The Pentecostal movement in North America and beyond

Abstract

Pentecostalism began in North America and spread across the globe. It grew out of the ferment of American religious life and manifested elements of Wesleyan Methodism and Holiness theology. The Azusa Street revival after 1906 facilitated its world‐wide dissemination. After the 1960s the charismatic movement or ‘second wave’ provided further momentum to the movement, and this was supplemented by indigenous Pentecostalism in the developing world.

Notes

Most of this is detailed in Vinson Synan's Holiness Pentecostal Tradition (1997) and The Century of the Holy Spirit (2001). Barrett's statistics and much more can be found in The Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (2002). Walter Hollenweger's Pentecostalism: origins and developments worldwide (1997) describes many Pentecostal movements in the developing nations of the world.

The Methodist–Holiness link with early Pentecostalism was developed in Vinson Synan's Holiness Pentecostal Movement in the United States (1971).

Although tongues had appeared sporadically in America before 1901, notably among Shakers, Mormons, and the Fire‐Baptized people in the Schearer schoolhouse in North Carolina in 1896 (later claimed by the Church of God), the first person to formulate a doctrine of ‘Bible evidence’ of tongues was Charles Parham.

Eyewitness accounts are given in Bartleman (1925).

For evaluations on Seymour and Parham, see Synan (1997).

This detailed in Synan (1997). Also see Edith Blumhofer, The Assemblies of God (1989) and William Menzies, Anointed to Serve (1971).

David Barrett (2001) World Christian Encyclopedia. Some Classical Pentecostals profoundly disagree with Barrett on his estimates. Millions of people that Barrett lists as ‘neo‐Charismatics’ have always been counted as part of the historic Pentecostal movement. The author believes that the number of ‘Denominational Pentecostals’ in the world number close to 250,000,000 persons.