Abstract

This chapter argues that Pentecostal theology should draw more deeply on philosophy as a resource in order to make sense of Pentecostalism’s own distinctiveness. In order to make this case, Simmons offers a philosophical, and specifically phenomenological, reading of Pentecostal spirituality defined in terms of an affective pneumatology. Suggesting that a distinctive characteristic of Pentecostal spirituality is its stress on the role of affect in Christian life, Simmons contends that Pentecostal theology and philosophy should both be productively thought of primarily developing an existentially oriented pneumatological orthopathy. By working through Pentecostal phenomenology, epistemology, hermeneutics, and ethics in light of this orthopathy, Simmons contends that philosophy can be a profound resource for Pentecostal theology, but also that Pentecostal philosophy can perhaps best understood as affectively concerned philosophical work attending to the religious dynamics of embodied life.