To the thought-world of Wonsuk & Julie

50 Pentecostal and Charismatic Leaders Every Christian Should Know by Dean Merrill (Chosen, 2021) is a useful collection of short biographical presentations. When I was first contacted by the author, honestly I was flabbergasted by the fact that I am one of the “50”! At the same time, I knew little about the other 49, and I kept wondering how in the world I became part of this distinguished group. Honestly, I worried about how I would fare in the forest of the powerful figures. (Yes, the Pentecostal and Charismatic world is full of “giants.”) After a warm phone interview with the author, I sent several published writings of mine (including “My Pilgrimage in Mission”) and the academic resume (yes, with a list of publications and “accomplishments”) to him.

• 

When he sent me the cover image with my portrait with five others, the author added the note, “I hope it’s all right that you are part of the cover.” It was just like being called by the gate agent at an airport, who apologized me for overbooking, and politely asked if it’s OK to sit us in the business class. It gave out an impression that the cover lists the top 6 (of the 50)! My university president even commented that I was the first of the six. Hmm, I didn’t notice it, but that further heightened this ego. Yes, I color-printed the cover image and enjoyed it at home and in the office. Soon, I also noticed that I am the only living one among the six! I think my inner voice, seemingly benign with only a hint of “thanksgiving” (or more accurately “pride”) played out well for some time.

Then, the pre-publication manuscript arrived. Just as you always look for yourself in a group photo, I quickly opened my chapter (or more precisely the section about Julie and me). By this time, I piled in my thought more credentials on top of others: we may be the only academics, I was responsible for the publishing of 35-volume Edinburgh Centenary Series, etc. To my sad initial disappointment, the story of our “brilliant accomplishment” was set around Julie’s deadly brain aneurysm in Oxford. More than half of the scarce pages are allocated to the ICU scene where Julie was lying motionless and I sitting by her bed helplessly. The gist of the chapter is her miraculous recovery, with a hint of my persistence in believing in God’s miracle. (Yes, her neurosurgeon gave me a very small chance of her survival, by bluntly and straightforwardly saying, “Mr, my only job today is to keep your wife alive”). Understandably, my “larger-than-life” size shrunk quickly to question if I belong to this constellation!

Then came the process of reckoning through my own reflection and conversation with the author, Dean Merrill. He had a much larger fish to fry around the big issue of who are and are not to be included in the 50. His email response to my inquiry immensely helped me. Here is the criteria as he had prepared for a group presentation:

After all, it wasn’t our accomplishment, but His! This is the fundamental of Christianity, and especially Pentecostalism. For example, the unassuming William Seymour of the Azusa Street Mission was almost passive in “leading” this historic religious epicenter. It’s what the Holy Spirit did, yes, through the willing vessel.

Then, what’s the role of humans? If they rarely count, would human response matter anyway? Yes, it does! One ingenuity of the Pentecostal faith is the unrelenting and persistent belief in God’s miracles! Right, until he says otherwise. Even then, the Pentecostals are willing to object and remind what they expect from God, if he is as good as he claims to be. My colleague at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies observed this in me, according to the book. (We now suspect that this friend of ours may have shared this conversation with the author, which led to the unlikely inclusion of us in the book!) So, I have settled happily with the outcome: Julie is fully recovered, back to the classroom and dissertation supervision. It is the unchanging goodness of God and our response to the trouble we face. “A crying baby gets an extra rice cake,” says a Korean maxim. Pentecostals know how to cry, especially Korean Pentecostals. That makes a huge difference!

Why a New Theology Ph.D. at ORU? Four

There appears to be a growing “fad” in “global” or “world” Christianity. This discussion will take up a realistic issue: jobs! A new academic program assumes that there is a viable market demand for its graduates. Simply put it for the ORU Ph.D. program, “Will the graduates with a theology Ph.D. degree strongly oriented in global Christianity find good jobs?” My responses will be provisional as the discipline itself is fast emerging.

In 2018, I took a survey, and around 150 scholars from various parts of the world responded. When I asked, “Does your school have a professor whose title includes ‘Global or World Christianity’?” 40% responded “yes,” and 2% indicated that they plan to have one in the next 3 years. More impressive is the responses to the question, if they believe that “master’s and doctoral studies in Global/World Christianity is a growing area of study with an increasing demand for professors.” 85.5% (or 125 out of 142 respondents) marked “agreed” or “maybe.” Indeed, 25.5% (or 27 schools) ran master’s programs in Global/World Christianity, and 5% more are planning to add new programs.

This explains why we receive more job notifications for similar professorial posts. More universities are establishing new programs on Global/World Christianity and advertising them. (37 schools already have such master’s programs, and 7 more are planning in three years.) Then somebody will need to train these professors. Thus, the next question, “Does your school have a Ph.D. program in or with Global/World Christianity concentration/track?” 25.9% responded “yes,” and 2.8% to roll out their programs in three years! An overwhelming 86.2% “wish” that their schools to “develop such a program.”

Is the studies of global/world Christianity just a fad? The evidence says a loud “no”! The trick, however, is that any study on global Christianity will be multidisciplinary. One can approach from historical, theological, missiological, cultural anthropological, or religious studies. ORU decided to focus on the theological aspect of global Christianity and the Spirit-empowered movement. And the Contextual Theology track brings each context into the theological process. We just know what we are good at, and where our limitations are. But one thing is clear: our graduates will have a better chance to make a difference while employed well.

Why a New Theology Ph.D. Program at ORU? Three

Since we like to add the “practitioner” dimension to the Ph.D. program, an immediate question arises: “What’s then the difference between this and the traditional professional degrees such as D.Min., and D.Miss. (or DICS)?” If field-based data is brought to research, one may ask, “Is this Ph.D. a glorified version of the professional degree?” Not at all!

It is NOT where you obtain your data for theologization, but how and for what outcome one processes it. The prime goal of a Ph.D. study is one’s contribution to the existing knowledge. Any part of the existing knowledge can be criticized, revised, or added to.

Therefore, a Pentecostal leader’s work to bring elementary education to Muslim families in Francophone Africa can use the field data and experiences into the building of knowledge on Christian mission, education and poverty, interreligious engagement, and/or even the relationship between the church and state. The researcher naturally interacts with the literature available in the relevant areas. But the lively field data plays a critical role in validating, challenging and enhancing the existing understanding. The new knowledge is also “generalizable”: in spite of its specific contextual locatedness, the principles learned can be applied to other contexts. For this reason, epistemology (“how do you know what you know”) and methodology (“how do you evaluate and process raw information”) become the hallmark of the Ph.D. program.

How about professional degrees? Yes, they will help to improve one’s practice by reflecting on what he or she has been doing. Both are valuable but serve different purposes. #ORUtheology #ORUPhD

Why a New Theology Ph.D. Program at ORU? Two

The program understands that every believer does theology. This “liberation of theology” (not “liberation theology”) denies the privilege of a traditional special class called “theologians.” This “democratization” in Christianity also applies to the ministry of every believer (Eph 4).

Theology in Context (or the “Contextual Theology” track) shifts the place of theologization from the library to the world. While the program is interested in the global (therefore, macro) context of what God is doing, the gospel engages with each local context allowing a unique theological process and outcome. When we take consideration of the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in this engagement, the process gets very exciting. The theology that comes out at the end will be relevant, dynamic, and living. Each Ph.D. scholar, therefore, will be the master of his or her own contextual theology, serving local faith communities. For this reason, we are pleased that the first cohort of 15 scholars is highly multicultural. #ORUPhD#ORUTheology

Why a New Theology Ph.D. Program at ORU? One

I like to write a series of “blogs” on our Ph.D. program at Oral Roberts University. Of course, our program is not for everyone who plans to do a theology Ph.D. However, some may find it to have merit to consider, thus, to read this and next one.

As an introduction, two layers of our identity form the foundation: 1) Taking the radical shift in global Christianity in the last half a century. For example, from the early 1980s, more Christians live in the global South (and now close to 2/3)! This year, ORU has more than 110 nations in our student body and commits to serve world Christianity. And 2) The rapid growth of Spirit-empowered churches and communities. Its growth rate is highest among Christian families and among all the religions! Obviously, the program, therefore, would be suitable for aspiring thinkers, researchers, teachers, and practitioners from the global South (and those who believe in what the Holy Spirit is doing in these continents) and Pentecostal/Charismatic/Independent church traditions. Therefore, we plan to take the global picture as the context of our research and the radical work of the Holy Spirit at the center of life and research. #ORUPhD#ORUTheology