Global Pentecostal Studies

José Casanova, professor of sociology at Georgetown University and head of the Program on Globalization, Religion and the Secular at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, recently spoke at Duke University on globalization and Christianity. An interview with Casanova can be found here . Casanova makes excellent observations about globalization and Christianity that highlight the importance of seeing that globalization is not just about the spread of Christianity around the world. Globalization is also about a new social context and an awareness of the world as a single place that has implications for new social arrangements. This argument reflects what Roland Robertson has argued for decades. The one implication for Pentecostal studies is to move away from simply seeing Pentecostalism "everywhere" and to recognize that a new global context also means a new type of Pentecostalism, one that is transforming. Scholars of Pentecostalism need to refle...

Pentecostals have theological views of the world that range from embracing it to rejecting it. The world for some Pentecostals can be a hostile place where evil spirits come under the authority of Jesus Christ. Pentecostals also view the world as a place for the Holy Spirit's activity where the kingdom of God is advanced as witnessed through spiritual gifts like healing. Theological responses offer important insight into how Pentecostals view the world. And the intersection of these theological views with sociological observations about worldwide change provides researchers with interesting cases for exploration. There are four that are especially interesting for me at this time that require sustained research and discussion. The first has to do with the way Pentecostals engage public issues especially when they are in conflict with other religions. Africa offers some fascinating examples. In Nigeria, for example, there is religious conflict between Pentecostals and Muslims over ...

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, ...

The latest report on the status of Christianity in the world was published in January 2013 in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (IBMR Vol. 37, No. 1: 32-33). The two-page report is the twenty-ninth annual report following the publication of David Barrett’s World Christian Encyclopedia (Oxford, 1982). The most recent report discusses an important change in counting Pentecostals and Charismatics. Moving away from the traditional three “wave” description of classical Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Independents, it discusses the Pew Forum strategy of lumping them altogether as a single type – “renewalist.” The IBMR report does not critique this approach or discuss any of the historical or theological or sociological implications of doing so (even if the three wave approach has its problems, which it does). While the IBMR report does not use the term “renewalist” in its table, it does count the different “waves” as a single type. The problem in doing so, is that trackin...

One of my objectives is to further refine my understanding of what is meant by "global" for researching Pentecostalism. There are several options that I will mention at this point. Perhaps there are more to be discovered. For now, there are three important ways in which scholars understand globalization. First, there are those like Anthony Giddens and Niklas Luhmann who take a systems or structural perspective. Society is understood to be a dynamic social system that includes boundaries, structure, institutions, and a range of interactions that illustrate how the system is constructed and operates. Second, there are those who understand globalization as the field of post-colonial critique and civilizational clash. Huntington's clash of civilizations thesis is referred to here. Global society is constructed and negotiated among those civilizations that compete with one another often characterized by tension, debate, and violence. Third, there is also the view of global soc...

I visited Hillsong London last night. The Dominion Theatre was filled to capacity with primarily young adults. The cosmopolitan congregation and other tourists and travellers like myself filled the streets in front of the theatre waiting for the 6pm worship event to begin, the fourth of four regular such Sunday services. I sat in the balcony about fifteen minutes before the hour. The music, stage lights, and special effects all set the tone for what was about to begin including the “Welcome Home” video that looped through its message every two minutes. Feeling at home somewhere in a global world is an attractive message. At 6pm the stage was filled with musicians and singers and immediately the crowd rose to its feet dancing to the music. For about forty minutes the musicians led in worship followed by prayer. Prayer requests scrolled across the screen from the emails sent to Hillsong leaders. Next was the offering that included video instructions on how to use your smartphone to give ...

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...