The Scandal of Pentecost

The church has domesticated Pentecost! According to Vondey, modern-day Pentecostal Christianity has privatised and personalized Pentecost, comfortably establishing itself in the language of individualism, power and prosperity. The modern church prefers a theology of itself as symbolizing wholeness and unity. The scandal of Pentecost is that it was in its inconsistencies and struggles that the church emerged as a symbol of the brokenness and the transformation of humanity in all its dimensions. The modern church owns the Spirit. The forgotten scandal of Pentecost, according to Vondey, is that the church burst into public life. The scandal is that the Spirit was given to all flesh. The scandal of this important and finely argued book is that it challenges the church to be the scandal of Pentecost. * Graham H. Twelftree, London School of Theology, UK * In this insightful book, Wolfgang Vondey offers the Christian community a way of restoring the integral link between the scandal of the crucified God and the feast of Pentecost. He carefully shows how, in distancing ourselves from the public scandal recorded in Acts 2, Christians have both diminished and domesticated the message of the full gospel. Moreover, Vondey offers a Spirit-baptized public ecclesiology that embraces the public outrage of the Spirit’s visitation upon all flesh as both necessary and redemptive. * Cheryl Johns, United Theological Seminary, USA * The contribution of Pentecostal theologians to the ecumenical gift exchange of Christian dogmatics continues to accelerate. Vondey’s careful and sophisticated study of the abiding scandal of the Spirit’s outpouring greatly enriches our biblical, hermeneutical, doctrinal, and apologetic confrontation with the reality of Pentecost and all its manifold consequences for the continuing public life of the church today. * Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen, UK *