Establishing an Agenda for Pentecostal Studies

The long-term sustainability of Pentecostal studies requires the establishment of a broader research agenda. This is not a project one can do by her/himself. I've asked a number of people to consider writing their thoughts about Pentecostal studies and over the next several months I will post their comments here.

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Pope Francis, Latin America, and Catholic Charismatic Renewal

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was announced as the new pope, Pope Francis. He is the first pope from Latin America where the Catholic Church has a long history and represents the largest group of Catholics in the world. Pope Francis is a member of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. He is not a member of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. I am not sure he is sympathetic to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Latin America either. However, no doubt, his election will bolster the Catholic Church in Latin America. In his home country of Argentina, the Pentecostals had little impact until the middle of the 20th century when Tommy Hicks was granted unprecedented access to stadiums for mass evangelistic meetings. Still, the Pentecostals do not represent a large number of Christians in Argentina. The Catholic Church in many countries is charismatic and the latitude Catholic charismatics are granted in Latin America keeps many within the fold. For example, ...

Global Pentecostalism in the 21st Century

GLOBAL PENTECOSTALISM IN THE 21 ST CENTURY . Edited by Robert W. Hefner . University of Indiana Press. 2013. Pp. v + 270; paper. This edited volume offers the reader excellent coverage on a range of issues about the social, cultural, and political aspects of Pentecostalism. With contributions from sociologists, anthropologists, and religion scholars, the editor has brought together some of the top experts in the field with cases from most regions of the world including Brazil, Zimbabwe, China, Russia, Ukraine, India, and the Philippines. The chapters include rich empirical findings, theoretical sophistication, and debates in the literature about the social and political impact of Pentecostals, its civic and public role, why Pentecostalism is or is not growing, issues of institutionalization, relationship to the varieties of modernity, and impact on family and gender issues. The Introduction offers a solid overview of how the volume contributes to the schol...

Pentecostalism: A Missionary Movement

If Pentecostalism is anything, it is a missionary movement, argues Allan Anderson. This past week Anderson lectured at Trinity Western University at the Summer Seminar in Pentecostal Studies. I have read Anderson’s books and heard him present at various academic meetings. However, after spending the past week listening to him, it struck me that while much research examines Pentecostalism as a restoration movement, restoring spiritual gifts, or as a renewal movement, calling people to be filled with the Spirit, or a political movement, seeking power, or a progressive social movement, addressing holistically the needs of communities, Pentecostalism is primarily a missionary movement (most likely, Pentecostalism is all of these things). However, as a missionary movement, spreading throughout the world from multiple centres of renewal and revival, Pentecostalism has come to represent the most significant transformation in world Christianity since the Protestant Reform...

Global Pentecostal Studies

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