The Assemblies of God: Godly Love and the Revitalization of American Pentecostalism

Abstract

This book is a re-evaluation of Poloma's first book on the Assemblies of God published in 1989 as The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads. Poloma has written extensively on Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, especially through the lens of O'Dea's institutional dilemmas. Her research has focused on the renewal meetings in the 1990s known as the “Toronto Blessing” where she argued that Pentecostals needed to be revived from the problems of institutions. In her first book on the Assemblies of God, Poloma critically evaluated the various dilemmas especially focusing on the relationship between charisma, Spirit, and a range of issues the denomination and its leadership were facing. In this follow-up study, Poloma and Green find some hope for the denomination, especially among those congregations who are experiencing new waves of divine love with the result of a renewed commitment to engaging the community in some benevolent way. The book is organized around nine chapters that focus on the findings from interviews, observations, and congregational surveys. It begins with an overview of the Assemblies of God, its history, structure, and the role of charisma. It then moves into an evaluation of institutional dilemmas including mixed motivation and experience, doctrine, power and administration, spirit-baptism, the role of prayer, prophets and healers, and finally, several chapters that focus on the sociology of love, altruism, and benevolence, or what Poloma and Green call “Godly Love.”