Peter D Hocken – författare

Azusa, Rome, and Zion offers historical, theological, and spiritual reflections on major movements of the Holy Spirit in modern times. The author shows where the lived experience of these movements challenges received theological concepts and categories, and indicates how engagement with these challenges can contribute to Christian reconciliation and Christian unity. Of particular interest are the surprising ways in which what appear at first sight to be new obstacles and points of division can in fact lead into deeper grasp of God''s purposes for the body of Christ. Two chapters indicate the immense potential being opened up by the ministry of Pope Francis. The title captures not just the place of Pentecostals, Catholics, and Jews, but a historical dynamic that reverses the original going out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

The global pentecostal charismatic movement, as it launches into the twenty-first century, outdistances current attempts at classification and clarification. Although scholarly theologizing has not been the hallmark of the movement, the current surge of pentecostal-charismatic scholars confounds the accepted antithesis between expressive narrative and reflective theology. Brighton '91, which featured Professor Jurgen Moltmann and the Archbishop of Canterbury, was a symposium unprecedented in the range of participating scholars drawn form six continents. They gave voice to new insights for handling racism, sexism, socioeconomic oppression and the environment, thus modeling a legitimate postmodern agenda.

As the charismatic movement penetrated the Protestant churches and then impacted the Catholic Church, great hopes for Christian unity were aroused among many. These hopes peaked with the great Kansas City conference of 1977 and the Pentecost over Europe gathering in Strasbourg, France, in 1982. After these high points, the Renewal''s unity dynamic weakened at the same time as the ecumenical movement was losing momentum.Dr. Hocken argues that the charismatic movement was always a grace for unity, and that this can be seen from how it began and spread. Its deep orientation to unity finds its foundation in the end-times significance of baptism in the Spirit poured out on Christians from so many traditions that reinforces the one hope for the coming of the Lord. Many developments of the last twenty years indicate that the time is now ripe for an ecumenism of the Spirit within which the charismatic impulses of the Holy Spirit can purify and deepen the wider movement for Christian unity. Growing reconciliation between Evangelicals and Catholics suddenly seems less utopian as Pope Francis shows the servant face of a humbler Catholic Church.