Sociology and the Spirit: a review of Peter Marina’s Getting the Holy Ghost by Joy Allan.

Peter Marina, Getting the Holy Ghost: Urban Ethnography in a Brooklyn Pentecostal Tongue-Speaking Church (Lexington Books, 2014), 322 pages, ISBN 9781498503563.

A snapshot: A young man sits alone in an office, adaptable, patient, ready to listen. He is aware of the words he has written and read, aware that he must be ready to interpret those words for his audience and bring them to meaning. Who is this man? A pastor? No. A prophet? Perhaps. He is in fact, a sociologist, and the author of the book Getting the Holy Ghost: Urban Ethnography in a Brooklyn Pentecostal Tongue-speaking Church. He is Peter Marina, and his book suprised me.

Marina describes himself as ‘unsaved, white sociologist,’ who does not ‘speak in tongues.’ This would be unsurprising except that this, his first book, is an incredibly insightful ethnographic study of a ‘Black Tongue-speaking Pentecostal church.’ His research aim was to move beyond a knowledge of Pentecostalism for its ‘bizarre habits’ towards an ethnography which ‘built on participant observation, puts those outsiders inside the church pews.’ He fulfills this aim well. So well that in spite of some fault and my own trepidation, I loved this work.

My trepidation came from my position as both a ‘tongue-speaking Pentecostal,’ and a Pentecostal scholar who uses sociological methods in her own work. I was worried that by putting ‘tongue speaking church’ in the very centre of the title, he was giving it a more normative position than it has in many of our churches, thus setting up a straw man for his research aim. I also worried initially that he was going to follow in the wake of the few outside sociologists who wade into Pentecostal communities with little of the scriptural and historical background of their chosen community. This can lead to compromised data. The researchers do not know the scriptural and social causes of the narratives of their participants, and thus their understanding of the very lives and speech which they are researching is compromised. I worried that Marina was going to be of this ilk.

Peter Marina

I needn’t have. I was surprised by the scholarly merit of this work, the deep theological and psychological understanding which Marina had of his congregation. Yes, there were moments when he displayed a lack of knowledge concerning his participants’ influences, yet, the book was good. It was good enough to be of benefit not only to scoiologists and academics, but to Pentecostals, ‘tongue-speaking’ or otherwise, as we learn more about our structure and form from one who has had the opportunity to sit back, observe and take note over such a long time.

This is a good article. Reading it made me feel as though someone is finally saying in public what I have heard said in private far too many times over the course of my research. Shame and false guilt lead many of us to stay silent about the mental health issues which affect 1 in 4 Americans/Brits.

This article states it clearly, ‘One might assume that the Church would be at the forefront of providing resources and actively engaging those who are battling depression, anxiety and a host of mental illnesses-but this is generally not the case.’ The call to listen, help and walk with others is clear. The call to remember that, ‘given the right set of circumstances everyone is vulnerable to mental illness’ may be controversial in many of our churches, but it is a call which we are required to listen to. This is as much for the sake of those of us who are well as those of us who are not. Pam and Butch Frey’s great experience in pastoral care shines through in their clear articulation of a fundamental issue.  This is an article worth reading.

Reviewed by Deborah Joy Allan

Editor’s note: For more on Joy’s research project investigating Pentecostal/charismatics and depression, look at her blog: http://www.pentecostalsanddepression.wordpress.com