REGENT UNIVERSITY

NEW WINE IN OLD WINESKINS?

A PROPOSED PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC CONVERSATION WITH JUDAISM ABOUT SCIENCE

SUBMITTED TO AMOS YONG, PH.D.

FOR THE DEGREE REQUIREMENTS OF A
PH. D.

RTCH 785: SEMINAR - RENEWAL & SCIENCE

BY
MALCOLM R. BRUBAKER

AUGUST 14, 2007

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..3
CONTEMPORARY ISSUE OF FAITH AND SCIENCE.....4
A BRIEF LOOK AT JUDAISM AND SCIENCES LONG HISTORY...5
1. Ancient and Medieval Periods........6
2. Renaissance and Early Modern Periods......5
3. Twentieth Century...8
4. Late Twentieth Century and Beyond.......8
POINTS OF SHARED RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK.....9
1. The Importance of Narrative...9
2. Mystical Encounter with Divine Sublimity...10
3. Balancing Science and Faith......12
POINTS OF DIVERGENT RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS....12
1. The Role of Tradition.........13
2. The Value of a Questioning Dialogue....13
3. A Positive Stance toward Science..14
CONCLUSION...15
WORKS CITED.....16
Abstract: All contemporary religionists are facing the challenge of science as a way of knowing, the
determination of truth. We in the PC Renewal movement should consider the long history of Judaisms
relationship to knowledge in general and science in particular. Though Judaism and the PC Renewal movement
are different in many respects, there are commonalities that should be profitably explored to help each religious
tradition grapple with the contemporary issues of faith and science. Has Renewal Theology found a dialogue
partner with Judaism? The paper will explore areas of convergence and divergence between these two
theological and cultural traditions from the perspective of North American classical Pentecostalism.

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NEW WINE IN OLD WINESKINS?

A PROPOSED PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC CONVERSATION WITH JUDAISM ABOUT SCIENCE
By Malcolm R. Brubaker
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever,
to observe all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29 (NRSV; v 28 in the Hebrew Bible)
INTRODUCTION
Has the Pentecostal Charismatic (PC) world discovered science as one of the tongues of men and of
angels in order to declare the wonders of God (1 Cor 13:1 and Acts 2:11)? A recent Templeton-funded
colloquium of Renewal scholars and graduate students would seem to answer this question with a definitive
yes. For ten days on the campus of Pat Robertson-founded Regent University they presented papers and
discussed topics dealing with hard sciences such as chemistry and physics as well as the soft sciences such as
psychology, sociology and anthropology. Theological and philosophical reflections were also part of the
intellectual mix. Questions dealing with the impact of scientific paradigm shifts, role of Gods action in the
world, and narrative as a scientific method were raised. Additional guest lecturers stimulated the debate with
their views on theistic evolution and scientific emergence theories.
There is additional evidence for a growing awareness about science by the PC tradition. The 2008 annual
meeting of the Society of Pentecostal Studies will join with the Wesleyan Theological Society to discuss Sighs,
Signs, and Significance: Pentecostal and Wesleyan Explorations of Science and Creation.1 Science and
theology faculty at Valley Forge Christian College, an Assemblies of God school, organized a discussion club to
debate relevant scientific and theological questions despite the fact that the school does not yet have a science
major. Science major graduates from schools like Evangel University, Lee University, and Vanguard University

There is a personal link between the Regent University colloquium and the SPS gathering. Amos Yong was a co-organizer of the 2007
colloquium and is the program chairperson for the 2008 SPS meeting. Yong has written a number of articles dealing with science. One
example is The Spirit and Creation: Possibilities and Challenges for a Dialogue between Pentecostal Theology and the Sciences,
Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association 25 (2006): 82-110.

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have earned advanced degrees in many scientific fields. 2 Another example of scholarly interest is a historical
article dealing with how Pentecostal and Holiness traditions handled concerns over Darwinism. 3
With such a growing awareness of science within the Renewal tradition this paper would like to propose
that it would be prudent to consider how other and older religious traditions have and are dealing with scientific
concerns.4 Now that the modern Renewal movement in North America has reached its century mark, it should
be able to address the concerns of many religious people regarding the definition, nature, and purpose of
science. What can a study of Roman Catholics long and entangled history with science teach us? 5 How about
Eastern Orthodoxy?6 Or Lutheran and Reformed traditions? Even Buddhist and Muslim traditions can
contribute to our understanding.7
Our concern in this paper is to explore what Renewal theology can learn from Judaism. After considering
the scientific challenge facing all religious world views in contemporary Western society, we will briefly survey
Judaisms long history of dialogue with ancient, medieval, and modern forms of scientific theory and
knowledge. Then we will look for similarities and dissimilarities between the two that may reveal what lessons
the PC Renewal tradition may profit from Judaism.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUE OF FAITH WITH SCIENCE
A central concern for both Judaism and Renewal religionists is how to live in two worlds: the world of the
Bible and the world of modern science.8 For example, there is irony that Pentecostals use electronic media for
religious programming that debunks evolutionary theory. Or to note that the theory of natural selection is

For example, an Evangel U. graduate, married to this writers niece, earned his doctorate at Oregon State University in human genetics
with additional post-doc research in the scientific golden triangle of Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
3
Ronald L. Numbers, Creation, Evolution, and Holy Ghost Religion: Holiness and Pentecostal Responses to Darwinism, chapter 6 in
Darwinism Comes to America (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998), 111-35.
4
Amos Yong has written papers dealing with American Evangelicalism and science, God and the Evangelical Laboratory: Recent
Conservative Protestant Thinking about Theology and Science, Theology and Science 5.2 (2007): 203-21.
5
Denis Edwards, Breath of Life: A Theology of the Creator Spirit (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2001).
6
For example see Alexei V. Nesteruk, Light from the East: Theology, Science, and the Eastern Orthodox Tradition (Minneapolis:
Fortress, 2003) or Edmund Rybarczyk, Beyond Salvation: Eastern Orthodoxy and Classical Pentecostalism on Becoming Like Christ.
Paternoster Theological Monographs (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster Press, 2004).
7
See Amos Yong, Christian and Buddhist Perspectives on Neuropsychology and the Human Person: Pneuma and Pratityasamutpada,
Zygon 40.1 (March 2005): 143-165.
8
Robert Pollack, DNA AND NESHAMAH: Locating the Soul in an Age of Molecular Medicine. Cross Currents 53.2 (Summer
2003): 231. Accessed at http://firstsearch.oclc.org on July 2, 2007. He notes, The problem is the reality of being a member of two
contradictory cultures having contradictory claims and assumptions.

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referred to in Israeli public schools as torat Darwin (the torah of Darwin). 9 As one Jewish writer noted, more
American Jews read the science columns of the New York Times than the columns of the Torah.10 A sign of this
concern to live in both worlds is the addition of classes in Jewish and Christian seminaries that touch upon
science so that future rabbis and ministers are conversant in scientific language and concepts that bear on
religious matters.
Though there are specific issues such as genetics, the main specter for religious world-views is a militant
scientism that seizes all claims to truth-verification. In earlier times scientists discovered how nature worked
but today some wish to change how nature works, Galileo set out to read the Book of Nature; Genentech
scientists aspire to edit it.11 But as one rabbi put it, beware of those who remove God from the throne in a
pretense of superior knowledge only to enthrone someone or something else. 12
Perhaps there is a middle way as represented in Robert Pollacks discussion of the soul in light of DNA
research.13 He presents the current state of our knowledge regarding the nature of genetics and the question of
what and where the soul is. Though Greek, Christian, and Jewish theologians have dealt with the matter,
modern scientific study puts a fresh perspective to the age-old question. Rather than being a direct competitor to
theology, science can act as a stimulant to new expressions of even standard conclusions or point the way to new
ideas entirely.14
A BRIEF LOOK AT JUDAISM AND SCIENCES LONG HISTORY
Judaism is not a monolithic religion and has many different aspects in its relationship to Western
philosophy and scientific thought. An 1889 Jewish writer posed the question well for all religious-science
dialogues, What is the position of science toward religion, and in what respects has religion any dealing with

Robert Pollack, The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith: Order, Meaning, and Free Will in Modern Medical Science (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2000), 58.
10
Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, Science and Spirit: Reconstructionist Theology for the 21 st Century. The Reconstructionist 70.1 (Fall 2005):
47. Accessed at http://firstsearch.oclc.org on July 2, 2007.
11
Noah J. Efron, Playing God, in Spiritual Information: 100 Perspectives on Science and Religion. Essays in Honor of Sir John
Templetons 90th Birthday (edited by Charles L. Harper, Jr..; Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2005), 97.
12
Robert Pollack, The Faith of Biology, 3.
13
Pollack, DNA and NESHAMAH, 231-47.
14
Shalom Carmy, A Religion Challenged by Science Again? A Reflection Occasioned by a Recent Occurrence, Tradition 39.2
(Summer 2005): 1. Accessed at http://firstsearch.oclc.org on July 2, 2007. Compare that to Pope John Paul IIs 1996 statement, Our
bodies may have evolved but our souls are provided by God. Quoted by Fuchs-Kreimer, Science and Spirit, 48.

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science?15 Over the past 2000 years specific Jewish answers to that question have ranged all over the spectrum
from rejection, denial, and acceptance of science. 16 One rubric classifies the answers to that question in a fivefold manner: (1) Some like Richard Dawkins deny Gods existence, (2) some like Tertullian and al Ghazah deny
science, (3) some like Spinoza and William Paley redefine God, (4) some like Averros and Steven J. Gould
separate science and religion, and (5) some declare God as totally unknowable and thus end of argument. 17 We
will not be systematic in our survey but will find representative Jewish voices in the conversation between faith
and science.
1. Ancient and Medieval Periods Early on there was little in the way of what we call today science. 18
Rather, Aristotles thought on nature dominated the first thousand years of the Common Era for Jews, Christians,
and Muslims. An early philosopher of science was Saadia Gaon (882-942 C.E.), a Babylonian Talmudist. He
defined science as that which was observable and accessible by rational thought but it was God who had
revealed Himself to Moses and the prophets and made human knowledge possible. 19 Abraham Ibn David (11101180) and his greater student, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) worked with Aristotle. Maimonides suggested
that there is an inherent perplexity in the limits of human understanding of the world. This rational limitation
may have contributed to the development of Jewish Kabbala teaching and stunted further scientific thought
among medieval Jewish thinkers.20 Yet ironically Jewish rabbis brought Aristotle to Europe and that may have
stimulated Western scientific development. 21

15

Rabbi Louis Grossmann, Some Chapters on Judaism and the Science of Religion (New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 1889), 123.
Pollack, The Faith of Biology, 4-5.
17
James A. Arieti and Patrick A. Wilson, The Scientific & the Divine: Conflict and Reconciliation from Ancient Greece to the Present
(Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003), 306-10. Ian G. Barbour has provided the standard paradigm of conflict,
independence, dialogue, and integration in his work, Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues. Revised and expanded
edition of Religion in an Age of Science (New York: Harper Collins, 1997), 105. Compare Mikael Stenmarks elaborative gird of
contemporary and historical aspects spread over four dimensions, How to Relate Science and Religion: A Multidimensinal Model (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2004), 14.
18
As example of applied geometry in 150 C.E. Rabbi Nehemiah reconciled the dimensions of Solomons circular ritual bowl to the
known value of by suggesting that the small discrepancy was due to the way in which the measurement had been made rather than in
the factual error of the author. Arieti and Wilson, The Scientific and the Divine, 9-10.
19
Norbert M. Samuelson, On the Symbiosis of Science and Religion: A Jewish Perspective. Zygon 35.1 (March 2000): 84. Accessed
at http://firstsearch.oclc.org on June 26, 2007.
20
Arieti, The Scientific and the Divine, 193. Orthodox Jews follow Kabbalistic thought and find in it mathematical and scientific models
for understanding the world. See Leonora Leet, The Secret Doctrine of Kabbalah: Rediscovering the Key to Hebraic Sacred Science
(Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 1999), 3.
21
Samuelson, On the Symbiosis of Science and Religion, 88.
16

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2. Renaissance and Early Modern Periods The vicissitudes of Jewish existence during the late Middle Ages
and early Modern Period contributed to the shaping of the Jewish philosopher, Spinoza (1632-1677). Born of
immigrant Portuguese Jewish family in Amsterdam, Spinozas radical thought led him into conflict with
traditional Judaism and his expulsion from it. His critical view of Scripture led him to find knowledge
elsewhere. For him science was the exercise of intellectual skills to seek truth by reason while religion was a
political skill to create good for society.22 God was not to be separated from the laws of nature all was God. 23
Some thought him an atheist; he saw himself as religious. His influence became widespread following his death
and the posthumous publication of many of his writings.
Geoffrey Cantors study of British Quakers and Jews from 1650 to 1900 reveals the social, political, and
intellectual context for religious minorities struggles with modernity. 24 In the 18-19th centuries some Jewish
writers followed the discussions about Gods existence based on the design argument but many did not. The
majority felt that their religious focus should be on duty and not doctrine. 25 A further Jewish impulse was
toward an empiricism that relied on the senses rather than an idealist approach. This opened Jewish thought to
accept and sometimes embrace the evolutionary thought of Charles Darwin. An 1875 contributor to the Jewish
Chronicle actually suggested that the Bible taught evolutionary views. 26 Many felt that Judaism in contrast to
Christianity was the religion of reason rather than superstition. As the 20 th century approached and with it
immigrant Jews from very conservative and Orthodox Eastern Europe, there arose more splits among British
Jews into the various religious factions that we find today. The progressive groups supported evolutionary
theory while the conservative groups resisted its modernistic influence that became associated with an atheistic
agenda of such men as Aldous Huxley. A representative of the former group is Claude Goldsmid Montefiore
(1858-1936). He had studied under the liberal Oxford biblical scholar, Benjamin Jowett, and tended to follow
current scientific thought though it appeared to conflict with traditional understandings of the Bible. 27 Raphael

22

Samuelson, On the Symbiosis of Science and Religion, 89-91.

Arieti, The Scientific and the Divine, 226.
24
Geoffrey Cantor, Quakers, Jews, and Science: Religious Responses to Modernity and to Sciences in Britain, 1650-1900 (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2005).
25
Cantor, Quakers, Jews, and Science, 308-09.
26
Cantor, Quakers, Jews, and Science, 332.
27
Cantor, Quakers, Jews, and Science, 337.
23

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Meldola (1849-1915), a chemist by vocation and naturalist by avocation, avidly promoted Darwinian teaching
and corresponded with Darwin.28 He believed one didnt have to be an atheist to be an evolutionist.
On the American side of the Atlantic Jewish intellectual life paralleled the British side. There were
progressive forces that welcomed the rising scientific world. 29 A proponent of a complimentary approach to
faith and science was Louis Grossmann. His 1889 book reflected a positive regard for science as a separate
department of truth from religion. He commented, This secular knowledge, conventionally foreign to religion,
is of practical value as the aggregate experience and wisdom of mankind. 30 Science held great promises for the
century ahead.
3. The Twentieth Century The post World War I period saw the rise of the American public university and its
role as a germinating bed for bold new ideas. Christians and Jews intellectuals found it a place for new ideas
freed from any association with institutional religion found at most private colleges. 31 The Scopes monkey
trial of July 1925 exemplified this new mindset that religion was holding back the progress of science.
By the 1930s the clouds of anti-Semitism over Germany, the Great Depression, and the theories of Einstein
and Heisenberg darkened the earlier optimistic view of science as the progressive answer to all of mankinds
problems. In a 1939 Oxford University published essay, Moses L. Isaacs warned of a scientism-dominated
world in which religion was despised and science would become the final arbiter of truth. 32 The phrase,
science has proved, had become the argument-ending phrase. Religionists would be considered psychological
misfits. Isaacs metaphor for the science-faith relationship was that of a battle for the mind as university
freshmen were allured away from traditional religious beliefs to adopt more progressive and scientifically
respectable thought.33
The post-World War II world held no illusions of progress for the many Jewish people who contemplated
the horrors of a Nazi scientism that promoted a superior racial evolutionary theory as the pretext to kill unfit
28

Cantor, Quakers, Jews, and Science, 340f.

Joseph L. Blau, An American-Jewish View of the Evolution Controversey, Hebrew Union College Annual 20.1 (1947): 617-634.
Blau reviewed the story of an early American rabbi who held to evolutionary views in the 1880s.
30
Rabbi Louis Grossmann, Some Chapters on Judaism and the Science of Religion, 123.
31
Samuelson, On the Symbiosis of Science and Religion, 92.
32
Moses L. Isaacs, The Challenge of Science, in Judaism in a Changing World (Edited by Leo Jung; New York: Oxford University
Press, 1939), 75
33
Isaacs, The Challenge of Science, 69.
29

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races and individuals. In 1946 William Kisch supported a science that was free of prejudice and pride and
should be regarded with critical respect as the [scientific] truths of today are the fallacies of tomorrow. 34 One
should not forget that the ultimate answers of life are beyond human ability.
4. Late Twentieth Century and Beyond We will listen to three final Jewish voices that demonstrate some of
the rich diversity in todays discussion. The first voices are two authors of a textbook on science for young
minds. In Old Wine New Flasks: Reflections on Science and Jewish Tradition Roald Hoffmann and Shira
Leibowitz Schmidt express the optimistic view that science and faith are complementary: chemistry, for
instance, deals with molecules which are a half-way spatial point between quirks and galaxies while Judaism
focuses on the everydayness of life.35 Both science and Jewish faith deal with practical matters.
The last voice is that of a mainstream religious critique of Jewish mysticism. In a 1983 journal article
Richard L. Rubenstein explored the mystical writings of Lawrence Kushner.36 Kushner had tried to show how
Jewish mysticism felt well with current cosmological theories about the big bang beginnings of the universe
while yet holding a more positive eschatological outcome in a final mergence of the universe with the unknown
God. Rubensteins primary critique is that such an emphasis only on the beginning and the end left little theory
to support the middle where life is lived in the present.
Hopefully our survey has given a flavor for the long and complex conversation that the various forms of
Judaism has had with science. Next, we will turn to consider any similarities and dissimilarities between the
Renewal movement and Judaism that could encourage and clarify a dialogue by finding lines of agreement as
well as boundaries of dissent.
POINTS OF SHARED RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK
Particularly in the so-called postmodern or post-Enlightenment period there are more opportunities for a
meaningful consideration of religion by scientists. Whether it be Samuelsons traditional Judaism or
Polkinghornes Anglicanism there is a desire to retrieve and justify a whole set of traditional ways of thinking
34

Bruno Kisch, Natural Science in Israel of Tomorrow, in Israel of Tomorrow (edited by Leo Jung; New York: Herald Square Press,
1946), 314.
35
Roald Hoffmann and Shira Leibowitz Schmidt, Old Wine New Flasks: Reflections on Science and Judaism (New York: W. H. Freeman,
1997), x.
36
Richard L. Rubenstein, Science and Spirit in Contemporary Jewish Mysticism, Cross Currents 33.4 (Winter 1983/84): 405.
Accessed at http://firstsearch.oclc.org on July 2, 2007.

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previously ignored or dismissed.37 We will consider three areas of common concern that Judaism and the PC
Renewal Movement share in their interaction with science.
1. The Importance of Narrative Neither Judaism nor the Renewal movement have been known to produce
the same kind of systematic works of thought such as exemplified by Roman Catholic, Lutheran, or Reformed
theologies. Instead Judaism and the Renewal movement have considered the role of story important in
shaping and communicating their ideas, rituals, and practices. Often if you ask a rabbi a question, you get a
story rather than a logical or direct response. 38 In fact, Fuchs-Kremer suggested in light of scientific
evolutionary theories that offer rational ideas for the creation of life, the role of story is all the more important to
communicate values and significance, If there is nothing but matter, all the more do we need stories to make
meaning.39
On the Renewal side, Frederick Ware has argued that narrative should be considered a valid scientific
methodology. He examined the role that stories of early African American Pentecostal leaders played to convey
a wholistic world-view that incorporates the physical dimensions of spiritual life and experiences. 40 Other
studies have stressed the orality of Pentecostal preaching and testimony as conveyers of the traditions most
sacred beliefs.41
2. Mystical Encounter with Divine Sublimity Every religious tradition has its mystical faction, some more
than others. Orthodox Judaism has its Kabbalah tradition while many regard the PC Renewal movement as
being largely mystical or focused on a primitive spirituality.42 Perhaps no one has made a plainer description of
the Renewal movement as being mystical in orientation than University of Akron sociologist, Margaret Poloma.
She entitled her descriptions of the 1990s charismatic revival in Canada, Main Street Mystics: The Toronto

37

James F. Moore, How Religious Tradition Survives in the World of Science: John Polkinghorne and Norbert Samuelson, 32.1
(March 1997): 115-24. Accessed at http://firstsearch.oclc.org on July 2, 2007.
38
Roald Hoffmann and Shira Leibowitz Schmidt, Old Wine New Flasks: Reflections on Science and Judaism, often resort to accounts of
dialogue between a well-known rabbi and students to draw the learner into the scientific question at hand, see 291-92.
39
Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, Science and Spirit, 53.
40
Frederick L. Ware, Pentecostal Religious Experience, Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Use of Narrative in the Study of
Consciousness, unpublished paper for Science & Spirit Initiative Colloquium, Regent University, June 2007.
41
One example is Jerry Camery-Hoggatt, Speaking of God: Reading and Preaching the Word of God (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson,
1995.
42
Harvey Cox, Fire from Heaven:The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1995.

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Blessing and Reviving Pentecostalism.43 She said, While some of their experiences are as old as shamanism,
their interpretations are rooted in Judeo-Christian biblical writings. 44
The importance of this common aspect of both Jewish and PC traditions is a willing to go beyond the
purely rational and explore the experiential aspects of life. Even a mainstream representative of Judaism like
Robert Pollack recognized the value and role of finding meaning in that which transcends science. Feelings are
on a par with science and religion operates on the boundary of the unknowable and unmeasurable. 45 To deny
validity to that which cannot be proved empirically is unprovable. 46 Often science like religion advances its
frontier of knowledge through a spark of insight that cannot be logically explained.
In todays so-called postmodern world there may be more room for that which cannot be explained. In
fact, many people in both Judaism and PC Renewal come to religious faith through encounter and spiritual
experience. The formal proofs for Gods existence, such as the argument from design, may have their place,
but it is the sense of encounter with the God of the universe that moves people to faith. Writing about Robert
Kaplans reliance upon experience rather than metaphysics Fuchs-Kreimer noted, Men must acquire a religious
faith, not by being reasoned to about God, but by experiencing Gods power in making life worthwhile. 47
Shalom Carmy concluded that the contemporary anthropic principle does not satisfactorily lead to belief in God
any more than the 18th century arguments for God from a Newtonian designed world. He said it this way, [T]he
road to God through the biological world and the knowledge of that world does not turn up at the end of a proof,
as a clinching inference and a string of inferences and information. 48
Both Jewish and PC Renewal sense and experience of Gods power are experienced in ways that are not
necessarily safe or comforting. In the book of Job God reminds Job about the fierce behemoth and leviathan.
They both fascinate and intimidate and yet call humans to a proper humility and worship of the One who created

43

Margaret Poloma, Main Street Mystic: The Toronto Blessing and Reviving Pentecostalism (Lanham, Md.: AltaMira Press, 2003).
Poloma, Pentecostal/Charismatic Worship: A Window for Research, in Spiritual Information: 100 Perspectives on Science and
Religion. Essays in Honor of Sir John Templetons 90th Birthday (edited by Charles L. Harper, Jr..; Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation
Press, 2005), 584.
45
Robert Pollack, The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith, 12.
46
Pollack, The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith, 17.
47
Fuchs-Kreimer, Science and Faith, 52.
48
Carmy, A Religion Challenged by Science Again? A Reflection Occasioned by a Recent Occurrence, 2.
44

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them.49 The role of glossolalia, people falling down under the Spirit, and prophetic utterances in PC Renewal
churches can be frightening but they tell the visitor that God is present. 50
Daniel C. Matt, writing in the Jewish mystical tradition, suggests that even the role of words [whether of
men or of angels?] can obscure the religious sensibilities of the divine. Rather silent, breathing prayer can be
an effective experience with God. Compare that with pentecostal groans and wordless sounds of the apostle
Pauls description of the Spirit in the early church, that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words
(Romans 8:29). For Matt the study of science evokes a sense of religious wonder rather than it demystifying
nature and leaving one an atheist, [W]hat science shows us about the evolution of our universe and ourselves is
as awesome to me as Genesis or the Kabbalah. 51
3. Balancing Science and Faith Both Judaism and the PC Renewal movement face the challenge of
addressing scientific concerns while yet retaining their vital spirituality. Carmy warns that Jewish focus on
these science and faith issues can become a sideshow diverting attention from the study of Torah. It is Torah
that offers the ultimate guide in the mysteries of the human soul. One hears similar voices of warning in the PC
Renewal world. Steven Land passionately calls Pentecostals back to their spiritual roots and leave the dryness
of respectability.52
Rubensteins critique of Lawrence Kushners Jewish mysticism also applies to the PC Renewal tradition.
He said that Kushner had dealt with some of the scientific and religious concerns about the beginning and end of
creation but was weak in dealing with the here and now.53 Similarly, the eschatological interest of the
Pentecostal movement has generated criticism that it is more concerned about heavens pearly gates than the
struggles of people on earth.54

49

Carmy, A Religion Challenged by Science Again? A Reflection Occasioned by a Recent Occurrence, 3.

1 Corinthians 14:20-25.
51
Daniel C. Matt, God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony Between Science & Spirituality (Woodstock, Vt.: Jewish Lights
Publishing, 2001), 13.
52
Steven J. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom. Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series #1
(Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993).
53
Rubenstein, Science and Spirit, 405.
54
See William D. Faupel, The Everlasting Gospel: The Significance of Eschatology in the Development of Pentecostal Thought. Journal
of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series #10 (edited by John Christopher Thomas, Rickie D. Moore, and Stephen J. Land; Sheffield,
England: University of Sheffield Press, 1996.
50

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Can one both retain the original zeal and yet address the pressing questions of the day? We will hope that
one can. Having examined three common traits we turn next to three areas of divergence between Judaism and
PC Renewal movement.
POINTS OF DIVERGENT RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS
We will not consider the obvious theological differences between these two religions. We have seen that
there are areas of shared orientation and approach that may help each one understand the other. Since this writer
is a Pentecostal and is addressing others in his tradition, this paper focuses at what the PC Renewal movement
can learn from Judaism. There are three divergent areas with Judaism that we can find some help in our own
conversation with science.
1. The Role of Tradition Stating the obvious, Judaism has been around a lot longer than the mere century of
the Renewal movement. Its rabbinical writings are a continuous flow of thoughtful interaction dating from
several centuries B.C.E. to the present. Jewish thought has faced and adapted to new issues before. Science is
just the latest. This gives Judaism the accumulated momentum of the spiritual quest of the past. 55 As a whole
this produces a certain calming equilibrium in the midst of any contemporary issue.
Robert Pollacks discussion of the soul is an example of the positive role of tradition in Judaism. He
examined the biological and medical aspects of the human body. He considered the study of DNA traits of
Jewish people worldwide. He concluded that the soul does not have a religious basis in the individual but
rather in the community of Jewish faith and practice. This communal definition of personhood does not
discount the scientific research into the marvelous aspects of genetic research but does go beyond it into the
sociological and religious aspects of Jewish faith. He succinctly summarized his study, A Jewish soul is a soul
cared for by Jews.56 Jewish tradition faithfully passed on defines who a Jew is.
While there has been some recognition of the role even in its short history, the PC Renewal movement has
tended to discount the role of tradition.57 Hence, our own history has not always been appreciated. A rugged
individualism has marked its rapid growth as charismatic individuals have propelled its ranks into its current
55

Fuchs-Kreimer, Science and Faith, 54; see also Moore, How Religious Tradition Survives in the World of Science, 116.
Pollack, DNA and NESHAMAH, 244.
57
Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., An Emerging Magisterium? The Case of the Assemblies of God, Pneuma 25.2 (Fall 2003): 164-215. See also
Jacobsen, Douglas. Thinking in the Spirit: Theologies of the Early Pentecostal Movement. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press,
2003.
56

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sizable numbers in North American and the world. 58 We would do well to recognize the value of the
contributions of those who have gone before us. The rise of professionally staffed archives of major Pentecostal
denominations give hope that the contribution of early Pentecostals will be preserved and studied to give the
future generations a sense of intellectual trajectory for the present and the future.
2. The Value of a Questioning Dialogue There are various examples of Jewish humor that illustrate the point
that Judaism is known for open debate and role of questioning, even the questioning of God. 59 One writer,
discussing the critique of humans playing the role of God with todays technology, cited the Midrash to argue
that dialogue and discussion are necessary in finding truth. 60 This should include scientists as well as
theologians and ethicists together. Similarly, Hoffman and Schmidts introduction to chemistry made a
comparison between the scientific method of description and analysis with Judaisms tradition. 61 Both employ
question and answer, logic, deduction, and application of new insights.
Shalom Carmys article illustrates this Jewish characteristic for dialogue. He asked his readers to be careful
in too quickly condemning a particular young Jewish Orthodox writer who had espoused an acceptance of
contemporary scientific theories. He said that the issues were very important and that was why it is necessary to
hear all sides. Even though he had cautioned against a total absorbed fascination with such matters, he argued
for a fair hearing, It is precisely because correct belief is essential to Judaism that we must combat the kind of
careless condemnation that has lately come to the surface. 62
3. A Positive Stance Toward Science Contemporary understandings of these two sources of authority,
religion and science, often collide. As we have noted the PC Renewal movement has been slow to enter this
conversation between faith and science. Judaism, for the most part, regards the role of science as an asset for
human attainment of knowledge and truth. This is in part due to their view of human nature with its reasoning
capacity still intact despite the fall of Adam and Eve. Samuelson, though acknowledging that Judaism can get
mired in the minutia of Torah, stated that it never had an anti-intellectualism that has plagued some religious
58

See Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Press, 2001).
Geoffrey Cantor cites a debate between two 1st century C.E. rabbis, Elazer and Eliezer, who even question God in the process of
proving their point, Quakers, Jews, and Science, 317.
60
Efron, Playing God, 99.
61
Roald Hoffmann and Shira Leibowitz Schmidt, Old Wine New Flasks, 291-92.
62
Shalom Carmy, A Religion Challenged by Science Again? A Reflection Occasioned by a Recent Occurrence, 6.
59

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traditions.63 Rather, he says that science and religion function epistemically as correctives for each other. 64
Pollack sees the challenges of science as a prod to a healthy theology and that both religion and science need
each other to avoid a blind dogmatism and ignorance. 65 Hence there is no ultimate conflict between the two.
Two writers declared that there was a divine mandate from Genesis for human scientific study. Laurie
Zololf said that science enables us to be an active partner with God in the repair of the world. 66 Jonathan
Sachs, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, noted that this Genesis 1 mandate contrasts with the pagan mythology of
the gods angry with Prometheus for stealing the secret of fire. 67 The God of the Bible is not opposed but rather
commands humans to pursue scientific research.
Also in Judaism there is recognition of a proper limit to the scope and intent of Scripture. Shalom Carmy
comments that the Torah is not a scientific textbook given to us to answer all modern questions about science. 68
Scripture, with a religious agenda, has no claim of teaching laws of natural science or a literal history of
creation.69 So, traditional Jewish writers like Carmy and Pollack do in fact accept modern evolutionary theories
about how God created life. They accept the views of standard science as a given in thinking about the world.
To reject it is no longer an option. Rather, they urge the religionist to join the conversation from a vantage point
of accepting its commonly held teachings.70
SUMMARY
The future of the Pentecostal Charismatic Renewal is a promising one in light of present global growth.
Though its North American growth has leveled its churches and institutions have gained strength and maturity.
For it to come of age intellectually it will have to reconcile its religious claims with scientific language, theories,
63

Samuelson, On the Symbiosis of Science and Religion, 88. For an appeal for Pentecostals to step-up their intellectuality see Terry L.
Cross and Emerson B. Powery (eds.), The Spirit and the Mind: Essays in Informed Pentecostalism (Lanham, Md.: University Press,
2000).
64
Samuelson, On the Symbiosis of Science and Religion, 86.
65
Pollack, The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith, 21. James F. Moore also notes that this interaction between theology and
scienceis a dialectical interaction, How Religious Tradition Survives in the World of Science, 117.
66
Laurie Zoloth, Science and Ethics in Judaism: Discernment and Discourse, in Bridging Science and Religion (edited by Ted Peters
and Gaymon Bennett. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003) 219.
67
Jonathan Sachs, Technology and Human Dignity, in Spiritual Information: 100 Perspectives on Science and Religion. Essays in
Honor of Sir John Templetons 90th Birthday (edited by Charles L. Harper, Jr..; Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2005), 578.
68
Shalom Carmy, A Religion Challenged by Science Again? A Reflection Occasioned by a Recent Occurrence, 1.
69
Jacob Neusner, From Biblical Story to the Science of Society, in Spiritual Information: 100 Perspectives on Science and Religion.
Essays in Honor of Sir John Templetons 90th Birthday (edited by Charles L. Harper, Jr..; Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press,
2005), 577.
70
Pollack, DNA and NESHAMAH,234; Shalom Carmy, A Religion Challenged by Science Again? A Reflection Occasioned by a
Recent Occurrence, 4.

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and world-view. By studying how other religious traditions such as Judaism have dealt with this dialogue the
PC Renewal tradition will be better able to communicate its message with both clarity and conviction.
Scientific knowledge, faith, and aesthetics cohabit. They speak to one another in the human soul yes, sometimes their
dialogue is uneasy. But it is their intertwined voices that shape true human understanding.71

71

Roald Hoffmann and Shira Leibowitz Schmidt, Old Wine New Flasks, x.

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