Bioethics and the Pentecostal Traditions: Christianity as an Alternative Healing System

Abstract

In a manner not too dissimilar from the rise of early Christianity, Pentecostalism began as a fringe movement, largely among the lower socioeconomic strata and the racially ostracized ([7],[39]). It then rapidly spread, becoming one of the largest Christian movements, and the fastest growing [42].2 Understood broadly, it includes not only “Classical Pentecostals” such as the Assemblies of God, United Pentecostals, and the Church of God in Christ, but also large, nondenominational churches referred to as “Charismatic” (from the Greek word for gifts of grace, charismata) and a major “Neopentecostal” renewal movement within mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches.3 KeywordsClinical EthicGrand RapidTheological TraditionBioethic LiteratureRenewal MovementThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.