Jonathan Abdalla received his B.A. in Philosophy from Rice University in January, 2000, and his M.A. in Philosophy from Baylor University in August, 2001. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy at Rice University.
Personal Projects
Scholars Engaging Apostolic Doctrine (SEAD) is a group of academic believers who are interested in an honest conservation with modern Apostolic teachings, evaluating them philosophically, theologically, and historically so as to render them more consistent, more coherent, and more Biblical.
Saving Pentecost … from the religious right, from anti- intellectualism, from fundamentalism. Full realization of the power of Pentecost and the New Testament lifestyle can occur only if we build on Biblical foundations.
The Spirit-Examined Life and the self-examined life are both worth living. When our rational faculties have been exhausted, we must turn to the Spirit to reveal the biases, prejudices, and presuppositions that deter us from exemplifying the lifestyle Jesus Christ lived and taught.
National Campaigns
The America We Believe In does not torture people, does not run secret prisons, would shut down Guantanamo Bay, and leads the world on human rights. The reigning American civil religion reduces patriotism to mindless conformity. If our Christianity is to claim any Biblical foundation, though, we must reject the so-called “war on terror” as an offense against the teachings of Jesus Christ. Sign the pledge today!
One: The Campaign to Make Poverty History. We believe that in the best American tradition of helping others help themselves, now is the time to join with other countries in a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty … we commit ourselves – one person, one voice, one vote at a time – to make a better, safer world for all. Sign the declaration now!
Academic Works in Progress
“Varieties of Oneness Pentecostalism” – Though many spokespersons for Oneness Pentecostalism claim a widespread agreement among its adherents in regard to the doctrine of God, careful attention to the works of the tradition’s theologians reveals otherwise. This theological essay will delineate the various theses those authors offer to explain the nature of God, critically assess their strengths and weaknesses, and situate them in the context of the larger Christian theological tradition.
“Degrading the Soul: The Resurgence of Hatred in American Evangelicalism” – Even a casual observer of the recent political rhetoric of American evangelicals cannot help but be struck by its hate-filled language. Though Jesus Christ said that believers are to love and evangelize their enemies, most evangelicals find it easier to demean and castigate them. This theological essay juxtaposes the actual words of Christian leaders and politicians such as James Dobson and Newt Gingrich with the teachings of Jesus Christ. It goes on to argue that Anne Lamott is correct when she remarks: “You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” It then explores the wisdom of Booker T. Washington’s remark: “I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.” As is already beeing seen among the Pentecostal movement, attempting to combine xenophobic and racist political views with the New Testament message of grace results only in the forfeiting of that grace.
Academic Works in Planning
The Nature of the Christian God – This work of philosophical theology will examine in detail the strengths and weaknesses of the Christian tradition in its approach to the doctrine of the nature of God. Building on contemporary research by a number of scholars, the work will critically assess the dominant theories offered to explain the nature of God. It will then offer an original theory that while differing strikingly with components of the tradition will nonetheless champion the motives directing the tradition and beautifully express its aims.
Transcending Fundamentalism: A Prolegomena to a Pentecostal Systematics - This work of philosophical theology maps the conceptual scheme that constitutes the doctrines of Oneness Pentecostalism and Apostolicism, drawing out the philosophical and theological assumptions and presuppositions that foundation those doctrines. After carefully noting the inconsistencies and incoherence of that conceptual scheme, it weighs which assumptions and presuppositions are Biblical and therefore worthy of retention. The remaining assumptions and presuppositions – that must be rejected to gain doctrinal consistency and coherence – are found to be fundamentalist in nature, among them dispensationalist hermeneutics and geo-political eschatology. The work then suggests a non-fundamentalist framework within which the Biblical assumptions and presuppositions can be situated, preparing the way for Oneness Pentecostal systematic theologies to be written.
Popular Works in Progress
Raising New Testament Children in an Old Testament World – The first part of this work examines the critical tension modern Apostolicism faces between its literalist reading of the Old Testament and its desire to affirm Christ’s teachings in the New Testament. This tension is most clearly seen in the way that a literalist reading of the Old Testament glorifies violence and underwrites the contemporary enthrallment with militarism that has engulfed much of the Church. The second part of the work consists of a series of family devotions that teach New Testament moral principles and renounce the violence that the literalist approach champions. These devotions are being developed as we attempt to teach our own children to be New Testament believers in an American church and society that deny it in favor of a political misreading of the Old Testament.
Democratic Families and Republican Churches – Most popular assessments of Pentecostalism locate it squarely within the far right of the Christian fundamentalist movement. While granting the correctness of that observation, this polemically titled work argues that there is no theological demand within the Pentecostal tradition for such an extreme political ideology. By looking to the history of the tradition and to the commitments of its major theologians, the work offers a compelling argument that the tradition should instead relinquish that ideology if it desires to act consistently with the doctrinal views it espouses. Acknowledging that many church leaders have chosen to reject such arguments, the work goes on to give much practical advice to believers who champion the positive components of the Pentecostal tradition and desire to remain within it despite its stubborn clinging to extreme political ideologies.
Recommended Books
- Mark Lilla, The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (Reviews – NYT)
- Jim Wallis, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It
- Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
- Garry Wills, Head and Heart: American Christianities
- Ronald Brownstein, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America (Reviews – NYT)
