Pentecostal studies

For many years following the Korean War (June 25, 1950–July 27, 1953), the Korean people suffered from its after-effects. They had experienced the tragedy of fratricidal war, with a vast majority having lost family members and fighting for survival. Many also experienced extreme poverty, illnesses, and despair. Meanwhile, most conservative Korean Christians adopted a passive attitude and stance toward political issues.

In the preface, the author clearly articulates both what motivated this project, which began as his PhD dissertation, and his purpose in writing the book. With respect to the former, Waymeyer observes that concomitant to “the remarkable resurgence of reformed theology” within evangelicalism over the past few decades—which he regards as a very positive development—has been a trend toward an adoption of either eschatological agnosticism or amillennialism (vii). In response to the eschatological agnostic, Waymeyer rightly asserts, “Scripture reveals too much about the subject of eschatology for Christians to be content in the dark, especially those who preach the Word and shepherd the flock” (vii). In regard to amillennialism, Waymeyer observes that while those joining the ranks of reformed theology often spend several years studying the scriptural doctrine of predestination prior to self-identifying as Calvinists, they far too quickly embrace amillennialism without much study of the pertinent biblical texts “simply because they see it as an indispensable part of the reformed system” (vii). In response to such trends, Waymeyer calls for careful consideration of his “premillennial response to the most compelling arguments for amillennialism” (viii). He aims “not only to clarify the key differences between these two competing millennial views, but also to provide an exegetical critique of the two-age model of amillennialism” (viii).

"Trouble Coming for Oswego. The 'Fire Baptized Holiness association' has been organized at Oswego." Thus read the advertisement in the Kansas newspaper, the Baxter Springs News, in 1904.  It was not without warrant either. This strange organization was spreading like wildfire in the South and Midwestern states. It was known for one thing: craziness. Five years earlier in 1899, the Alexandrian Gazette reported:
"[A farmer named] Musser is so taken with the fire baptized doctrines that he believed he could fly by faith, and in the attempt had a disastrous fall on the barn floor. At one of the meetings Musser asserted that he had buried the devil in a hole, but that the evil one was not yet dead." 
Yet out of this organization birthed one of the largest churches of all times, the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC), which has shaped much of Christianity today. And much of the IPHC's doctrine is rooted in the theology produced by the Fire Baptized Holiness Church (FBHC) over one hundred years ago. It is the purpose of this paper to explore the history and theology of the FBHC and contrast it with the IPHC today.

Hermeneutics, derived from the Greek word for “interpret” refers to the theory of interpretation.  More comprehensively, hermeneutics concerns the interpretation of texts and other forms of communication both oral and written as well as fundamental issues of the nature of language, meaning, communication and understanding.  I use hermeneutics here to refer to the act and process of biblical interpretation while preaching is the public declaration of the meaning so discovered.
Paul encouraged Timothy to: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of  truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, NIV).  The verb translated as "correctly handling" conveys the idea of handling with skill or mastery.  Paul expected Timothy to develop himself to the point of handling the word of God with skill and mastery.  This is a challenge to all who have the responsibility of preaching or teaching God’s word. It is also because of this that we must regularly evaluate our preaching with a view to constantly improving our hermeneutical and preaching skills. This paper is an attempt to evaluate the hermeneutics and preaching that goes on in Pentecostal churches. After an attempt at defining some key words, the paper is divided into three main parts namely characteristics of Pentecostal churches, appraisal of Pentecostal hermeneutics and appraisal of Pentecostal preaching.

El presente artículo es un resumen del libro Diseminaciones del Espíritu del mismo autor (Yosnier L. Viñals). No obstante, enriquece la caracterización ofrecida en el mencionado libro sobre el protopentecostalismo cubano: la primera expresión de la pentecostalidad en Cuba de la que se tenga conocimiento.

The LA Times described the Hicks campaign in Argentina as the largest revival meeting in modern times (Thrapp, 1954, E-7). When the stadium where Hicks was preaching was full, people outside the stadium could still receive healing, just by touching the stadium walls. Hicks' assistant said that after Hicks preached, the City of Buenos Aires had to send out trucks to, "pick up everything from wheelchairs, crutches, etc., left behind in the streets by the sick who had been healed," (Ortiz 2008, 8).

The dissertation analyses Spirit-reception in Luke-Acts with respect to timing, mechanism, and manifestation.  Its narrow focus excludes questions regarding Spirit-reception’s theological significance.  It employs three primary tools: narrative progression/sequential reading, presupposition pools/entity representations (ERs), and focalization.  By beginning with Jesus’ baptism where Spirit experience is joined to the prayer aspect of the baptismal ceremony and observing Jesus’ Luke 11:13 teaching on prayer, one arrives at Acts 2:38-39 with an ER in which Spirit experience is not separated from baptism, but linked with the prayer element of the unitary baptismal ceremony.  Acts 2 focalizes dissociative xenolalia and creates a programmatic expectation that all initiates will experience it.  Acts 2 does not depict new converts receiving the Spirit and thereby leaves a narrative gap which the reader must fill with information from Jesus’ baptism.  Acts 8 adds to this information by providing Luke’s first depiction of new converts receiving the Spirit and showing the facilitation mechanisms used, prayer and handlaying by gifted individuals.  Luke stated neither that this procedure was exceptional nor that it was standard.  He simply presented a solution to the problem of the Spirit failing to come.  Saul’s conversion clarifies that non-apostles can be gifted to facilitate the Spirit.  Cornelius’ house adds the concept of the Spirit being given during a gifted individual’s preaching ministry and shows early church leaders using Pentecost as a standard of comparison.  The cumulative nature of presupposition pools/ERs means that the last Spirit-reception scene (Acts 19) must be viewed in the light of all the accumulated Spirit-reception scenes, the total ER.

This bibliography is intended as an exercise in the early stage of my preliminary research on the intersection between Pentecostal theology and biblical interpretation. It’s a working draft and it should grow not only in length, but also in focus and quality.

Before proceeding you should know this:

    1. I’m open to any suggestions regarding content, format and aim of this bibliography. Please contact me via Academia or by e-mail (michael@buban.cz) even if it’s just your impression or a small typo. All feedback is welcome.
    2. I’ve decided to include all items from the concise bibliography in Martin, Lee Roy, ed. Pentecostal Hermeneutics: A Reader. Leiden: Brill, 2013. My bibliography is obviously dramatically revised and expanded 😎.
    3. Highlighted items represent my wishlist. ❤ Non-highlighted items are within my reach. Should you know how to get me my “unreached items” on-line under some reasonable circumstances, please do tell me. In exchange I can help you get your desired materials.
    4. Should you need to adopt and edit this bibliography yourself, please help yourself at https://www.zotero.org/brotherekim/items/collectionKey/5W5B5DQJ or send me a message (see #1).

This is the final installment of a two part series regarding a theology of Pentecostal social concern. Pentecostal social concern goes well beyond feeding programs and disaster relief and must include dealing with long term issues such as unjust social structures, health care and environmental concerns. To even scratch the surface of these issues is well beyond our ability here. The articles that follow, however, deal broadly with the issue of unjust social structures, which are particularly relevant to the poor—a category that includes most Pentecostals in the Majority World.

The subject of conversion has engaged sociologists in Israel and around the world for decades. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism etc. all have their own understanding of conversion. In this paper it is a tongues speaking Charismatic who is under investigation.  Among the issues discussed are:
(1) The relationship between macro-historical changes and personal redefinition.
(2) The role of “crises”, whether personal or societal, in the conversion process.
(3) Does the emphasis on “narratives” preclude a discussion of the crucial rule of “ritual” in conversion?
(4) As opposed to “access to wider values,” how do conversions often reflect a choice to join smaller more particularistic associations such as “deviant” groups and “local” churches?
The study looks at a case study of Edi Nachman a  tradition Baptist turned Spirit filled Charismatic Evangelical  whose conversion the author argues is revivalistic a category which has come under some challenge in recent scholarship. Lofland and Stark, Rambo, Heirich, Harding and Beckford all have their perspectives on what is conversion.

This article reviews the gendered Pentecostal Bible as documented by various researchers. It assesses how the prophetic-spirit framework encounters and functions within the framework of the inerrant but patriarchal written word. The Spirit framework is an oral canon that opens spaces of gender empowerment. Yet Pentecostal scholars problematise the supposedly liberating Spirit, highlighting that it sometimes denies the materiality of human existence and inhabits the constraining parameters of patriarchal church structures. The article suggests that in addition to the Spirit-Word framework, new Pentecostal theological categories, such as healing and deliverance and the prosperity gospel need to be investigated for the new spaces they open for gender justice. 'The authority of the Bible as the word of God, and the experience of the Holy Spirit form two of the most important sources of Pentecostal theology' (Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu 2004:390).

Historically speaking, Pentecostals are no strangers to theological education. Granted, some early Pentecostals were skeptical toward an overly intellectual approach to the faith, but Bible schools and training institutes have played a prominent role in Pentecostalism right from the beginning of the movement. After all, it was at Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, founded by Pentecostal pioneer Charles F. Parham (1873 1929), that Agnes N. Ozman (1870-1937) first spoke in tongues in 1901, thereby setting an important milestone for the Pentecostal movement. Similarly, Pandita Ramabai (1858 1929), the key figure of the 1905 Mukti Revival in India, “formed what she called a ‘Bible school’ of 200 young women to pray in groups called ‘Praying Bands’ and to be trained in witnessing to their faith. These Praying Bands spread the revival wherever they went, and some remarkable healings were reported.” Other institutions of theological education were also started all over the world as early Pentecostals were eager to equip large numbers of workers and send them out quickly, an endeavor that was often propelled by a sense of eschatological urgency.

William W. Menzies (July 1, 1931–August 15, 2011) was well known in Pentecostal circles as an educator, historian and theologian. He was also a missionary who spent the latter decades of his life between two poles: Springfield, Missouri, where he lived on-and-off for fifty years, and Baguio City, Philippines, where he served as President and Chancellor of Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (APTS). Over the course of his career he taught full-time or served as an administrator at five institutions of higher learning: Central Bible College (1958-1970), Evangel University (1970-1980), the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary (1974-1984), California Theological Seminary (1985-1987), and APTS (President 1989-1996; Chancellor 1996-2011). The author of nine books and numerous articles, he also founded, along with Vinson Synan and Horace Ward, the Society for Pentecostal Studies (SPS), which was among his most important accomplishments. He also served as the first President of the SPS and the first editor of its journal, Pneuma. To us, however, he was simply "Dad."

Churches need to engage with men in order to transform dangerous ideas about manhood in Africa. The HIV epidemic calls for the immediate action on attitudes to sex and sexual violence (Chitando 2007: 46). In the age of HIV and AIDS, masculinity and manhood roles, tendencies and attitudes have become matters of life and death (Maluleke 2007). Defining the Problem: Violent Youth Masculinities in one HIV&AIDS Context In the past twenty-eight years of living with HIV&AIDS and the effort to contain its spread, Botswana has undertaken an intense promotion of the sexual ethics of abstinence from premarital sex for adolescents and young adults; consistent and correct condom use for the sexually active and faithfulness among those in committed relationships. This promotion has been marked by a parallel male discourse of resistance that took three different forms over time. 1 The first stage of resistance was characterized by counter-myth and sayings. One saying, counteracting the promotion of condom use, held that " ga o kake wa ja nekere e phuthetswe, " that is, one cannot eat a wrapped candy (Shaibu & Dube 2002:7). It is not an exaggeration that in an HIV&AIDS context a penis could be as good as a deadly shot of HIV infected sperms, hence the promotion of condoms. Be that as it may, the masculinities of resistance insisted on unprotected sex by constructing the penis as a candy-a sweet candy-one that must be fully enjoyed, unwrapped. This is but one saying among a whole host of sayings of the counter discourse that sought to resist the promotion of condom use, including " mythologies such as condoms have worms " (7). In a research that we carried, focusing on high school-going adolescents on Gender, Sexuality, HIV/AIDS and Life Skills in Education, the boys said they, " never admit to a fear of HIV/AIDS: " We brag when with friends, claiming to be kings of AIDS " " (Chilisa, Dube, Tsheko & Mazile 2002:112). One that I found memorable was when we asked them what they have heard about HIV&AIDS. One of their answers was that some people say, " let us have sex now, for in the future HIV will be airborne! " (105). Obviously, this saying is a powerful counter statement against the promotion of abstinence that constructs HIV as less dangerous in its current transmission form. 1 Although I discuss three forms of male resistance, I believe they can be five: the strategy of HIV positive male partners who insisted, against the will of their female partners and during the times when HIV Prevention of Mother to Child Programs were not available, to have children; and the rise of multiple concurrent partners. The latter are quite different from the traditional practice of the so-called small house, which allowed a married man to be involved with another woman who was not his wife but who was officially reported to his wife, family and children and was known to the wider society. The so-called small houses were some form of polygamy; although the man could choose not to marry the second woman it was a known and lifetime relationship. In the HIV and AIDS context, small houses have evolved into the multiple concurrent partners, counteracting the HIV messages. Consequently, the National Campaign Plan: Multiple Concurrent Partnership of Botswana was launched March 2009.

To borrow a phrase from Robert Frost, we are going to take “the road less travelled” in this edition and go where many Pentecostals have traditionally feared to tread. The term “ecumenism” raises many concerns, most of them legitimate, for many Pentecostals. But the question must be raised⸻Is the divisiveness that has been a part of Christianity for most of its history consistent with Jesus’ call for unity in John 17:11, 21? From where I sit, Christ’s fractured Church, which includes the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements, is not pleasing to God.

To see all of our books and editions of the journal, please visit www.aptspress.org

A tanulmányban, amelyet a Gerhardus Keresztény Tudományos Diákköri Konferenciára készítettem, a Református Világszövetség és néhány klasszikus pünkösdi egyház és képviselői közötti párbeszéd-sorozat első fordulójának értékelését mutattam be. Külön figyelmet szenteltem a párbeszéd-ciklust lezáró dokumentumnak, melynek teológiai értékelését és magyar fordítását most először ismerheti meg a hazai szakmai fórum.

Speaking in tongues is arguably one of the most controversial and lifeimpacting experiences for Christian believers. Notably, it is a powerful experience often interpreted as a direct encounter with God when it first occurs. Despite the assumption by some Pentecostal-charismatic groups that they have a monopoly on it, the experience of speaking in tongues has remained, (sporadically at the least) throughout Christian history, and has found recent entrance into various denominations. Yet although it is practiced by probably hundreds of millions of people worldwide, the phenomenon remains an elusive and under-researched field. We have conducted a series of interviews with tongues speakers to gauge how, at and after the initial event (usually called the Baptism in the Spirit), tongues continue to be experienced. The results demonstrate that for many Christians speaking in tongues continues to be an important part of their lives. Many report that praying in tongues has positive effects,...

John G. Lake hearing what he understood was the voice of Jesus Christ in the Christian saved him and the life of his wife and saved them from a terrible accident.  Lake was a man who saw many things in his ministry that defy explanation by the modern scientific method. They have not yet comprehended what happened to him. He appears in the book God's Generals by Roberts Liardon and Defining Moments, by Bill Johnson, and other important works regarding the Charismatic Church.

This chapter appears in the edited volume 'Pentecostal Megachurches in Southeast Asia'. Drawing from the experience of Jesus is Lord (JIL), one of the biggest Charismatic groups in the Philippines, the chapter presents how megachurch Christianity undergoes indigenization. Some of its key findings are as follows: Indigenization takes shape in the form of JIL's religious nationalism. It is active in national politics, having fielded its own candidates in the country's top positions. Furthermore, the chapter shows how megachurch Christianity is not necessarily taking shape among aspirational middle class. That megachurches attract the middle class is a point that is repeatedly rehearsed in the literature.

Pentecostals have been doing missions in Southeast Asia for around
100 years. In some places such as some sectors of Malaysia and, more
recently, places like Cambodia, East Timor, some parts of Indonesia, the
minority groups in Myanmar and possibly Vietnam, they have enjoyed
some success. In places like the Philippines and Singapore, the growth
has been spectacular. However, among groups dominated by Islam and
Buddhism, they have not always done as well, although there are some
encouraging trends. In this edition, we will reflect on the work that God
is doing in three of these countries, the Philippines, Cambodia and
Indonesia. However, the application of these articles could be broadly
applied in other Majority World contexts.
Pentecostal missions in Southeast Asia h

This paper surveys Jurgen Moltmann's theology with a special reference to his pneumatology and how this doctrine locates and dislocates him with the Pentecostals. His ecumenical and trinitarian theological dictums make Moltmann a theologian who speaks to the modern challenges. The doctrine of pneumatology and ecclesiology are inseparable for Moltmann. The paper briefly highlights Moltmann's dictums of the church and the Spirit, human and Spirit nature, the Spirit and soteriology as these are crucial for his dialogue with the Pentecostals. The second part of the paper points out the divergences and convergences between the Pentecostals and Moltmann, especially regarding the Holy Spirit. The first convergence point is Moltmann's insistence on the charismatic structure of the church, followed by the interpretation of sanctification. The third convergence point is his locating the church in the trinitarian history of God and, more specifically, in the history of the Spirit-something that the Pentecostals are fully endorse. Moltmann's final agreement with the Pentecostals is his reference to the experience of the Spirit. Then divergences include facts like Moltmann's struggles with the Pentecostals obliviousness to social justice. This is through his understanding of the role of charismata, which differs from that of the Pentecostals. Secondly, Moltmann sees the Holy Spirit as the universal gift to the world, while Pentecostals see the Holy Spirit as a special gift liberally given to the elect, the church. Thirdly, Moltmann struggles with elitism among the Pentecostals, which seems to be in contrast with the character of the Spirit they claim to possess. Finally, Pentecostals disagree with Moltmann's omission of the Lukan material regarding pneumatological narratives

Pentecostalism in the last few years has made gigantic strides in its
pursuit to understand different elements of its own life and belief. Daniel
Albrecht in this work has likewise pushed forward the boundaries of
Pentecostal/Charismatic self-understanding through his study of rituals.
Pentecostal spirituality is seen through the lens of Pentecostal rituals, as
such the rituals inherent in Pentecostal worship and life are analyzed to
better understand Pentecostal belief, practice and life.

The State of Israel was consolidated in the early twentieth century as the homeland of the Jewish people. While nominally secular, it also acknowledged in law and practice the complex , possibly inextricable relationship between ethnic, religious and national or genealogical forms of imagining what it means to be a Jew in the modern world. In one celebrated Supreme Court case, it was made clear that a "Jew," for purposes of immigration, could not include someone who clearly identified in a religious sense with Christianity. Yet the demography of Israel has been changing through mass immigration (especially from the USSR and Ethiopia) as well as strong foreign missionary efforts. In the Ethiopian case, tens of thousands of individuals immigrated over the last two decades who were considered by the state to be descendants of converts to Orthodox (or Protestant) Christianity: their case was normalized, from the state's point of view, by encouraging them to undergo a state-sponsored "return to Judaism" program that brought ethnic and religious grounds of identification back into synch. Yet this has remained contested and conflictual at both the policy level and the level of everyday, vernacular experience of Ethiopians. Moreover, a smaller but even more challenging group of Ethiopians, from the state's point of view, have begun, with other Jewish Israelis, to embrace various forms of Messianic Judaism and charismatic Christianity in Israel--making a frontal collision with the state's basic imaginary almost inevitable. My paper, grounded in ethnographic fieldwork among both groups of Ethiopian-Israelis,  begins to pry apart the  tortured relationship between Christianity and Jewishness in the Ethiopian case: its corollaries in everyday religion, distinctive practices of aversion or mimesis, and its explosive political implications for Israeli self-understanding.

This book is the result of a conference in Costa Rica (1996) devoted
to a selection of issues emerging from the globalization of what some
have called the New Reformation, a movement which represents over
one fourth of the world’s Christians. It is somewhat similar in style to the
earlier Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture,
1
being a collection
of essays built around pre-selected themes. Here, the editors and
conference organizers come from the disciplines of social ethics
(Dempster) and missiology (Klaus and Peterson). The immensity and
diversity of the Pentecostal movement and its burgeoning offspring, the
international charismatic renewal (not considered in this volume), afford
a wide possibility for scholarly consideration. Those topics chosen here
reflect the concerns and interests of the conveners and are grouped into
three categories: Changing Paradigms in Pentecostal Scholarly
Reflection, Pentecostalism as a Global Culture, and Issues Facing
Pentecostalism in a Postmodern World.

A book review of the pivotal book written by the Bethel Pastor  revivalist Bill Johnson. The book is a powwerful insight into the powerful culture transforming vision of the Charismatic Church in the 21st century. The vision being the expectaion of a billion soul revival expected sometime soon.

In 1947, the Pentecostal Movement was an important subject matter for discussion in the Constituent Assembly and during the parliamentary questions from October 1952 to August 1954. However, for a long period of time, nobody knew anything regarding this important milestone of the Italian Republic. Most probably, there is not only a single reason for this information void, but a number of factors connected with the specific historical period. Today, after more than a century, the Pentecostal Movement is moving the first steps towards the preservation of its historical memory: the fighting in Parliament for the recognition of their rights is an important stage of this work.

Il Movimento Pentecostale nel 1947 è stato un importante oggetto di discussione in sede di Assemblea Costituente e di interrogazioni parlamentari nel periodo ottobre 1952 – agosto 1954. Tuttavia, per lunghissimi anni, di questa pietra miliare della storia della Repubblica Italiana poco o nulla si è saputo. Probabilmente, il motivo di questo “vuoto” informativo non può essere isolato in una sola causa, piuttosto nel concorso di fattori ascrivibili ad un particolare periodo storico e ad esso contestualizzabili. Oggi, a distanza di oltre un secolo, il Movimento Pentecostale inizia a compiere i primi passi per la conservazione della propria memoria storica: di questo lavoro, la lotta parlamentare per il riconoscimento dei propri diritti, ne rappresenta una tappa fondamentale.

Este libro se escribe “a contrapelo”. Cuando se estudia el complejo y cambiante juego de relaciones y negociaciones existentes entre el campo religioso y el campo político en Argentina, por su mayor visibilidad pública y por su posición monopólica, la relación entre la Iglesia Católica y Estado es la que se presenta como la más evidente;  así como también fue la que ocupó una vasta bibliografía académica en los estudios sobre religión y política. Desde otro margen, en un nivel menos visible, Joaquín Algranti trabaja sobre aquellos aspectos más cercanos a las prácticas cotidianas que a los grandes actos públicos. El autor, da cuenta de otras formas de hacer política a partir de cómo una iglesia neo-pentecostal supo conquistar aquellos espacios que tanto las instancias estatales como la Iglesia Católica dejaron libres, a partir de una estructura que habilita múltiples y cambiantes formas de intervención en la sociedad dentro de las cuales la política partidaria, el Estado y la sociedad civil pueden pasar al centro de la escena. Por tal razón comencé esta reseña haciendo uso de la noción de “escribir la historia a contrapelo” de W. Benjamín, pues a lo largo del libro se puede leer cómo sectores subalternos de la población conquistan espacios sociales re-significándolos y otorgándoles sentidos novedosos. Estas voces no se dejan silenciar, y a partir de estos espacios, en palabras del autor, hacen política desde los márgenes. Ellas escriben su historia a contrapelo.

Beginning on Wall Street in New York City and spreading to more than 80 nations worldwide, the “Occupy” movement was a key iconic trend defining the year 2011. Branding itself as “the 99 percent,” the movement has protested against a grossly disparate socialeconomic wealth divide. I believe these are cries for a more just world order. Therefore, may God indeed raise us up to the high paths of compassion, mercy and justice. With this in mind, I argue in this paper that integral to global Pentecostalism as an ecclesiological tradition and Christian spirituality is a vision of God’s justice and witness as the justified people of God. When the Spirit renews this vision in us, our ecclesial life should evidence the coming together of diverse socialeconomic, generational, and ethnically stratified peoples into heterogeneous communities. In this manner, we witness to God’s reign as proleptic signs to His healing for all creation.