Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism

by Estrelda Alexander

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 2011

Overview

Estrelda Alexander was raised in an urban, black, working-class, oneness Pentecostal congregation in the 1950s and 1960s, but she knew little of her heritage and thought that all Christians worshiped and believed as she did. Much later she discovered that many Christians not only knew little of her heritage but considered it strange. Even today, most North Americans remain ignorant of black Pentecostalism.

Black Fire remedies lack of historical consciousness by recounting the story of African American Pentecostal origins and development. In this fascinating description she covers

• what Pentecostalism retained from African spirituality
• the legacy of the nineteenth-century black Holiness movement
• William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival
• African American trinitarian and oneness Pentecostal denominations
• the role of women in African American Pentecostalism
• African American neo-Pentecostals and charismatic movements
• black Pentecostals in majority-white denominations
• theological challenges of black Pentecostalism in the twenty-first century

Whether you come from an African American Pentecostal background or you just want to learn more, this book will unfold all the dimensions of this important movement's history and contribution to the life of the church.

Key Features

• Examines the founding of American Pentecostalism
• Addresses the racial divide in American Pentecostalism
• Blends historical reconstruction with theological interpretation

Contents

• Introduction
• Every Time I Feel the Spirit: Pentecostal Retentions from African Spirituality
• Saved and Sanctified: The Legacy of the Nineteenth-Century Black Holiness Movement
• The Color Line Was Washed Away in the Blood: William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival
• What Hath God Wrought: The Rise of African American Trinitarian Pentecostal Denominations
• God and Christ Are One: Theology and Praxis in African American Oneness Pentecostalism
• Singing the Lord?s Song in a Strange Land: Blacks in White Pentecostal Denominations
• If It Wasn’t for the Women: Women’s Leadership in African American Pentecostalism
• I Will Do a New Thing: African American Neo-Pentecostals and Charismatic Movements
• Conclusion: Historical Realities and Theological Challenges of African American Pentecostalism into the Twenty-first Century

Top Highlights

“Though black involvement in all Pentecostal arenas rivaled and in some ways surpassed that of whites, most early Pentecostal history had been written by white scholars who have not only downplayed Seymour’s contribution in deference to Parham’s but have also ignored the contributions of many other African American Pentecostals. Scholars of black religion regularly used the term cult to describe all black emotive religious experience and lumped Holiness and Pentecostal groups with spiritualist and quasi-Christian sects such as Prophet Cherry, Father Divine or Daddy Grace.” (Page 21)

“sometimes slaveholders) sought to placate audiences and make them malleable by holding out the promise” (Page 39)

“2 percent of its constituency being African American.” (Page 21)

“Church of God in Christ under Charles Harrison Mason’s leadership and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World under the leadership of Garfield T. Hayward.” (Page 8)

“William Christian and Charles Price Jones, to the theological roots of African American Pentecostalism, following a position argued by scholars such as William C. Turner, Cheryl Sanders and myself.” (Pages 7–8)

Praise for the Print Edition

This particular book is especially welcome. African American Pentecostals have become a major force in American (and world) Christianity, but there is a serious lack of well-documented studies. Estrelda Alexander does an excellent job filling that lamentable gap.

—Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

Pentecostalism is one of the most vibrant and important developments in modern Christianity. In this welcome and much-needed book, Estrelda Y. Alexander demonstrates convincingly that this global work of the Spirit has to a large extent emerged from and continues to be fanned into flame by the African American community. Outsiders who think a few more controversial variations of ‘black fire’ sometimes look like ‘strange fire’ will be glad to learn that the African American church has able internal critics of its own outliers. Every Christian--indeed, everyone interested in the present and future of Christianity—needs to know this story.

—Timothy Larsen, McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College

Alexander is one of the few historians of black Pentecostalism who have attempted to synthesize the story of black Pentecostalism within one volume. This is a very challenging task that she does exceptionally well given the myriad number of black Pentecostal denominations. Her work is a first of its kind and a timely, valuable resource for students and scholars of African American religion in general and African American Pentecostalism in particular.

—Jonathan Langston Chism, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 42, No. 4, December 2016

Product Details

• Title: Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism
• Author: Estrelda Y. Alexander
• Publisher: IVP
• Publication Date: 2011
• Pages: 406
• Christian Group: Pentecostal/Charismatic
• Resource Type: History
• Topic: Church in North America

About Estrelda Alexander

Estrelda Alexander (PhD, The Catholic University of America) is a visiting professor of theology in the School of Divinity at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and executive director of the William Seymour Educational Foundation.