Frank Macchia is one of the most recognizable Pentecostal theologians well-known for his advocacy of Spirit baptism. Far from engagement with insider concerns that are of interest only to Pentecostals, Macchia is a constructive and ecumenical thinker with particular emphasis also on the doctrines of the Trinity and the kingdom of God. Along the demands of this broader theological engagement, his latest works have taken the theme of Spirit baptism as the basis for constructing works on Justification (Justified in the Spirit), Christology (Jesus, the Spirit Baptizer), and ecclesiology (The Spirit Baptized Church). With Tongues of Fire, Macchia now offers a comprehensive systematic theology—albeit not explicitly under the theme of Spirit baptism but under the scandalous expression of this theme taken from the “tongues of fire” (Acts 2:3) in the biblical story of Pentecost. “Tongues of fire,” writes Macchia, “ultimately define our capacity to experience God” (p. 88). Still, apart from a dozen or so references throughout the text, the book has far more to say about Spirit baptism, including a dedicated section (pp. 299-317), than about “tongues.” Even the publisher’s description suggests that the book was “written with Christ’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit from the heavenly Father at Pentecost as its dominant motif.” This observation is not insignificant to a reviewer who has always encouragingly reminded Macchia that his early work on tongues will be remembered as his most evocative theology. But with the obvious reference to Spirit baptism already taken by one of Macchia’s other books (Baptized in the Spirit), the choice of title is undoubtedly a well-considered reflection of his life-long work and the underlying intentions of this systematic theology. Tongues of Fire will attract Pentecostal readers and yet challenge them to “interpret” the “tongues” differently from what they might have expected. What the book promises as a theme all-too familiar to Pentecostals is transformed into a metaphor for Pentecostal scholarship that is far more provocative.

Writing and publishing a systematic theology as a Pentecostal scholar is no easy feat. There is still a persistent stereotype among some publishers about the theological contributions of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. On the other hand, many of the once thriving series dedicated to Pentecostal scholarship are no longer published, and publishers who were once able to sustain a larger body of Pentecostal literature are forced to direct proposals towards textbooks rather than research-based monographs. That this work is published in a bespoke series “Word & Spirit: Pentecostal Investigations in Theology and History” testifies to the dilemma that integrating Pentecostal works in the established theological publishing landscape remains difficult. The challenge is hidden on the first pages in the Library of Congress subject headings which identify the content as “Pentecostal churches–doctrines” yet also “Theology, Doctrinal” (p. iv). Macchia’s path is the ambitious road between, a trail all Pentecostal theologians have to navigate with far more care than many of the theologians of other traditions. This context places the achievement of the book in a different light. What Macchia proposes is not simply a Pentecostal version of traditional doctrines but a Pentecostal approach to theology as “tongues of fire” that represent “an overload of prophetic communication” where “the fire signifies the purity of truth” (p. xvii). What Macchia is after is a declaration of the wonders of God where the Pentecostal theological language is not an exception but can be understood in all the languages of the world. “Theology, as an academic discipline, joins the church’s speech,” Macchia proposes, “in a search for fitting understanding and declaration” (p. xviii-xix). Reading the book as just an attempt to interpret the spectrum of Christian doctrines from a Pentecostal perspective therefore diminishes its intentions. That Tongues of Fire is a biblical metaphor applied to an academic endeavor should alert Pentecostals to the possibility that the Spirit poured out on all flesh can indeed be received in academic theology and publishing.

The book is comprised of six parts: the first three chapters address (1) the task of theology, followed by four chapters on (2) God, and two chapters each on (3) Christ, (4) Holy Spirit, (5) Church, and (6) final purpose. With this outline, Macchia follows the organization of traditional evangelical systematic theology. About two decades ago, Pentecostal scholars held a prolonged discussion on the idea whether there could be a “systematic” Pentecostal theology in the first place. Macchia answers this question in the affirmative. A particular debate since then has been what that systematic theology would look like, whether it follows the traditional theological patterns, and what exactly it contributes to that tradition. Macchia’s project endorses the traditional order, and this choice has the advantage that his proposal will be familiar to a wide audience, allowing them to integrate the Pentecostal perspective into an already established way of thinking. Macchia is aware of the history of systematic theology (pp. 11-16) and views it as a discussion of “doctrinal proposals in a way that shows the coherence and unity of truth across the specific topics” (p. 11). Hence, he asserts that “the loci of systematic theology rightly put God first” (14) and “the first three loci of the Triune God have prime of place” (15) followed by salvation, church, and the perfection of new creation. In the larger historical tradition, Tongues of Fire joins the modern “struggle to understand the top loci of systematic theology” (61) in what may be described as a Pentecostal commentary on the articles of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. More specifically, the Pentecostal perspective engages with the core doctrines of Christology and pneumatology. Adapted to read through a Pentecostal lens, in this theology “Christ himself is present in the presence of the Spirit and it remains by the Spirit that we confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of the Father” (16). The greatest advantage of Macchia’s approach is that it allows Pentecostals to situate their place in the history of the theological tradition and to proceed from there as an original theological trajectory that can now be further developed.

Reviewed by Wolfgang Vondey

Further Reading

Frank Macchia’s webpage: https://www.frankdmacchia.com/

Tony Richie’s review of Baptized in the Spirit: A Global Pentecostal Theology

It is easy to agree that human beings are created in the image of God. More debate may arise if we widen the idea to say that humankind as a whole—humanity if you will—reflects the divine image. The difference between the two may be described as the primary focus of the kind of public theology that forms the subject of Daniela Augustine’s book. As the title suggests, she offers a vision of shared flourishing in the image of God that focuses on how God’s Spirit leads humanity to the common good. In her own terms, she pursues the question how a market-shaped world can be mended by the common good in the Spirit’s activity. This task leads through the question how we can get from the common image to the common good (Chapter 1) and how we turn from a world of violence that destroys God’s image to a life that reflects the new creation (Chapter 2). The way to answer these questions leads trough rather unusual terrain for Pentecostals: the recovery of the Eucharist as a sacrament of the divine presence in the realm of economics (Chapter 3) and the experience of forgiveness and reconciliation in the agency of the Spirit (Chapter 4). The book concludes with reflections on how Christians make this agency visible and what moral imperatives are gained for a concrete living community.

Daniela C. Augustine is Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at Lee University.

Augustine’s unusual repertoire for this volume comes from field work with the Pentecostal community in Eastern Slavonia and religion’s role in the transformation of postwar civil society. Augustine argues that “due to their historical neutrality in the conflict, the Pentecostals were uniquely positioned to provide safe space for social healing and facilitate reconciliation among the warring (Orthodox, Catholic, and Muslim) factions” (p. 5). This research provides the backdrop for writing a narrative of the human agency that contributes to the healing and flourishing of life, a hagiography, in the terms of the Christian traditions, or in Augustine’s contemporary terms, a narrative of “the socio-transformative capacity of the saints’ lives as pneumatic embodiment of the world’s eschatological future” (p. 7). That this imagery and vocabulary is not usual for Pentecostal discourse, especially in the West, and the application of this “ancient” Christian tradition, particularly with resources from Eastern Orthodoxy, to contemporary concerns for peace, justice, and forgiveness, on the one hand, and to economics and human flourishing, on the other, make this book both a constructive and creative as well as a challenging read.

Reviewed by Wolfgang Vondey

Publisher’s page: https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/4385/the-spirit-and-the-common-good.aspx

Pentecostals are well acquainted with the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the argument that it is Jesus who baptizes the church at Pentecost. But if Jesus is the Spirit baptizer, what does this act mean for our understanding of Jesus himself, for Jesus’ own history, and for the way he imparts the Spirit at Pentecost? These are the main questions Frank Macchia pursues in his book, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer. Macchia has been relentless in his focus on Spirit baptism as an organizing principle or the “crown jewel” of Pentecostal theology, as he calls it in his earlier work. For much of his career, he has provided a pathway to envision and revise what is arguably at the center of Pentecostal history by pointing to the wider ecumenical and theological implications of Pentecostal thought for the Christian world. This volume continues on the same path with a refreshing and inspiring analysis of the person and work of Christ by arguing that it is Pentecost, not Easter, that is the climax of the Incarnation.

The argument unfolds in three parts, each comprised of two chapters. Part 1 explains the task of Christology in the terms of traditional Christological method (chapter 1) and the challenges to Christology in the light of Pentecost (chapter 2). Part 2 focuses on Christ’s Incarnation (chapter 3) and his baptism and anointing (chapter 4). The final part addresses the death and resurrection (chapter 5) and Christ’s act of baptizing with the Spirit (chapter 6). With these significant discussions, Macchia hopes to address the chief questions of Christology: Who is Jesus in relation to God? Is Jesus truly divine? Who is Christ in relation to humanity? Is he truly human? And how do we understand his work and its ongoing significance?

First Virtual Global Pentecostal Studies Conference: “Mapping Global Pentecostal Issues”

When: Saturday, 31st October 2020, from 12:00-20:00.

What: The European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism (GloPent) will be having its first Virtual Conference, hosted by The Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies at the University of Birmingham. The theme is “Mapping Global Pentecostal Issues.”  

Keynote Speakers

J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu (Trinity Theological Seminary Ghana). “The Lord is the Spirit (II Corinthians 3:17): An African Critique of Global Pentecostal Theologies.”

Corneliu Constantineanu (Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad). “The Spirit Engaging and Transforming Life: Tenets of Romanian Pentecostalism.”

Daniel Chiquete (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey). “¿Lugares del espíritu? El pentecostalismo y sus representaciones espaciales en América Latina” (in Spanish).

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (Fuller Theological Seminary). “Identities of Global Pentecostalism(s) in the Pluralistic and Secular World: Theological Tasks and Challenges.”

More Information: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/ptr/departments/theologyandreligion/events/2020/glopent-world.aspx

Hardly a Christian tradition is more obsessed with the physical and embodied forms of the Christian life than Pentecostalism. The Pentecostal movement manifests a change among contemporary religious traditions in major part because of its emphasis on the holistic nature of human participation in the experience of God. All the more surprising is therefore that Pentecostals have not sufficiently developed a distinctively Pentecostal philosophy of art and aesthetics. In Pentecostal Aesthetics, with a foreword by Amos Yong, Steven Félix-Jäger addresses this lacuna by reflecting theologically on art and aesthetics from a global Pentecostal perspective and through a pneumatological lens. He contends that Pentecostal aesthetics emerges from the global, experiential, and Spirit-centered nature of the Pentecostal movement. The book proposes that Pentecostal aesthetics can be ontologically grounded in a relativistic theory of art that is sensitive to its ontological foundations. The surprising outcome of this endeavor is that from today’s contemporary artworld Pentecostals can gain abundant insight about the work of the Holy Spirit.

The first part of the book details in two chapters the broader history of art and the ontological grounds for a Pentecostal philosophy of art and aesthetics. The first chapter follows historical trends in art and aesthetics and traces the cultural conditions in the West. The second chapter seeks to ground aesthetics within an appropriate philosophical system for identifying Pentecostal contributions. Félix-Jäger argues that a Pentecostal philosophy of art and aesthetics is grounded in the pneumatocentric and experiential aspects of Pentecostal spirituality.

A handbook of Pentecostal Christianity is an important addition to the growth of recent literature introducing Pentecostal beliefs and practices. Twenty-four scholars provide concise essays on fifty topics in a format of a Reader or Introduction suitable for a general audience and students of religion (and Pentecostalism). Stewart has assembled an illustrious group of well-known scholars on Pentecostalism with strong and concise essays on topics matching their subject expertise. The result is an engaging explanation of various phenomena characterizing the global Pentecostal movement, from standard entries, including the Azusa Street mission and revival, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the full gospel, exorcism, prophecy, and divine healing, to theological topics, including ecclesiology, eschatology, and dispensationalism, to important figures, such as William J. Seymour, William Howard Durham, and Aimee Semple McPherson, this handbook is a “handy” resource when more exhaustive dictionaries and encyclopedias of Pentecostalism are not available.

The book serves two objectives: (1) to assist college, university, and seminary students interested in Pentecostalism, and (2) to serve the general reader as a concise resource. Although the book resembles a reference-style dictionary, it is not intended as an exhaustive resource but rather as a collection of concise entry-points by Pentecostal scholars to the history, theology, practices, and contemporary forms of Pentecostalism. A brief introduction precedes the essays and highlights the purpose of the book, the selection of entries, and perspectives of the authors, and concludes with a sample course outline for using the book in the classroom. At Stewart’s own admission, the entries of the book are heavily weighted toward North American classical Pentecostalism. The essays are written from what could be considered a broadly critical perspective, with the intention to provide ten lead essays from a largely normative perspective (which appears identical with the classical Pentecostal perspective): Acts of the Apostles, Baptism of the Holy Spirit, exorcism, healing, hermeneutics, Holy Spirit, initial evidence, salvation, spiritual gifts, and suffering. The main objective is undoubtedly to cover topics of Pentecostal Christianity that most (classical) Pentecostals would consider essential.

Adam Stewart

The choice of topics is certainly debatable, and disagreement might be expected. Nonetheless, the fifty topics selected are a sound basis for this introductory text. Perhaps more significant is the identification of normative essays anchoring the selection on particular doctrinal themes. A different option would be to identify several key contextual essays on the global nature of Pentecostalism: African Pentecostalism, Asian Pentecostalism, Australian Pentecostalism, European Pentecostalism, Latin American Pentecostalism, Native American Pentecostalism, North American Pentecostalism, and Oneness Pentecostalism. In contrast, the identification of Pentecostalism as an “American” religion (4) is unfortunately counterproductive to the purposes of the book, to many of the topics, and several authors included in the collection. The proposed course outline reflects this choice in a manner that should essentially be reversed: two segments on global Pentecostalism are sandwiched between historical, practical, and doctrinal explanations that portray Pentecostals as a revival movement which has migrated from North America. Awareness of origins, institutions, and developments outside of North America (and predating the American revivals) can be found in the essays but is not widely represented. The fact that the ten normative essays are written by only three scholars from the global North adds to the challenges to portray Pentecostalism as a global Christian phenomenon. These features are not likely readily apparent to the general reader or beginning student of religion and unfortunately perpetuate the idea that Pentecostalism is an American product. When this limitation is understood, the book should serve well readers in the North American market. For a global perspective, however, other supplementary texts should be consulted.

There are two things every Pentecostal, and everyone interested in Pentecostalism, should learn from the outset: (1) Pentecostalism is global, and (2) the global Pentecostal movement has many faces. These two aspects form the premise for the present volume edited by Hunter and Ormerod, a collection of 15 papers produced at an ecumenical meeting hosted by the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies in 2012. The volume speaks critically to the often narrow definition of global Pentecostalism and joins those who instead speak of “many origins” (Allan Anderson), “many tongues” (Amos Yong), and “many contexts” (Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen) to highlight the geographical, historical, theological, and sociocultural diversity of Pentecostal voices.

The volume consists of three sections: the first offers “Global Voices from Oxford” consisting of three prominent professors (Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Paul S. Fiddes, and Wonsuk Ma); the second joins voices from “The Global South” including Connie Au (China), Yohanna Katanacho (Palestine), Elizabeth Salazar-Sanzana (Chile), Augustine Luvis-Núñez (Puerto Rico), J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu (Ghana), Philippe Quédraogo (Burkina Faso), Clifton Clarke (Great Britain), and Olga Zaptometova (Russia). In the third section, authors from “The Global North” examine significant opportunities and concerns for different Pentecostal communities, including Latina/o Pentecostals (Daniel Ramírez), Australian Pentecostals (Mark Hutchinson), Anglican-Pentecostal relations (David Hilborn), and Canadian Pentecostals (Pamela S. Homes).

The editors themselves have wide experience in the global diversity of the Pentecostal movement(s). Hunter actively engages in ecumenical activities with the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and Eastern Orthodox Churches. As director of the archives and research center of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC), he has occupied executive denominational and teaching positions. Ormerod, professor of theology at Australian Catholic University, has written on Pentecostalism and is involved in various capacities with Australian Pentecostals. A brief preface by the editors, and a short introduction by Hunter suggesting that “Global Pentecostals are not ‘Protestants’ and are not ‘western’” sets the tone for the subsequent essays.

The collection is coherent in themes, with each chapter focusing on a different context, while also addressing specific themes within those contexts. The result is not necessarily an introduction to global Pentecostalism but a snapshot of the diversity of Pentecostalism worldwide, including the difficulty to speak of Pentecostalism as a whole. In this sense, a difficulty of the collection lies precisely in this aspect to help the reader understand how to approach the different sections and contexts. The editor’s preface summarizes the chapters yet offers no guidelines for reading; the introduction highlights select themes of Pentecostal theology, albeit without establishing clear links to the present collection. A similar difficulty exists with the initial “global” perspectives on Pentecostalism in section one, which do not speak directly to each other nor engage the subsequent sections. Finally, the division of chief sections into “global South” and “global North” perpetuates divisions that, although factual, are counterproductive to the overall argument of the book by suggesting that there are, in fact, “two faces” rather than “many faces” of Pentecostalism.

This collection is a good start for Pentecostal ministers and observers to learn about the movement, the difficulties of its characterization and categorization. The essays initiate the reader into the diversity of Pentecostal voices, the chapters are brief and make for quick reading and reflection, and footnotes show a variety of international sources, typically in English. The text would serve well as an introductory reading for undergraduate students, perhaps paired with the Cambridge Companion to Pentecostalism (edited by Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. and Amos Yong), the standard Introduction to Pentecostalism (Allan Anderson), and the theologically oriented introduction, Pentecostalism in the Guide for the Perplexed Series (Wolfgang Vondey). Together, these sources suggest that the development of Pentecostalism worldwide signals the development of global Christianity in the twenty-first century. In response, Pentecostals would do well to reflect this global diversity also in their local contexts. When the local and the global meet, only then we can truly speak of Pentecostalism as the many faces of a worldwide movement.

Reviewed by Wolfgang Vondey

Publisher’s page: https://www.createspace.com/4448553

Amos Yong and Estrelda Alexander, eds., Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 261 pages, ISBN 9780814797310.         

Black pentecostal and charismatic Christianity has long been one of the most neglected topics of North American religious history and culture. Estrelda Alexander, an African American professor of theology, and otherwise known for her work, Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism (Intervarsity), and Amos Yong, an Asian American professor of theology, both at Regent University, haven taken on the project to provide a pioneering and multidisciplinary collection of scholars who collaborate on closing the gap on the Black dimensions of the Pentecostal movement. In this groundbreaking work, fourteen scholars discuss the complex reality noted in the title of the book as “Afro-Pentecostalism,” including classical Wesleyan Holiness Pentecostals, classical Apostolic groups, also known as Oneness Pentecostals, charismatic independent Pentecostals, and recent neo-Pentecostals within the wider Black Church tradition. The result is a unique, insightful, multidisciplinary, interracial collection that should complement every library on contemporary Pentecostalism.

After a general introduction by the editors on the shifting strategies and changing discourses of Afro-Pentecostalism, the collection unfolds in five parts: (1) origins, (2) gender and culture, (3) prophetic ethics, (4) pneumatology, and (5) Afro-Pentecostalism in global context. The book features predominantly African American authors, including David Daniels, Leonard Lovett, William Turner, and Frederick Ware (all Pentecostal), as well as Valerie Cooper, Clarence Hardy, Cheryl Sanders, and Ogbu Kalu (all not Pentecostals), and is complemented by the white scholars Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. (Pentecostal) joined by Louis Gallien, Craig Scandrett-Leatherman, and Dale Irvin (all not Pentecostals). Bringing together insights from within and without the Pentecostal traditions and African American Pentecostalism, the chapters draw on historical studies, theology, cultural anthropology, ethics, missiology, and religious studies that cross the borders of color, race, and ethnicity.

The history of modern-day Pentecostalism is still in its infant stage. At this crucial moment of telling the Pentecostal story, a typical syndrome of Pentecostal historiography is racial exclusiveness. Perhaps a form of “narrative racism,” or more likely ignorance and habit, the stories tend to be told in exclusively black or white perspectives. Moreover, those who tell the stories tend to align with the color of choice: white Pentecostals tell a white history, Black Pentecostalism is narrated by the African American community. In contrast, Afro-Pentecostalism sheds new “color” on a story that is one of conflict (narrated by Robeck’s essay) and the need to “navigate the territory” (Daniels’ essay) between civil and religious communities divided by race and ethnicity. This larger history is reflected in the story of women in Afro-Pentecostalism (narrated by Cooper and Hardy) and the rhymes and rhythms of African American culture (told by Scandrett-Leatherman and Gallien). The result of cultural and religious suppression on the surface is a prophetic mode of existence and operation (narrated by Sanders and Lovett). In the depths of the theological terrain, Afro-Pentecostalism also contributes unique insights for the theological task, particularly the renaissance of pneumatology (narrated by Turner) and Black Liberation Theology (told by Ware). From these various roots, Afro-Pentecostalism has expanded to global contexts (narrated by Kalu and Irvin).

The essays are strong and personal narratives of a present-day Pentecostalism, not observations of a bygone era. Individual essays can easily serve as discussion starters in churches and college courses. Most essays are critical, often self-critical, of the status quo among a racially divided Pentecostal movement. Afro-Pentecostalism is an important contribution to initiate the end of racial divisions by telling shades of the Pentecostal story that have long been neglected. Editorial introductions to each section further chart the trajectories and shape the larger story of the Black Church and the Pentecostal movement.

As one of the most prolific Pentecostal theologians, Amos Yong is no stranger to the science and religion dialogue, although this volume is his first independent monograph dedicated to Pentecostal contributions to the debate. Yong’s previous writings on the topic are distributed across a variety of academic essays and articles and not always readily accessible. The Spirit of Creation assembles a collection of these texts into a deftly argued Pentecostal manifesto that calls Pentecostals out of the dark ages of the pre-modern world. For Yong, Pentecostals have a significant place in the scientific discussions due to their emphasis on the dynamic presence and activity of the Holy Spirit.

Yong’s primary rationale for insisting on the Pentecostal engagement of the sciences (and vice versa) emerges from a reading of the forces of modernization that have enabled the prospering of both the sciences and Pentecostalism. For Yong, it is a mistake to equate Pentecostalism with a pre-modern movement or anti-modern tendencies. Instead, Pentecostals are also impacted by the advance of the scientific worldview and both worlds do not have to be seen in contrast to one another: science and Pentecostalism are different linguistic and cultural outlooks on the natural world that both declare the fullness of God’s truth. For Yong, a withdrawal of Pentecostals from the conversation would damage their credibility not only from the scientific perspective but from the entire viewpoint of the late modern world. In contrast, Yong suggests that the Pentecostal perspective offers a unique contribution to the dialogue of science and theology.

Amos Yong

The book consists of six chapters. Yong begins with a discussion of the Pentecostal encounter with the sciences and the possibility of a Pentecostal contribution. The second chapter approaches the kind of Pentecostal sensibilities Yong has for some time termed the pneumatological imagination: the start with and the engagement of the world from the perspective of the Holy Spirit. This perspective represents for Yong a methodological advantage to engage theology and science. The third chapter proposes a Pentecostal perspective on the Divine Action Project organized by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at Berkeley, California, and the Vatican Observatory. Yong’s particular proposal suggests that the Pentecostal emphasis on both the Spirit (i.e., pneumatology) and the existence in the last days (i.e., eschatology) can lead to a pneumatological and teleological framework for the explanation of divine action. This framework is developed in chapter four into a model for understanding miracles in a world governed by the laws of nature. Yong’s goal is to speak of divine action in a manner that takes seriously the miraculous without violating the laws of nature. He concludes that the pneumato-eschatological framework necessitates a rethinking of the laws of nature in non-necessitarian terms. Yong’s methodological and theological proposal is examined in chapter 5 as a case study on the cosmic “history” of the world. He adopts and modifies the theory of emergence to include the Spirit of God and re-narrates the standard evolutionary account of the world into a teleological narrative. It is due to the central figure of the Spirit that this cosmogony can be told from both a scientific and theological perspective. The final chapter takes this potential dialogue into a programmatic direction and proposes a pneumatological cosmology that speaks of all creation as filled with the Spirit.

At a time where books on the first one hundred years of modern-day Pentecostalism are published with frequency, Alexander reminds us of the important heritage of African American Pentecostals. African and African American origins of classical Pentecostalism remain a neglected topic of study, and even African American Pentecostals often know little of their own heritage. Despite the influence of the black preacher William J. Seymour and other African American leaders on the origins and development of Pentecostalism in North America, few scholars have traced the story of African American Pentecostal origins or developed a comprehensive account of the racial landscape of Pentecostals. The recovery of African American contributions was hindered for many decades by the dominance of two competing theories of Pentecostal beginnings that identified either white or black origins. Interracial origins and the diversity of influences within different racial traditions are only recently becoming a topic of study, and the much larger questions of the relationship of particular racial theories of Pentecostal origins to the racial composition of global Pentecostalism are only in their infancy. Black Fire closes this gap with a rich account of the untold story of African American Pentecostalism.

In ten lucid chapters, Alexander recounts Pentecostal retentions from African Spirituality, the legacy of the nineteenth-century Black Holiness Movement, the impact of William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street revival, the rise of African American trinitarian Pentecostal denominations, development of Black Oneness Pentecostalism, the presence of Black Pentecostals in predominantly white denominations, women’s leadership in African American churches, African American Neo-Pentecostals and Charismatic Movements, and the theological challenges of African American Pentecostalism. Two bibliographies of historical and contemporary sources complete the work.

While first impression might suggest that Black Fire is a historical work, Alexander’s study blends historical presentation with theological arguments. Never dispassionate in her writings, she has recently produced a number of works on African American Pentecostals, including a focus on Afro-Pentecostalism, in general, and women leaders in African American Pentecostalism, in particular, that confront the lack of attention given to African American Pentecostalism. At the core of Black Fire are the twin concerns of gender and race that characterize North American Pentecostal denominations. Interrogating the racial divide and gender paradox that affected the formation and ongoing development of African American Pentecostalism, Alexander explores the racist attitudes of black and white Pentecostals and attempts to repair the damaged relations. Similarly, the challenges of sexism and the suppression of women in positions of leadership are confronted in various accounts of black, Holiness, women evangelists, women as denominational leaders and organizational innovators woven throughout the historical and theological discussions. The black Pentecostal consciousness Alexander endeavors to instill is egalitarian and ecumenical, not without self-criticism, and always protecting the genuine validity of the variety of voices emerging from Pentecostals.

The book does not offer a continuous story, as one might expect, of one hundred years of African American Pentecostalism. Each chapter stands on its own, with some inevitable connections emerging from the historical and theological voices. This choice has its advantages, since the reader can follow the development selectively and with emphasis on the key themes of the century. Each chapter carries its own inherent argument, connected by the interwoven theme of African spirituality, Africanisms, and African American characteristics that influenced theological, practical, political, organizational, and denominational choices. The disadvantage of this approach is mostly evident on the macro-level historiography and felt most likely by those who look for a standard account of a century of Pentecostal history. Here, the reader will not be able to find quick references to events and figures or other historical markers without engaging the text itself. The name and subject indexes are surprisingly short and offer less direction than most historians desire. Alexander’s strengths are in the thematic presentation and analysis as well as the theological observations throughout the book.