There is a growing body of literature that critically analyzes many aspects of Pentecostalism, especially questions about origins, worldwide development, and its relationship to social forces like modernization, secularization, and globalization. This book makes a very important contribution to that scholarly discussion. The editors have established a clear purpose that focuses on addressing the theoretical and methodological questions in a particular historical time frame from 1950 to 2000 that critiques certain story lines, especially denominational ones. To do so, the editors select a series of case studies in ten chapters that focus on a range of questions about the polygenesis origins of Pentecostalism, global flows of Pentecostalism across cultures, material culture-like publications, and the importance of networks. These theoretical ideas are then discussed to raise questions about the very definition of Pentecostalism, including what is traditionally viewed as a “three wave” history throughout the twentieth century from classical Pentecostalism to Charismatic renewal and neo-Pentecostalism. The editors then set out to problematize another important definitional issue around a family traits approach including the central qualities of primitivism, emergence, experimentalism, expressionism, and presentism.
These particular theoretical and definitional issues are raised throughout the book, which is organized around ten chapters. Each of the chapters gives attention to one or more of these questions about definition with historical studies on a range of cases, including David du Plessis, evangelical magazines, renewal organizations, local histories in the UK, France, Wales, the United States, Roman Catholic renewal, renewal among Mennonites, and John Wimber. The introduction is excellent and outlines the various historical issues. An epilogue by the British historian of evangelicalism, David Bebbington, offers an important assessment of the book and its ideas.
The chapters that focus on material culture are instructive and illustrate well how the standard historical versions of “three waves” of Pentecostalism are problematic. For example, the second wave often relies upon a storyline that begins with the charismatic renewal figure, Dennis Bennet, an Episcopal priest who is featured in popular American magazines in the 1960s. In chapter 2, Amber Thomas Reynolds offers a detailed analysis of Robert Walker's Christian Life magazine and its transformation from an evangelical to charismatic magazine. The author details how Protestants in the 1950s were already on the road to embracing charismatic Christianity prior to Dennis Bennet's announcement in the 1960s. The magazine was highly influential and, with its large monthly readership of 200,000 at its peak, contributed to the spread of charismatic Christianity among its Protestant readers. These types of religious magazines are important cultural repertoires that allowed lay people outside of Pentecostalism an entry point into the movement. Cultural repertoires served to give some basis for the movement that did not rely upon the interpretation of their denominational leaders who often opposed Pentecostalism.
Another excellent chapter is by Andrew Atherstone that focuses on John Wimber who emerged out of the Jesus People movement of the 1970s and into the Californian church growth movement of the 1980s. Wimber was an important figure that linked together these two movements with the Toronto Blessing in the 1990s. Crossing several important movements, Wimber's role and influence flows in multiple directions in the USA, UK, and Canada. Atherstone especially focuses on Wimber's influence through seminars, music, and other cultural items in Europe, detailing important elements of the history and impact that nuances our understanding of what is typically referred to as the third wave. In particular, Atherstone shows how material culture flows around the world and across denominations while shaping Pentecostalism. The author also offers an important critique of the definition of Pentecostalism and demonstrates the role Wimber and the Vineyard Church played through its culture with a more individualistic and inner experiential form.
The chapters on the second-wave charismatic renewal that focus on the Roman Catholic church offer another level of questions about the history and definition of Pentecostalism. Most notably, the chapter by Mark Hutchinson is especially important as it wrestles with the impact of Catholic renewal among the clergy, professors, and elite along with the tensions between them and other Catholics who were questioning the narrative among these charismatic Catholics while attempting to place the events of the 1960s into a longer historical framework. The result was resignation and division among Catholics. Hutchinson's historical work challenges the discourse of Catholic charismatic renewal as told during this time frame, especially by Protestants that place Catholic renewal in the 1960s on par with Protestant renewal. While Hutchinson's chapter raises some very important questions about the history, there are less satisfying accounts of its history in other chapters that, perhaps unintentionally, describe the birthplace of Catholic charismatic renewal as originating in the 1960s in the USA. Still, the chapters on Roman Catholic renewal together do raise serious questions about the history of charismatic Christianity in the United States that requires further analysis, including its relationship with Catholic renewal elsewhere in the world that was not linked with the events of the 1960s at Notre Dame or other Catholic universities.
Overall, this is an important book that scholars of Pentecostalism will need to read. It clearly raises a number of issues about the history of Pentecostalism in the second half of the twentieth century that requires further historical analysis and theoretical explanation.
