Preface

This study introduces the reader to the history, theology and social scientific issues relating to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity, and its origins, development and significance throughout the world. In the new edition I hope to have corrected some of the shortcomings of the original book, but more specifically, to become more analytical and address challenges of normative theological writing and historical description. This edition follows the general format of the previous one, but with significant changes, including completely reorganized and expanded chapters. One chapter has been removed and another expanded into two chapters in order to give more space for discussion of important social and political issues. The book discusses connections between a maze of movements and leaders and the various ideas and controversies that constitute Pentecostalism. In the process of tracing the historical background to its early twentieth-century emergence and its subsequent influence on older churches, the book examines those issues that helped a distinctive spirituality to emerge and to create a new reformation and renewal of the church. It also shows how this emerging spirituality related to peoples and cultures in different parts of the world. The book discusses Pentecostalism in the different continents from its earliest origins and development to the present day, and the relationship between Pentecostals and Charismatics and their religious, political and social contexts. It aims to provide a global, non-parochial and contextual perspective on Pentecostalism.