The Word and the Spirit, or the Spirit and the Word:
Exploring the Boundaries of Evangelicalism in Relationship to Modern Pentecostalism
Paper presented at the
53
rd
Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society
Colorado Springs, Colorado, 14-16 November 2001
by
Amos Yong, Ph.D.
Bethel College, St. Paul, MN
Introduction
In his recent book, Jon Stone observes that evangelicalism's preoccupation with defining the movement's
boundaries is "especially intriguing, not simply because it troubles them, but because it consumes them.
For evangelicals, it seems of first importance that the differences between themselves and non-
evangelicals be clearly drawn in order to resolve this ever-increasing confusion over the boundaries of
evangelicalism and the organizational problem that attend such confusion" [Stone 1999: 25]. But is the
concern about boundaries all bad? Are the disagreements about boundaries something we should decry?
Isn't the question of boundaries the question about identity, and if so, an important and perhaps ongoing
one?
This paper is an inquiry into the question of how evangelicals and pentecostals negotiate
questions of self-identity. Juxtaposing and comparing some of the pertinent historical and theological
(sections I and II) issues will intensify the complexity of the question of boundaries specifically with
regard to what that means for us as evangelicals vis-à-vis pentecostals and (vice-versa) for us as
pentecostals vis-à-vis evangelicals (section III).
1
Now although comparisons and analyses proceed best
when the terms to be compared or analyzed are clearly defined, the problem before us, however, is
precisely that of definition, of identities, of boundaries. I will therefore postpone the formal question of
definition, etc., in the hopes that it may resolve itself (how pentecostally blessed I would count myself if
that were to occur). In the meanwhile, the following questions should be kept in mind as we proceed: do
evangelicals assume pentecostals are evangelicals--why or why not? And, on the other side, do
pentecostals either consider themselves to be evangelicals or do pentecostals assume evangelical and
pentecostal to be synonymous--again, why or why not?
1
My use of the first person plural pronominal references periodically will be problematic. I count myself an
evangelical for the purposes of this paper given my institutional position at Bethel College (even though some
evangelicals may be suspicious about Bethel's evangelical identity given the presence of an open theist on the
faculty), even as I count myself a pentecostal given my ministerial credentials with the Assemblies of God. The
context will have to determine whether the "us" or the "we" that appears in this paper refers to evangelicals or to
pentecostals, or perhaps even to both together. It will also serve as a sign of the difficult question of boundaries