The Canon · No. 095
Pentecostalism
The Charismatic movement; Renewalist Christianity
1901/1906 CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · Brazil, Nigeria, US, Philippines, Kenya, Guatemala, China
VII. THE MODERN AGE — 1800 – 1945
How many
Roughly 280 million classical Pentecostals; up to 600–650 million including charismatics within Catholic and mainline churches. The fastest-growing Christian movement in history — from zero to a quarter of all Christians in about a hundred years.
Who began it
Charles Fox Parham, whose Topeka Bible school student Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues on 1 January 1901; and decisively William J. Seymour (1870–1922), a one-eyed Black preacher, son of former slaves, who led the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles from 1906.
What it is for
To recover the power of the New Testament church — the gifts of the Spirit, exercised now.
What it worships
The Trinity, though Oneness Pentecostals reject it, baptising in Jesus' name alone and holding that Father, Son and Spirit are modes of one person. This is a substantial minority.
What it holds
Baptism in the Holy Spirit as an experience distinct from and subsequent to conversion, evidenced classically by speaking in tongues (glossolalia). The gifts of the Spirit — prophecy, healing, discernment, interpretation — are for today, not only for the apostolic age. Biblical literalism. Divine healing. Imminent return of Christ. In some streams, the widely criticised prosperity gospel, which teaches that faith and giving produce material wealth and health.
What it does
Extended participatory worship with contemporary music, raised hands, spontaneous prayer aloud, dancing, and being slain in the Spirit. Altar calls. Testimony. Deliverance ministry and exorcism, prominent in African and Latin American churches. Lay leadership and rapid church planting, which is the mechanical reason for the growth rate: a Pentecostal church can be started by anyone, anywhere, with no seminary, no building and no denominational permission.
After death
Standard evangelical Protestant eschatology — heaven and hell, a literal second coming, and in most streams a pre-tribulation rapture and a millennium.
Its texts
The Bible, read literally and applied directly.
Its branches
Classical Pentecostal denominations (Assemblies of God, Church of God in Christ, Foursquare); Oneness Pentecostals; the charismatic movement inside mainline and Catholic churches; neo-charismatic and African-initiated churches; the Word of Faith and prosperity stream.
Of note
Pentecostalism is the most successful religious movement of the last century by any measure. It began in a Black-led mission in a stable and now accounts for roughly one in twelve people alive.
Its timeline
- 1901 CE Topeka; Agnes Ozman speaks in tongues.
- <strong>1906–1909 CE</strong> Azusa Street. Seymour's mission in a converted stable on a Los Angeles side street holds services three times a day for three years, drawing visitors from around the world. It is racially integrated at the height of Jim Crow — one witness wrote that the colour line was washed away in the blood, though it re-formed within a decade.
- 1914 CE Assemblies of God formed, by white ministers separating from the Black-led Church of God in Christ.
- 1916 CE The Oneness split over the Trinity.
- 1940s–50s CE Healing revivals; Oral Roberts, William Branham; the beginnings of televangelism.
- 1960 CE The charismatic movement enters mainline Protestantism; Dennis Bennett, an Episcopal priest, tells his congregation he has spoken in tongues.
- 1967 CE Catholic Charismatic Renewal begins at Duquesne University; it now involves well over 100 million Catholics and has been affirmed by successive popes.
- 1970s–present Explosive growth in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Brazil's Assemblies of God become the largest Pentecostal body in the world; Nigeria's Redeemed Christian Church of God holds services for hundreds of thousands.
- 1987–88 CE The Bakker and Swaggart scandals damage American televangelism.
- 1994 CE The Toronto Blessing.
- 2000s–present Pentecostal political mobilisation becomes a decisive electoral force in Brazil, Nigeria, Guatemala and the United States.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.