Church History: The Evangelical and Pentecostal Tradition

Why did southern white evangelical Christians resist the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s? Simply put, they believed the Bible told them so. When the civil rights movement ultimately triumphed in the 1960s, it fundamentally changed southern society. But it didn't change white evangelicalism. Instead, the segregationist Christianity that fought against the civil rights movement lived on after the movement's success. Turning their attention to institutions they still controlled--churches, denominations, homes, and private high schools--white evangelicals continued to preach and practice segregationist Christianity, disguising it in language of colorblindness and family protection.

The fourth edition of Shelley's classic one-volume history of the church brings the story of Christianity into the twenty-first century. This latest edition of the book takes a close look at the rapid growth of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity in the southern hemisphere, addresses the decline in traditional mainline denominations, examines the influence of technology on the spread of the gospel, and discusses how Christianity intersects with other religions in countries all over the world. This concise book provides an easy-to-read guide to church history with intellectual substance. The new edition of Church History in Plain Language promises to be the new standard for readable church history. --From publisher's description.

Faith on the Avenue looks at just one street in one city—Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia—and the 80-90 communities of faith that are present on it. Sociologist Katie Day draws from her findings of a seven year study to argue that these religious communities are active agents in their local urban contexts, both shaping and being shaped by it. Far from being a benign presence, these congregations are engaging, and contributing to, the urban ecology in myriad ways and to varying degrees. Their agency, analyzed by this study, is captured in vivid images by photographer Edd Conboy. Through both quantitative and ethnographic research, Day analyzes the religious presence of historic churches, small independent Latino and African American congregations, mosques, mega churches and syncretized religious groups within the urban context with a critical clarity, insight and appreciation. For over 300 years, communities of faith along Germantown Avenue have provided spatial and cultural anchors to their neighborhoods, formal and informal human services, subtle contributions to safety and quality of life, bases of social boundary transcendence, and acted as vehicles for establishing identity for new arrivals to the city. This book can change the way faith communities in urban areas are seen by policy makers, students and researchers of cities, and religious institutions themselves.

In 2001, a collection of open and affirming churches with predominantly African American membership and a Pentecostal style of worship formed a radically new coalition. The group, known now as the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries or TFAM, has at its core the idea of 'radical inclusivity': the powerful assertion that everyone, no matter how seemingly flawed or corrupted, has holiness within. Whether you are LGBT, have HIV/AIDS, have been in prison, abuse drugs or alcohol, are homeless, or are otherwise compromised and marginalized, TFAM tells its people, you are one of God's creations. In 'Filled with the Spirit', Ellen Lewin gives us a deeply empathetic ethnography of the worship and community central to TFAM.

""Holy Rollers""--With this epithet most people dismiss members of the Pentecostal sect as wild religious fanatics. In this new study, folklorist Elaine Lawless draws on fieldwork among Pentecostal congregations in the limestone region of southern Indiana to offer a sympathetic view of the Pentecostals as a special group distinguished by their own folk traditions and religious expression. From her findings she describes the members' codes of dress and behavior, their attitudes toward themselves and others, their special use of words, and their distinctive religious practices.

After a century of Pentecostal-charismatic mission in Africa, one of the major challenges faced by denominations is how to remain contextually relevant and survive beyond the original generation without losing their authenticity and identity. This book explores the mission models of Apostle James McKeown, a British Pentecostal missionary and founder of the largest Pentecostal church in Ghana, the Church of Pentecost. It argues that mission theology should be reconsidered for each generation because differences in generational cultures, just like in geographical cultures, impinge on Christian mission. The book proposes an intergenerational mission approach (IGMA) as a missiological imperative for African Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity.

Drawing on pentecostal experience of growing church networks, this book offers a systematic ecclesiology that provides a fresh approach to catholicity, church structures, partnership and contextualisation.

This book is about the boisterous beginnings of the American Pentecostal movement and the ideas that defined that movement during those formative years. It follows a group of men who rethought the Christian faith in light of their new experience of God. Thinking in the Spirit aims to provide scholars and general readers who know little or nothing about Pentecostalism with an introduction to the ideas of the movement's most articulate early spokespersons, and to provide Pentecostals with a non-judgmental historical source to help them in their theological reflections. Douglas Jacobsen focuses on the individuals who formed the original brain trust of this now gigantic religious movement. In a 25-year burst of creative energy at the beginning of the 20th century, these leaders articulated almost all the basic theological ideas that continue to define the Pentecostal message in the United States and around the world.

This book seeks to set forth the story of a phenomenon of the 20th century, the story of the Assemblies of God, largest of the American Pentecostal bodies. From humble beginnings at Hot Springs, Ark., in 1914, the Assemblies of God has developed into a movement of over 10,100 churches in the United States, each of which lends support to a foreign missionary force of many hundreds. In recent years there have been so many events taking place within the Assemblies of God that the need for an updating of the story became apparent. Dr. William W. Menzies was asked to take the assignment. The fundamental thesis of the book, substantiated by religious leaders in the Pentecostal Movement and beyond, is that the Assemblies of God represents a microcosm of the Pentecostal Movement. Therefore the updating of the story of the denomination has far more than parochial significance. ANOINTED TO SERVE outlines in detail the development of the organizational structure from its earliest beginning, and it traces the history and development of the various departments that are needed to facilitate the wide rand of services performed by the denomination.

"An unprecedented mix of pentecostal theology and mission practice. . . . The fullest and finest missiological treatise originating within classical Pentecostalism available."--Russell P. Spittler

A historian to be reckoned with as winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bancroft Prize, FitzGerald here considers what the evangelical movement has meant to America. She begins in the 1700s and 1800s with the Great Awakening and moves to the present, showing that evangelism is not a strictly right-wing phenomenon.

Helps church leaders recover ancient understandings of Christian belief and practice from the early church fathers and apply them to ministry in the twenty-first century.

Wacker gives an in-depth account of the practices of American pentecostal churches. He examines aspects of pentecostal culture, including rituals, speaking in tongues, the authority of the Bible, the central role of Jesus in everyday life, the gifts of prophecy and healing, ideas about personal appearance, women's roles, and race relations.

Jonathan Edwards talked about more than "sinners in the hands of an angry God." This book examines his vision, theology, and legacy within American Protestantism.

For many years now an overriding passion has motivated my research--the construction of a social ethic for the Hispanic Pentecostal Church in the United States. This social ethic, though, must cohere with the Hispanic American socio-cultural experience as well as be consistent with Hispanic Pentecostalism's self-understanding of ethics emerging from its experience of the Spirit. This has been the not too modest goal of this book. You, the reader, will be the judge whether I have made some contribution towards the end. - from the Introduction by the author.

This is a significant in-depth study that explores the cultural context of the religious experience of West Indian immigrant communities. Whereas most studies to date have focused on how immigrants settle in their new home contexts, Janice A. McLean-Farrell argues for a more comprehensive perspective that takes into account the importance of religion and the role of both 'home' and the 'host' contexts in shaping immigrant lives in the Diaspora. West Indian Pentecostals: Living Their Faith in New York and London explores how these three elements (religion, the 'home' and 'host' contexts) influence the ethnic-religious identification processes of generations of West Indian immigrants. Using case studies from the cities of New York and London, the book offers a critical cross-national comparison into the complex and indirect ways the historical, socio-economic, and political realities in diaspora contribute to both the identification processes and the 'missional' practices of immigrants. Its focus on Pentecostalism also provides a unique opportunity to test existing theories and concepts on the interface of religion and immigration and makes important contributions to the study of Pentecostalism.