Theological Renewal (1975-1983): Listening to an Editor's Agenda for Church and Academy

This article explores the theological agenda set out by Thomas A. Smail during the Charismatic Renewal of the mid 1970s and early 1980s through his contribution to the journal Theological Renewal, which he edited (1975-1983). Smail expounds a theology of renewal that engages with church and academy by offering a trinitarian framework and a christological focus. These features are placed in dialogue with his own personal experience of renewal in the Holy Spirit, contemporary issues in the Charismatic Renewal, and his theological education in the Reformed and Barthian traditions. What emerges from a critical reflection is not only insight into the theological climate of the period in which an early renewalist theologian was engaged, but also resources for contemporary Pentecostal/Charismatic theological construction.