A Constructive Pentecostal Theology of Dementia: Responding to Black Women Living with Dementia

Abstract

This thesis examines Pentecostal theologies and their relationships to the experience of living with dementia. The increasing likelihood of developing dementia among ethnic minority people, particularly older Black women, poses an urgent challenge for the Pentecostal movement, not least to the British Pentecostal churches. The Pentecostal movement does not currently have an adequate theology of dementia that speaks meaningfully to the experience of living with dementia and, especially, the multi-dimensional experiences of Black women. Certain features identified in Pentecostalism require memory and cognitive capacity in order to participate in the practices of the Churches, but this has had profound harmful implications for persons living with dementia, particularly when they are unable to remember, to make decisions and to function independently.

This research is the first of its kind in the quest for a Pentecostal theology of dementia that seeks to eliminate malignant structures that cause suffering to Black women with dementia. Womanist theology provides the lens with which to examine Pentecostal theology. As a theoretical tool it allows us to centralise the liberation of Black women and, in so doing, reconceptualize traditional understanding of sin. It names as social sin, any structure or system that contributes to the marginalisation, dehumanisation and suffering of Black women. Using this lens to deconstruct Pentecostal theology, highlighted doctrinal themes and practices that have harmful implications for persons with dementia including: the expectation to participate in church practices which require the use of memory; the requirement of cognition in order for the Holy Spirit to communicate with human beings and for human beings to interpret and share what the Holy Spirit revealed. Furthermore, it is necessary for individuals to be conscious of sin in order to repent, and repentance leads to relief from suffering, healing and future salvation. A reconstructed theology responding to dementia re-imagines suffering as inclusive of the experience of Black women with dementia and opposes all forms of discrimination whether theological, political, environmental, or socio-economic. It demonstrates that not all people will be healed, and that salvation can be enjoyed in the present time from the care and love expressed to persons with dementia rather than only at some future realised eschatology. A Pentecostal theology of dementia establishes the belief that God is not limited to the intellectual capacity of human beings and will minister to persons with dementia through the Holy Spirit, irrespective of their capacity to remember or understand.