As the story goes, Esau returned from a hard day of hunting, ravenous. Jacob just happened to be cooking up some “red stuff” (Genesis 25:30 NRSV). I suppose when you’re hungry, red stuff looks appetizing! Jacob, the scoundrel that he was, sold his elder brother the red stuff for the low cost of his birthright. Since then, selling your birthright has become a metaphor for exchanging something of value for the transient or temporary.

Have Christians traded in the enchanted worldview of the Bible for a mess of Enlightenment rationalism and historical-critical method? Why have Pentecostals followed suit? With the resources of Pentecost at hand, we can imagine better! Let me share a lengthy quote that underscores the last sentence while demonstrating the power of Cheryl Bridges Johns’ prose:

In Pentecost, people are not seized by a transcendent realm and forced into a way of being in which they have lost control. Neither is Pentecostal a space of tight ritual. Rather, in Pentecost the transcendent and the immanent co-inhere, inviting human participation and improvisation. In the space of this divine-human synergy, the pneumatic imagination is freed to join with the Creator Spirit in remaking the world. The polyrhythmic structures of Pentecost blend into cosmic harmony, reworking established materials to form new songs and new tongues. In doing so, dimensions of the mystery of salvation that have been hidden away are freed to come into the light. (113)

Pentecost creates a space where the “pneumatic imagination” (144) can flourish, where the normal becomes extraordinary. This is where the “ordered technical, and rational world” (151) gives way to “theophanic encounters” (151) that transcend empiricism, rationalism, and physical reductionism.

Johns’ book is a rousing call to rediscover the sacramental nature of the Bible. It’s an inspiring read that just may just challenge your epistemological assumptions. It deserves repeated reading and reflection.

Johns, Cheryl Bridges. Re-Enchanting the Text: Discovering the Bible as Sacred, Dangerous, and Mysterious. Baker Academic, 2023.