Theology As Revisionary Metaphysics PDF Download

"Insofar as Christian theology aims to make truth claims about the nature of reality, it is necessarily involved in the enterprise of metaphysics. Pentecostals, precisely as Christians, are thus obliged to participate. In this study, Robles begins by showing that few explicit, developed, and systematic attempts have been made to construct a metaphysical vision from a pentecostal perspective. Through exploring those few attempts, it becomes evident that pentecostals aim to participate in the metaphysical discipline in the same way they theologize-that is, informed by the norms, practices, and speech acts that constitute their spirituality. Robles follows this proclivity and aim to construct a metaphysics that is at once attuned to pentecostal spirituality/theology, and deeply connected to the classical tradition of Christian metaphysics. James K.A. Smith's five elements of a pentecostal worldview provide helpful categories to accomplish this. By first sketching what pentecostal theologians have constructed within Smith's categories, what gets revealed is the tendency of said theologians to theologize from an idealized pentecostal spirituality that can no longer be assumed to be widely practiced. Indeed, Robles discovers that current popular forms of pentecostal spirituality are obstructing our ability to: (1) faithfully worship the triune God, and thus (2) coherently understand reality in relation to him in the way classical Christian metaphysics has bequeathed to us. Robles subsequently constructs a pentecostal metaphysics-once again, utilizing Smith's categories-in conversation with the classical Christian tradition which leads to a call for (re)forming pentecostal praxis. Finally, Robles closes with a proposal for pentecostals to consider liturgical renewal so that our spirituality might work with the grain of a faithful understanding of the God-world relation"--