Howard M. Ervin

Howard M. Ervin (September 21, 1915 – August 12, 2009) was an American scholar and pastor. He was a professor at Oral Roberts University until December 2006. He served on the faculty for 40 years and has been involved with the university from its inauguration in 1963. Only Robert G. Voight has served, as of May 7, 2009, longer than Ervin at the faculty of Oral Roberts University.

Ervin was born on September 21, 1915, in Saint Nicholas, Pennsylvania.

Ervin earned a Th.D. from Princeton University. Ervin earned a BA and ThB from Easter Baptist Theological Seminary. He also earned a MA from the Asia Institute and a BD from New Brunswick Seminary.

Ervin was a pastor of an American Baptist congregation (Emmanuel Baptist Church, Atlantic Highlands, NJ) might sound odd when one observes his seminal works on manifestations of the Holy Spirit, which are still among the finest works on this topic today. His work in the field of the manifestations of the Spirit were honored in a special collection of essays.

Ervin was one of the first to argue for a unique Lukan pneumatology. Ervin's thesis was ground breaking work for the area of New Testament studies that would lead to a whole field of New Testament studies in the area of Luke-Acts. Pentecostals have benefited greatly from these insights. As scholars like Roger Stronstad and James Shelton have added to this discussion, these men have also stood on Ervin's shoulders. Issues of subsequence, evidence and empowerment all find their particular support in the view of a unique Lukan pneumatology. This is the core of Ervin's arguments against the evangelical views of conversion-initiation and Pauline theology.

Ervin was able to bring the Pentecostal message to believers from all traditions. Through his friendship with David du Plessis, Ervin was invited to participate in the Pentecostal-Roman Catholic Dialogues. Du Plessis ask Ervin to participate because he knew that Ervin could articulate the Pentecostal position theologically. During the years of 1979 to 1987, Ervin participated in the dialogues as a representative of the Pentecostal point of view. Ervin was not only a participant but he also was a presenter for the Pentecostal position in the dialogue in 1979 and 1987 on the subjects of hermeneutics and koinonia. This was historic considering that the steering committee voted in 1976 to only have Pentecostals serve as in the Pentecostal participants. Ervin's Pentecostal theology, his scholarly and formal communication style, and ecumenical beliefs made him the exception to the rule.

Ervin's main contribution in scholarship has been to the area of Pneumatology. However, as already noted above, his ecumenical work should also not be neglected.

Catholics particularly respond to his {Ervin's] quite and effective ministry. Yet he is a Catholic in the larger sense: his concern for the whole church in his genuine grief at her disunity, and in his efforts to reconcile the three great branches of Christendom. He feels called by God to promote the unity if the broken and fragmented body of Christ and thus has actwed as a reconciling agent for the universal church. He is also Catholic in that the altar has become meaningful to his spirituality. Although he is preacher, and a good one, his own inner life is often fed by sacramental as well as pulpit insights.

Overall his colleagues see a probing and questioning scholar with an affinity for the richness of the Orthodox tradition. Incarnational theology and the mystery of God before man and man before God have obviously had a profound influence on his thought and life. He is perhaps more at home with the Nicene and Byzantine fathers than Augustine, perhaps more compatible with Chrysostom than Calvin. Howard's theological mood always leaves room for mystery and reverence. There is a possibility factor in his thinking that always leaves room for new truth. Slow to change a considered opinion, he is nonetheless open to new ideas, particularly when they reflect a matured spirituality on the part of those proffering them.

Ervin was honored with a Festschrift.

Ervin died on August 12, 2009, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at aged 93.