In The Theology of Amos Yong, an inspired group of authors have interpreted his

hermeneutic. Most succinctly, in essence, what they have proposed is that Yong's leit motif
suggests that pneumatology models phenomenology. For Yong, it appears, this is really the
very same premise as John Polkinghorne's epistemology models ontology. Yong's extensive
oeuvre suggests that the amplified epistemic risks that are entailed in taking this pneumatological
turn,epistemologically, are warranted by the augmented values to be realized, axiologically.

This is no vulgar pragmatism but is, instead, grounded in a fallibilist realism, one that requires a
rather rigorous discernment process. The major thesis is that a pneumatological imagination can
better engage science, religion, philosophy and culture, mining those resources and bringing
their gifts - not anxiously, but - urgently, to a world in need. In discerning the truth, then, we
journey - not always directly, but - inexorably, guided - not always by the robustly truth-conducive,
but, rather - by the weakly truth-indicative, overcoming such weaknesses by sharing our success
stories and, as a discerning eye must surely see, the greatest story ever told ... Alas, I'm getting
ahead of myself.

All of our great traditions have success stories, real triumphs, but no too few tragedies, as the
voices of prophetic protest have self-critically proclaimed. In the densest prose, we are
suggesting an epistemological leveraging of the pneumatological imagination toward
theeucharistic realization of reality's donative nature.

We are suggesting that the anthropo-phenomenological and practically & speculatively

theological are mediated by the epistemo-methodological to effect the axiological.

Not to worry ... In a more engaging poetic fugue, we are merely suggesting that truth and unity
are mediated by goodness to effect beauty!

Philosophically, Yong's peircean formula recognizes that the descriptive and interpretive are
mediated by the normative to effect the evaluative, as the actual and possible are mediated by
the probable to effect the desirable. This represents an optimistic theological anthropology, but a
cautious optimism. This also represents an epistemic humility that retreats from the apodictic
metaphysical certainty that once asserted that the actual and possible are mediated by the
necessaryto effect the mandatory. To the extent that epistemology does model ontology, then,
this also suggests a retreat from an ontological specificity into a vagueness, perhaps reflecting,
also, a theological reality, a self-shrinking Creator making room for a creation, introducing a
creaturely freedom, gently coaxing reality through a tacit, telic dimension that, however
unobtrusive and ineluctable, is utterly efficacious. One master root metaphor for God's creative
act of shrinking in the service of freedom toward the end of authentic love might be replication
variation. This dynamic would account for vagueness as reality presents in degrees, as a moving
target.

Neither a mistake nor a felix culpa, a pervasively emergent reality harnesses what we needn't
necessarily interpret as imperfections but might otherwise view through a telic lens as something
else or novelty or re-creation. Science recognizes such downward causationswith no apparent
violations of physical causal closure via its own paradigms of emergence. Semiotic science
recognizes creative ambiguities as we harness metaphors and symbols (semiotic replication
variations) in the service of ever deeper meanings. Biological sciences recognize the adaptive
significance of mutations (genetic replication variations) in the service of the ever greater
ontological densities we encounter through evolution. Religion employs its analogical
imagination to envision a transcendent hierarchy that might envelop physical reality, influencing
it similarly. Theological science, indeed, recognizes an imago Dei, creation's incarnational
replication variation, in the service of love.

This replication variation fugue pervades reality and countless examples could be provided all
the way up and down the Great Chain of Being with obvious neoplatonic implications for the
analogically imaginative and co-creative implications for the pneumatologically imaginative.
When I first floated my Theology of God's Mistakesas a metanarrative to Amos, a few years ago,
he intuited what I was driving at, one felix culpa after another being, what I like to call, Roman-
Eighted(all things working together for the good). Amos rightly observed, however, that
adjectivally coupling the words mistakes and God was untenable (politically, for sure,
theologically requiring way too much nuance). So, sticking with the intuition, I came up with
replication variationand leave each such occasion in reality to be discerned as felix or culpa or
both. Through this emergence metanarrative, ongoing description and interpretation are
mediated, normatively, by reality's gentle coaxings (and harsh shoves) to effect, bring to
realization, what we value. That's a scientific observation as well as a philosophical method and
theological stance, all with enormous socioeconomic-politico-cultural implications.

Let's explore some examples.

Yong: the word and community are mediated by the spirit to effect love Pentecostal: glossolalia
and gathering are mediated by baptism in the spirit to effect the gifts of the spirit

Eucharistic: reality's gifted-givens and thanksgiving to the giver are mediated by receiving to
effect the gifts

Theological Anthropology: the anthropo-phenomenological (gifted-givens) and theological

(thanksgiving re: practical theology and giver re: speculative theology) are mediated by the
epistemo-methodological (receiving) to effect the axiological (gifts)

Religious: being-seeing (mysticism) and belonging (faith community) are mediated by behaving-
believing (responsivity to spirit) to effect desirings (oneness)

5-fold Christology: orientations and empowerments are mediated by sanctifications to effect

healings and salvation

Secular, implicitly & Sacred, explicitly: the historical-eschatological and social-ecclesiological

are mediated by the economical-pneumatological to effect the cultural-soteriological

The Great Traditions: creed and community are mediated by codifications to effect cult-ivations
Biblical Hermeneutics: the literal and allegorical are mediated by the tropological to effect the
anagogical

For me, this replication variation-emergent fugue is the key to deciphering and systematizing all
of Amos' work in all of the categories addressed in The Theology of Amos Yong and his body of
work. Each contributor to the volume got that, addressing it whether explicitly or implicitly, aware
or unawares.

One could write a LOT about MANY different things if one could grasp this fugue. The
Pentecostal community has always tasted this rubric. Now that this volume has fostered
itsseeing, we look forward to an explosion of Pentecostal scholarship, whether through formal
academic pursuits or informal coffee klatches. Apply this four-fold lens of how word and
community are mediated by spirit to yield reality's gifts in all the places we live and move and
enjoy our being, in science, religion, philosophy and culture. And then share your stories,
however simple or sublime, and this book will have accomplished its mission.

http://www.brill.com/theology-amos-yong-and-new-face-pentecostal-scholarship