How the Spirit Has Blown: Pentecostal Forays in Systematic Theology

Team Members/Contributors

Christopher Adam Stephenson Marquette University Contact Me

About this dissertation fellowship

This dissertation is an original analysis of the theological methods of pentecostal systematic theologians within the last 75 years and a constructive proposal of a methodology that incorporates their strengths and avoids their weaknesses. This methodology utilizes a form of the theological axiom lex orandi, lex credendi that allows practices to inform beliefs in the formulation of systematic theology, and vice versa. While there is nothing new in claiming that human practices influence beliefs or vice versa, many Christian approaches to theology emphasize one influence over the other. This project affirms the mutually conditioning relationship in theology between human beliefs and human practices by avoiding epistemological foundationalism, which implies that practices are derived solely from existing beliefs as if those beliefs were not already informed by other existing practices or that beliefs are derived solely from existing practices as if those practices were not already informed by other existing beliefs. Within the specific field of systematic theology, this project is concerned with the relationship between doctrine and ethics; considered more broadly, it has implications for the study of the relationship between human thought and human actions. A doctrine of the Lord’s Supper is constructed to illustrate the proposed methodology.

Image Title Year Type Contributor(s) Other Info
  "Pentecostal Theology According to the Theologians: An Introduction to the Theological Methods of Pentecostal Systematic Theologians" 2009 Dissertation Christopher Adam Stephenson