This thesis develops an ecclesiology of participation in Pentecostalism by utilizing the concept of the prophethood of all believers as a theological and hermeneutical device to articulate how the laity can fully take part in the ritual life of the church. Pentecostalism as a liturgically diverse tradition composed of hierarchical and democratic types of churches that reflect both episcopal and non-episcopal ecclesiological models has created ambiguity in how the doctrine of the prophethood of all believers and the egalitarian nature of (...) the church should be understood. Based on a perspective informed by pneumatology and Pentecost, this project provides a means to theologically convey how greater participation can take place in Pentecostal communities of worship through every believer’s empowerment with the Holy Spirit. The idea of the prophethood of all believers is projected onto the dominant rituals of the Pentecostal liturgy through an altar hermeneutic that allows for all members of the worshipping community to have a transformative encounter with God in dynamic fellowship with others. What results is a truly egalitarian view of church that directs entire communities of faith towards participation in Pentecost through the Spirit. Through critical analysis of and constructive theological engagement with the Pentecostal liturgy, the chapters of this thesis contribute to a better understanding of what is meant by “the altar” in the rites of Pentecostal worship. (shrink)

Marilyn McCord Adams argues that God’s goodness to individuals requires God to defeat horrendous evils; it is not enough for God to outweigh these evils through compensatory goods. On her view, God defeats the evils experienced by an individual if and only if God’s goodness to the individual enables her to integrate the evil organically into a unified life story she perceives as good and meaningful. In this essay, we seek to apply Adams’s theodicy of defeat to a particular form (...) of suffering. We argue that God’s goodness to individuals requires that God defeat the suffering to which a range of disabilities can give rise. (shrink)

This article considers the Pauline construction of a “spiritual body” in 1 Corinthians 15 and his flesh/spirit dualism more generally in light of Paul’s probable disability. I suggest that this rhetoric functioned as a strategy for Paul to claim social power in his social context by deemphasizing his physical presence, and thus reflects a negotiation with cultural patterns of disability abjection rather than a meaningful part of Christian teaching. Because of the active harm done by these dualistic constructions, however unintentional (...) such an interpretation may have been on Paul’s part, liberative Christian theologies must reject this framing and work to integrate not just “body” and spirit but also flesh and its more negative bodily associations such as weakness, pain, illness, and death. (shrink)