The Renewal of the Political? The Holy Spirit and the Public Square
Could there be a pentecostal political theology of an alternative community for the good of the public square? Amos Yong says yes.
This scheme, I have proffered, is consistent with the Day of Pentecost message that heralds the redemption of the many tongues of the world as part of God’s “last days” (Acts 2:17) or eschatologically saving work. If the tongues or languages of humanity are representative of its many cultural traditions, then their redemptive retrieval suggests that the divine work of salvation holds forth unimagined possibilities for the purification, sanctification, and glorification of the public square as it finds fulfilment in the work of Christ. A pentecostal political-theological motif thereby emerges: many tongues, many political practices – each relevant to distinctive historical, contextual, and situational realities which demand particular responses that participate in the renewing work of the Spirit and in the coming reign of God.
If the foregoing has any merit, then a pentecostal political theology belongs not just to pentecostals but to all those who claim to be filled with the Spirit poured out by the Son from the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33).
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Dr. Amos Yong is Dean and J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology of the School of Divinity at Regent University.