The Liberating Spirit

"This book takes a giant step both in theology and in social ethics. It forces theologians to examine the worship and spirituality of Hispanic Pentecostals as a source of theological construction and pushes the Pentecostalists themselves to see the broader social implications of their own faith expressions. With both Hispanic peoples and Pentecostalists forming a larger and larger portion of the American cultural and religious reality, this is a vital book, indeed an indispensable one, for any person knowledgeable about our society to read and ponder."Harvey Cox - Harvard Divinity School"Here is a pioneering book. . . . Villafane works a synthesis of the cultural and the spiritual and celebrates the capacity of Pentecostalism to appeal to Hispanic Americans. The time is ripe for this important book which delves into the very passion of the human heart and offers an ethic of hope and liberation. It should be read by anyone interested in the spiritual condition of Hispanics in a pluralistic society."Jesse Miranda - Azusa Pacific University"The Liberating Spirit should be required reading for anyone interested in the study of social ethics, Pentecostal theology, or Hispanic American theology. Dr. Villafane has broken the long-standing bifurcation of the profane and the sacred so often associated with Pentecostal theology. The Liberating Spirit introduces us to a new and liberating way of being Christians led by the spirit in the modern world."Samuel Solivan - Andover Newton Theological School"Fully aware of the pitfalls and promises of oral theology, Villafane approaches his topic from inside an Hispanic Pentecostal understanding of the Spirit, vividly describing the pains and joys of an Hispanic Pentecostal in the United States. . . . After reading this book it is impossible to paint the whole Pentecostal movement with the brush of right-wing theological and political conservatism."Walter Hollenweger - University of Birmingham, England

The author of this study has a single-minded goal--the construction of a social ethic for the Hispanic Pentecostal Church in America that both coheres with the Hispanic American sociocultural experience and remains consistent with Hispanic Pentecostalism's self-understanding of ethics emerging from its experience of the Spirit.

Recently, scholars of global Pentecostalism have proposed that the experience of the Spirit among Pentecostals has elicited the development of a Pentecostal "theology of liberation," which has implications for understanding Pentecostal responses to social issues. These projects primarily explore the Pentecostal response to cultural issues in areas outside of North America and especially focus on Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This volume assesses whether the categories of social liberation applied to non-Western Pentecostalism characterize Pentecostalism in North America. Michael Wilkinson is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Religion in Canada Institute at Trinity Western University. His is the author of The Spirit Said Go (2006) and the editor of Canadian Pentecostalism (2009). Steven M. Studebaker is Assistant Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at McMaster Divinity College. He is the editor of Defining Issues in Pentecostal Theology (Pickwick, 2008).

The growth of the Pentecostal movement is often most evident among the poor and disenfranchised of society, as, for example, among the Hispanic-American community. As this community continues to develop, will Pentecostal theology be able to incorporate into its hermeneutics those issues that especially concern it? Solivan looks at relevant issues to this debate from a Hispanic-American perspective, presenting an overview of Hispanic diversity, and its common roots and struggles. He talks of four critical issues in Hispanic theology (religious experience, suffering, the work of the Holy Spirit and the importance of language and culture) and other issues including acculturation and assimilation. He shows how a community's suffering and oppression can be transformed by the Holy Spirit into a liberating life, full of hope and promise.

The historical ambivalence among Pentecostals about their relationship to culture and society needs evaluation. How do we understand Pentecostal engagement with society, and how are Pentecostals in North America engaging issues of race, class, gender, and ecology? What theologically motivates North American Pentecostals to respond to social issues? What categories best explain Pentecostal responses to social issues in North America? How do they compare to Pentecostal responses elsewhere? Recently, scholars of global Pentecostalism have proposed that the experience of the Spirit among Pentecostals has elicited the development of a Pentecostal "theology of liberation," which has implications for understanding Pentecostal responses to social issues. These projects primarily explore the Pentecostal response to cultural issues in areas outside of North America and especially focus on Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This volume assesses whether the categories of social liberation applied to non-Western Pentecostalism characterize Pentecostalism in North America. Is there evidence of a Pentecostal "theology of liberation" that explains Pentecostal engagement in North America? Do social-liberation categories fit the North American Pentecostal responses to social issues or are others more suitable? These and other important questions about the relation between liberation theology and North American Pentecostalism are thoroughly explored in this important collection of essays.

With this study on Moltmann's pneumoatology the author recently obtained the doctor's degree from the Faculty of Theology of the Free University in Amsterdam. First of all, the book provides us with a thorough evaluation of the role the Holy Spirit plays in the theology of Jürgen Moltmann in its subsequent phases. The author's conclusion is that despite all differences there is one contstant factor: the Spirit is always connected with freedom. The Holy Spirit, according to Moltmann, is a liberating power. Because the author is eager to place Moltmann's pneumatology repeatedly in the context of his theology as a whole and of its developments, this book offers - and that is a second quality - an outstanding insight in the whole of Moltmann's theology and its development throughout the years.

A spiritual leader featured in The Secret challenges readers to search within themselves for the key to unlocking their future and changing their lives in amazing ways, in a book that teaches inner spiritual work, rather than religiosity or dogma, and is structured around the key themes of transformation, peace, abundance, and more. Original.

Speaking from his own experiences living among the very poor in Northeastern Brazil, Belgian liberation theologian Jose Comblin examines the effects of the presence of the Spirit in the world and the church. Comblin's theology of the Spirit and mission provides the first systematic treatment of the Holy Spirit from a liberation perspective and is significant in that it seeks to name the action of the Spirit in the lives of the poor, in the history of oppressed peoples.