James K. Smith Thinking in Tongues

James K Smith Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy Eerdmans, 2010

In this uniquely titled and intriguing look at Pentecostal practise and experience, James K. Smith ventures to build a case for the reality of a Pentecostal philosophy that proposes another real way that people look out on life in matters of faith and worldview. Using the encouraging challenge of Alvin Plantinga in daring to construct a Christian philosophy, Smith vies for the same challenge in constructing a Pentecostal philosophy that gives a framework for how to understand the world around us related to what we know and experience over against other competing philosophies.

The valuable contribution to pentecostal perspectives in this volume is how Smith outlines an overview of what a Pentecostal philosophy holds as its main belief markers. Rather than centering it on the evidence of glossolalia that historically Pentecostals themselves have used to define their unique existence and contribution, Smith offers the broader markers within which glossolalia is but a part:

• Radical openness to God
• An 'enchanted' theology of creation and culture [the Spirit's work in the world]
• A non dualistic affirmation of embodiment and materiality [seen in emphasis on physical healing]
• An affective, narrative epistemology [akin to the early church]
• An eschatological orientation to mission and justice (page 12)

This framework is woven from personal stories of Pentecostals that Smith has witnessed. These stories provide a launching point to build a case for the legitimacy of each philosophical belief marker and its viability in offering an alternative explanation to the common structures that interpret the phenomena around us. Of particular note is Smith's insistence that Pentecostals do not so much believe that God by His Spirit intrudes onto our natural existence but is very much a part of our present world both involved through sustaining and transforming in keeping with the initial divine intent. Moments of what others call "supernatural" are actually common occurrences of the Spirit's acceleration of His involvement in the lives of people in the natural order. (page 101) Rather than other philosophical perspectives that vie for the autonomy of nature, Smith emphasizes that a Pentecostal philosophy sees nature as dependent on the divine and so God involved as a participant along with humanity in the natural order. 

Smith also challenges philosophies that have drawn on a rational Cartesian focused understanding of the world by pointing out that a Pentecostal philosophy reminds the world that experience and interaction with the world also brings a sense of meaning and importance to it. This brings a more balanced anthropological involvement that is both rational and experiential and so expanding epistemology into a much broader perspective. Pentecostals expand their understanding beyond simple propositions understanding that their communal experience of God broadens their daily understanding. Akin to how the worship of the early believing communities encouraged the shaping of doctrine, Smith points out that in a Pentecostal philosophy doctrine is subsequent to worship and the experience of God in everyday life. (page 111)

Looking at Pentecostal experience as a "pre-canonical" understanding, Smith focuses on the tacit evidence of experiencing and knowing God and the world in ways that can't be necessarily articulated but are definitely resident in the participant and drawn out by the Spirit. [glossolalia being evidence that there is more going on than one knows in the immediate]  In this sense, a Pentecostal philosophy challenges the common notions of belief systems and canonical-theism in that the awareness of God is experienced prior to a full blown understanding. The focus here is to hint at more going on in the phenomena of experience than other philosophies realize or can articulate. This is something that Plantinga himself alludes to as an a-priori understanding resident in humanity. (page 120) This is also shades of the work that Michael Polanyi has done in his book Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy that T.F. Torrance draws on in his important work on The Ground and Grammar of Theology. Whether Smith is aware of these works, which I would be surprised if he wasn't, these are both worth the read to gain a broader view of what Smith mentions here. Torrance focuses on the need to use all references in our world, including language, numbers, art, poetry, symbols, and expressions to make sense of God and our experience of Him and the creation. 

Smith's final chapter focuses in on how glossolalia and xenolalia are the evidence - if not the key evidence - that there is more to our world than what we know and see. This phenomena in Pentecostal experience critiques the stagnant structures in a post-modern way that encourages a real reflection on truer paradigms that explain our reality. This "foreign speech of a coming kingdom" is reminding us that our world is not coming to an end but rather moving toward a better, fuller existence that honors the creation that is dependent on the divine. The foreign language gives us glimpses of more and so builds anticipation for more both now and in the future. 

As a Pentecostal, I appreciate the larger picture that Smith gives - the cartoon as he describes it - that gives the beginning of thinking about our reality and experience beyond the evidence toward a full blown cosmology that places us in a posture of looking toward the future in the experience of today. At the center of this Pentecostal philosophy is the understanding that God is integrally participant and involved in the shape and character of our world as it moves forward by His intent and desire.