Johan Thiessen and Margaretha Alt and the Birth of Pentecostalism in Indonesia

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the contribution of Dutch Pentecostal missionaries to the rise of Pentecostalism in Indonesia, then called the Dutch East Indies. The Pentecostal and Charismatic movements have become a major stream within Christianity in Indonesia. Up to now no comprehensive and analytical study of the history of these movements has been published. A number of these groups have occasionally issued uncritical descriptions of their denominational history, with little theological and historical analysis. The attention the Pentecostals and Charismatics have received in the more academic works on Christianity in Indonesia is not in proportion to their significance. In all of these publications little credit is given to the role the early Dutch Pentecostal movement played. This paper will present two founding parents: Johan Thiessen and Margaretha Alt.