September 7 1998

ARTICLE TOOLS

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In recent months, meetings between evangelicals and Catholics to discuss social issues and the historic joint declaration between Catholics and Lutherans on the doctrine of justification (CT, Aug. 10, 1998, p. 26) have attracted much attention. Meanwhile, few have noticed a more than quarter-century-long discussion between Roman Catholics and Pentecostals, which has generated several surprising and significant documents.

"Within the Pentecostal tradition, and within the evangelical tradition, there's been a reticence to talk about dialogue with Roman Catholics," says Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., a Pentecostal who has participated in the International Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue since 1985. He presented a summary of the group's accomplishments to the pope last year.

Robeck, an ordained Assemblies of God minister and a church history and ecumenics professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, acknowledges that it is more common to hear charismatics talk about competition, or even open warfare, with Catholics, particularly in Latin America, where sometimes violent altercations with Catholics have accompanied the rapid growth of Pentecostalism.

Observers say that by 2005 Guatemala will have more Pentecostals than Roman Catholics. In the 30 years after that, Robeck says, half a dozen Latin American countries will have a Pentecostal majority. "We have the potential of a Northern Ireland throughout Latin America if we don't watch ourselves."

FOCUSING ON CENTRAL TRUTHS: But Catholic-Pentecostal dialogue is more than a regional matter, because the two groups are Christendom's largest blocs. According to researcher David Barrett, one-third of the world's 6 billion people are Christians. Roughly half of these believers—1 ...