Björkander offers a theology of Pentecostal worship based on case studies of two congregations in Nairobi with over 5,000 attendees (Mavuno Church, Bellevue; Christ is the Answer Ministries, Woodley). By ‘Pentecostal’, she means churches that are ‘Bible-based in narration, Kingdom-oriented in direction, Spirit-filled in expression, and Jesus-centered in passion’ (p. 10). One basic presupposition is that spirituality is a fundamental mode by which Pentecostals express theology – spirituality-as-theology, as Björkander calls it. A significant part of that spirituality is worship, and a significant part of that worship is music. Björkander correctly discerns and draws on the centrality of music for Pentecostal worship, even as she realises that worship is a way of life that cannot be reduced to music. Her focus rightly falls on the Sunday gathering as a significant context for worship, but the analysis includes more than the ordo of Pentecostal worship services. In addition, Björkander explores the importance of worship for both individual and communal flourishing, inasmuch as worship affects mental, emotional and physical well-being and establishes identity. The more theoretical portions are a reworking of the categories ‘orthodoxy’ (right belief), ‘orthopraxy’ (right actions) and ‘orthopathy’ (right affections) into Björkander’s framework of orthopraxis (ritualisation and liturgy), orthopathos (embodiment and affectivity), orthopistis (theologising and doctrine) and orthodoxa (right worship).
Combining empirical data gained through quantitative research with the theoretical analysis of qualitative research, the book has ritual-liturgical, emotional-embodied and doctrinal-theological components. The in-person fieldwork took place in 2013 and 2014. Although that research is now a little dated, those familiar with global Pentecostalism will recognise that the data continues to resonate with Pentecostal ethos in spite of the elapsed time. Furthermore, in a digital age, fieldwork is no longer limited to in-person avenues, and Björkander has maintained communication with congregants of Bellevue and Woodley and viewed their worship services through electronic means after 2014. Björkander herself also has deep roots in East and Central Africa. The volume ends somewhat abruptly with a conclusion only to the last chapter rather than one for the entire volume, although seven appendices soften this impact. Eight figures and thirteen tables also organise some of the data presented and give visualisation to some of the finer points articulated in prose.
There is much to praise here, and a few words that situate the book on the landscape of recent literature show the several fronts on which Björkander’s book advances. First, in the last couple of decades, those working in liturgical studies have begun to pay more attention to ritual studies – especially figures like Bell and Grimes – and think of their scholarship partially in light of it. Over a slightly shorter period of time, some Pentecostal thinkers have begun to turn to liturgical studies for its gains for Pentecostal theology. Björkander’s book lies at the intersection of all three: liturgical studies, ritual theory and Pentecostal theology. Second, roughly the same amount of time has seen an increased interest in fieldwork among Pentecostals and others for theological, not purely social-scientific, ends. The writings of Mark Cartledge have been exemplary, and one thinks also of Sarah Coakley’s God, Sexuality, and the Self (CUP, 2013). Besides providing theological insights from one of the epicentres of global Pentecostalism (Africa) that are worth knowing for their own sake, Björkander’s work, like these other studies, provides additional data for systematicians who wish to write constructive Pentecostal theology in conversation with grassroots beliefs and practices. Third, scholarship on Pentecostalism in Africa – pioneered for Anglophone scholars by Ogbu Kalu – has increased significantly over the last decade. Björkander’s contributions to these three fronts are much welcomed.
The book invites more reflection on several issues and can be helpful to those who pursue these issues. For example, the idea of spirituality-as-theology (i.e. the idea that belief is exhibited through worship rather than in discursive theological texts) is sometimes identified as a Pentecostal peculiarity. However, to some degree, all church traditions manifest their theological beliefs through their worship. Older church traditions have long known the adage, lex orandi, lex credendi, and their liturgical theologians have used the term ‘primary theology’ to describe the worship practices of ordinary people. This does not undermine the category spirituality-as-theology but rather bolsters it. There is potential gain, both liturgical and ecumenical, in greater understanding of the fact that even when church traditions have significant material differences in their worship and theology, there are still formal similarities in the respective constitutive relationships between worship and theology in the different churches. Steven J. Land (with whom Björkander interacts) hinted that primary theology is enough – that Pentecostalism at its best is an oral culture with little to no need for written theologies. Björkander’s book revives the question of whether primary theology is enough for Pentecostalism, and with it, whether any theological tradition can pass a core identity on to successive generations through primary theology alone.
The book also raises the issue of the viability for Pentecostals of the category ‘ritual’. Too often, Pentecostals treat the term as if it were profane. ‘Ritual’ is understood as ‘scripted’ and ‘rote’ and, therefore, antithetical to freedom in the Spirit in worship. While most Pentecostal intellectuals recognise the naiveté of such judgements, some Pentecostal thinkers have been slow to embrace the idea of ritual intentionally and fully. Björkander’s important analyses can help Pentecostals come to terms with the fact that rituals are part of the most fundamental structures of a stable life. Mundane activities like eating and drinking, rites of passage such as weddings and funerals and otherworldly events like glossolalia and mystical encounters are rituals of varying sorts and significances. Coming to see these things as rituals and not merely ‘special occasions’ would open Pentecostals up to a largely new cultural-linguistic world – ritual theory – by which to thematise their most cherished practices. Any careful observer can see that most worship settings have their own basic ordo that – although informal and implicit – is followed more times than not. Even in Pentecostal churches in which ‘deviations’ from the ordo are interpreted as signs of the Spirit’s moving, the audibles tend to come from a previously known playbook rather than being entirely new. Björkander’s detailed and complex evaluations can help Pentecostals put aside the quest for mythical libertas or novum and see that those who are most constrained by rote activities are in fact those who do not think that they have any ritual behaviours in the first place. Self-understanding is a crucial step towards the distance needed for critical evaluation and revision. With guidance from Björkander, Pentecostals can better reflect on the fact that spontaneity and newness are not prerequisites for the Spirit’s transformation. Indeed, to try to make them prerequisites is itself to try to place a constraint on the Spirit’s reign.
There is something in Björkander’s book for everyone. In addition to specialists in Pentecostal studies, various portions of the book will benefit practical theologians, social scientists, musicologists, systematicians and missiologists. The fact that Björkander can bring together all of these fields of discourse in a clear and coherent fashion is a testament to the book’s sophistication and value.
