Thanks for your patience today, readers. I blew a deadline for TAC, and had to work today to finish the piece. While I was busy, some friends in an online group to which I belong got to talking about the charismatic renewal movement that swept through churches, both Catholic and Protestant, decades ago. Some of the members of the group had been part of the movement at one time or another, but burned out and moved on, or back to, a more traditional, liturgical form of Christian worship.
The consensus of the group seems to be that the Renewal congregations burned out because it’s hard to maintain that level of spiritual intensity over time. If you’re formed in a charismatic culture that requires manifestations of the Spirit as a sign of God’s presence, it seems to me that you run the risk of having to amp up the emotionalism more and more, to get the same emotional jolt. Don’t get me wrong here: I’ve never been a charismatic, because I deeply don’t relate to that worship style, but I believe that there certainly can be something real and even holy going on in those communities. And having sat through some very dry mainstream services and masses in my lifetime, I can see why people might gravitate to the charismatics.
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