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Holiness and Pentecostal Movements
Intertwined Pasts, Presents, and Futures
Edited by: David Bundy, Geordan Hammond and David Sang-Ehil Han
Series: Studies in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements
282 Pages
- Hardcover
- ISBN: 9780271092157
- Published By: Penn State University Press
- Published: February 2022
$114.95
Holiness and Pentecostal Movements: Intertwined Pasts, Presents, and Futures, edited by David Bundy, Geordan Hammond, and David Sang-Ehil Han, is the first in what promises to be an impactful series from Pennsylvania State University Press on Studies in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements. This series, one of the first of its kind from an academic press, comes at a fortunate time as scholars are increasingly looking to examine Pentecostal movements in light of the inroads that high profile individuals have made into politics and popular culture.
Although the essays in this book are very diverse, there are three basic themes of the work. The first is to examine the ways in which Holiness and Pentecostal leaders influenced each other and to demonstrate the various outcomes of that globally. The second theme is one of commonality, particularly shared imagery , struggles with social justice and problems with the development of pneumatology. The third theme involves the development of a common language and the rise of common concepts related to baptism, atonement and ideas about grace. The book is divided along these themes.
The first section is focused on the history of the movements as they appeared at times in the United States, India, the United Kingdom and Asia. Missionaries, evangelists, and local revivalists who have often been lumped in with other movements, such as the Keswick revivals or the Methodist missions, were influenced by Radical Holiness preachers in ways heretofore unexamined. Emphasis is placed on how the movements often overlapped geographically or how ministers from the Holiness tradition or trained by those in Holiness movements became part of the later Pentecostal movement, such as William Seymour, who attended God’s Bible School in Ohio. In this section, historical methods are used to place the work of significant figures, such as Pandita Ramabai, Alexander A. Boddy, and Henry Clay Morrison, in a Holiness context and to demonstrate the ways in which these figures reflected the early days of a growing movement. The value of this chapter is that it makes the Holiness connections of figures like Seymour apparent. Often, Pentecostal leaders seem to appear to adopt the movement suddenly. As these authors demonstrate, they had often been part of previous Holiness movements and were in conversation with other leaders who had a Holiness background.
The second section of the book looks at ecumenical attempts or commonalities among the movements and is largely focused on the United States and Korea. The section begins with an essay on railroads, which demonstrates that both Holiness and Pentecostal ministers found great value in the railroads and often spiritualized their journeys with such imagery. The section then shifts to one on Black women and their activist work as it was framed by Holiness principles and a desire for Christian unity. These first two sections, particularly the essays focused on the United States, contextualize the history in a way that some religious studies texts fail to do. The Pentecostal movement was born in the Progressive era, a period marked by rapid industrialization and shifts in technology, heightening concerns about the nation’s moral failings. In this case, the authors are to be commended for setting their subjects within the proper context and demonstrating the ways in which Holiness thinking defined them.
The third section of the book is theologically focused and examines the role of Spirit Baptism in atonement and the Pentecostal and Holiness view of grace, as well as the rise of what Chris Green, the author of the last chapter, labels the Cleveland School. This essay is a key one, illuminating an important dimension of Pentecostal theology influenced by Wesleyan thinking at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee. The idea that there are schools of Pentecostal thought is a relatively recent one, and Green makes his mark by defining parameters of this school. This chapter will be valuable to scholars as they examine shifts in Pentecostal theology.
Although it aims to be global in scope, Latin America and Africa are largely missing from this volume. Pentecostal groups, many of which have adopted Holiness values, have made large inroads into the global South. It would have been nice to see the ways in which the Holiness missions impacted the growth of Pentecostal movements in those parts of the world.
This volume, which encompasses both Pentecostal and Holiness movements, is in part a reaction to the siloed academic societies that currently study them. According to the editors, their objectives were to provide readers with a work that was interdisciplinary and global in scope, and which demonstrates the ways in which these two movements are intertwined. They have delivered on this promise and produced a work that is highly suitable for those undergoing study in Pentecostal or Holiness seminaries.
Andrea Shan Johnson is an associate professor of history at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Andrea JohnsonDate Of Review:March 14, 2023
David Bundy is Associate Director of the Manchester Wesley Research Centre. He is the author of Keswick: A Bibliographic Introduction to the Higher Life Movements and Visions of Apostolic Mission: Scandinavian Pentecostal Mission to 1935.
Geordan Hammond is Senior Lecturer in Church History and Wesley Studies at Nazarene Theological College, Manchester, and Director of the Manchester Wesley Research Centre. He is the author of John Wesley in America: Restoring Primitive Christianity and coeditor of the journal Wesley and Methodist Studies.
David Sang-Ehil Han is Dean of the Faculty/Vice President for Academics and Professor of Theology and Pentecostal Spirituality at Pentecostal Theological Seminary. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Manchester Wesley Research Centre and Publisher of Aldersgate Press.