a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

It is argued here that the Holy Spirit factor was the chief reason for the
outstanding growth of Pentecostalism in the first half of the twentieth century.
According to Thangaraj, after World Wars I and II, self-confidence in humanity
was affected by the human predicament. ‘The Neo-Orthodox movement in
Christian theology, as spearheaded by Karl Barth, Emil Brunner and others,
clearly articulated this lack of confidence in human nature.’ Therefore, confidence
in the efforts of missionaries to evangelize the whole world was eroded after the
World Wars. 54 Nevertheless, when the optimistic confidence of Evangelical
Christians for world evangelism was in decline in the post-Edinburgh period,
Pentecostal missionaries were found to be evangelising several parts of the globe
under the guidance of the Spirit. Anderson’s Spreading Fires provides a clear
picture of Pentecostal expansion during this period. According to Anderson, the
Edinburgh conference and its emphasis had little influence on Pentecostal
missions as Pentecostals were not invited to participate. 55 They believed that while
the Holy Spirit was a missionary Spirit, the outpouring of the Spirit was mainly
for world evangelization. This was why the gift of tongues was even interpreted
by early Pentecostals as ‘missionary tongues,’ to enable them to communicate the
gospel effectively in indigenous languages. However, as discussed in chapter two,
they soon found this to be unfeasible and reformulated their ‘tongues’ theology.
As Anderson’s study reveals, the ‘Spirit-filled missionaries’ were sent out from
Azusa Street and other centres to places as far as ‘China, India, Japan, Argentina,
Brazil, all over Europe, Palestine, Egypt, Somaliland, Liberia, Angola and South
Africa’ within two years of the beginning of the Azusa Street revival. He claims
54 Thangaraj, Common Task, 18-19.
55 Anderson, Spreading Fires, 211.
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