72 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

included "'indelicate words or expressions'" (p. 184). Does one have a

right to impose the mores of either our age or Queen Victoria's upon the
Bible? Should it not be allowed to speak for itself?
Smith believes "the greatest artists of the Renaissance" to be "the
greatest artists of modern times" (p. 272). This is hardly a popular view
in any case.
The author has had a variegated life. The reader enters into it with his
emotions as well as his reason. One wishes Smith had said more. One is
thankful for what he has said.

PAUL WOOLLEY
Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

Frederick Dale Bruner: A Theology of the Holy Spirit. The Pentecostal

Experience and the New Testament Witness. Grand Rapids: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1970. 390. $8.95.

Prudencio Damboriena: Tongues as of Fire. Pentecostalism in Con-

temporary Christianity. Washington and Cleveland: Corpus Books, 1969.
256. $7.50.

It is a welcome development that careful and scholarly attention is being

given to the modern charismatic movement and its manifestations. Any
claim to have recovered some element of the dynamic experience of the
New Testament Church deserves to receive an unprejudiced hearing and
at the same time those who make the claim should be ready and willing to
submit it for examination under the light of the doctrine of the New Tes-
tament. The two volumes now before us are solid and useful contributions
to the serious study of pentecostal or charismatic Christianity. Regarding
the authors, Dr. Bruner, a Presbyterian, is Professor of Systematic Theol-
ogy at Union Seminary in the Philippines, and Dr. Damboriena, a Jesuit, is
Associate Professor of Historical Theology in the School of Theology of
St. Louis University.
Bruner's work is especially commendable because to a useful investiga-
tion of contemporary pentecostalism and its teachings he adds a careful
study of the doctrine of the New Testament and draws such critical con-
clusions as he thinks the latter demands. He draws attention to the em-
phasis of this movement on experience, and in particular charismatic
experience, and its official insistence on glossolalia as the initial evidence
of baptism in the Holy Spirit. In discussing its antecedents he remarks the
 REVIEWS 7î
striking similarity at almost every point to the Montanist movement of the
second century ; but he sees Methodism, with its quest for an instantaneous
experience of holiness, as the eighteenth-century "mother of the nineteenth-
century American holiness movement which, in turn, bore twentieth-century
Pentecostalism." Notions of a second work of grace or second conversion
have been assimilated from Charles Finney, who was born the year after
John Wesley's death, and whose theology has contributed decisively to
pentecostalist thought, not least his emphasis on experimental sanctifica-
tion at the expense of forensic justification. Another formative influence
was that of R. A. Torrey, who taught that the baptism with the Holy
Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct from, and subsequent and
additional to, his regenerating work. The charismatic phenomenon of our
day may in fact be understood as an outgrowth of the revivalist and holi-
ness movements which developed in the last century.
The evidence afforded by the New Testament regarding the Holy Spirit
and his gifts is fragmentary and for this reason it would be over-optimistic
to expect that a study of the same passages will lead everyone to the same
conclusions. Thus Bruner's judgment that the day of Pentecost was also
the day of the apostles' conversion is open to question, but not, I think, his
assertion that "there is no record in Acts or in the rest of the New Testa-
ment of a first, partial infilling of the Holy Spirit completed, perfected, or
filled later by a second personal reception of the Spirit." Again, his deduc-
tion from Acts 2:37-39 (if I understand him rightly) that since the occur-
rence of Pentecost baptism in water becomes the locus of baptism in the
Spirit and the exterior forms of Pentecost, including tongues, are left be-
hind may be acceptable as a generalization, but one which does not fit all
the facts. Thus Acts 4:31 indicates the possibility of a subsequent powerful
experience of the filling of the Holy Spirit (post-Pentecostal, however, and
therefore not at all in the sense of modern charismatism).
The incident described in Acts 8:14 ff., when the apostles Peter and
John came from Jerusalem to Samaria and prayed that those who had
believed and been baptized might receive the Holy Spirit, is explained by
Bruner, probably correctly, as "no casual event," since "Samaria was the
church's first decisive step out of and beyond Judaism." To make it abso-
lutely plain that the gift of the Spirit was free and for all "God withheld
his gift until the apostles should see with their own eyes and — It it not be
overlooked — be instrumental with their own hands in the impartation of
the gift of God (v. 20), merited by nothing, least of all by race or prior
religion." As for the situation of the disciples discovered by Paul in Ephe-
sus who had received only John's baptism of repentance and had not even
74 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

heard of the Holy Spirit, and whom Paul baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus, laying his hands on them ïor the impartation of the Holy Spirit,
this may be said to be sui generis in the New Testament. Bruner insists
that "spiritual baptism as it is taught by Pentecostals, distinguished from
Christian baptism, is quite beyond the purview of this passage." His inter-
pretation of the occasion fits the situation well. "Ever since Jesus," he
writes, "for Christians to believe in the Messiah and yet to be baptized 'into
John's baptism' is of course an anomaly. And that is the problem behind this
passage. Only when faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is joined with baptism in
him has the Christian, of course, received authentic Christian initiation.
The missing link in the Ephesians' spiritual formation, therefore, was not
teaching in how to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, it was faith and baptism
in Jesus. And when this faith and baptism were given, so also, gratuitously,
was the Spirit."
A question of importance which receives no more than a passing glance
is that of the practice of the baptism of the children of believing parents
and its (and their) relationship to faith and the experience of the Spirit.
This is an area which, in view of the current discussion regarding baptism
and the Holy Spirit, demands careful study and statement by contemporary
Reformed exegetes and theologians.
Damboriena's work is planned along lines different from that of Bruner,
and indeed the two volumes may be said to complement each other. Β runer 's
primary concern is a careful exegetical investigation of the New Testa­
ment passages which relate to the charismatic operations of the Holy
Spirit. Damboriena has provided us with a handbook of information con­
cerning pentecostalism in its various manifestations, groupings, tenets, and
practices. It is certainly interesting to find a Jesuit priest exposing the basic
Arminianism of the Pentecostal churches and the deficiency of their teach­
ing on justification. He is critical of the perfectionist presuppositions of
their ecclesiology, the inadequacies of their sacramental teaching, and the
concentration of their theology on the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.
But he pays tribute to "the strong faith, the good works, the mutual love,
and the missionary zeal" that he finds among them, and acknowledges that
"we have many lessons to learn" from them, admonishing them, however,
that they need to draw closer to the rest of Christendom, "not only to
enrich themselves, but perhaps even for their survival."
Of the charges that can be brought against contemporary pentecostalism
one of the most serious is that, while it is long on experience, it is so short
on doctrine: theological differences seem to be regarded as of little or no
account provided the experience is there. This imbalance cannot be treated
 ^ s
Copyright and Use:

As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use
according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as
otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.

No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the
copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,
reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a
violation of copyright law.

This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission
from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal
typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,
for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.
Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific
work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered
by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the
copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,
or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).

About ATLAS:

The ATLA Serials (ATLAS®) collection contains electronic versions of previously

published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS
collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association
(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the American
Theological Library Association.