A REVIEW OF ALLAN ANDERSON'S INTRODUCTION TO PENTECOSTALISM: GLOBAL CHARISMATIC CHRISTIANITY*

Abstract

ABSTRACT Allan Anderson's An INTRODUCTION TO Pentecostalism seeks to provide an overview of the global Pentecostal and Charismatic movements today. The first part of the book examines aspects of the global historical development of Pentecostalism. Part Two explores various themes in Pentecostal and Charismatic theologies from around the world, beginning with the theology of the Spirit, which for Anderson is definitive of Pentecostal and Charismatic identity. Throughout the book Anderson opts for an inclusive definition of Pentecostalism that includes Classical Pentecostals (who trace their origins to the Azusa Street revival), Charismatics, Neopentecostals, African Independent Churches, and others who are distinguished mainly by a heightened experience of the Spirit. The book traces the history of these diverse global movements only through Western Protestant Christian streams of experience prior to 1900, and gives preeminent place in this narrative to the history of the Anglo-American Holiness movement in the USA. The effect here is to present Pentecostalism as essentially a EuropeanUS historical movement, with the global experiences being added on almost as afterthoughts. Nevertheless at several places in the text he points in the direction of a more global historiographical alternative. In the end this work stands head and shoulders above most other texts in the field today.