Your point is true. Still, seeing as it is scripturally derived and, I believe, correctly so, I wonder, "Must there be ANY label applied to it? Might it, perhaps, be allowed to stand or fall upon its own merits?" Might we not simply attest to the verity of Eldredge's hermeneutic and affix the label "biblical" or "scriptural"?
[sigh] Using the label "Charismatic Renewal", there will, inevitably, be some mainstream evangelical who will now find reason to object, where none existed before, and will leave Eldredge's insights by the wayside where he might have otherwise had great spiritual benefit of them. I have not such foolish aversions -- now. I have had them in the past; long ago, before I "grew up."
And you have no doubt seen that we of the Christian fatih, in our zeal to uproot doctrinal deviancy and stamp out every heresey, so often turn upon our own brothers and sisters; and never with good results. Christ weeps, the Spirit is aggrieved and that which is so very often True gets buried under the carnage; lost to the entire Body over the disputations of a few too-narrow minds. To have the insights that Eldredge points out be lost in such fashion would be, IMO, a great and tragic loss to the whole Body.
I agree with all your points. The Charismatic Renewal would not be allowed to continue in the Catholic Church if it were not Scriptural, and in keeping with historic Christianity.
I think we "rediscover" parts of the message of Christ as we go through history. Each time, it seems new to many people, whether it's the message of healing, of sharing the glory of God, or of Divine Mercy. Obviously it's our human nature to just not GET IT :-).
G.K. Chesterton, I think, said that the Christian religion proves that man did not "invent God," because if we had, we would NOT have invented a god like the one revealed in the Judeo-Christian faith. We would have invented a god like us, not one who is everything we, in our fallen nature, are not!
We get things so wrong, when we think God is like us, and He even reminds us of that specifically, in the prophecies, "My ways are not your ways, and My thoughts are not your thoughts." I was reading a book recently that discussed the Jews at the time of the Crucifixion, and how they said, "His blood be upon us, and upon our children!"
It's been common to interpret that as being a condemnation of the Jews, from that time forward, but this writer said that God answered that prayer: Christ's Blood is upon the Jews, and upon their children, and it redeems them from eternal death, just as it does you and me. Everyone is washed by the Blood of Christ, or they're not freed from sin at all.