
are their roles? What kinds of interactions will be most conducive to the
learning tasks and experiences? What is the proper environment or setting
for Christian education to carry on its work with integrity?... What char
acteristics should the church possess in order to serve as a context for
Christian transformation through conscientization, in the light of the
Kingdom?1
Schipani suggests that Freire’s paradigm calls for the relationship

between teachers and students to be that of equality, with the teacher
assuming the role of a facilitator.2 John Elias observes that the teacher
must be deeply committed to dialogical learning. Schipani further
proposes that 'educational goals and contents are not to be defined, and
determined from the top, or dictated in an unquestioned and static
manner’.3
Schipani observes that there must be a major change in regard to
the ‘schooling-instruction paradigm’ toward that of a ‘community of
faith-enculturation’ paradigm as proposed by W esterhoff.4
Furthermore, he notes that the church is ‘to facilitate the experience
of mutual support in order to provide the necessary “context of rap
port” when individuals and groups confront struggles and conflict sit
uations’.5 Also, according to Schipani, ‘the church is to foster a sense
of self worth and affirmation’, with a ‘hospitable reception of the per
son’s own insights and intuitions’.6
Negatively, Schipani proposes that authoritarian and paternalistic
instructional approaches are to be rejected. However, he has noted that
it ‘is not to say that authority as such is to be negated. Rather, that
1. D.S. Schipani, ‘Conscientization and Creativity: A Reinterpretation of Paulo

Freire, Focused on His Epistemological and Theological Foundations with
Implications for Christian Education Theory’ (PhD dissertation, Princeton
Theological Seminary, 1981), p. 200.
2. ‘Conscientization and Creativity’, p. 201.
5 . A Pentecostal Paradigm fo r Catechesis 113
there must be a delicate balance between trusting the authority of

one’s judgment and the recognition of established patterns and prac
tices within the community of faith’.1
Finally, Schipani notes that the integration of Freire’s concepts
would call for the affirmation of unity and equality, and an educa
tional context which would remain open to and would facilitate inter
action with the social milieu.2 The church would embrace conflict as
necessary for the life of the church as a consequence of being a
‘nonconformist, prophetic community’.3
These conclusions of Schipani closely relate to Thomas Groome’s
understanding of the meaning of Christian religious education which
he describes as ‘a political activity with pilgrims in time that deliber
ately and intentionally attends with them to the activity of God in our
present, to the Story of the Christian faith community, and to the
Vision of God’s Kingdom, the seeds of which are already among us’.45
Groome’s ‘shared praxis approach’ is designed to facilitate the above
meaning of Christian religious education. He utilizes Freire’s concepts
of the political nature of all educational activity and of a praxis way of
knowing to develop an approach to catechesis which would promote
lived Christian faith.s
Both Schipani and Groome point out that the implications of
Freire’s revolutionary pedagogy for Christian education are those
which affect the very nature and content of the entire pedagogical
experience. Utilizing traditional educational categories, there follows
a brief synopsis of the implications of Freire’s theory for Christian
education.
Goals
Freire has been emphatic concerning the ultimate goal of the educa
tional enterprise. Education enables a person to pursue his or her

4. Thomas Groome, Christian Religious Education, p. 25.
5. Groome’s meaning of ‘lived Christian faith’ incorporates ‘faith as believing’,
‘faith as trusting’, and ‘faith as doing’. See Christian Religious Education, ch. 4,
‘For Christian Faith’, pp. 56-77. Groome also stresses that Christian religious edu
cation is to promote freedom, for a relationship with Jesus Christ truly results in both
personal and socio-political freedom. See ch. 5, ‘For Human Freedom’, pp. 82-103.
ontological vocation of becoming fully human. This vocation often

calls for the radical transformation of oppressive socio-political
structures. The aim for the context of Christian catechesis means
appropriating the message of the Kingdom of God, announcing the
good news found in Christ Jesus. This good news includes the
prophetic activity of announcing full humanization, love and accep
tance of all people. It is good news for the poor. This also involves the
prophetic task of denouncing structures which hinder the cause of the
kingdom. Such announcing and denouncing is best actualized within
the context of a community of faith which exists as a radical, counter-
cultural witness to the dominant order.
The goal of increasing knowledge of Christ’s Kingdom involves
promoting a way of knowing which is based upon the biblical meaning
of experiential-relational knowledge. The incorporation of Freire’s
understanding of praxis as reflective-action for the ongoing transfor
mation of history should be included.
Content
The educational ramifications of Freire’s pedagogical theory con
cerning the nature of the content highlights concrete historical exis
tence over against a static, predetermined content. Reality is the object
of critical reflection and action. Scientific analysis should be applied to
the complex nature of socio-political dynamics. Therefore, the tools
of the social sciences become part of the content inasmuch as their
critique is studied. The biblical witness is the primary guide for
reflection and action. Schipani offers a description of what this pro
cess should involve:
The discernment of problems, perspectives and new alternatives, involves
not merely the isolated focus on what the Bible says, or the church’s doc
trine on the matter, or what persons really want, etc., but a more careful,
complex, dialectical-hermeneutical process, often not yielding an easy
resolution.1
Groome’s shared praxis approach involves the content as the story of

Scripture and the stories of human experience which exist in a dialec
tical relationship. Thus, the ongoing of the story is actualized through
the dialectic of praxis.2

2. For an indepth analysis of Groome’s shared praxis approach, see Part IV of
View o f the Teacher

Incorporating the concepts of Freire in Christian catechesis means that
the teacher would exist in a relationship of equality and mutual sup
port with the student. The teacher should not be over the student, but
rather with the student in a joint quest for the transformation of real
ity. There should be the matrix of love, dialogue, humility and hope.
For the context of the church, Schipani notes that this incorporates the
meaning of the Pauline metaphor of the body of Christ in which ‘each
member belongs to all the other’ (1 Cor. 12.26).'
View o f the Student

Utilizing the model of Freire means that the student is an active
participant in the learning adventure. The student is to realize that he
or she is a subject of history and not fated to be an object of a
historical process which is out of their control.
For Freire, the student may need assistance in the process of criti
cally considering reality. This assistance involves enabling the student
to abstract (code) reality in order to see its dominant myths and then
to decode reality by relating the critique back into historical
experience.
In the context of Christian education, Groome’s shared praxis
approach calls for a five-step process involving the process of critical
reflection which attempts to ‘go below the obvious, to become aware
of its source, the genesis of present action’. This critical reflection is
guided by the story of Scripture and the Christian tradition and the
vision of the Kingdom.2
Settings for Learning

The influence of Freire’s concepts upon Christian education stresses
that the context or the environment should be open to the socio-politi
cal milieu. Freire has stressed that the church is not ahistorical. It is a
historical institution with the task of aiding in the transformation of
reality. This cannot be done in isolation. The church cannot be a
haven, a mere refuge from the turmoil of society.
The church should, therefore, exist in a dialectical relationship with
the dominant order, offering a critique to the status quo and a voice
Christian Religious Education.

for the oppressed. This task involves risk and a realization that there
will be opposition and struggle. There is, therefore, a prophetic
stance, with the dominant order being the object of both annunciation
of God’s freedom and denunciation of oppressive social structures.
Curriculum
The ongoing dialectic of praxis in Freire’s paradigm provides the
constant re-evaluation of the tension between theory and practice.
As reality is constantly being reflected and acted upon, new problems
and obstacles arise which call for a response. This process prevents
a hardened ideology from hindering the process of social
transformation.
In the curriculum of church education, human experiences are
placed in dialogue with Scripture. Freire’s paradigm calls for the
curriculum to arise from the world of the people and to return there
with a transformational character.
Clearly, Freire’s influence is profound in its implications upon the
field of Christian education. Bruce Boston notes that the ‘Christian
educator already has one distinct advantage which he or she brings to
Freire’s method. By virtue of a commitment to the gospel, a predis
position to human liberation is necessarily present’.1However, Boston
continues, ‘to take Freire seriously in Christian education is going to
mean a shaking of the foundations up and down the line, from the
Sunday School to seminary’.2
Base Ecclesial Communities

Primarily, as John Elias has already noted, Freire provides a new
theological basis for Christian education by ‘wedding his educational
philosophy to the theology of liberation which has been developed
primarily by Latin American theologians’.3 This theological basis
constitutes the foundation behind the methodology of the Latin
American base ecclesial communities.
One of the most hopeful and striking developments within Latin
American Christianity is the rapid growth of base ecclesial communi
ties (BECs). This movement is a grassroots phenomenon composed of
predominantly Catholic laity who regularly meet together in small
1. Boston, ‘Conscientization and Christian Education’, p. 39.

2. Boston, ‘Conscientization and Christian Education’, p. 39.
3. Elias, ‘Paulo Freire’, p. 54.
groups for Bible study and reflection. The BECs (or ‘popular’ or
‘peoples’ church) are diverse in make-up and purpose, but they fit
together under an all-encompassing definition:
The groups are communities, because they bring together people of the
same faith who belong to the same church and who live in the same area.
They are ecclesial because they have congregated within the church, as
grassroots nuclei of the community of faith. They are base because they
consist of people who work with their hands.1
Schipani points out that the BECs constitute a unique locus for consci-
entizing religious education.2 These groups have created a milieu in
which people develop an understanding of society as well as their
commitment to transform it. ‘Ideally, the BEC is to become society’s
utopia as well as an agent for social transformation’.3
Inasmuch as the BECs are built on a utopian foundation of hope and
change, they offer the oppressed a concrete means of building the
Kingdom of God. Real life situations, such as community problems
involving housing, sewers, and electricity, are the agenda items for
discussion. The praxis methodology of Freire thus becomes a critical
dimension for the BECs’ life. Within these groups, there generally
operates a three-fold movement toward critical reflection ‘in light of
the Word’. This process has as its starting point the critical analysis of
reality. The second movement consists of ‘the effort to illumine
Christian praxis in the light of the resources provided by revelation
and theological reflection’.4 The process ends with discerning the
proper action.
Schipani correlates the three movements found in the traditional
Catholic Action methodology, observing, judging and acting, with the
process given above. The first movement, observing, involves socio-
analytic mediation to understand the nature of the oppression taking
place.5 This movement corresponds with the first two movements of
1. Schipani, Religious Education Encounters Liberation Theology, p. 236.

Groome’s shared praxis approach: naming, expressing present action

and critical reflection of present action.1
The second movement, judging, involves assessing the present real
ity in light of the Christian faith anchored in Scripture.2 This process
corresponds with Groome’s third movement, making accessible
Christian story and vision.3 The final movement of acting involves the
practical mediation of reality, consisting of ‘exploring, implementing
and evaluating operational approaches consistent with both the peo
ple’s hopes for liberation and the revealed divine will for justice and
peace’.4 This process corresponds with Groome’s fourth and fifth
movements: dialectical hermeneutics to appropriate story/vision to
participants’ stories and visions and decision/response for lived
Christian faith.5
Summary
Conscientizing religious education is occurring today among many
people who have been silenced by traditional forms of education. Its
paradigm as described above, however, fails to serve as an appropri
ate process for Pentecostal catechesis. There are hermeneutical, epis
temological and ontological differences which call for the construction
of an alternative paradigm.
It is with an awareness of both the convergences and divergences
with liberation themes that the following paradigm is offered, taking
seriously the challenge of Elias that one ‘would do a great disservice
to the pedagogy of Paulo Freire and to the field of religious education
if one were to think that his method is some kind of a magic formula
for solving our problems’.6 The paradigm is also offered with full
agreement of Elias’ assessment of the task of a ‘religious educator’ in
regard to dialogue with Freire:
The task of the religious educator in trying to find benefit in Freire’s ped
agogy lies not in a slavish imitation of his methods but rather in the
1. See in particular Part II of Groome, Sharing Faith: A Comprehensive

Approach to Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry (New York: Harper Collins,
1991).
2. Schipani, Religious Education Encounters Liberation Theology, pp. 164-65.
3. See Groome, Sharing Faith, esp. ch. 8.
5. See Groome, Sharing Faith, esp. chs. 9 and 10.
attempt to come to grips with his own experience and with those of his
people in order to work out ways to better understand this experience and
to work for the transformation of structures which impede the true human
ization of man.1
Therefore, this paradigm represents an attempt to come to grips with

Pentecostal experience as it relates to catechesis and to work out ways
to understand better the relation of the Pentecostal ethos to the trans
formation of the world and the full humanization and sanctification of
all people.
The Nature o f Pentecostal Catechesis

The nature of the educational activities of a particular group should
reflect that group’s concepts concerning reality, how knowledge is
acquired and transmitted and what the final outcome of the educational
endeavor should be like. Consequently, any attempt to define the
meaning of Pentecostal catechesis should incorporate Pentecostal
understandings of reality, knowledge and the meaning of Christian
faith and how it is developed.
In his research toward developing a model for theological education
among Chilean Pentecostals utilizing Freire’s methods, Warren
Homing insightfully notes that:
Any educational model to be used among the Chilean Pentecostals must
take seriously their emphasis on salvation, baptism, the second work of
baptism, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, certain manifestations of the Spirit,
and the indwelling presence of the Spirit, all with a stress on personal
experience. The one normative experience of the Pentecostal, apart from
conversion, is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.2
Therefore, in order to develop an approach to catechesis for

Pentecostals, there must be an attempt to relate the entire process to
the nature of the Pentecostal community of faith.
Toward a Definition
There is ongoing debate and study as to the exact meaning of the term
catechesis for contemporary Christian education. John Westerhoff
understands the term as

2. Homing, ‘Paulo Freire’s Contribution’, p. 162.
the means by which the community becomes aware of God’s revelation,

comes to faith and acquires mature knowledge, understanding, and
commitment so as to judge and evaluate its life of social action, evange
lism, stewardship, pastoral care, administration, worship, and fellowship.
It prepares and stimulates persons and the community for faithful mission
and ministry through every aspect of its corporate life.1
Therefore, Westerhoff has broadened the meaning of catechesis to

include all of the activity of the church which leads to mature
Christian faith. He views catechesis as essentially a pastoral activity
which is intended to ‘enable the people of God to meet the twofold
responsibility which Christian faith requires of them: community with
God and neighbor’.2 Westerhoff postulates that within catechesis there
are three deliberate systematic and sustained processes: formation,
education and instruction. Formation involves the means in which
people are incorporated into the life of the church and are shaped
(enculturated) into the community’s understanding of the Christian
faith. It involves apprenticeship in which new members can learn the
ways of Christian living. Westerhoff describes seven components
inherent within the formational process: participation in its rituals and
ceremonies, environment, interrelational experiences, behavior
observed, role models, organization and the use of language.3
The educational process involves those humanizing elements which
give people the ability to be subjects in the world. It employs the
method of critical analysis which helps to free people from their his
torical conditioning.4
Instruction involves technical education which is the transmission
and acquisition of knowledge and skills. It provides the content of the
Scriptures and tradition and enables people to use proper skills in
interpretation.5
Thomas Groome chooses to define catechesis in more traditional
terms. He proposes that Westerhoff s understanding of the term might
better be called ‘Christian socialization’ or ‘enculturation’.
1. J. Westerhoff, Learning through Liturgy (New York: The Seabury Press,

1978), p. 94.
2. Westerhoff, Learning through Liturgy, p. 93.
3. See J. Westerhoff, ‘Formation, Education and Instruction’, Religious
Education 82.4 (Fall 1987).
4. Westerhoff, ‘Formation’.
Furthermore, he notes that to call Westerhoff s definition catechesis is

‘asking the word to carry much more meaning than it is capable of
conveying’.1
For Groome, usage of catechesis must be consistent with its histori
cal meaning of ‘re-echoing or retelling the story of Christian faith that
has been handed down’.2 This process, according to Groome, must be
situated as a specifically instructional activity rather than that of the
whole enterprise of religious education.3
The nature of Pentecostal catechesis fits well with Westerhoff s
paradigm. In particular, the movement has a powerful process of
formation which includes the elements of incorporation, enculturation
and transformation, which goes beyond formational processes. In the
context of Pentecostalism, faith is conveyed and nurtured in a manner
consistent with Westerhoff s ‘community of faith’ paradigm which
understands that it is all of the Christian community life which builds
faith.4 In this context, the means of Christian education, according to
Westerhoff, are to be understood as ‘the actions between and among
faithful persons in an environment that supports the expansion of faith
and equips persons for radical life in the world as followers of Jesus
Christ’.5
Therefore, Pentecostal catechesis may be defined as the means
whereby the Pentecostal community becomes aware of God’s revela
tion and responds to this revelation in faithful obedience. The nature
of this process should include the oral nature of a Pentecostal
hermeneutic and the dynamics of Pentecostal liturgy. It includes a
dynamic and active role of the Holy Spirit and emphasizes the full
participation of all members of the community of faith.
What follows is a synopsis of the basic components of Pentecostal
catechesis, with implications being given under each component as to
how Freire’s concepts may be integrated.

4. W esterhoff s paradigm broadens the context of Christian education to
‘include every aspect of our individual and corporate lives within an intentional,
covenanting, pilgrim, radical, counter-cultural, tradition-bearing faith community’.
Westerhoff, Will our Children Have Faith?, p. 49.
5. Westerhoff, ‘Will our Children Have Faith?', p. 50.
The Goals
The goal of Pentecostal catechesis is to promote lived Christian faith
which is actualized in both the life of the community of faith and in
the world at large.
Comprising the nature of this goal there is the focal point of the
Scripture as the revealed word of God. Therefore, the Scripture is the
standard for the process and the outcome of the catechetical process.
The revealed word of God is not to be understood in a transmissive
nature but rather to be seen as permeated by the Holy Spirit who
reveals the living word through the written word. In this sense the
nature of the aim points to a lived Christian faith which is more than a
rational assent to factual data but rather one which is joined in a
dynamic relationship with the Creator Spirit.
For Freire, the aim of education is the full humanization of all
people. A person’s full personhood and worth must be facilitated by
overcoming those structures which deny full humanization.
Pentecostal catechesis should incorporate this understanding, but
should ground the meaning of being fully human in the nature of God.
Freire’s paradigm grounds the humanization process in purely histori
cal, human efforts. Freedom to become is a totally human effort. It is
self-grounded. For Pentecostals, however, full humanization is a
redemptive process which is given to people as a gift of grace. People
are worthy and have dignity, even if denied their dignity by oppress
sive social structures. Therefore, the church is to live as an alternative
community, announcing God’s gift of wholeness for the world and
renouncing oppressive structures which do not see people as God sees
them.
The Nature of the Content

The nature of the goal of Pentecostal catechesis is also reflected in the
nature of the content. If the goal is to transmit an authoritative mes
sage then the content would reflect this ‘removed from life’ character.
If, however, the goal is to promote lived Christian faith, then the
nature of the content would be such as to point toward the lived expe
rience of such a faith. The content of Pentecostal catechesis has both
the authoritative, revealed nature and the experiential nature. These
two components exist in a dialectical relationship, with experience
being evaluated by the norm of Scripture.
The content also has both a literary and an oral nature. The literary
consists of the Scripture and written forms of catechetical material.

However, the content also contains the oral witness of believers. This
oral witness takes the form of stories, testimonies, songs and ensuring
the ongoing dialectic of the word and experience.
Such a dialectic is in accord with Freire’s emphasis that the content
arises from human experience. Reality is an object of critical
reflection. While the tools of the social sciences should be incorpo
rated into the content as necessary aids in unveiling reality, the social
sciences themselves should come under the critique of Scripture.
Therefore, the unveiling of reality takes on the dimension of the
divine as well as the human.
The Role o f the Student

Inherent within the Pentecostal movement is the insistence that all
believers are to be fully active participants in the ongoing work of the
kingdom. This participation takes liturgical forms as well as instruc
tional and witness forms.
Furthermore, Pentecostalism affords dignity to those who have been
deprived of it within society. This dignity is rooted in the fact that all
are equal in the body of Christ and that the ‘charisma’ of the Spirit is
given to everyone, regardless of their social standing.
For Freire, it is important that the student see himself or herself as
a subject of history. Pentecostalism understands people as objects of
God’s divine initiative upon the world and as subjects of the historical
process. Only when people are objects of the mercy of God and
objects of the infilling of God’s Spirit can they truly become subjects
of the historical process, for history is determined by God who is in
the historical process, as well as over and beyond it. There is, there
fore, a historical as well as an ahistorical nature to Pentecostal catech
esis. God’s actions are rooted in concrete action within the lives of
believers as well as being sovereign over the historical flow of the
world.
When it is understood that both the teacher and the student are
objects of God’s divine initiative, then there is equality and mutuality
within the teacher-student relationship. Both are invited to co-create
with God for the sanctification of the world.
The Role of the Teacher

Contrary to the banking model as defined by Freire, teachers within
the context of a Pentecostal environment are to be understood as
facilitators of God’s actions and presence in the teaching-learning pro
cess. The Holy Spirit is the teacher, making known in an active man
ner the will of God for both the teacher and the student. Teaching,
therefore, is understood as a ‘charisma’ of the Spirit, belonging to
God for the edification of the body of Christ. This understanding
negates any attempt to rule over the students but rather to facilitate a
divine-human encounter.
The Teaching Community. A key aspect of Pentecostal catechesis is

the role that the community of faith serves as a teaching community.
Corporate worship and life of the church are stressed in such a man
ner as to put the responsibility upon the body of believers to promote
lived Christian faith.
Therefore, the context of worship becomes a primary context for
formation. As a drama of God’s unfolding actions, the setting of wor
ship and the liturgies contained within the act of worship, serve to
instruct, exhort and to model the life of faith. Therefore, for
Pentecostals, such rituals as singing and testifying carry pedagogical
significance. They serve to re-enact, to model and to proclaim the
meaning of the Christian life. The context of the worshipping com
munity becomes the place where affective and cognitive aspects are
joined together in a powerful manner. Westerhoff notes the dynamic
pedagogical implications of a worshipping community:
the liturgical and ritual aspects of life in the church need to become a major
dimension of Christian education. Ritual must always be at the heart of
Christian education, for in the community’s liturgy, story and action
merge; in worship we remember and we act in symbolic ways which
bring our sacred tradition and our lives together, providing us with both
meaning and motivation for daily existence.1
The total life of the community also functions as a means of instruc

tion. LaLive’s description of Pentecostals in Chile serves as an exam
ple of the power of the community as teacher:
From the moment of his first contact with the community, the sympathizer
finds himself to be an object of interest and surrounded by human
1. Westerhoff, Will our Children Have Faith?, p. 60.

warmth; he finds that other people attribute to him an importance which he

himself never suspected and learns that God (the one who saves!) is inter
ested in him !.. . In the Pentecostal congregation, the initiate finds he is
immediately given a place which carries rights and duties in the different
departments of the organization... As soon as they are sure of his con
version, they will ask him to declare it during a service of witness, where
he will describe, as the formula gods, ‘how God worked in him for sal
vation’ ... But the initiate interprets these duties as signs that he really
belongs to the group and shares the common responsibility; just as he
needs the group, the group needs him; he is somebody.1
Settings for Learning

The above description of convert initiation and instruction illustrates
how the community itself serves in the pedagogical role. The com
munity, therefore, is the primary agent of conscientization, helping
converts realize that they are somebody. The community raises the
consciousness of the person to understand reality in a new way and to
see himself or herself as actors in history of both the church and the
world.
There are specific liturgical functions that are common to
Pentecostals which serve to initiate and instruct believers. Through
these acts, the meaning of conscientization can be actualized in a pow
erful, symbolic manner. They have the potential for motivating
believers to live out God’s intentions of alternative community which
exhibits justice and love. Westerhoff observes that our rituals are to
aid us in critically judging the world, to provide us with visions of the
world God intends and to motivate us to live in God’s world as
strangers and pilgrims.2
Water baptism is a rite in which believers give public witness to
conversion. It is a symbolic act of death and new life. For the convert
to Pentecostalism in many Third World areas, baptism signifies iden
tity with the oppressed and with the God of the oppressed. Often bap
tismal services are held outdoors, as public occasions for witness.3

2. G. Kennedy Neville and J. Westerhoff, Learning through Liturgy (New
York: Seabury Press, 1978), p. 99.
3. In particular, Pentecostals in India utilize outdoor baptismal services as occa
sions to witness. Usually a lively procession precedes the event, which attracts many
people who follow the parade to the place of baptism where there will be preaching
and testimonies.
Communion, as enactment of the suffering and brokenness of the

incamator, serves to give corporate witness to commitment to live out
his meaning among a people who exist for others. Communion among
Pentecostals usually is of both a solemn and celebratory nature. Often
it is accompanied by extended prayers and singing. For Pentecostals,
their gathering around the communion table is a foretaste of the mar
riage supper of the Lamb. Christ, the host and high priest, is present
and believers ‘are made to sit together with him in heavenly places’
(Eph. 2.6).
Footwashing, a rite which is practiced among many Pentecostals,
serves as a powerful means of catechesis. Its praxis is that which re
enacts in a communal gathering the meaning of cleansing and servant-
hood. Foot washing serves as a liturgical means of re-enacting the
continual cleansing which is needed following conversion.1 It is an
inter-generational rite as young children and adults wash each others’
feet and pray for one another. It is a time for confessions and mutual
submission. Thus, metanoia or the ongoing praxis of conversion is
symbolically and radically instituted, and new visions of reality are
given.2
Testimony is the means of meshing the realities of life with the
ongoing story of the faith community. Among Pentecostals, testimony
can serve as a way of ‘decoding reality’ in order to analyze it for
further action and reflection. It serves as a corporate liturgy, in which
all are invited to speak, for each person has a testimony—a story—
which when offered to the community serves to empower others.
Thus, even a child can be a part of the teaching community. As they
name reality, testimonies speak of tragedies, of failures, of fears, of
oppression and of violence. However, they offer alternative realities
when placed in dialogue with the Christian story. When a person has
1. For an excellent treatment of the rite of footwashing see J.C. Thomas,

Footwashing in John 13 and the Johannine Community (Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 1991). It is Thomas’s thesis that footwashing was enacted in
John’s community as a sign of the forgiveness of sins committed by Christians after
becoming disciples.
2. This rite serves as a means whereby we can envision the possibilities of the
Kingdom of God on a larger scale. For instance, in one particular footwashing ser
vice at the Church of God School of Theology, a white student from South Africa
washing the feet of a black South African served symbolically to offer cleansing and
hope, not just for the individuals involved but for our whole community and for the
world.
experienced an encounter with God, they are usually asked to testify.

This serves to submit individual experience to corporate judgment
(with Scripture being held as the final authority) and to allow for
experience to be given interpretive meaning.
Testimony may also serve as in-service training for later ministry.
It is the first place to test one’s voice and one’s message. Often people
are recognized as having a ‘special anointing or calling’ in testimony
services and are invited to speak more formally (to preach or teach).
This training ground is especially helpful among the young and among
those whose voice has been silenced by the social order.
Healing rituals are traditionally part of Pentecostal worship. Such
rituals may be accompanied by anointing with oil and ‘the laying on of
hands’. Prayers are offered for people to be healed not only physically
but emotionally, financially and spiritually as well. Pentecostalism
offers a healing community where sin-sick souls find Shalom, where
people marked by abandonment, solitude and impotency find a com
munity that, without conditions, accepts them as one of their own.
This welcome, which is visually expressed by the laying on of hands,
offers a great healing faculty.1The untouchables are touched, not only
by human hands, but by the divine.2
Spirit baptism among Pentecostal believers is an event, which like
conversion, marks a radical re-orienting of one’s identity. It is usually
preceded by a time of ‘seeking’, which may be accompanied by prayer
vigils and fasting. The experience signifies that one has fully surren
dered to the Holy and that there is accompanying this surrender a
‘figure-ground reversal’ in which a person is filled with God’s pres
ence. Accompanying this ‘convictional experience’3 is the realization
of a new existence of freedom, belonging, love and power and the
corresponding vision of life in the Kingdom. ‘The transcendent
1. See J. Sepluveda, ‘Pentecostalism and Liberation Theology: Two

Manifestations of the Work of the Holy Spirit For the Renovation of the Church’, in
H. Hunter and P. Hocken (eds.), All Together in One Place (Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, forthcoming).
2. A prototype of this is found in Lk. 13.10-17 which records Jesus’ healing of
the crippled woman in the synagogue. This woman, who was socially outcast and
physically disabled, is called forward by Christ and is touched and liberated and
given a voice.
3. Iam utilizing some of the language of J. Loder, The Transforming Moment:
Understanding Convictional Experiences (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981).
presence of God moves and transforms the believers affectively as he

conforms them to the character of God, and therefore, the coming
Kingdom’.1
Songs and dances can also serve to ’make meaning’ out of the ongo
ing dialectic of reality and vision. Both serve as doxology, that poetic
praise which announces a reality which must come. As Hollenweger
has reminded us, dance and song among many Pentecostals represents
power of a revolutionary nature. These rituals can ignite in people the
capacity to envision a new alternative to the oppressive structures of
life.
There are other communal liturgical functions which may serve for
the conscientization of the people of God. What has been given above
serves only as a beginning attempt to articulate the formational power
of Pentecostal praxis.
What Freire contributes to Pentecostal catechesis is an awareness
that the community does not exist in isolation from society and that it
has the role of critiquing the dominant order. This is done by existing
as a counter-cultural model and also by proclamation and siding with
the oppressed.
While the influence of Freire’s concepts stresses that the educational
environment be one that is open to the socio-political milieu,
Pentecostal catechesis understands that there is a certain level of dis
continuity between the context of the community of faith and the
socio-political environment. This discontinuity originates in the
unique nature and calling of the church which is to reflect the ethics of
the Kingdom.
There is, therefore, the need for a relationship between the church
and society of both continuity and discontinuity. There is continuity in
the respect that the church is to relate its meaning to the context in
which it finds itself. There is to be discontinuity in respect of the
unique confessional calling and purpose of the church. In order for
the church to retain its prophetic identity, there must be an ongoing
dialectic between itself and the world in which it exists.
Westerhoff describes the church’s role in society as exhibiting a
‘vocation as a counter-cultural community and not as a mirror of the
society, for it is called to give witness through word and deed to an
alternative to life as it is’.2 The nature, therefore, of the learning
1. Land, ‘A Passion for the Kingdom’, p. 200.

2. Westerhoff, Will our Children Have Faith?, p. 76.
environment within the context of Pentecostal catechesis may be

described as a unique, confessional community of faith which exists as
a radical alternative to the dominant order. The environment is open
to the social political milieu inasmuch as it provides the Sitz im Leben
for the actualization of the prophetic message of the kingdom. The
implications of the gospel are to be grounded in human history, both
social and personal.
The environment includes all the activity of the church which pro
motes lived Christian faith. Formal educational endeavors such as
Sunday School and informal endeavors have the same generic charac
teristics of intentionality, openness, love, mutuality, dialogue and
critical reflection. Praxis, therefore, is to be fostered in all of the
church’s life.
Summary
A Pentecostal paradigm for catechesis which incorporates Freire’s
concepts includes an aim to promote lived Christian faith which is
actualized both in the life of the community of faith and in the world
at large. The nature of the aim includes Scripture as the revealed
word of God and human experience as the context for the ‘fleshing
out’ of the meaning of being Christian.
The content includes both human experience and Scripture which
exists in a dialectical relationship with experience being evaluated by
the norm of Scripture. The content has both a literary and oral nature
with human experience taking the form of ‘witness’ (story).
The student is a person who exists as an active participant within the
community of faith. Inasmuch as it is God’s grace which calls the
community into being, all people are equal regardless of social
standing. The student, therefore, is both an object of God’s grace and
a subject of history.
The teacher is a recipient of God’s grace and the power of the Holy
Spirit, as is the student. He or she is to be seen as a facilitator of God’s
action and presence in the teaching-learning process. The community
of faith as a whole serves as a teaching community inasmuch as the
life of the church disciples believers. The community exists as a
counter-cultural model, siding with the oppressed and affording dig
nity and full humanization to all people.
The setting for learning focuses on the worshipping community. As
believers participate in the rituals of Pentecostal worship, they are
incorporated, enculturated and apprenticed. They are also trans

formed inasmuch as the liturgies are alive with the power of the Holy
Spirit.
The church retains its prophetic identity, maintaining an ongoing
dialectic between itself and the socio-political environment in which
its exists. As a unique, confessional community of faith, the environ
ment may be characterized as exhibiting the characteristics of mutual
ity, dialogue, love, openness and critical reflection.
The distinctives of Pentecostalism are most clearly seen in its for-
mational processes, in particular those processes expressed in corpo
rate worship, but these distinctives are also noted in a unique approach
to instruction.
A Pentecostal Approach to Group Bible Study1

While it is true that Pentecostalism contains powerful formational
features within the context of the worshipping community, the move
ment is also known for its high regard for the study of Scripture.
Most Pentecostals, while valuing experience, have historically stressed
the need to know and live out the truths of Scripture. They have,
however, failed to integrate adequately the epistemological features
which are found in communal worship with Bible study. In many
ways, this failure reflects a false dichotomy which is found among
most Christians between content and process. Such a dichotomy is fre
quently expressed in terms of the eternal nature of Scripture and the
supposed temporal nature of methods. Methods are considered value-
free tools which do not affect the truths they mediate and, therefore,
may be borrowed from any number of sources, the social sciences
being currently favored. Consequently, Pentecostals have failed to
consider the implications of their dynamic belief system for issues of
epistemology and pedagogy. Often methods utilized in teaching by
Pentecostals militate against the experiential and relational dimensions
of their faith.
Based upon the previous discussions concerning the epistemological
groundings of Pentecostalism and upon the movement’s distinctive
hermeneutical elements involved in interpreting Scripture, there fol
lows an approach to Bible study which includes four interactive
1. The following material is taken from Johns and Johns, ‘Yielding to the Spirit’.
movements: sharing our testimony, searching the Scriptures, yielding

to the Spirit and responding to the call.1 While each movement logi
cally leads into the next in the order given, all four must be held in
dialectic tension as the entire learning experience is surrendered to the
Spirit. Thus, the four movements are best understood as interdepen
dent organic functions of a dynamic system.
Sharing our Testimony

The first movement calls for the participants to share of themselves
through the giving of personal testimony. In this movement the indi
vidual and the group are challenged to know themselves individually
and corporately as subjects of history. Each participant brings to the
study a personal knowledge of what it means to be human in a fallen,
sinful world. Each brings expectations of what life could be like. Each
is caught in a struggle for full humanity. Yet there is a commonness to
everyone’s knowledge, struggles and expectations, a shared sense of
incompleteness in time.
What is meant by the sharing of our testimony is the giving of a
personal account of the ongoing confrontation of the uncertainties of
life in Christ. This is far more than the telling of a story or the
recounting of disengaged facts. It is for us an act of interpersonal
engagement in which individuals offer themselves with their limited
knowledge of God and life to the group for shared critical reflection
in a process that confronts the common tensions of following Christ
and thereby contributes to the corporate testimony.
The sharing of testimony is a present action involving memory,
reflection and interpretation. Memory is the pulling of the past into
the present. The events being remembered may be temporally distant
or near. They may even involve the immediate situation or the ideo
logical constructs of the individual’s belief system. The details may be
distorted or accurate. In any case, memory is a present reality and is
therefore an expression of the present self with its feelings, values and
understandings.
Testimony also involves reflection and interpretation. Remembering
1. Titles for the four movements were the result of a group project with col
leagues from the Church of God School of Theology. Members of the group
included Steve Land, Chris Thomas, Rick Moore and Jackie and Cheryl Johns. The
atmosphere and relationships of the School of Theology have been especially helpful
for the refinement of this ongoing undertaking.
is by its very nature a process of reflection. Associations with other

events and relationships are unavoidable. Testimony is a selective act
in which specific events of the past are brought to bear on specific
aspects of the present in an effort to give meaning to the present. It
thus involves an interpretation of the present through a reinterpreta
tion of the past. It is a confrontation of the present with the past and
thereby a confrontation of the past with the present. Thus the sharing
of testimony is an act of engagement with one’s own past and present.
Furthermore, the sharing of testimony is the offering of the self for
the purpose of ministering to the body of Christ and giving glory
to God. It is a confessional movement of self-denial in which the
members of the group acknowledge (implicitly or explicitly) the
incompleteness of their existence and therefore their need for ongoing
transformation. The individual offers the self for interpretation by
others and God. In the reception of a testimony the group members
enter into critical reflection upon and interpretation of what they have
heard. Members thereby interpret their own memories and situations.
As they confess their existence as finite, historical beings in need of
transformation they create a corporate consciousness with a shared
memory and testimony.
Testimony also carries a sense of participation in the future. Past
and present are confronted in an effort to appropriate coming reali
ties. The dissonance of living in the kingdom of God while waiting on
the full reign of God is thereby addressed. Experiences, feelings, val
ues, understandings and expectations are shared in anticipation of
God’s response which will be discovered in his word. Thus testimony
is given in expectation of dialogue with the Scriptures.
The role of the teacher is that of a guide, one who leads people
toward the life-changing power of the word of God. The human
teacher is a partner with the Paraclete-teacher who is leading the fol
lowers of Christ into the realm of all truth. But human teachers
remain incomplete in their own existence. They are ‘first among
learners’, and not depositors of truth. In preparation for this first
movement the teacher must complete a thorough study of the passage
to be considered and must reflect upon the life issues of the group
members. By reflecting on the manner in which the passage and the
needs of the people interact, the teacher is able to select an appropriate
focus for the testimonies to be given.
In calling forth testimonies the teacher may pose a question, raise an
issue, or open the discussion in any manner that invites the partici
pants to enter into shared reflection upon their own experiences.
Methodologically, testimony requires personal expression which may
be given through a variety of media such as art, mime, role-play,
monologue, dialogue, or the simple telling of one’s story. Responses
to these expressions should surface similarities in life experiences and
help to create critical awareness of common issues facing the partici
pants. These should be carefully articulated. The central issue is that
the members of the group have the opportunity to reflect upon their
present in light of their past and with anticipation of their future.
Searching the Scriptures

The second movement involves the searching of the Scriptures under
consideration in an effort to know the word of God. It is here that the
issues of epistemology must be brought into dialogue with the task of
hermeneutics. How is biblical interpretation to be done so as to facili
tate a dynamic, relational and obedient knowledge of God? The tradi
tional hermeneutical approach leaves much to be desired inasmuch as
it assumes that one can objectively understand the text by utilizing
certain scientific tools. This approach ignores the subjective ‘pre
understanding’ that the interpreter brings to the text, and through its
own subjective pre-understanding (that is, a false assumption of
objectivity) discounts any reliance upon the Holy Spirit as
subjectivism.
The new hermeneutic as developed by Bultmann and others empha
sizes the pre-understandings we bring to the text, but fails to honor
the objective nature as well as the unity of the text. Certainly we must
acknowledge the presuppositions we bring to the text. The first
movement, ‘sharing our testimony’, involves a confession of pre
understandings. However, as committed to the objective authority of
the text to judge all of life, including these presuppositions, a
Pentecostal approach is to bring life to the text so that the word of
God might interpret us. The key element in understanding the text is
the power of the Holy Spirit to work in spite of and even through our
subjective nature.
Francis Martin has dealt with the issue of the role of the Holy Spirit
in biblical interpretation by calling for a ‘critical hermeneutics of the
Spirit’, which presupposes that the reader is in living contact with the
same realities about which the author in the sacred text is speaking.'
The Scripture is to be understood, therefore, via the Holy Spirit who
unveils the mystery of God’s plan of salvation.
It is to be concluded from the above that searching the Scriptures in
a group should bear certain characteristics. It should be personal.
Each person must engage the text as one called to hear and receive the
word of God. It should also be corporate and interactive. Individual
interpretations should be submitted to the group for critical reflection
in an attempt to achieve a consensus of understanding. Also, the text
must be approached in a manner consistent with its nature as the word
of God. It is objective, historical reality which cannot properly be
understood outside of the bounds of reason. Yet, it is a personal, sub
jective word that is carried along by the Holy Spirit. Out of the text
flows the infinite presence of God which addresses the finite limita
tions of humanity. The Scriptures must be approached as an avenue
for personal and corporate engagement with God. The knowing of the
word involves the engagement of the whole person. It is an act of rea
son but is not limited to reason. Because of these considerations the
study of Scripture should be inductive in nature.
The inductive approach assumes that the interpreter has a spirit of
openness and is willing to do a thorough analysis of the text before
drawing general conclusions. This approach elicits a deep personal
engagement with the text in a manner that gives the text integrity by
allowing it to ‘speak for itself. The power of transformation is real
ized when Scripture is honored and allowed to address us.
The inductive process first overviews the text in order to gain an
understanding of the larger picture (main divisions, major themes,
historical and literary context, and relation of the individual parts of
the whole). Observations are made on relationships between events,
characters, ideas, etc., and finally conclusions are derived based upon
these observations. The inductive process is based upon the assumption
that the books of the Bible contain good literary structure and that this
structure reveals the thought of the author. This process of interpre
tation when illumined by the Holy Spirit puts us in touch with the
source realities of the Scripture so that we know ourselves to be
addressed by the author himself. It is critical that the students receive1
1. Fr Francis Martin, ‘Spirit and Flesh in the Doing of Theology’ (paper pre
sented at the Society for Pentecostal Studies Fifteenth Annual Meeting, Mother of
God Community, Gaithersburg, MD, 1985), p.l
the text unto themselves and dialogue with it.

Primarily the role of the teacher is to guide the participants in the
inductive process of interpretation and thereby invite and facilitate
discovery. In order to encourage engagement instead of detachment,
lecture is not to be the predominant mode of this movement. Of
course, there will be lectures given, especially when there are gaps in
knowledge of textual issues or when the participants’ exposure has
been limited. But the teacher must avoid any posture, method or ter
minology that tends to separate the learners from the text. Once the
learners have become skilled in the method, the teacher serves as a
facilitator of dialogue, making sure all points of view have been heard
and the central issues have been addressed.
As the group searches the Scriptures they will be prompted to
reflect on their own life issues. Reflection should be ongoing through
out the four movements of the Bible study. However, movement to
life should not keep the participants from thoroughly studying the
text. The focus of this movement should be to attend to the Scripture.
Yielding to the Spirit

Parker Palmer’s observation that ‘we may bring truth to light by
finding it and speaking its name, but truth also brings us to life by
finding and naming us’1 aptly describes the dynamics of this third
movement. Yielding to the Spirit is that transforming encounter
between the truth of Scripture and the truth found in our own selves.
Typically, Bible study materials written from the objectivist theory-
to-practice stance take a deductionist tone of ‘now here is the truth, go
and do likewise’. Such an approach is based on the Platonic assump
tion that if one knows the truth (reflectively) one will do the truth.
Theoria must first be apprehended, for only then can it be actualized
in the world.
These study materials tend to reduce the Holy Spirit to a prompter
or mild-mannered coach. He is often portrayed as a quiet voice that
will speak to the heart, urging one to live in the truth (the word of
God) and the Holy Spirit will take the word and make sure it does not
return void. Unfortunately, we often go from Bible study without any
real change having taken place in our lives.
The Holy Spirit cannot be tamed or domesticated. In John’s1
1. P. Palmer, To Know as We Are Known: A Spirituality o f Education (New

York: Harper & Row, 1983), p. 60.
description of the Paraclete the Spirit is understood to be the living

presence of the sovereign God. The Spirit is an authoritative presence
leading the church in its confrontation with the world.1 Eskil Franck
describes this function as revealing ‘an actual, living, and authoritative
knowledge about Jesus, which provokes response in people’.2
This epistemology demands that the church be responsive to God’s
critique of the individual and the church. The Holy Spirit is the agent
of encounter with the holy God which results in transformation. The
Spirit is not a domesticated cultivator of good works. As God’s word
becomes known, the individual and the group are known and named
for who they are. They are exposed and have the choice of obedient
response with its resulting transformation or denial of the truth with
its resulting degeneration.
But God is also critiquing the world. Yielding to the Spirit means
attending to the Spirit’s living presence in the world. The Spirit con
textualizes the Scriptures, working within the believer to interpret the
world. As God’s word becomes known, the world is also known and
named for what it is. To yield to the Spirit is to join oneself to the
presence and mission of Christ in the world.
In this movement the task of the teacher is to assure that the group
is called into accountability for living in the light of God’s word. In
essence the objective is for the members of the group to renew their
covenant to live under the lordship of Christ by surrendering to the
transforming power of God’s Spirit. The basic method is to place the
testimonies of the group into dialogue with the discovered truth of the
word. Critical memory is to be surfaced and engaged with the fresh
knowledge flowing from the text. The core question of the movement
is ‘what is the Spirit saying to the church through this passsage about
our lives and the world in which we live?’
Specific methods should recognize the need for individual and cor
porate response. Creative expression through the writing of prayers,
songs, poems, or letters is appropriate, as is the offering of other
creative talents. The key is that these expressions flow from the soul
that is surrendered to the Spirit. In that atmosphere the Spirit is free
to engage the believers as he chooses. As the group attends to the
1. R.E. Brown, The Gospel according to John (xii-xxi) (AB; Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1970), p. 690.
2. E. Franck, Revelation Taught: The Paraclete in the Gospel o f John (Lund:
Gleerup, 1985), p. 56.
Spirit he may choose to make himself known through the charismata

operating within the members of the community as would occur
within the context of a Pentecostal worshipping community. The task
of the teacher is to yield to the Spirit so that the group is invited to do
the same.
Responding to the Call

The ultimate objective of Bible study is to know God and live in his
presence. Jesus understood the knowledge of God to be synonymous
with eternal life (Jn 17.3). The Holy Spirit causes believers to know
the glory of God and to return that glory unto him. Just as Jesus
understood the process of giving glory to flow out of the completion
of the work of God, so we must give God glory through submission to
his will.1
As we yield to the word of the Spirit we are convicted and trans
formed and thereby become a people of conviction, a people who have
experienced what Craig Dykstra terms ‘imaginal insight’.2 A new tes
timony emerges, one in which we confess what we have seen and what
we have heard and what we are compelled to be and to do. If we truly
want to know God we must respond in loving obedience to the light he
has shed upon our paths. The question of this movement is ‘Lord,
what would you have us do in response to your word?’
The role of the teacher in this movement is to provide opportunity
for response and to lead the group in processing the personal and cor
porate call of the Spirit. As in the other movements, this response is
both individual and corporate. By testifying to the conviction we have
received, we give to the community our experience for verification
and interpretation. In such a context the power of the word of God is
both particular and general. Through shared accountability a consen
sus of the Spirit arises and with it a sense of corporate journey.
1. The theme of giving glory to God through works that grow out of grace is
often repeated in the New Testament. Consider especially Rom. 12.1-8; Eph. 4.1-16;
Phil. 2.1-13; 1 Pet. 1-2.
2. Dykstra defines imaginal transformation as moral growth through those
‘events that give our lives their particular shape and quality, and out of which our
responses to life often seem to flow’. In these experiences ‘the deepest patterns of the
nature of reality and existence, and of our relationship to them, are revealed, and our
own essential convictions are rooted in them’ (Vision and Character [New York:
Paulist Press, 1981], pp. 87-88).
Summary
The above four-movement approach to Bible study reflects an attempt
to integrate elements of distinctive Pentecostal terminology,
hermeneutics and epistemology. This approach attempts to move
beyond a praxis-based paradigm as described by Schipani and Groome
into a more pneumatic, experiential and relational paradigm. Such a
paradigm does not negate the critical reflection and action contained
within a praxis-oriented approach, but calls for a grounding of such
reflection in the nature of yada. This paradigm provides a structural,
intentional methodology to the areas of education and instruction and
gives a sense of holistic catechesis within the Pentecostal ethos. Thus,
there should be the same basic epistemological and hermeneutical
dynamics at work in Pentecostal formation, education and instruction.
Conclusions
Within the context of Pentecostalism, especially within the so-called
Third World, there is the most potential for developing a true peda
gogy of the oppressed. In order to begin to articulate some of the
dynamics involved in this process, I have engaged in dialogue with the
ideas of Paulo Freire, who is known world-wide for his liberating
educational paradigm.
Freire’s paradigm, which is designed to enable people to achieve the
state of critical transitivity toward the engagement of historical action,
is guided by the praxis of critical reflection. Consequently, Freire
places little emphasis upon the affective domain of knowing and places
little value upon definitions of reality which are not grounded upon a
scientific humanistic explanation of events. Thus, the richness of
human life is narrowed into critical reason. Conscientization becomes
sterile, and praxis, while arising from experience, is a praxis which
denies the dimensions of the spiritual/affective. In this regard, Freire’s
paradigm, despite attempts to do otherwise, has retained a paternalistic
attitude toward the oppressed in its inherent rejection of the validity
of the God of the oppressed. There is therefore, a need when
constructing a paradigm for Pentecostal catechesis, to move beyond
Freire, while incorporating elements of his praxis approach.
There are inherent within Pentecostalism characteristics which are
themselves conducive to conscientization. Such elements as the roots
of the movement from its holiness and black origins, its oral-narrative
theologizing, its experiential, pneumatic hermeneutic create an ethos

which gives dignity to the marginalized and a voice to the voiceless.
These dynamics call for people realizing their ontological vocations as
subjects of history. Such characteristics are themselves powerful
means of liberation and humanization within the ‘free spaces’ of
Pentecostal communities, and they are pregnant with possibilities for
the transformation of social structures.
It can be concluded that Pentecostalism offers an ethos conducive to
conscientization. However, it must be understood that the meaning of
conscientization is grounded in the speech of God. Conscientization
among Pentecostals is more than cognitive transformation via encoun
tering and naming the world. In fact, the transformation of conscious
ness may happen through being encountered and named by the
ultimate judge of reality. The resulting action is consequently one of
passion and conviction inasmuch as the vision of a new reality is
experienced among those who know the bitterness and despair of the
old order.
What Freire does offer to Pentecostals is an understanding that the
socio-political world is part of the speech of God, and that this world
must be named and judged. A praxis methodology does allow for this
naming. However, reflective-action must be contextualized within the
boundaries of the meaning of a covenantal knowledge of God which is
redemptive as well as critical.
Pentecostal catechesis includes powerful formational processes in
which faith is conveyed and nurtured within the context of the wor
shipping community. The goal of Pentecostal catechesis is defined as
the means whereby the faith community becomes aware of God’s
revelation and responds to this revelation in faithful obedience. The
nature of this process would include the dynamics of an experiential
hermeneutic as these dynamics are actualized within the context of
Pentecostal liturgy. It includes an active role of the Holy Spirit and
emphasizes the full participation of all members of the community of
faith.
There has been proposed a four-movement approach to group Bible
study which attempts to take seriously the dynamics of Pentecostalism.
The first movement, sharing our testimony, involves the naming of
reality by confessing the issues which are brought to the study of
Scripture. This movement is followed by a time of searching the
Scriptures which involves an inductive study of the text under consid

eration. The third movement, yielding to the Spirit, brings the truth
discovered in Scripture to confront the testimonies of our lives, both
individually and corporately. This movement yields to the divine
teacher, as the Holy Spirit makes the knowing event a twofold experi
ence: one of knowledge of the Scripture and knowledge of the human
heart. The fourth movement, responding to the call, is characterized
by confession and accountability for individual and corporate response
to the word of God.
I understand this work as a preliminary attempt to articulate the
dynamics of Pentecostal catechesis. There is a need for ongoing dia
logue and research regarding how Pentecostals make disciples. Many
North American Pentecostal denominations have failed to articulate
intentionally the particular dynamics of their faith, and have conse
quently adopted standard Evangelical approaches to discipleship. The
testimony service, the practice of foot washing, intergenerational wor
ship, tarry meetings, and other rituals which have powerfully
expressed the Pentecostal faith are being abandoned for other rituals
and programs. Not that the original rituals are in themselves salvific,
but they do express the nature of Pentecostal faith as a dynamic, cor
porate community of faith.
There is, therefore, a great need for Pentecostals to be intentional
about our faith formation. The movement’s inferiority complex needs
to give way to a critical confessional stance in which there is aware
ness of and appreciation for the corporate expressions of faith forma
tion. If this is not done, we too will be asking ourselves the haunting
question, ‘Will our children have faith?’ and finding that we have little
to offer in regard to a faith which will have children.
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INDEXES
Index of B iblical references
Joel 1 Corinthians 1 Peter

2.28 68 12.26 115 1-2 137
Luke Galatians 1 John

13.10-17 127 3.28 98 2.3-5 36
2.3 36
John Ephesians 4.7-8 36
12-21 136 2.6 126 4.16 36
17.3 137 4.1-16 137 4.20 36
5.1-5 36
Romans Philemon 5.6-12 36
12.1-8 137 2.1-13 137
Index of Authors
Anderson, R.M. 101 Engels, F. 57

Aquinas, T. 60 Fakey, S.M. 81
Aristotle 37, 60 Fee, G. 83
Arrington, F. 84, 85 Franck, E. 136
Freire, P. 8, 11, 16-18, 20, 21, 26-32,
Barrett, D. 19, 64 34, 38, 42, 46-60, 92, 94, 102,
Berger, P.L. 21,22,41,91 107
Boff, C. 40
Bondi, R. 88 Gerlach, L. 14, 18, 102, 104-108
Boston, B.O. 34, 52, 53, 116 Goulet, D. 33
Brown, R.E. 136 Groome, T. 15, 23, 33, 35, 37, 38, 50,
Brown, R.M. 48, 49 51, 57, 85, 113-15, 118, 120, 121
Brueggemann, W. 60, 70, 71 Gutierret, G. 48, 49
Bultmann, R. 35, 36
Hauerwas, S. 87, 88, 97, 98
Camara, H. 79, 102 Hegel, G.W.F. 37
Carghill, T. 84 Hine, V. 14, 18, 101, 104-107
Castro, E. 76, 77 Hollenweger, W.J. 14, 19, 20, 22, 63-
Clow, H.K. 90 65, 67-69, 71, 79, 81, 87, 89, 90,
Coe, G.A. 46 97, 104
Collins, D.E. 14, 25, 26, 47 Homing, W.G. 12, 72, 73, 119
Cone, J.H. 58, 59, 68 Howard, T. 82
Conn, C.W. 68
Cox, H. 90, 91 Jennings, G.R. 104
Johns, C.B. 35, 38, 86, 130
Dayton, D.W. 65, 66, 84 Johns, J.D. 35, 86, 130
DeKadt, E. 25 Johnson, H. 72
Dewey, J. 15
DeWitt, J.J. 25 Kennedy, W.B. 15,28
Donohue, J.W. 14, 16
Dowd, M.B. 84, 87 LaLive d’Epinay, C. 17, 32, 53, 54, 58,
DuPlessis, D. 78 73, 74, 86, 89, 91, 92, 95, 124,
Dykstra, C. 94, 137 125
Land, S.J. 88, 93, 128
Eetvebut, L.M.V. 104 Leone, M.P. 18
Elias, J.L. 14-16, 34, 59, 60, 112, 116, Loder, J. 94, 127
118, 119 Lohfink, G. 98
154 Penecostal Formation: A Pedagogy among the Oppressed
Lovett, L. 68 Seymour, J.L. 111

Luria, A.R. 31 Sherwin, H.B. 14
Sims, J. 85,94,95
Martin, D. 62, 75, 77, 98 Slosser, B. 78
Martin, F. 133, 134 Smith, T. 66
Marx, K. 38, 57, 58 Sobrino, J. 40
McDonald, W.G. 83 Souza, B.M. 17, 58
Mello, M. de 92, 93 Spittler, R. 82
Miguez Bonino, J. 49 Steckel, R.A. 14
Miller, D.E. 111 Stoll, D. 75
Monterrose, V. 72 Streck, D.R. 15
Moore, T.M. 34 Studbrack, J. 91
Mottet, M.A. 81 Suenen, L.J. 79, 80, 81, 102
Mumper, S.E. 19 Synan, V. 66, 67, 69, 79, 81
Neville, G.K. 125 Teilhard de Chardin, P. 29

Niebuhr, H.R. 8, 60, 70, 101 Tholin, R. 92
Thomas, J.C. 126
O’Conner, D.D. 79
Vaccaro de Petrilla, L.S. 96
Palmer, P. 135 Valliere, P. 80, 95
Piaget, J. 21 Vaz, H.C. de L. 48
Villafane, E. 99
Ranazhan, D. 79
Ranazhan, K. 79 Wagner, 19, 63, 72, 75, 77, 89
Read, W. 72, 76 Wells, D.F. 79
Rifkin, J. 81, 82 Westerhoff, J. 8, 12, 13, 74, 120, 121,
Runyon, T. 39, 94 124, 125, 128
Willems, E. 58, 73
Samarin, W.J. 104 Wilson, J. 90
Schipani, D.S. 15, 21, 30, 34, 36, 40, Wink, W. 85,86
43, 57, 112-115, 117, 118
Sepluveda, J. 127 Zaretsky, 1.1. 18
The Pentecostal movement has been subject to some negative
external assumptions. In this enlightening and challenging
book, Cheryl Bridges Johns argues that, in fact, Pentecostals
employ a powerful process of formation of catechesis, which has
enabled millions of believers to own and articulate the Christian
story She engages dialectically with the work of Paulo Freire, a
specialist in education among the marginalized.
As well as looking more broadly at the nature of all caleche-
sis, there is also an attempt to move beyond the rationalism
found in a praxis epistemology.
CHERYL BRIDGES JO H N S is Professor of Discipleship and

Christian Formation at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary.
Cover Design by Kristen Bareman
WIPF and STOCK Publisher

Eugene, Oregon • www.wipfandstock.com

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Journal of Pentecostal Theology

Cheryl Bridges Johns

Wipf and Stock Publishers

Theological Dimensions of Conscientization 82

There is inherent within the ranks of Pentecostal believers an inferi­

on the historical struggle toward full humanization.1 The ideas of

our tendency to let heart rule over head. Pentecostalism is an ethos

Any writing project is certainly no isolated journey. Along the way

The field of Christian education1 has never been an exclusive area of

expression, with the potential for both personal and social

1. The term ‘catechesis’ has historically been exclusively a Roman Catholic

from and works within this ethos as an unveiling of alternative

Pentecostalism. For this study, Pentecostalism is defined as a world­

Background of the Issues

1. This broad definition of Pentecostals is the one utilized by such researchers as

may be compared to that of John Dewey, whose democratic-

the Religious Inspiration of their Thought’ (EdD dissertation, Temple University,

1. Freire, 'Education, Liberation and the Church’, Religious Education 19A

Freire identifies three types of churches existing in Latin America:

Pentecostalism and Conscientization

1. Freire, ‘Education, Liberation and the Church’, pp. 535-37.

Pentecostal movement is one of personal transformation and revolu­

It cannot be disputed, however, that Pentecostalism is largely a

1. See L.P. Gerlach, ‘Pentecostalism: Revolution or Counter Revolution?’ in

whether or not the movement is destined to become a ‘haven’ for

Hollenweger views Pentecostalism as offering a means for ‘oral’ peo­

1. For example, around the middle of this century, Pentecostals comprised

and the profane.1 When the concept of charismata is understood this

Cognitive Critical Aspects of Conscientization

1. W. J. Hollenweger, ‘Creator Spirit’, Theology 81 (1978), pp. 32-40.

Knowledge, according to Freire, emerges through invention and re-

1. Freire, Pedagogy o f the Oppressed, p. 56.

is in reality no such thing as conscientization.'

The Need for a Synthesis

1. Berger, ‘Consciousness Raising’, p. 129.

conscientization and which would be an authentic pedagogy among the

This method allows for an analysis to be positive and creative in that it

1. Groome, Christian Religious Education, p. 196.

Overview o f Freire’s Life and Works

firsthand the painful existence of the poor.1

Freire’s Literacy Campaign

1. See P. Freire, ‘Education as the Practice of Freedom’, in Education fo r

1. See Sobre la accion cultural (Mexico, DF: Secretariadosocial, Mesicano,

for newly emerging countries such as Guinea-Bissau.1 Freire spent a

1. Freire’s experiences with Guinea-Bissau are recorded in Pedagogy in Process

Reality: A Text to be Interpreted

1. Freire, ‘Cultural Action and Conscientization’, in Cultural Action fo r

The Interpreters: Human Subjects

1. Freire, Pedagogy o f the Oppressed, p. 92.

Those people who exist in societies which are characterized by

dynamics of cognitive development and social development, Freire’s method also

manipulating people by denying them an authentic voice.1

The Tools o f Interpretation: Problem-Posing Pedagogy

1. LaLive, Haven o f the Masses, p. 40.

• their arduous search for generative words at two levels: syllabic

• a first codification of these words into visual images which stimulate

• the decodification by a ‘culture circle’ under the self-effacing stimulus

• a creative new codification, this one explicitly critical and aimed at

While the above elements deal specifically with developing literacy,

(Journal of Pentecostal theology. Supplement series _ 2.) Freire, Paulo_ Johns, Cheryl Bridges_ Freire, Paulo - Pentecostal formation _ a pedagogy among the oppressed-Wipf & Stock Publishers (2010).pdf

(Journal of Pentecostal theology. Supplement series _ 2.) Freire, Paulo_ Johns, Cheryl Bridges_ Freire, Paulo - Pentecostal formation _ a pedagogy among the oppressed-Wipf & Stock Publishers (2010).pdf

(Journal of Pentecostal theology. Supplement series _ 2.) Freire, Paulo_ Johns, Cheryl Bridges_ Freire, Paulo - Pentecostal formation _ a pedagogy among the oppressed-Wipf & Stock Publishers (2010).pdf

There is inherent within the ranks of Pentecostal believers an inferi

Pentecostalism. For this study, Pentecostalism is defined as a world

Pentecostal movement is one of personal transformation and revolu

Hollenweger views Pentecostalism as offering a means for ‘oral’ peo

in personal experience. They have not, however, applied hermeneuti

important, is distorted and may become self-serving, thereby hin

include more of the affective-spiritual dimensions of human interac

From the above mentioned sources, it is evident that Freire’s theo

From a sociological perspective, Freire has portrayed the tradi

to a holy life and to co-create with God in the transformation of soci