Transnational Networks of Pentecostalism and the Rise of World Christianity in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

American Pentecostalism inherited the missionary impulse of the late nineteenth century. Known as having catapulted to its global status after the 1950s from an “obscure and maligned sect,” the Pentecostal movement from its birth exhibited a forceful drive to cross the entrenched borders of races, classes, denominations, and nations. In the twentieth century Pentecostalism has emerged as the fastest growing religion that can match the militant advance of Islam and counter the potent spread of secularization. Pentecostal messages, focusing on Christocentric pneumatology with a strong emphasis on the realization of the Biblical teachings, provide an affirmative view to varied challenges of life. Embracing such contrasting dimensions of human life as the ancient and the modern, spirit and body, and sacred and mundane, Pentecostals have engaged the mass media and literature to maximize its diffusion to nations. Traveling evangelists and migrant Pentecostals along with Bible institutes have constructed enormous networks of global Pentecostalism. Korean Pentecostalism has contributed to the global spread of Pentecostalism, while taking roots in Korea with creative contextualization. Maintaining theological continuity with American predecessors, Korean Pentecostalism has excelled in circulating literature, building Bible institutes, and using satellite and TV evangelism, transmitting the New Testament’s Spirit movement into the world. This move implies that Korean Pentecostalism needs to be examined in light of the currents of World Christianity as much as scholarship on World Christianity needs to take serious account of the globalization of Pentecostalism.