A REVIEW OF PENTECOSTAL SPIRITUALITY: A PASSION FOR THE

KINGDOM by Steven J. Land

Harvey Cox1
The Divinity School
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
It seems wholly fitting that this clear, engaging and rigorous book on the theology of
Pentecostalism does not have the word ‘theology’ in the title. Steve Land insists, quietly but
persuasively, throughout his landmark work that the basic symbolic worldview of the
Pentecostalism movement is not to be found in book and monographs but in the spirituality of a
people. But he not only makes this claim, he follows it up by actually drawing on Pentecostal
spirituality as the major resource for his presentation. Indeed, despite the recent rediscovery of
popular piety by some academic theologians, I have rarely seen a theological treatment which
utilizes hymns, prayers and liturgical resources with such skill. At times I was reminded of the
way James Cone makes use of excerpts from black spirituals and sermons in his work, and the
way feminist theologians draw on the life stories of other women. Land’s book is thus a more
explicit and lucid example of a method that might well be used by more theologians, whose
mistake is often to restrict themselves unduly to the more explicitly formulated doctrinal
statements of religious bodies.
But there is more than an exemplary method at work here. Land’s artful use of the
concept of the ‘religious affections’, traceable to both Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley, lies
somewhere close to the heart of this ambitious but marvelously readable book. By ‘affections’
Land does not mean merely subjective experiences, pious feelings or transient emotions. He
means ‘the existential core of the faith’. Here Land makes a case which he says –and I agree –
raises important issues for the whole theological enterprise. If the theology of Pentecostals is
indeed located in the ‘apocalyptic affections’ which ground both their beliefs and their practices
and which generate and sustain the ‘passion for the kingdom’ that is their primary quality, then a

1
Harvey Cox (PhD, Harvard University) is Thomas Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA. Known internationally for theological reflection on a variety of issues involving religion and
culture, he has recently begun to research and comment upon the Pentecostal movement, having for the past few
years offered a course on Pentecostalism at Harvard. His new book, Fire from Heaven, will appear in October 1994.
As the editors of JPT we are pleased that Professor Cox has agreed to serve as a dialogue partner in this issue by
offering a critical appraisal of and response to Steven J. Land’s Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom
(JPTSup, 1; Sheffield Academic Press, 1993).
host of intriguing possibilities for a more ‘affections-based’ approach to other religious
communities comes to mind. In fact, as one reads on, it becomes clear that Land himself believes
that this centering of faith in orthopathos is not just true for Pentecostals but for all Christians. I
will return to the questions raised by this emphasis on apocalyptic affections in a moment. But
first let me indicate the book’s main outline.
Chapter 1 presents Land’s theoretical introduction and is appropriately entitled
‘Pentecostal Spirituality as Theology’. It begins with a brief history of the Pentecostal movement
and includes a succinct description of what Pentecostal spirituality is. Chapter 2 describes the
mixture of narrational style and emotionally explicit praise that characterizes Pentecostal
worship. It also underscores the ‘already-not yet’ quality of the Pentecostal vision, that
eschatological stance that underlies its theology and spirituality. Chapter 3 centers on the
‘affections’ and identifies three that are particularly salient for Pentecostal faith: namely
gratitude, which Land links to the praise and thanksgiving any visitor notices as so characteristic
of Pentecostal congregations; compression, which he relates to love and longing; and courage,
which he says is based on confidence and hope that are generated and sustained by the
eschatological orientation. These three –gratitude, compassion and courage –constitute the
‘apocalyptic affections’ that define the Pentecostal reality.
Rebut the criticisms form without, Land instead boldly uses them as sources of theological
renewal. It is a daring intellectual stroke; and it succeeds remarkably well. His reconstruction
moves Land toward a series of short but promising proposals about how Pentecostal spirituality
could be reworked –both in continuity with its own past and in engagement with the present –in
a faithful manner. In my views he succeeds admirably, but then I am perhaps not the one to make
that judgment.
The result of Land’s effort is that this book is an impressive combination. It is history and
phenomenology, description and prescription, pastoral appreciation and prophetic critique. Land
obviously loves the people he writes about, and their spirituality. But he also longs for a creative
renewal of the Pentecostal movement; consequently, a palpable undertone of yearning suffuses
the pages. Perhaps my only reservation about this attractive way of writing theology is that
sometimes I was not sure whether a given paragraph was describing the way Pentecostals are or
the way Land wants them to be.
 But the overall lucidity of Land’s work not only makes minor criticisms irrelevant; his book does
us all the service of making such a brilliant case for the Pentecostal perspective that is invites
substantive response. This Is clearly one of Land’s objectives. In the last chapter he allows that although
he is especially concerned with Pentecostalism, his emphasis on the fundamental but not exclusive role
of the affections is ‘also true for Christianity in general’. I would like to respond to his substantive