Pentecostalism’s Growth in Religiously Restricted Environments

Abstract

The Independent or Neocharismatic Third Wave of the Christian Pentecostal movement is a uniquely growing edge of Christianity compared with traditional Pentecostal denominations and Charismatic Renewalist movements within mainline Christian faiths. While all three branches of the Pentecostal movement tend to have grown more in countries with higher levels of religious freedom, the unique aspect of the Neocharismatic movement is that it shows some possibility to grow in countries where religious freedom is restricted, based on a review and structural equation analysis of data for 143 countries with populations of two million or more. However, the data also suggest that Neocharismatics have more difficulty becoming established in religiously homogeneous societies. In other words, Neocharismatics can grow in religiously restrictive environments as long as a single religion does not already monopolize the religious marketplace. This explains why, for example, Neocharismatics are growing in China among the majority Han population, within which there is tremendous religious diversity, but similar growth is not seen in Muslim-majority countries. To begin, however, I provide a descriptive global overview of the three components (Pentecostal, Charismatic and Neocharismatic) of the Renewalist movement and some of their important characteristics before empirically exploring predictors of the presence of each. In addition to religious regulation and homogeneity, I also explore whether the Renewalist movement’s general emphasis on signs and wonders might allow it to adapt to and be adopted in places where other local religions emphasize the miraculous. Also, since the Renewalist movement often aims to speak to the needy—offering them hope for tomorrow and power for today—I examine how its presence in the 143 countries studied is associated with such things as low human development and high income inequality. Readers should note that the analysis primarily draws on national-level data, and therefore speaks to the general context in countries rather than to the motivations of particular individuals associated with the Renewalist movement.