Journal of Pentecostal Theology

http://jpt.sagepub.com A review of Allan Anderson's Introduction To Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity

Dale T. Irvin Journal of Pentecostal Theology 2007; 16; 46 DOI: 10.1177/0966736907083266 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jpt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/1/46

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Journal of Pentecostal Theology 2007 SAGE Publications, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore http://JPT.sagepub.com Vol 16(1) 46-50 DOI: 10.1177/0966736907083266

A REVIEW OF ALLAN ANDERSONS INTRODUCTION TO PENTECOSTALISM: GLOBAL CHARISMATIC CHRISTIANITY* Dale T. Irvin**
New York Theological Seminary 475 Riverside Drive, #500, New York, NY 10115, USA email: dirvin@att.net

ABSTRACT
Allan Andersons An Introduction to Pentecostalism seeks to provide an overview of the global Pentecostal and Charismatic movements today. The rst part of the book examines aspects of the global historical development of Pentecostalism. Part Two explores various themes in Pentecostal and Charismatic theologies from around the world, beginning with the theology of the Spirit, which for Anderson is denitive of Pentecostal and Charismatic identity. Throughout the book Anderson opts for an inclusive denition of Pentecostalism that includes Classical Pentecostals (who trace their origins to the Azusa Street revival), Charismatics, Neopentecostals, African Independent Churches, and others who are distinguished mainly by a heightened experience of the Spirit. The book traces the history of these diverse global movements only through Western Protestant Christian streams of experience prior to 1900, and gives preeminent place in this narrative to the history of the Anglo-American Holiness movement in the USA. The effect here is to present Pentecostalism as essentially a EuropeanUS historical movement, with the global experiences being added on almost as afterthoughts. Nevertheless at several places in the text he points in the direction of a more global historiographical alternative. In the end this work stands head and shoulders above most other texts in the eld today.

* Allan Andersons Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004). ** Dale T. Irvin (PhD, Union Theological Seminary, NY) is President of New York Theological Seminary in New York , USA and Professor of World Christianity.

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IRVIN A Review of Andersons Introduction to Pentecostalism 47

Keywords: Pentecostal historiography, Pentecostalism, Spirit-initiated movements, world Christianity.

Allan Andersons An Introduction to Pentecostalism is a welcome addition to the library of Pentecostal studies. In fteen brief chapters the book provides an overview of the various communities, experiences, and theological concerns that are part of the global Pentecostal and Charismatic movements today. The organizational structure of the book is clear, taking a look at diverse regions of the world and exploring some of the underlying theological continuities at work through them. An opening chapter on Pentecostal identity takes the reader on site to several Pentecostal and Charismatic worship services in locations around the globe. The message one gets is that Pentecostalism is a globally diverse movement that resists simple denition but shares a set of common concerns or commitments, the central one being a heightened experience of the Spirit of God in worship and in the world. The book is divided into two parts. After an opening chapter on the denition of Pentecostal identity, Part One delves into the historical background and development of Pentecostalism globally. The section opens with a general chapter on Historical and theological background, and closes with a chapter on The writing of Pentecostal history. Sandwiched in between are chapters on ve major global regions: North America, Latin America/the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia/the South Pacic; and a chapter on Charismatic and Neopentecostal movements. I found a serious disjunction between the content of the historical and historiographical chapters at the beginning and end of this section, and the content of the six chapters sandwiched in between, revealing what I think is a fundamental methodological aw that continues to beset not just Andersons book but the eld that is called Pentecostal studies more generally today. I will return to that issue below. Part Two provides a brief overview of a number of themes in Pentecostal and Charismatic theologies from around the world. The rst of these, A theology of the Spirit, returns to the question of identity that opens the book. Here Anderson argues that the essence of Pentecostal and Charismatic theology is found in an experience of the fullness of the Spirit, often represented in baptismal terms. The next four chapters deal with a variety of issues in no particular order that I could discern. Anderson favors greater ecumenical cooperation and emphasis upon social transformation, offers a balanced assessment of the Word of Faith teaching, and opposes the alignment of Pentecostalism with Fundamentalism. Several times he

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hints at his conviction that Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity ultimately offer hope for the revitalization of world Christianity in all of its various traditions and streams, and as he says in the closing sentence of the book, even the salvation of Christianity itself in the next century from decline and eventual oblivion (p. 286). One of the questions that haunts the pages of this book is to what precisely does Pentecostalism refer. Following Walter Hollenweger, whom he calls the founding father of academic research into Pentecostalism (p. 13), Anderson opts for an inclusive denition of his subject. Along with the so-called classical Pentecostals he thus includes Charismatics, Neopentecostals, African Independent Churches, and others who are distinguished mainly by a heightened experience of the Spirit. While such an inclusive approach may seem necessary in order to do justice to the global Pentecostal reality, it poses several challenges. One is the danger of overgeneralization, a problem that Anderson readily acknowledges. Nevertheless, given the vast nature of his subject matter and the diversity of experiences that he seeks to represent, I was impressed overall with the degree of detail and the thickness of interpretation that Anderson succeeds in providing. A second problem immediately follows upon this observation. One has to wonder whether all of the factual details represented here are correct. Again, for the most part, I was impressed by his handling of the matter in these pages. This is not to say the work is without error at the level either of factual details or historical interpretation. On p. 46 he states that many early US Pentecostal leaders came from Baptist, Presbyterian and Christian and Missionary Alliance churches, who did not share the Holiness position. The Christian and Missionary Alliance was a Holiness fellowship, and most of the Baptist and Presbyterians who were attracted to Pentecostalism had been previously involved with some aspect of Holiness teaching. At several points I also found details of Andersons text confusing or confused. On p. 52 he writes, The largest classical Pentecostal churches in the USA today are the Church of God in Christ (COGIC, originally formed in 1885) and the AG Nine lines down on the same page, he writes, COGIC was founded in 1897 by Mason and C.P. Jones, who were former Baptist ministers who had embraced the Holiness position of entire sanctication. The apparent discrepancy between the two dates1885 and 1897is not resolved. At a deeper level, the notion that all of these diverse and sometimes divergent communities, experiences, or movements can all be encompassed by the overarching term Pentecostal raises a third challenge. It is one that begs the question of denition at a much deeper level: Why call

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IRVIN A Review of Andersons Introduction to Pentecostalism 49 them Pentecostal at all? Why not call them Spirit movements, and recognize classical Pentecostals as but one subset among a number of global movements today that are characterized by their heightened experience of the Spirit. Anderson seems to me at several key points to want to argue for maintaining the use of the term Pentecostal as it emerged self-consciously in a group of churches that were organized around the beginning of the twentieth century who trace their heritage in a signicant (although rarely exclusive) manner to the Azusa Street revival of 19061909. Here my concerns about Andersons book become specic: I think his efforts at historical narration betray both the historiographical and theological commitments the book is seeking to advance. In chapter two Anderson introduces the history of the global Pentecostal movement by offering a sweeping look at the history of Charismatic experiences in the rst centuries of Christianity east and west. The narrative narrows a bit as he moves to what he calls the Middle Ages. The narrative narrows decisively in the next chapter on Protestant Reformation and Subsequent Revivals, which in turn leads to Methodists and Moravians, and then to the nineteenth-century Anglo-American Holiness movement in the USA. Several branches of this Anglo-American tradition (e.g. Oberlin Perfectionism and Keswick) are noted, and some of the more signicant names are given attention. The international revivals of Wales, India and Korea are brought in at the end of this section, and are handled well. But by this point the framework has been set. Pentecostalism has its main historical roots in Western revival streams and especially the AngloAmerican Holiness movement of the nineteenth century, with the global experiences being added on almost as afterthoughts. The European-USA narrative provides the essence of the movement globally. In the chapter on North American Classical Pentecostalism, Anderson argues that the period of the Azusa Street revival was not only formative for classical Pentecostalism but should be seen as its fundamental essence and not merely as its infancy. Pentecostalism thus must consider its Azusa Street prototype to be the source of inspiration for theological and spiritual renewal (p. 45). Repeatedly through the text Anderson refers to the Azusa Street mission as being primarily grounded in the Black Church tradition and the African American experience. In his historical narration, however, this African American Church tradition is sorely under-represented, to say the least. The importance of slave religion and the African religious culture that historically fed into the African American Church tradition and helped shape William J. Seymour are acknowledged, as on p. 172, but nowhere is this history given adequate expression in the text.

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Anderson returns to the question of the place of Azusa Street in global Pentecostal and Charismatic movements in the chapter on The writing of Pentecostal history. He handles the question well, positioning Azusa Street not so much as being at the center of the global movement as being an amplier of the various global streams it heard about and sought to impact through its direct missionary efforts. Echoing Everett Wilson, Anderson says that Pentecostalism had many beginnings (p. 172). The history that Anderson offers fails to reect this insight, however, and offers us instead the beginnings of European-North American Pentecostal churches and experience. Nowhere does the text seem to reect self-consciously upon the absence of the history of Korea, India, China, Ghana, South Africa, El Salvador, or Wales. Some of the rst missionaries from Azusa Street, including Lucy Farrow, were African Americans who went to Liberia in 1907, Anderson notes on p. 115. But the complex West African Pentecostal history really begins with African preachers, he continues. I think this is historiographically correct. What is missing from the pages is the history of those preachers, and of the longer West African religious experience that preceded them and shaped them in their context. Likewise Anderson notes the need to read the Korean revival of 1907 against the background of Korean history. He does not show us how to develop such a global historical framework for understanding the wider history of Spirit-renewal movements in the twentieth century. I do not think that these historiographical concerns render Andersons work invalid. I offer them not to detract from his work so much as to help us all move further in the very direction that I believe he is pointing. As a truly global introduction to the Spirit-renewal Christian movements in the twentieth century this work stands head and shoulders above most other texts in the eld today. Any who would try to understand the global streams of Charismatic and Pentecostal movements today would do well to read Andersons work closely. I for one am appreciative of his effort and applaud his accomplishments.

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