7
"In the mid-seventies, neither of us knew anything about experiencing the miraculous power of
God."
24
In 1970 Wagner argued against "allowing theological considerations to be molded by
relative and passing sociological factors rather than beginning with and building on the objective
revelation of God in His Word." He stressed that, "Accommodation to the ,,reality
presuppositions of our age is nothing less than devastating to Christian theology."
25
However,
since Wagner equates numerical growth with validation now his hope for world evangelization
rests in the pentecostalization of Christianity. Taking the Apostle Peters words as his own,
Wagner writes, ",,Since it was God . . . who was I to argue? (Acts 11:17, Living Bible)."
26
This
reverses his earlier stance on Latin American syncretism.
In The Brazilians Joseph A. Page discusses the syncretic patterns of Brazilian religions.
One cannot read his chapters in "Part Four: Spiritual Brazil" without seeing the parallels between
orixas, the belief in hereditary and territorial spirits, and spiritual mapping. Page writes, "More
recently a new dynamic is underway, as candomble and umbanda worshippers from the lower
classes have been abandoning their Afro-Brazilian faith to join Christian evangelical churches."
27
In the following chapter Page states, "Moreover, it is evident that the most rapidly expanding
Protestant congregations are those of the "new Pentecostals," who not only claim direct
24
Ibid. Footnote 36 details a chronology that shows Wagners statement as inaccurate.
25
Wagner, Latin America, 79-80.
26
Wagner, Look Out!, 171.
27
Page, The Brazilians, 370.