Ulrik Josefsson

The Christian faith is formed around Jesus. That is obvious when reading the Apostles’ Creed where the second article is significantly longer than the others. Faith in the Pentecostal tradition is even more Christ-centric with the formulations around the full gospel as an example. Jesus is the centre of the theological understanding. Pentecostalism gives attention to the Spirit, as doctrine, sign, and experience, but when we peel the onion, layer by layer, we find Jesus everywhere and in every layer—of course, as the foundation of statements, but also as a lived example and the core of experience. His transformational presence is unique but can also function as a theological paradigm for Christian life in this world. The aim of this paper is to investigate how Christian presence and engagement in society can be understood as incarnational and transformative. Pentecostalism is, in many ways, a practical and concrete type of religion. Some scholars have described it as entrepreneurial, active, or practical. For Pentecostals, faith is not merely an idea but a lived experience. In this sense, it is faith taking concrete form, or in other words, incarnational. Moreover, Pentecostals are eager to see radical change. Salvation, for them, means becoming a new creation; Spirit baptism fills believers with new power and possibility; the Church is the redeemed alternative community. The whole spirituality is about change, development, or transformation. The main question is: How can Pentecostal social engagement be understood as incarnational transformation?