Honoring Hollis Gause

My introduction to the bibliographic essay I've written on Gause's writing:


For years students have been challenged by the rapid-fire delivery of Dr. Hollis Gause’s logically ordered but tightly packed lectures in theology and biblical studies. The challenge to ‘keep up’ and ‘get it all down’ is complicated by the awe and wonder we experience as we hear what we’ve never heard before though it resonates within us. What amazes those of us who’ve studied under him and now have had the privilege of teaching with him is that though he is obviously drawing on an accumulation of scholarly work spanning five decades, he continues to write new lectures, to think in new ways and to re-vision Pentecostal theology. As one student who ‘sat at his feet’ at both the undergraduate and graduate level put it, ‘I was always thrilled to see those fresh legal sheets.’
The yellow legal pad, for the most part has been replaced by the word processor (sans the grammar check, which he has disabled, for obvious reasons!) and he continues to articulate Pentecostal theology, re-thinking categories, looking anew at familiar texts not just through the lens of his keen intellect but also through the companion lens of years of experience in the classroom, the study and the church.
Dr. Gause, as your student, first and foremost, and now as your colleague, I want to thank you for what you have imparted to me and to generations of Pentecostal scholars and ministers. And I want to thank you for the model you have provided of what it means to worship in our discipline. I am forever grateful.

Passing of Bishop G. E. Patterson

Presiding Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson of the COGIC went to be with the Lord on March 20, 2007 after a bout with prostate cancer. He was one of the greatest Pentecostal preachers of this generation (for an example, go to In My Life).

Currently Writing...

I'm engrossed in writing two articles for the Gause fetschrift at present. One, which was assigned by the editors, is a bibliographic essay on his works. The second one is an article on the experience of Spirit Baptism as testified to in early Pentecostalism. Students from the one hour research seminary on Spirit Baptism last Spring may read in it some of the discoveries made in that really wonderful class. Writing the bibliographic essay is a real honor for me. However, it is one of the most difficult pieces I've ever done. How do you analyze and discuss the diverse writing of your geru
who has been writing for sixty years? I covet your prayers!

Society for Pentecostal Studies and the Sounds of History

SPS held their annual meeting this past week-end at Lee University in Cleveland. The theme was the Role of Experience, so most plenary sessions focused on that in some way.

David Daniels presidential address was the most provocative, I think. The address focused on the sounds of Pentecostalism as a way of "hearing history". It was illustrated with sound clips of Pentecostal music/preaching/praying. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference!

I just read a recent NY Times article on a Latino Pentecostal storefront in New York City. It reminded me of David's address. The author referred frequently to sounds: shrieks, tambourine jingles, Latin music, cries, tongues. One line particularly captured Pentecostalism I thought. The writer noted, "Children preach like adults and adults wail like children."

I was intrigued by David's historical methodology. I think this approach gives us an even more appropriate vehicle by which to study movements. Obviously this approach cannot be utilized with every movement as we have no recordings or even descriptions of the sounds one would have heard (one can imagine the moans of some of the Desert Fathers....and for those who took "vows of silence" the lack of sound is telling!; we might also imagine sounds of those being persecuted in the Early Church; now, since seeing "Amazing Grace" I will always think of Wilberforce's fight as sounding like the rowdy "discussions" in Parliament). While imagination is a valuable tool for historians, it can't be documented! Fortunately, for those of us who are studying the 20th c. movements, there are plenty of documented sounds.

Athanasius contra mundum

Dear Sir:

Unless the divine power has raised you us to be as Athanasius contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.

Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a "law" in our colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this?

That he who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir,

Your affectionate servant,
John Wesley

Living in the Spirit

Dr. R. Hollis Gause's monumental work Living in the Spirit has been revised and reprinted by Cafepress.

This is the only Wesleyan-Pentecostal soteriology ever to have been attempted as far as I know. This book is an absolute necessity for your library! At $16.95 it is a theological bargain!!

The uniqueness of this work is that it places Spirit Baptism as a step along the via saludis. The importance of this placement is immediately obvious: Spirit Baptism is salvific, not simply "equipment for service". For those questioning the meaning and placement of this experience, this book is required reading!

Black History Month 3--Charles Harrison Mason

C. H. Mason is arguably the most influential African-American leader of the 20th century. By virtue of the fact that he was Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ from its beginnings in the late 19th century, guiding the church into the Pentecostal movement and leading it through six decades of last century, Mason is largely responsible for the shape of the African-American church. One of his largest contributions is that he encouraged the use of popular music and instruments in worship services. What we know of Black Gospel, we probably know because of Mason's foresight. In this, Mason was being true to his Wesleyan-Holiness tradition.