My friend Michael Buban has written a good introductory essay on the disease of anti-intellectualism within the Pentecostal movement. Pentecostals could definitely learn from it. I believe that our hope is for a future of intellectualist Pentecostalism. We chose to be intellectualists, while remaining within the Pentecostal sphere.
Michael Buban writes:
"The problem I can see was the debilitating triumphalistic incompetence of those who advocated their ill-preparedness to teach by false dualistic distinction between spiritual and intellectual life and by neglecting intellectual needs of the potential church leaders with constant reference to the imminent Parousia."
As alternative he offers post-anti-intellectual Pentecostalism, which he defines as:
"Pentecostalism that has consciously and critically overcome it’s anti-intellectualism while remaining faithful to the basic tenets of the Pentecostal faith."
That being said, I would say that while the critique of Pentecostal anti-intellectualism and the offering of post-anti-intellectual Pentecostalism as an alternative, found on pages 1 (from “The Classical Pentecostal Anti-Intellectualism” onwards) to page 11 (the last paragraph excluded), will certainly prove useful to classical Pentecostal readers, from the bottom of page 11 (the last paragraph) onwards the essay gets wordy and the author starts to use too many difficult terms. It sounds as if the author tries to come across as being highly intelligent while hindering the reader’s comprehension and losing his interest in the author’s paper. (Knowing the author personally, I am quite certain that that was not the author’s intent.) His introduction feels as if he added it to his essay after his essay was finished. It does not add anything useful to the essay.
To get the most out of this paper, read from page 1 (from “The Classical Pentecostal Anti-Intellectualism” onwards) to page 11 (the last paragraph excluded). Then you can decide whether or not you want to read also the following part which I consider as a less qualitative appendix.
You can read his essay here.
Be sure to check out his website.
Michael Buban
crosstheology.wordpress.com 