in a vacuum, but they always take place within broader sequences and have
their own consequences. For Pentecostals, religious experiences are shaped
within the context of their worshipping community and these experiences
are formed over a period of time. For Pentecostals, certain religious expe-
riences are essential authentic expressions of Christianity. That is why they
are sought, narrated, explained, and justifi ed both in terms of the work
of the Holy Spirit and in relation to precedents in Scripture. Thus, for
Pentecostals, it is important to appreciate that they do not see the cat-
egory of experience, and especially religious experience, as a form of indi-
vidual “subjectivism,” expressing some kind of solipsism. On the contrary,
Pentecostals understand, appreciate and celebrate experience as the means
by which the Holy Spirit unites the life of the church to the triune God.
For individuals in the community of the church, experience is expressed
in corporate and embodied practices that are themselves regulated by the
rule of the community, although this “rule” is not always stated in such
terms. These communally shaped experiences mediate knowledge of God,
as well as displaying something of the divine mystery in, with, and through
humanity. Without question, in the Pentecostal understanding, there is a
high association between the community’s experience and the presence
and power of the Holy Spirit.
But here lies the problem at the heart of the matter: how do you actu-
ally research the Holy Spirit empirically? Most empirical-type theologians
would say that it is an impossibility because you cannot ask the Holy Spirit
to fi ll out a questionnaire, for example. Have you ever tried to do this?
You’d be waiting a very long time: Name? Age? Education? Qualifi cations?
Occupation? You get my point. Or what about an interview? What kinds
of answers would you get back? I would love to ask: “Explain perichoresis
to me from your perspective?” As much as we might talk about hearing
the voice of the Holy Spirit in fi rst-order discourse, we have to admit that
there are problems with this kind of claim from an academic perspective.
This is because of the problem of access to the Holy Spirit in a distinct
and unmediated fashion. Descriptions and accounts of the person and the
work of the Holy Spirit are always mediated through human language
and culture. In other words, meaning is mediated. How else can it be
communicated and understood? Even individual experiences are “had”
in ways that are shaped to some extent by the person who is having the
experience. The truth of the matter is that we cannot escape this media-
tion. It enables us to have the experiences, but it also poses a problem,
namely that claims can be made that are diffi cult to verify apart from some
258 M.J. CARTLEDGE