Interpreting Charismatic Experience

Interpreting Charismatic Experience
By David Middlemiss
SCM Press Ltd. 278 pages.
ISBN 0 334 02652 0

The central concern of this book is: 'If a person claims to have encountered God in his or her experience, how can one tell if this is what has really occurred?'
The author gave up his 'Sunday job' as a Baptist minister to research the question and this book is the fruit of that research. He begins by linking the contemporary charismatic movement with the 'enthusiast' movements of the 17th and 18th centuries. The term 'enthusiast' is used in the sense defined by R.A. Knox in Enthusiasm: a chapter in the history of religion, 1950, which is characterised by the supernatural being an expected part of everyday life, a desire to be holy, a subjective emphasis in worship, a heightened expectation of the parousia, experiences of ecstasy.
The problem, according to Middlemiss, is that historically it has always inspired fierce opposition because of its two-tier concept of spirituality, its reaction against the institutional, its dramatic form of worship with its associated phenomena and that revelation and truth are considered to be primarily subjective.
The author describes how not to interpret charismatic experience by explaining how focusing on a single criterion such as healing, psychological well-being, wealth, peculiarity of experience or even success are ambiguous indicators. For example, during the New England Revival, the accepted sign that the Spirit was at work was not that a person was healed, but that they remained faithful through suffering until death. Again, the prophet Jeremiah's personality was especially shaped by God for the specific job to which he was called: his depression, physical illness and bitterness were a far cry from psychological well-being. A cumulative case is therefore advocated.
The cumulative case approach is especially helpful when encountering the problem of 'personal bias'. The claim to have had 'an experience of God' sometimes confuses the spiritual and the phenomenal: a supernatural explanation may be given although it may be but one explanatory theory. Edwards provides us with balance: 'Great effects on the body are no sure evidences that affections are spiritual' (The Religious Affections). In 1 John, we find a combination of factors to assess what is genuinely Christian which serves to illustrate that the theological framework of the Bible provides us with the necessary equipment to assess the experiences of life. We cannot treat reason as an optional extra: we need good theology.
This was a very helpful read. The author is sympathetic but critical of the charismatic movement and notes a warning in his conclusion: 'There are strong historical grounds to suppose that if it does not sift ruthlessly its claims and experiences, then it will be destroyed by being pulled into confusion.' (p.237). My one criticism is that the author may have overstated his case by appealing for a natural/scientific explanation prior, and sometimes in preference, to a supernatural one. What was of particular value was the referral to historic movements and their interpretation by theologians. The saying that 'history repeats itself when no-one listens' means that we are to take heed of the writings of the great minds of the past. If church history is repeating itself, then it is wise to ask the question: 'Why?' Has the church become over-rational so that it has downplayed God's activity? Is the current charismatic wave merely a reaction against a logical, rational approach to God (a dissatisfaction with the present) which subjugates reason in favour of experience (chapter 3, p.62), or a true movement of God's Spirit to return us to biblical Christianity? The contribution from Middlemiss enables us to shave some hairy theology and so to 'test everything, hold fast to what is good'.

Interpreting Charismatic Experience

Paul Kingman

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