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This raises a second question: What criteria should we use for discerning the Spirit's work in non-Christian movements? Yong hesitates to elevate Jesus Christ to exclusive status for such discernment. For him, "signs of the kingdom," such as personal and social transformation in love, might serve as such tools. The Spirit might be active, then, wherever the kingdom of God is being advanced, whether or not Jesus Christ is central to the religious messages and practices. But can Christians ever separate the person of Jesus Christ from the kingdom of God? That seems problematic and will raise doubts in many Christians' minds about Yong's project.

Meanwhile, Yong's fellow Pentecostals might wonder about his apparent discomfort with the traditional distinctions between the natural and the supernatural. He suggests, for example, that the gifts of the Spirit might be enhanced natural abilities, or at least connected to the natural world. For Yong, the Spirit should not be limited to the supernatural, so even the process of discerning the Spirit's work can be enhanced by sociological and anthropological research. In contrast, traditional Pentecostals (and most non-Western pentecostals) believe that discernment, like the other spiritual gifts mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12, is supernatural and not an exercise of scientific investigation.

Yong will need to draw together some of these threads and nail down exactly where he stands, especially on whether world religions reveal God truly and mediate salvation. His openness to non-Western cultures, including religions, is laudable, but the doors he opens—however inadvertently—to syncretism and pluralism will haunt the credibility of his work.

In the meantime, Yong is proving to be a cutting-edge Pentecostal scholar, whose non-Western perspective is offering fresh ways of looking at old theological problems.

Roger E. Olson is professor of theology at Baylor University's Truett Seminary.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Amos Yong's books, Spirit-Word-Community, Beyond the Impasse, and The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh, are available from Christianbook.com, Amazon.com, and other book retailers.

Our full coverage of Pentecostalism on the 100th anniversary of the Azusa Street revival includes:

Africa's Azusa Street | East Africa has experienced Pentecost continually for nearly 80 years.

Stepping to Success | One reason Without Walls is one of the country's fastest-growing Pentecostal congregations.

Pentecostals: The Sequel | What will it take for this world phenomenon to stay vibrant for another 100 years?

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March 2006, Vol. 50, No. 3