This book critically examines contemporary Pentecostalism in South Africa and its influence on some of the countries that surround it. Pentecostalism plays a significant role in the religious life of this region and so evaluating its impact is key to understanding how religion functions in Twenty-First Century Africa. Beginning with an overview of the roots of Pentecostalism in Southern Africa, the book moves on to identify a current "fourth" wave of this form of Christianity. It sets out the factors that have given rise to this movement and then offers the first academic evaluation of its theology and practice. Positive aspects as well as extreme or negative practices are all identified in order to give a balanced and nuanced assessment of this religious group and allow the reader to gain valuable insight into how it interacts with wider African society. This book is cutting-edge look at an emerging form of one of the fastest-growing religions in the world. It will, therefore, be of great use to scholars working in Pentecostalism, Theology, Religious Studies and African Religion as well as African Studies more generally.

It was born a scant ninety-five years ago in a rundown warehouse on Azusa Street in Los Angeles. For days the religious-revival service there went on and on-and within a week the Los Angeles Times was reporting on a "weird babble" coming from the building. Believers were "speaking in tongues," the way they did at the first Pentecost recorded in the Bible?and a pentecostal movement was created that would, by the start of the twenty-first century, attract over 400 million followers worldwide. Harvey Cox has traveled the globe to visit and worship with pentecostal congregations on four continents, and he has written a dynamic, provocative history of this explosion of spirituality?a movement that represents no less than a tidal change in what religion is and what it means to people.

Here is a phenomenological inquiry into the fruitful ministry of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa’s Sunday Morning Worship Service. The purpose was to uncover and explicate the quintessential elements of worship leading from the life experiences of those worship leaders who shared the platform with Pastor Chuck Smith, known as the father of the Jesus Movement. The book examines Calvary Chapel’s inauspicious beginnings in a senior citizen trailer park recreation center as it explores key elements of Kay and Chuck Smith’s ministry. The church and the couple combined in 1965. By 1968, the church and the Smiths became a spiritual home replete with a spiritual mama and papa, ministering to hippies seeking everlasting love and eternal peace. The fruitfulness of Calvary Chapel’s ministry is its ability to reproduce maturing Christians that reproduce maturing Christians. This replication occurred thousands of times as the movement blossomed and spread to new churches and new ministries across the United States and globally. The phenomenon spawned a megachurch movement and birthed the modern Christian worship music industry. The hippies were alternately loathed and loved in their era. Perhaps the hippies’ most enduring and endearing contributions to twenty-first-century culture are traced to the Jesus movement.

This book is a pneumatological reflection on the use and abuse of the Spirit in light of the abuse of religion within South African Pentecostalism. Both emerging and well-established scholars of South African Pentecostalism are brought together to reflect on pneumatology from various approaches, which includes among others: historical, biblical, migration, commercialisation of religion, discernment of spirits and human flourishing. From a broader understanding of the function of the Holy Spirit in different streams of Pentecostalism, the argument is that this function has changed with the emergence of the new Prophetic churches in South Africa. This is a fascinating insight into one of the major emerging worldwide religious movements. As such, it will be of great interest to academics in Pentecostal Studies, Christian Studies, Theology, and Religious Studies as well as African Studies and the Sociology of Religion.

Examines Neo-Pentecostalism's significance in the Western cultural context and brings a comparative account of neo-Pentecostalism in the United States and Britain. Although primarily sociological in emphasis, this volume also offers deep historical analysis and theological reflection.