Emmanuel College - Georgia

Marie de France’s Lais (twelfth century) contain moralizing statements and love-proverbs that seem at first to be inapplicable to the stories they complement. This article argues that Marie uses the narrative contexts of her Lais to test her proverbs, rather than merely subverting the proverbs or using them as garnish for her narrative. This allows Marie’s audience to learn “mesura” when they recontextualize conventional wisdom or love-proverbs to suit their own situations.

The 2007-2010 Journal of Pentecostal Theology debate between Tony Richie and me about J.H. King’s theology of religions focused on both historical theology and constructive-theological method relative to the use of King’s writings as a resource for developing a twenty-first century Pentecostal theology of religions. For me, two major lessons emerged which suggest that future study of King’s and perhaps other early Pentecostal thinkers’ theology of religions will need to be especially attentive to at least two broad tasks: careful historical research and pursuit of a common and precise inclusivist terminology by collaborating scholars. This work is necessary because it relates directly to the issue of the extent of King’s pertinence for the construction of both a Pentecostal theology of religions and a Pentecostal theology and praxis of interreligious ecumenism. If King was merely an accessibilist-inclusivist, and I firmly believe that was the case, then his relevance is greatly diminished.

This study examines the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IIIB (PPVT-IIIB) performance of 130 adults identified as struggling readers, in comparison to 175 third-grade children. Response patterns to the items on the PPVT-IIIB by these two groups were investigated, focusing on items, semantic categories, and lexical features, including word length, word class, and word frequency. The score distributional properties of the two groups were different, but there were similarities and differences found in different response patterns. Analyses of word length, word class, and word frequency in the two groups’ performance resulted in counterintuitive findings for the adult participants. The struggling adult learners’ vocabulary repertoire might have been shaped by their real-life experiences rather than formal schooling. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Abstract J.H. King, who is commonly viewed as one of the most important early twentieth-century Pentecostal leaders in the United States, was one of the strong proponents of the teaching that tongues speech is the invariable, immediate evidence of Spirit Baptism. Douglas Jacobsen argues in his 2003 book, Thinking in the Spirit, that King modified his position on normative initial evidence tongues in the second edition of From Passover to Pentecost. This article challenges that thesis. After looking at King’s pro-initial evidence polemic in the ‘Introduction’ of G.F. Taylor’s The Spirit and the Bride, and especially in the first edition of From Passover to Pentecost, this article deals with some King remarks in the second edition of the latter volume—remarks that Jacobsen interprets as King vacillating in his understanding of that doctrine. The bulk of the article contends that Jacobsen’s reading amounts to a substantial historical and literary decontextualization of those statements. Rather than interpreting them as King equivocating on initial evidence, they are more accurately understood as King articulating Christian prophetic ministry as (1) the supreme sign of the inaugurated ‘Pentecostal Era’, and as (2) a post-Spirit Baptismal confirmation of a genuine, tongue-certified Spirit Baptism experience.

The description of Wisdom in Sirach has exercised a profound influence on the interpretation of Matt 11.28–30. Many scholars, impressed with the evident parallels between Sir 51.23–7; 6.23–31 and the Matthean logion,1 have regarded the latter as dependent on the former.2 Others, taking a further step, have felt justified in interpreting the logion with reference to a wisdom christology. According to this view, Jesus, represented as Wisdom incarnate,3 offers rest to those burdened by the legal interpretations of the Pharisees4 through his yoke, which stands for his teaching, or, more precisely, for his interpretation of the law.5 This approach to the logion has had its detractors,6 and some scholars have questioned the suitability of positing any connection between Sirach and the logion.7 It is not the purpose of the present discussion to enter into this debate, but rather to draw attention to what might be termed a neglected feature in the discussion of Matt 11.28–30, namely the relation of the logion to certain OT prophetic themes.8

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