Thinking with C. René Padilla about the Holy Spirit (Part I: English Version)

Prelude

Earlier this week I wrote a post honoring the late Latino theologian and New Testament scholar C. René Padilla. As I did, I longed to do more to honor this legendary Churchman. But what to do?

While pondering and praying about what steps to take, I sensed the Spirit prompt me to write on the essay Padilla penned for Majority World Theology: Christian Doctrine in Global Context. I hadn’t read the essay, but thought, “Why not? Let me see what it’s on.” The title: “The Holy Spirit: Power for Life and Hope.” I couldn’t help but laugh as I began reading. Of course the Spirit would prompt me to write a mini-series of meditations on this essay.

Given the cost of Majority World (~$65 US) and the unlikelihood that most libraries will carry it, I decided that a blog mini-series on the essay was the best way to increase people’s access to the essay’s contents. And as I thought about increased access, I felt the Spirit prompt me again: “Make an English and Spanish version of this series, and ask your Dad, tu padre, to collaborate as the Spanish translator.” My Spanish isn’t good enough to translate a mini-series. My Dad’s is. So I asked mi padre if he’d translate the posts; he said “yes.”

Here is our plan. I will write the English versions of the posts, publish them on my website (most likely on Sundays or Mondays), and then publish Dad’s translated Spanish version the next day. This series has six parts: One for each of the essay’s five sections (including the Introduction), and a final “Here’s what I’m thinking” post. Let’s begin.

Context of “The Holy Spirit: Power for Life and Hope”

In 1910, over 80 percent of Christians lived in the Global North—Canada, the US, Europe, Russia, etc. One hundred years later, over 60 percent of Christians live in the Global South—also known as the “Majority World,” because most people live there—Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Yet, as the editors of Majority World note, “In spite of the reality that most Christians had been living outside of North America and Europe for some time already, theology and biblical studies had remained largely unchanged, with textbooks and other resources often failing to reckon with this development at all.” Given this trend, the editors “recognized the need for far more resources to offer readers direct access to the voices of dynamic Majority World scholars who were bringing new perspectives to the theological calling.”

These editors—Gene L. Green, Stephen T. Pardue, and K.K. Yeo—began their book project as “an annual gathering of eight global scholars who would offer essays from their own perspectives and regions on a particular theological topic.” For six years, the editors hosted different groups of scholars to present on six topics: the doctrine of the Trinity, Christology (the doctrine of Christ), pneumatology (doctrine of the Spirit), soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), ecclesiology (the doctrine of the Church), and eschatology (the doctrine of the end and the New Heavens and New Earth).

Green, Pardue, and Yeo invited C. René Padilla to write an essay on the Spirit informed by Latin American pneumatologies. Padilla accepted. And the final product is his essay, “The Holy Spirit: Power for Life and Hope.” In the remainder of this post, we will consider the essay’s introduction.

Padilla’s Introduction

Padilla begins on a sobering note. “Until fairly recently, theological reflection on the person and work of the Holy Spirit was never given much attention on the part of evangelical theologians.” For Padilla, “evangelical” refers to a specific strand of Protestantism, not, as many Spanish speakers may think, Protestantism simpliciter. This strand includes Pentecostalism, which, Padilla argues, began with an “implicit theology of the Spirit” that was “strongly influenced by North American fundamentalism.” Over the past few decades, however, things have significantly changed among evangelicals, “with the emergence of new voices (mainly but not exclusively Pentecostal) that are exploring [the Holy Spirit’s work] in depth.” Padilla’s essay focuses on this shift within Latin America, where pneumatology emphasizes “the Holy Spirit as the source of power for practical life (including mission of the church) and of hope, especially in the context of poverty and oppression.”

Readers should note five features of Padilla’s opening paragraph. First, it places Pentecostalism within “evangelicalism.” As Juan F. Martínez observes, not all self-identified evangelicals, including academic theologians, in the Global North make this association. Second, it emphasizes that North American fundamentalism influenced Pentecostalism. Several scholars such as Oscar García-Johnson and William A. Dyrness qualify this claim, arguing that, in some cases, its emphasis is too US-centric. Third, it’s unclear what Padilla means by “fundamentalism.” It could be “fundamentalism” in the sense of the U.S.’s Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy, or it could be “fundamentalism” in the sense of “anti-intellectual U.S. evangelical Christianity.” Both options fit the essay’s overall trajectory. But Padilla never specifies which he’s using. Fourth, Padilla later specifies that “North America” does not include Mexico; it belongs to “Latin America.” Fifth, Padilla foreshadows that his essay mirrors the Latin American focus on the Spirit’s empowering godly living and hope amid poverty and oppression.    

Padilla’s further situates his essay within Latin American theologies by turning to Mexico. He writes:

At the second global conference of the International Fellowship of Mission Theologians, held in Tlayacapan, Mexico, from May 28 to June 1, 1984, thirty-seven theologians from the Majority World dealt with a subject that they regarded as central to the life and mission of the church all over the world: life in the Spirit.

Most evangelicals in the Global North will not know about this global theology conference that 37 Majority World theologians attended. Nor will they know that these theologians intended their work to bless the entire Church—not only the portion in the Global South. By noting this conference in this essay and book, Padilla honors this intention and extends the conference’s impact. 

One of the conference’s participants was Padilla’s friend and fellow champion of misión integral Orlando Costas. Hailing from Boricua (Puerto Rico), Costas navigated la frontera between Anglo and Latina/o evangelical communities. While at Tlayacapan, Padilla writes, Costas shared the following insight about Majority World theology.

In the Two-thirds World—that part of contemporary life representing a religious cultural mosaic of very poor, very week and very oppressed people—the most significant trait of Christian experience is life in the Spirit. Wherever one goes in the Two-thirds World, one finds signs of the Spirit: a growing number of Christians and of new churches…joy in the midst of suffering, and a challenging hope in a context of death.

Like Padilla’s opening remarks about Latin American pneumatology, Costas’s words emphasize that Majority World Christians stress and manifest the Spirits everyday work and empowering hope amid poverty, suffering, oppression—and death. Summarizing Costas’s claim, Padilla writes, “Power for life and hope are made possible by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian experience of people living in a world deeply affected by powerlessness and hopelessness.” This view reflects what Padilla calls the “basic thrust” of the Tlayacapan Declaration that this global conference produced. That Declaration, like Costas’s claim, “especially underlines the Spirit’s ministry among people living in ‘contexts of massive poverty, feudal oppression, bureaucratic corruption, and ethnic and class discrimination.’” (Padilla’s translation of the Tlayacapan Declaration).

Like the Tlayacapan Declaration, Padilla affirms that the Spirit’s work is “present and visible in the new life that he imparts to every person living under the lordship of Jesus Christ regardless of socioeconomic status.” But his essay also recapitulates the Declaration’s focus on the Spirit’s work “as the source of power for life and hope, especially among the poor” for two reasons. First, though Scripture extensively addresses this topic, many discussions of the Spirit neglect it, treating instead topics such as the Spirit’s work of sanctification or charismatic gifts. Second, most who experience the Spirit “as the source of power for life and hope in the midst of dire poverty and oppression are not the sort of people who reflect and write on this subject.” Padilla quotes José Míguez Bonino to support this point.

The Latin American evangelical tradition is strongly pneumatic. As expressed in the ‘revivals’ or the ‘holiness movement’ in the nineteenth century and in the Pentecostalism in the twentieth century, and the adscription to ‘the work of the Spirit’ has been very basic. And yet, none of these movements has developed a true theology of the Spirit. (Padilla’s translation)

Here “basic” means “foundational.” And the disturbing phrase “true theology” refers to a “systematically developed theology.” It appears Padilla believes both claims apply to Latin America’s Protestant and Catholic camps, not only Bonino’s evangelicos/as.

Padilla concludes his introduction on a Trinitarian note. He reminds readers that the Spirit’s work is “inseparable from the work of God the Father and the work of God the Son.” Padilla continues:

In the God that was revealed in Jesus Christ, unity and diversity are combined in such a way that in all that the Spirit does there is a perfect correlation and interpenetration derived from the perichoretic communion that characterizes the Trinitarian unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. [Perichoretic is an adjective derived from περιχώρησις/perikhōrēsis, the Greek term Christians in the sixth century invented to refer to the union of the Father with the Son and the Spirit]. This does not deny the distinctive actions of the Holy Spirit, but points it to the fact that such action is properly understood when seen as action of the triune God.

From this perichoretic framework, Padilla proposes to consider the Spirit’s work in creation, history, Jesus’s ministry, and the life and mission of the church.

We’ll consider Padilla’s treatment of the Spirit’s work in creation next post.

Saludos y’all.