Located in northern Middlesex County, South Plainfield has a rich and fascinating history. It was first settled by the Lenape and later by immigrants from Scotland, England, and the Netherlands. Mills were built, and by the 18th century, it was home to numerous farms and two hamlets: Samptown and New Brooklyn. During the American Revolution, skirmishes shook the sleepy community. The 19th century brought the arrival of railroads and industry. The 20th century saw South Plainfield transformed. The Lehigh Valley Railroad built an enormous coal storage yard. Spicer Manufacturing opened a factory manufacturing universal joints for early trucks and cars. Harris Steel, a fabricator of steel for bridges and skyscrapers, constructed a sprawling plant in South Plainfield. After World War II, the borough grew by leaps and bounds as new suburban developments replaced farms and fields. Today, South Plainfield is a strong community with a diverse population located at the crossroads of central New Jersey.

South Plainfield's rich and varied history mirrors that of New Jersey as a whole. Early on, Native Americans first recognized the potential of the area and called it home. Later, in the 166 0s, Baptists from New England, Scottish Quakers, and Dutch settlers erected mills and transformed the forest into farmland. Agriculture remained a mainstay of life in the region into the twentieth century. Railroads and industry, coupled with a growing population, led South Plainfield to declare its independence from Piscataway Township in 1926. In 1924, the town flirted with fame when Hadley Field was selected as the eastern terminus for transcontinental airmail flights. A pictorial tour of the borough's history, South Plainfield highlights the people and institutions that have shaped this community. Views of prominent families, important industries, noteworthy institutions, and local landmarks are all included. Together, they depict the transformation of the area from the sleepy rural hamlets, once called Samptown and New Brooklyn, into a thriving suburban community located at the heart of central New Jersey.

Located in northern Middlesex County, South Plainfield has a rich and fascinating history. It was first settled by the Lenape and later by immigrants from Scotland, England, and the Netherlands. Mills were built, and by the 18th century, it was home to numerous farms and two hamlets: Samptown and New Brooklyn. During the American Revolution, skirmishes shook the sleepy community. The 19th century brought the arrival of railroads and industry. The 20th century saw South Plainfield transformed. The Lehigh Valley Railroad built an enormous coal storage yard. Spicer Manufacturing opened a factory manufacturing universal joints for early trucks and cars. Harris Steel, a fabricator of steel for bridges and skyscrapers, constructed a sprawling plant in South Plainfield. After World War II, the borough grew by leaps and bounds as new suburban developments replaced farms and fields. Today, South Plainfield is a strong community with a diverse population located at the crossroads of central New Jersey.

The eighteen essays collected in this book originate from a conference of the same title, held at the Wingspread Conference Center in October of 1993. Leading scholars were invited to reflect on their specialties in American religious history in ways that summarized both where the field is and where it ought to move in the decades to come. The essays are organized according to four general themes: places and regions, universal themes, transformative events, and marginal groups and ethnocultural "outsiders." They address a wide range of specific topics including Puritanism, Protestantism and economic behavior, gender and sexuality in American Protestantism, and the twentieth-century de-Christianization of American public culture. Among the contributors are such distinguished scholars as David D. Hall, Donald G. Matthews, Allen C. Guelzo, Gordon S. Wood, Daniel Walker Howe, Robert Wuthnow, Jon Butler, David A. Hollinger, Harry S. Stout, and John Higham. Taken together, these essays reveal a rapidly expanding field of study that is breaking out of its traditional confines and spilling into all of American history. The book takes the measure of the changes of the last quarter-century and charts numerous challenges to future work.

The Pentecostal mission in Palestine is a virtually unknown episode in the history of Pentecostalism. Its story begins in 1906 at the Azusa Street Revival, from which missionaries were sent to Palestine. In its first thirty years, the Pentecostal mission in Palestine gained a foothold in Jerusalem and expanded its reach into Jordan, Syria, and Iran. It was severely tested and lost traction during the tumultuous period of the Arab Revolts, World War II, and the Partition Crisis. With the catastrophic war of 1948, the Pentecostal missionaries fled as their Arab clients were swept away in the Palestinian Diaspora. After 1948, a valiant attempt was made to revive the mission, but only with relative success. Although the Pentecostal missionaries failed in their objective of converting Jews and Muslims, they were eyewitnesses of the formative events of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Newberg argues that the Pentecostal missionaries functioned as brokers of Pentecostal Zionism. He offers a postcolonial assessment of the Pentecostal missionaries, crediting them for advocating philosemitism, yet bringing them up short for disregarding the civil rights of Palestinian Arabs, espousing Islamophobia, and contributing to the forces working against peace in the Holy Land.

"An unprecedented mix of pentecostal theology and mission practice, virtually a manifesto for pentecostal missions. . . . The fullest and finest missiological treatise originating within classical Pentecostalism available."--Russell P. Spittler

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.

Joseph Smale (1867-1926) was one of the central figures involved in the chain of events leading to the 1906 Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. This important study presents the diverse influences which impacted Smale - formative years in Britain, growing up in Cornwall and Somerset amid a rhythm of Wesleyan revival; Reformed theological training under the tutelage of C.H. Spurgeon in London; migration to the United States; plus hard experiences in the 'school of anxiety' - which were all precursors for Smale's influential role as champion of Pentecostal revival. Smale's leadership will resonate with every church leader who prays for revival and longs for more Holy Spirit power experimentally. Smale's 'Moses' designation and biography have profound relevance for the church in the present day.

As biblical hermeneutics moves increasingly toward the inclusion of vernacular approaches to the text--understandings of the Bible based on culture, context, and human experience--many communities of faith around the world are contributing their voices to the conversation of global Christianity. This volume explores reading methods and text interpretations of believers in South Africa, the Caribbean, Spain, the Netherlands, the United States, India, Kenya, Fiji, Japan, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Nigeria--revealing the ways various faith communities read the Bible contextually. Essays in this volume also illustrate the impact of the biblical text in people's lives--on their understandings of oppression, identity, the plight of refugees, decline and loss, the relationship between church and society, imperialism, homelessness, restorative justice, bodily experiences of the Holy Spirit, and time and the future. Together, these writings provide an in-depth sense of how global Christians read the Bible through the lens of their own tradition or culture, as well as how the Bible informs all aspects of their lives as they read the world biblically.

"This book takes a giant step both in theology and in social ethics. It forces theologians to examine the worship and spirituality of Hispanic Pentecostals as a source of theological construction and pushes the Pentecostalists themselves to see the broader social implications of their own faith expressions. With both Hispanic peoples and Pentecostalists forming a larger and larger portion of the American cultural and religious reality, this is a vital book, indeed an indispensable one, for any person knowledgeable about our society to read and ponder."Harvey Cox - Harvard Divinity School"Here is a pioneering book. . . . Villafane works a synthesis of the cultural and the spiritual and celebrates the capacity of Pentecostalism to appeal to Hispanic Americans. The time is ripe for this important book which delves into the very passion of the human heart and offers an ethic of hope and liberation. It should be read by anyone interested in the spiritual condition of Hispanics in a pluralistic society."Jesse Miranda - Azusa Pacific University"The Liberating Spirit should be required reading for anyone interested in the study of social ethics, Pentecostal theology, or Hispanic American theology. Dr. Villafane has broken the long-standing bifurcation of the profane and the sacred so often associated with Pentecostal theology. The Liberating Spirit introduces us to a new and liberating way of being Christians led by the spirit in the modern world."Samuel Solivan - Andover Newton Theological School"Fully aware of the pitfalls and promises of oral theology, Villafane approaches his topic from inside an Hispanic Pentecostal understanding of the Spirit, vividly describing the pains and joys of an Hispanic Pentecostal in the United States. . . . After reading this book it is impossible to paint the whole Pentecostal movement with the brush of right-wing theological and political conservatism."Walter Hollenweger - University of Birmingham, England