Neo Pentecostal Spirituality And Theology Of Creativity In The Work Of Barbara A. Holmes

Pneuma 35 (2013) 75-86

Review Essay

Neo-Pentecostal Spirituality and Theology of Creativity

in the Work of Barbara A. Holmes

Frederick L. Ware

Howard University School of Divinity, Washington, DC

Abstract

The works of black Pentecostal scholars who are members of classical Pentecostal denominations are well recognized. Less is known, however, about the work of black Pentecostal scholars from denominations rooted in different historical movements. One such Pentecostal scholar worthy of recognition is Barbara A. Holmes. While she self-identifies as Pentecostal/Charismatic, she is more accurately classified as neo-Pentecostal. The story of her spiritual journey reveals the complex routes and profound contributions of Pentecostalism toward the Charismatic move- ment in historic denominations like the United Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ Church. The influence of Pentecostalism on Holmes’s scholarship is most evident in her focus on spirituality and quest for a theology of creativity.

Keywords

neo-Pentecostalism, Charismatic movement, spirituality, creativity

In their introduction to a volume of essays entitled Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture, Estrelda Alexander and Amos Yong state that the phenomenon of Afro-Pentecostalism runs in several currents within the black church, that is, the body of pre- dominantly African American denominations and congregations.1 One of

1 Estrelda Y. Alexander and Amos Yong, “Introduction — Black Tongues of Fire: Afro-Pente- costalism’s Shifting Strategies and Changing Discourses,” in Amos Yong and Estrelda Y. Alexan- der, eds., Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 3-4. Yong and Alexander identify four types of Afro-Pentecostal groups: (1) Wesleyan-Holiness Trinitarian Pentecostals such as the Church of God in Christ, the Mount Sinai Holy Church, the Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God, and the United Holy Church; (2) Apostolic or Oneness ( Jesus’s name or Jesus only) groups such as the

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Afro-Pentecostalism’s streams is neo-Pentecostal.2 This neo-Pentecostal stream, along with other spiritual currents, has significantly impacted African American religious practices and as a result has also become a focus in the academic study of African American religions. Afro-Pentecostalism has not only changed the way in which African Americans think and worship; it has produced scholars from within its movement and attracted the attention of other scholars in the academy to the study and application of insights from Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity. The works of black Pentecostal scholars such as Leonard Lovett, Estrelda Alexander, and David Daniels who are affili- ated with classical Pentecostal denominations are well recognized; however, less is known about the work of black Pentecostal scholars from denomina- tions rooted in different historical movements. One such Pentecostal scholar worthy of recognition is Barbara A. Holmes.

This review of Barbara Holmes’s work is divided into four parts. The first provides a brief account of Holmes’s pilgrimage to Pentecostalism. This account is based on the scant autobiographical material that appears in her books. In a forthcoming memoir now tentatively entitled Called: A Spiritual Journey, Holmes promises to disclose more about her life and spiritual journey.3 The second and third parts of the essay demonstrate the implications of Pentecostalism in Holmes’s focus on the themes of spirituality and creativ- ity. Though Holmes deals, more or less, with the themes of spirituality and

Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, and the Bible Way Church World Wide; (3) Charismatic independent congregations and networks such as the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International and the numerous Word-of-Faith congregations and denominations; and (4) neo-Pentecostal and Charismatic movements within the historic black denominations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and many predominantly black congregations within white denominations that are adopting Pentecostal worship but not Pentecostal theology. For a comprehensive treatment of the histories and doctrinal teachings of the denominations, networks, and large congregations described in the above types, see Estrelda Y. Alexander’s Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011).

2 Neo-Pentecostalism encompasses “those persons and congregations who have embraced Pentecostal worship styles while remaining in their denominational structure within historically mainline denominations” (Alexander, Black Fire, 355). They may be found in Methodist (African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal, United Methodist), Baptist (National, Progressive, and Missionary), Disciples of Christ, and United Church of Christ denominations, or in megachurches that have left or enjoy a quasi-independent status with these denominations.

3 Barbara A. Holmes, e-mail message to author, May 15, 2012. Her memoir is finished but is not under contract with a publisher. Previously, Holmes announced the working title as Joyful Jour- ney: A Spiritual Memoir.

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creativity in each of her books, for purposes of illustration I will examine her Private Woman in Public Spaces and Joy Unspeakable for her treatment of spiri- tuality and, for her treatment of creativity, her Race and the Cosmos and Liberation and the Cosmos. I will analyze Holmes’s Dreaming, which achieves a greater integration of these themes, in both groupings. The fourth part of the essay suggests several points of dialogue for Afro-Pentecostals and others seek- ing to engage Holmes, and discusses the important contributions of Holmes’s work to theological studies in general and to Pentecostal Theology in particular. Here we also locate Holmes within the landscapes of black theology and Afro- Pentecostal Theology.

The Making of a Neo-Pentecostal Scholar

Barbara Holmes is an attorney and the recently appointed president of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in New Brighton, Minnesota. Formerly, she was professor of ethics and African American religious studies at Memphis Theological Seminary (MTS) in Memphis, Tennessee. From 2005 to 2010, she served as vice-president of academic affairs and dean of MTS. Holmes earned the Ph.D. in religion with a concentration in ethics from Vanderbilt University, the M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary, the J.D. from Mercer Univer- sity, the M.S. in education from Southern Connecticut State University, and the B.S. in sociology from the University of Connecticut.

Holmes began her work in theological education in 1998 after completing her doctoral study at Vanderbilt and after a practicing law in Atlanta, Dallas, and Miami. During her stays in Dallas and Miami, Holmes became, as she likes to describe it, deeply “immersed” in the Pentecostal movement. She became a member of and minister in the Latter Rain Apostolic Holiness Church.4 Though fundamentalist in its doctrine and highly emotive in its worship, Holmes came to regard the Latter Rain Church as mystical, spiritual, and a welcome relief from the very formal mainline church of her upbringing. Holmes credits her Gullah relatives in South Carolina for preparing her for the Latter Rain Church

4 The Latter Rain Apostolic Holiness Church is one of several independent congregations in the loose confederation of churches spawned by evangelist David Terrell’s Worldwide Revivals, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. A biography of Terrell and first-hand critical account of the inner workings of his tent revivals, healing services, and deliverance crusades are found in Donna M. Johnson’s Holy Ghost Girl: A Memoir (New York: Gotham Books, 2011).

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and what she would later find in other Pentecostal/Charismatic churches.5 For the first time in a Christian setting, she was witnessing forms of spirituality similar to that of her Gullah relatives, particularly the women on her father’s side of the family, who spoke to spirits (mainly deceased ancestors), shared stories of their dreams and visions, and prophesied with accuracy (Dreaming, 9-11, 63-67). At the Latter Rain Church, and later at the storefront Pentecostal church in Miami where she served as an assistant pastor; the worshipers too had dreams and visions, prophesied, and bore witness to a spiritual presence ( Joy Unspeakable, 97-99).

According to Holmes, this Pentecostal immersion helped her to clarify God’s calling upon her life and discern in which capacity she would return to the field of education. After graduation from college with her bachelor’s degree, she knew that she wanted to teach. She ventured into the study and practice of law and then later into pastoral ministry, but she never lost her desire to teach. In the Latter Rain Church, she heard God’s call in the praise, tongues, and groanings in the Holy Spirit that reconciled her faith in Christ to her Gullah heritage and, just as important, provoked her to commit totally to this call to theological education.

This immersion in Pentecostalism also enabled Holmes to renegotiate her place in the United Church of Christ (UCC), the denomination that she knew as her first “home.” She was reared in Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church in New Haven, Connecticut. Upon returning to the UCC, she was granted the privilege of call in the UCC. In the Disciples of Christ, sister denomination to the UCC, Holmes was granted ministerial standing. While in Memphis, she was a member of and minister at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, a pre- dominantly African American and Charismatic megachurch in Memphis, Ten- nessee. Holmes credits the Pentecostal church for reawakening her faith and providing her with a vibrant spirituality. She admits that her adult life has been spent mostly in Pentecostal/Charismatic churches (Dreaming, 38). The influence of Pentecostalism on Holmes’s scholarship is evident in her focus on spirituality and quest for a theology of creativity. In her scholarly writ- ings she does not address doctrinal issues in the Apostolic church, nor does she offer apology for the theology and doctrines of the UCC/Disciples of Christ. The spirituality that she assumes as a result of her immersion is not, according to Holmes, the unique property of Pentecostals or any other Christian group.

5 Holmes, e-mail message to author, May 15, 2012. The Gullah people are African Americans descended from the West Africans trafficked to the United States from the area known today as Sierra Leone.

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She believes that it is a spirituality that permeates all religions ( Joy Unspeak- able, 16-17, 113, 169). While at Memphis Theological Seminary, in addition to her course offerings in ethics she taught courses on contemplative practices (spiri- tual disciplines) and theology and the arts. Beyond the seminary, she has taught at the influential Sophia Center for Culture and Spirituality in Oakland, Califor- nia. Holmes joins the Sophia Center’s list of distinguished visiting scholars, among whom are John B. Cobb, John F. Haught, Ada Maria Isasi-Díaz, Sallie McFague, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Huston Smith, and Ursula King. In addi- tion, Holmes has served as the Contemplative-in-Residence and taught courses in the Program in Christian Spirituality at San Francisco Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian Church (USA) theological school.

Writing a Neo-Pentecostal Spirituality

Holmes’s A Private Woman in Public Spaces, Joy Unspeakable, and Dreaming deal with various aspects of spirituality. In A Private Woman in Public Spaces, Holmes examines the relation of spirituality to social justice in the life of Bar- bara Jordan. In Joy Unspeakable she examines the spirituality of the black church. In Dreaming she examines dreaming as a practice of faith.

A Private Woman in Public Spaces is “the first comprehensive analysis of [Barbara] Jordan’s written speeches from 1974 to 1995” (4). In 1972 Barbara Jor- dan (1936-1996) became the first African American woman to be elected to the United States Congress from the South. She served in the Congress from 1973 to 1978. According to Holmes, Jordan possessed a faith and spirituality that enabled her to transcend various forms of essentialism. For Jordan, what it means to be a human being is never captured fully by focus on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or disability (20, 23, 58). Though black, female, and disabled, Jordan subscribed to a conception of self that became a basis for her resistance to identification with any one particular interest group. According to Jordan, in the encounter with God in the Holy Spirit, persons are fortified in faith and develop a capacity of openness to one another (55, 74). The Spirit further opens persons to greater possibilities and a fuller life willed by God. Jordan describes the church, this fellowship of persons in the Spirit, as a non- partisan advocate of the common good that represents the voice of God to the wider community (82, 87). For Jordan, the U.S. Constitution is a model and promise of justice compatible with biblical conceptions of morality, freedom, justice, and a glorious future (94-101). Spiritual persons, amounting to a virtu- ous citizenry, must be involved in the public square in order to move social

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processes and government into harmony with God’s will (56). Though Jordan is Baptist, Holmes finds her to be an excellent choice for a study on faith and civic involvement. In Joy Unspeakable, Holmes says that Jordan, a concerned Christian but nonprofessional religious leader, represents the ordinary person speaking truth to power in oppressive situations (vi). Through Jordan, Holmes forms a link between spirituality, ethics, and social justice.

In Joy Unspeakable, Holmes defines contemplation variously as “the shared experiences of holy abiding,” “meditation,” “that which moves a congregation towards listening and communion with God,” and “spiritual centering in the midst of danger” (17, 25, 42, 69). According to Holmes, contemplation deepens consciousness, a person’s sense of self, and awareness of the self in relation to God and others. The contemplative practices in the black church are dance, play, mourners’ bench, baptism by water and the Holy Spirit, ecstatic heartfelt singing, and prayer (100-112). With regard to play, Holmes refers to children’s participation in worship and their imitation of adult worshipers. Children’s play communicates ideas about worship and enables children, at their level of understanding, to encounter God. By mourner’s bench she refers to rituals for conversion. In the black church sinners encounter God at the mourner’s bench. In many congregations the encounter can take place anywhere in the sanctu- ary, but it occurs most frequently at the altar or a center visible to all worship participants. In black Pentecostal churches these contemplative practices are present and, in some instances, intensified in praise, shouting, “holy dance,” and tarrying or “shut-ins” for union with God and baptism in the Holy Spirit (98-99, 110-11). Lamenting the emptiness in worship in an increasing number of African American churches, Holmes proposes a new model of worship that shifts from inordinate focus on the pastor to the responsibility of all worshipers who comprise the congregation. She suggests that this shift may be achieved by doing three things: having guided meditation led by a different worship leader each time the congregation gathers for worship; designing rituals to address specific problems, such as sickness, grief, job loss, divorce, or invoca- tion of the Holy Spirit; and using creative and performing arts, such as mime, liturgical dance, poetry, and visual art (116-17). Construed in this way, worship achieves union with God and inspires persons to action (30-31).

In Dreaming, Holmes defines dreams as alternative states of consciousness that form routes for the subconscious, namely, the divine and ancestor spirits, to enter the conscious mind (2, 4, 27). While she shares several of her personal stories of dreaming, she also reviews scientific studies of dreaming and exam- ines dreaming in various cultures and even in the stories from the Bible. Holmes connects both her dreams and studies of the phenomenon of dreaming

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to Pentecostal belief and worship and notes that contemporary dream groups, in which persons meet to report, share, and interpret their dreams, resemble small churches (36-38). According to Holmes, in both the small storefront churches and large megachurches, Pentecostals express their faith personally and emotionally and all within a community that values dreaming (38-39). Pentecostal worship forms a “sacred space” in which the world is turned upside down in that what is regarded as the fringe becomes the center and that which is extraordinary becomes commonplace. Pentecostals envision a world in which God’s power is available for personal and social transformation. Holmes believes that reality is “layered, mysterious, thick, and opaque” with the Holy emerging easily and often surprisingly in our waking and dream states (41). Without discussion of the doctrinal issues surrounding Montanism, Holmes depicts the church’s persecution of Montanists as basically a disdain for dream- inspired prophecy (58). She insists that in addition to miracles and healing, the church must acknowledge dreams as the work of the Spirit and as manifesta- tions accompanying the proclamation of the gospel (59).

Quest for a Theology of Creativity

Holmes interprets the Spirit in terms of creativity. In her courses on theology and the arts at Memphis Theological Seminary, she treated art as a form of spiritual discipline. In this course, she guided students in their incorporation of theological reflection in the art that they produce for expressing life’s ultimate concerns. Her published works are expressions of this spiritual discipline and creativity. Holmes’s Race and the Cosmos and Liberation and the Cosmos dem- onstrate clearly her creativity in approaching ethical and theological topics. In Dreaming, she brands dreams as a source for human creativity.

In Race and the Cosmos, Holmes ponders the idea that solutions to social problems are linked to the discernment of physical reality through the natural sciences. Her thesis is that the quest for justice is social, theological, and scien- tific (55). Her aim is to highlight the scientific dimension of justice by utilizing metaphors from quantum physics and cosmology that enable the imagination of new outlooks on race and racism (10). For example, she names dark matter (antimatter that is as important and powerful as matter and light) and omni- centricity (the existence of multiple and equally important centers of activity) as symbols that imply that persons, especially minorities, ought to play a vital role in society (105-6, 110). No group of people is marginal and thereby barred from social mobility and progress. Holmes cites limited perspective as a chief

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cause for the deficiencies in our policies on race and majority-minority rela- tions (160-61) and argues that we need a plurality of perspectives in order to deal successfully with issues of race as well as other social problems. A cosmo- logical view, informed by the natural sciences, gives us this broader outlook whereby the claims of numerous groups are measured against factual claims about the physical world, the matrix and womb for all human beings. If theol- ogy is influenced primarily by context, then, states Holmes, the cosmos repre- sents the largest and ultimate context for theological reflection. In Holmes’s “read” of modern science, diversity and harmony are fundamental features of the universe and “all of humankind in all of its diversity — gay, straight, female, disabled — [must] match the harmonies of an equally diverse cosmos” (158). Injustice is a false order, an anomaly and aberration (168). In contrast, our quest to live harmoniously and strive for justice is part of the universe’s own quest to maintain order (173).

In Liberation and the Cosmos, using cosmology as a “friendly reference point” and context for scrutinizing all perspectives, Holmes develops a conversation between several historical figures, the “elders,” in the style of a Platonic dia- logue. The main topic connecting the separate dialogues is liberation, which Holmes defines as freedom, namely, the ability and condition necessary for human fulfillment and flourishing in the cosmos (xi, 12-15, 18-19). The elders in discussion are: Barbara Jordan and Thurgood Marshall in chapter 3, in conver- sation about law, politics, and freedom in light of the science of indeterminism (quantum physics); Rosa Parks and Howard Thurman in chapter 4, in conver- sation about contemplative practices and the role of the Holy Spirit in an age of materialism and scientific findings about the presence and power of dark matter and dark energy in the universe; Malcolm X and Harriet Tubman in chapter 5, in conversation about resistance and community in light of the meaning of wholeness in cosmology; Audre Lorde, Fannie Lou Hamer, and George Washington Carver in chapter 6, in conversation about faith, health, and well-being in light of the meanings of embodiment and holism; Ida B. Wells, Huey P. Newton, and Stanley “Tookie” Williams in chapter 7, in conver- sation about state violence and random violence in light of chaos theory and theories of cosmic harmony; Tupac Shakur, Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, and Gwendolyn Brooks in chapter 8, in conversation about creativity and imagination in the human struggle for freedom; and Martin Luther King, Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, W.E.B. DuBois, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Shirley Chisholm in chapter 9, in conversation about the future in light of possible scenarios of the fate of the universe in cosmology. In chapter two, Holmes briefly introduces Albert Einstein into the conversation between herself and the character Sarah

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that explores the idea of grounding the concept of liberation (freedom) within cosmology. Sarah, a martyr for freedom, is the heroine of the dialogues (7). Appearing in the conclusions of chapters 3 through 9, Sarah prevails in her conversations with the elders. The concluding chapter 10 is a dialogue between Holmes and Sarah. Though Holmes attributes several statements to the “elders” in the dialogues, Liberation and the Cosmos is not purely fiction. The imagined conversations are supported by research and documentation.

Holmes’s Dreaming is a volume in Fortress Press’s Compass Series on Chris- tian Exploration of Daily Living. Like most authors in the series, Holmes par- ticipates in the Workgroup for Constructive Theology.6 The aim of the authors in this series is to reflect theologically, without application of classical doc- trines, on ordinary routines such as eating, dreaming, playing, working, parent- ing, shopping, and traveling (vii, ix). They seek to find in ordinary, everyday activity sites for the expression of Christian faith.

In Dreaming, Holmes argues that dreams are a source of creativity and that they profoundly impact life. Through dreams, persons briefly transcend the limits of body, mind, and circumstance (20). Dreams unlock creative potential (22-23). This creative potential is not for individual self-transcendence only, however. According to Holmes, dreaming occurs in social and political con- texts. She points to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech as a good example of dreaming in the public square (82, 84-86). King described his view of a desegregated and fully integrated American society as a dream. King’s dream was political rhetoric that stirred the moral conscience of numerous Americans and summoned them to decisive action toward greater realization of the nation’s democratic ideals. Holmes states that though not every political dream has to be like King’s, there should be more persons who will offer dreams that voice the hopes of their communities, the human desire for justice, and longings for a better future for all humankind (91).

6 The Workgroup for Constructive Theology is an independent ecumenical association of sys- tematic and constructive theologians based at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. The workgroup has produced the following widely used theology textbooks: Peter C. Hodgson and Robert H. King, eds., Christian Theology: An Introduction to Its Traditions and Tasks, 3rd ed. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994); Peter C. Hodgson and Robert H. King, eds., Read- ings in Christian Theology (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1985); Rebecca S. Chopp and Mark Lewis Taylor, eds., Reconstructing Christian Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1994); and Serene Jones and Paul Lakeland, eds., Constructive Theology: A Contemporary Approach to Classical Themes (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2005).

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Holmes among the Black Theologians and Afro-Pentecostal Scholars

Barbara Holmes is betwixt and between, standing in the middle of the black theologians and Afro-Pentecostal scholars. She is right of most black theolo- gians and left of most Afro-Pentecostal scholars. On the right, she deals with spirituality, which is rarely explored in black liberation theology. On the left, she disassociates spirituality from the doctrinal concerns addressed in Pente- costal studies.

Still, there is fertile ground for Pentecostal scholars’ engagement with Hol- mes’s scholarship. There are five areas of possible engagement. First is the topic of pneumatology. In Holmes’s works, she states and assumes several views on the Spirit and the manifestation and work of the Holy Spirit. Second, there is the relation of pneumatology to creativity. Holmes’s emphasis on and interpre- tation of creativity in human life and theological studies rests principally on pneumatology. Third, there is the relation of spirituality to social justice and social activism. Fourth, there is the relation of Pentecostal theology to ethnic studies. Holmes addresses, although from different points of view, matters taken up in black and womanist theologies. In her conversation with black and womanist theologians, she seeks new ways of interpreting identity. Lastly, there is the topic of the role of women in ministry and church and community leadership.

Holmes makes several important contributions to theological studies in general and to Pentecostal Theology in particular. One of these is in the area of methodology. Her works demonstrate the use of creativity and imagination in ethics and theology, and she proposes several new ideas. As one of the few African American theologians involved in the religion and science dialogue, she has proposed the idea of using cosmology as a reference point between conflicting perspectives and for construction of individual and social identity. She has introduced the use of creative writing, in the style of the Platonic dia- logue, in black and womanist theology. Black womanists have long advocated literature as a source of theology. They have not utilized, to the extent that Holmes has done, the techniques of narrative and creative writing found in black literature.

A second contribution is Holmes’s relation of Pentecostalism to a pervasive spirituality in human beings, Christian and non-Christian, and thus the sugges- tion that life in the Spirit is not restricted to its theological interpretation in the Church. In her scholarship she moves Pentecostalism as well as other forms of religious expression from the margins to the center of academic study, argu- ing that the spirituality of the great religions — that is, those appreciated by

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scholars — is not unlike the forms of expression in Pentecostal/Charismatic churches and the folk religions of various peoples of the world. Though Holmes’s claim is similar to Harvey Cox’s assertion that Pentecostalism is pri- mal spirituality, Holmes’s association of Pentecostalism with basic human reli- giosity is developed from her interpretation of Graham Harvey’s studies of indigenous religions and Howard Thurman’s construal of mystical experience. A third contribution follows from Holmes’s quest and advocacy for personal identity and sense of community beyond existing polarized classifications in American society. It may be that the influence of Pentecostal spiritual egali- tarianism motivates her use of quantum physics and scientific cosmology for constructions of race, ethnicity, gender, and class within a just order that affirms the dignity and worth of all persons.

Fourth, Holmes develops a “politics of truth” in religious and theological studies. Following the trends in the humanities, religious and theological stud- ies are fractured by social identities. Although the focus on the various social locations for theological reflection has enriched religious and theological stud- ies, with the increasing fixation on social identity, scholars rarely engage in conversations about the nature of their disciplines and issues beyond their political identities. Holmes has attempted to move beyond the “politics of identity.” Seeking to view human identity and issues of social justice in the wid- est possible context, which is cosmic rather than national or global, she links the solutions to social problems with efforts to understand the universe. This essay has shown that Pentecostalism’s influence is evident in Barbara Holmes’s selection and treatment of spirituality and creativity as the foci of her scholarship. In addition to the development of these themes in Holmes’s pub- lished works, Pentecostalism seems also to inform her vision of the future of theological education. In Holmes’s new role as seminary president, she imag- ines persons transcending boundaries of various kinds (social, political, geo- graphical, and doctrinal) in order to develop new approaches for ministry in the twenty-first century, particularly over the next four decades.7 Holmes contends that ministers for this coming new age must be innovators and reviv- alists who proclaim compassionately and persuasively the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Her vision is similar to that of early Pentecostal trendset- ters who foresaw and confronted the world’s destiny with the Holy Spirit’s

7 “Meet the Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Holmes, the New President of United” [Video File], retrieved from http://youtube.com/watch?v=UoLyeSPN_sk&feature=plcp (last accessed August 31, 2012).

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gifts of a supreme model of human community and power for end-time living and evangelism.

Bibliography

Barbara A. Holmes, A Private Woman in Public Spaces: Barbara Jordan’s Speeches on Ethics, Public

Religion, and Law (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000). xii + 162 pp., $32.95,

paper.

———, Race and the Cosmos: An Invitation to View the World Differently (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity

Press International, 2002). xvii + 188 pp., $26.95, paper.

———, Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress

Press, 2004). xi + 212 pp., $24.00, paper.

———, Liberation and the Cosmos: Conversations with the Elders (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress

Press, 2004). xiii + 208 pp., $20.00, paper.

———, Dreaming (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012). xii + 104 pp., $15.00, paper.

Neo Pentecostal Spirituality And Theology Of Creativity In The Work Of Barbara A. Holmes

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