sps-header

Welcome to the 51st Meeting of the SPS

poster-2021

Advancing the Study of Pentecostalism: New Directions & Future Possibilities
SPS Program Director:
Peter Althouse


All times for the conference are in Central USA Time.

See your conference program for complete listings.

  • Plenary Sessions — All Plenaries are in the Seymour Chapel

    Friday
    10:45 am

    Loida Martell

    Emergent Diseases in a Globalized World: The Viral Nature of Racism

    In March of 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic caused by a new emergent viral infectious agent that popularly came to be known as COVID-19. The United States then declared that the country was under a medical emergency. During that same period, the country, convulsed with the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, and a wave of anti-Asian violence, realized it was facing a second pandemic of racism. This presentation will discuss the links between emergent viral diseases (defined as new or resurgent diseases arising in the past two decade), climate change, and globalization. It will further note that the same patterns of exploitation and indifference to created life that contribute to emergent diseases are the ones that have contributed to the antiAsian violence, racial violence, and health disparities among communities of color. The presentation will close with a theological response by suggesting that the biblical notion of sabbath rooted in Creation, and specifically that of Jubilee, provides a framework, a soteriological “vaccine.” Specifically, the mandate of Jubilee calls upon God’s people to allow the land to rest, to restore and redistribute wealth, and to liberate (deror) the enslaved. Such a call permits the moving of the Spirit, to breathe and to re-create, renewing the land and re-forming the broken relationships between God and humankind, among humankind, and between humanity and creation.

    Frank Macchia
    4:30 pm

    The Cross and Pentecost: Beyond the Schleiermacher/Barth Divide

    Karl Barth’s struggle with the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher illustrates well the attempt in the West to highlight the atonement so as to grant Christology significance in its own right in counterbalance to pneumatology. Early Pentecostals also attempted in various ways to counterbalance and integrate atonement and Pentecost (“the blood and the Spirit”). A reflection on the classic Schleiermacher/Barth divide will set the stage for a contemporary Pentecostal proposal for integrating the cross and Pentecost in a way that gives both events proper emphasis.

    Richard Kearney
    7:30 pm

    The Challenge of Anatheism: Revisiting God Beyond God

    What God returns after the death of God? A God of love rather than sacrifice? Of vulnerability rather than theodicy? A God of kenosis and interreligious dialogue rather than one of triumphal exclusivism? Richard Kearney attempts to address these questions with reference to contemporary readings - literary, theological and philosophical - of the Christian Gospel

  • Biblical Studies: Meghan Musy

    Friday

    8:30

    Heath 109

    Jared Runck “Between Affect and Apathy: Structuring the Reader’s Response in the Joseph Story”

    Maureen Pasteris “Joseph and Black Embodiment: The Intersection of Mass Incarceration and Black Faith”

    Scott 227

    Alaine Thomson Buchanan “The Role of The Spirit in Interpreting the Jewish Scriptures According to Some Authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls and New Testament”

    Lemuel Godinez “A Comparison of the s/Spirit Motif in Romans 8 and Jubilees 1:19-25 within a Trajectorial Development of Internal Transformation Motifs of the Hebrew Scriptures”

    Brian Fulthorp “Pass or Fail? Assenting Versus Dissenting Responses: Wilderness Motif as Pentecostal Theological Formation”

    1:45

    Heath 109

    Scott Ellington “‘Flipping Job’: Exploring Innocent Suffering Rather than Theodicy as the Book’s Theological Center”

    Daniel Bunn, Jr. “‘Rise and Anoint Him, for This Is the One’: Narratively Construed Divine Perspective and the Commencement of David's Kingship in 1 Samuel 16”

    Scott 227

    Holly Beers “Poststructuralist Literary Criticism and Minor Characters in the Book of Acts”

    D. Michael Postlethwait “Piercing the Mystery Between Grace, Suffering, and Calling in Pauline Thought: A Re-examination of Paul's Pentecostal Pneumatology in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 with Reference to the Pauline "Testimony" Passages in Acts”

  • Canadian Symposium & Network Group

    Friday

    No meetings are scheduled for this group.

  • Christian Ethics: Tommy Casarez & Christopher Parkes

    Friday

    8:30

    Heath 102

    Randall Holm “Table Manners: Convivial with the Good Samaritan”

    Isaac Canales “Christian Tolerance or Abrazo: Another Look at Romans 15:7”

    1:45

    Heath 102

    Danny Sebastian “Glossolalia as an Ethical Paradigm: Grammatical Thomism, Pentecostal Theology, and Economic Ethics”

    Isaiah Curtis Padgett “Consumerism or Communalism? Implications for Pentecostal Economic Theory in Ruth 2:8-16”

  • Diversity: Dara Delgado

    1:45

    Heath 103

    Panel Discussion: “A Panel Presentation by the Pentecostal Justice Coalition: ‘Manifesto for Racial Justice’”

    Panelists: Lois Olena, Rodolfo Estrada, Néstor Medina, Anthony Roberts, Clifton Clarke, Benjamin Jacuk

    Additional Working Group Member Response: Alaine Buchanan, Karen Lucas, Bill Oliverio

    Respondent: Estrelda Alexander or Dara Delgado

  • Ecumenical Studies: Daniel Tobin

    Friday

    8:30

    Heath 105

    James B. Shelton “Scripture and Tradition: Pentecostal and Roman Catholic Epistemologies”

    1:45

    Heath 105

    Erica Ramirez “The Bride of Christ as a St. John's Feast Day Heroine”

    Respondent: Nimi Wariboko

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  • History: Andrea Johnson

    Friday

    8:30

    Smith 101

    A History of Praise and Worship

    Lester Ruth “Silver Haired Liturgical Revolutionary: Judson Cornwall’s Critical Role in Disseminating Pentecostal Praise and Worship”

    Respondent: Leah Payne

    1:45

    Smith 101

    War and Rumors of War in Pentecostal History

    Don Kammer “Reflection on Prior Discussions and Positions Related to War and Peace in the AG”

    Lisa Millen “A Pentecostal/Charismatic Response to the "Red Scare" as Portrayed in the Voice of Healing.”

    Respondent: Zach Tackett

  • Intercultural Studies & Missions: Joey Peyton

    Friday

    8:30

    Scott 228

    Phil Zarns “Bridging or Breaking: An Ethic of Communication for Missional Engagement”

    Joey Peyton “Reimagining the Pastoral Care of Immigrants”

    1:45

    Scott 228

    Daniel Topf “Exploring Themes Within Pentecostalism on the Doctoral Level: The Case for a Pentecostal Research University”

    Panel Discussion on ‘The Case for a Pentecostal Research University’

    Panelists: Delonn Rance, Jeff Hittenberger, Joseph Castleberry, Daniel Topf

  • Philosophy: Yoon Shin & Joey Alan Le

    Friday

    8:30

    Heath 106

    Joshua Abrego “Testimony and the Narrative Mind: Enactive Perspectives on Pentecostal Mental Practice”

    Warren Scherb “Disrupting Knowledge: Kierkegaard and Nietzsche on Knowledge Production and God-talk”

    Doug Olena “Words in the Void: The Holy Spirit, Pentecostal Rationality, and Artificial General Intelligence”

    1:45

    Heath 106

    Page Brooks “Who Says This War Is Just? A Pentecostal Perspective on Just War Theory in Christian and Islamic Traditions”

    Connor Stephenson and Hiroshi Sasaki “He Is Us: Political Polarization as the New Idolatry”

    Jeremy Wallace “Jacques Maritain and the Intelligibility of Universal Human Rights”

  • Practical Theology/Christian Formation: Marcia Clarke & Susan Maros

    Friday

    8:30

    Heath 108

    Truls Åklerlund and John Daniels Anderson “Exploring Experience: A Case for Phenomenology in Pentecostal Studies”

    Stephen Barkley “The Old Testament Roots of Today's Charismatic Prophets”

    Frank Markow “Defending Our Faith: Pentecostal Leaders' Attitudes Towards Pentecostalism”

    Respondent: Stephen Studebaker

    1:45

    Heath 108

    Mark Cartledge “Studying Digital Pentecostalism: The Hermeneutics of Theological Netnography”

    Pierre Edner Petit-Frere “Toward a Transformational/Asymmetrical Interdisciplinary for Pentecostal Practical Theology”

    Respondent: Aaron G. Ross

  • Religion and Culture: Derrick Rosenior

    Friday

    8:30

    Scott 229

    Daniel Bunn, Jr. “‘I Am the One Who Knocks’: Judges 19, Breaking Bad, and Human Depravity”

    1:45

    Scott 229

    Rebekah Bled “Whose Line Is It Anyway?: A Socio-Narratological Look at Pentecostalism in the Uruguayan Public Square”

    Respondents: Peter Althouse, Daniel Isgrigg

    Joy Qualls “How We Talk About Things Matters: Rhetoric and the Future of Pentecostalism”

    Respondents: Derrick Rosenior, Scot Lloyd

  • Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialog

    Friday

    No Meetings Today

  • Theology: Peg DeAlminana

    Friday

    8:30

    Heath 101

    Geomon George “Formed in the Spirit: Towards an Asian American Pentecostal Theology”

    Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu “‘I Decree, I Declare, and I Call it Done!’ An African Perspective on Orality and the Study of Pentecostal/Charismatic Theology”

    Thangsan Mung “In Search of the Lost Paradise: A Zomi Pentecostal Reading”

    Sanna Paliina Urvas “Pentecostal Mariology and Problematic Purity Requirements for Girls. How to Protect Girls' Rights”

    1:45

    Heath 101

    Andrew Gabriel “A Future for the Filioque? A Pentecostal Perspective on a Recurring Debate”

    Gary Tyra “Pneumatological Realism: Another Way (Not) to be Secular”

    Geoffrey Butler “Surpassing All Our Conceptions: A Pentecostal Engagement with John Calvin's Doctrine of the Lord's Supper”

  • Theological Education: David Han

    Thursday

    1:30

    Heath 107

    Lindsey Croston “A Classical Approach to Undergraduate Biblical Studies”

    3:30

    Heath 107

    James Marion Darlack “The Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever: Toward a Pentecostal Theology of Librarianship”

    Friday

    8:30

    Heath 107

    Chris Green “After Pragmatism: Christian Scholarship, Cruciform Spirituality, and the Future of the Pentecostal Tradition”

    Noel Adams “Future Possibilities Facing Pentecostal and Charismatic Institutions of Higher Education: Some Observations from a Philosophy Professor at a Catholic, Jesuit University in the Midwest”

    1:45

    Heath 107

    Harold Hunter “Holistic Ecological Spirit: A Survey of Global Pentecostal Ecotheology and Activism from the Margins”