Catharsis and Pentecostals

The acceptance and effort to provide a setting for people to engage in a cathartic experience has always been a part of every religion. We are emotional creatures bordering on spirit and require times when the trauma of our lives can be released. A cathartic moment can bring a sense of ecstasy and joy, it is a healing experience.

However, it would be an error to exclude God from engaging us in these times of enthusiasm that enable people to act out physically with crying, shaking, and even speaking in tongues (babbling). The practice of tongues (glossolalia) is not confined to Christianity but has been practiced in numerous religions.

The early Pentecostals learned to refine their preaching and worship in a manner that led to people feeling free to release their pain through exuberant and ecstatic worship. I would also say God’s spirit was there to aid them (the sincere) along the way, not merely show up to help after they had reached their cathartic state.

The appeal of this form of worship is particularly attractive to the poor who on a daily basis suffer the trauma of lack in a world of abundance. For this and other reasons pentecostalism has spread around the globe. On the one hand are wealthy ministries, on the other are storefront churches, and this dichotomy is a visible error on display.

In the present, the pentecostal movement needs to include a love for learning to think critically about their faith if they are to escape the extremes born of a cathartic environment. These extremes include the ugliness of preachers boasting in extreme wealth, the sad exploitation of the masses by healers, and the weakness of their theology. Exalting the concept of spirit filled (evidenced in glossolalia) to qualify themselves above other believers is exclusionary and not of the Spirit.

It is notable the church in Corinth both blessed Paul the Apostle and needed the most correction for their behavior. Paul the global denizen of intellectual thought for the Christian faith was essential for the church that loved a cathartic spirituality.

Pentecostalism is by its nature an enthusiastic expression of Christian faith. Enthusiasm is a deceptive friend that initially assures all is well but in group interactions, seldom is all well. Enthusiasm is a weak standard upon which to build your life. Pentecostals need to curb their enthusiasm with intellectual thought that goes beyond the momentary idealism of any group.