This book provides Pentecostals with the necessary equipment and motivation to contribute to one of Africa's important ethical challenges, LGBTIQ+ people and Africa's homophobic reaction to them. The study is aimed at Christian believers and pastors, to empower them with relevant information about the issue. The issue is discussed in terms of existing biological, psychological, anthropological, sociological, philosophical and queer theory knowledge, along with a study of the biblical texts, in order to answer the question, what should a responsible African Pentecostal response be towards the LGBTIQ+ issue, and what should Pentecostals' attitude be towards such people?

This book relates the unique experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ+) people in Australian Pentecostal-Charismatic Christian churches. Grounded in the theoretical contributions of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Lewis Coser, and others, the book exposes the discursive ‘battleground’ over the ‘truth’ of sex which underlies the participants’ stories. These rich and complex narratives reveal the stakes of this conflict, manifested in ‘the line’ – a barrier restricting out LGBTQ+ people from full participation in ministry and service. Although some participants related stories of supportive—if typically conservative—congregations where they felt able to live out an authentic, integrated faith, others found they could only leave their formerly close and supportive communities behind, ‘counter-rejecting’ the churches and often the faith that they felt had rejected them.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Current Trajectories in Global Pentecostalism: Culture, Social Engagement, and Change" that was published in Religions

The distinct subjects of eschatology and gender equality have seen an explosion of interest in recent decades, particularly within Pentecostal scholarship. Pentecostalism is regarded ideally as both an eschatological and egalitarian movement. However, many Pentecostals have lamented the inconsistency between the early egalitarian impulse of the movement and its current restrictive practices. This situation has been described as the so-called Pentecostal “gender paradox,” referring to the conflicting freedoms and limitations experienced by Pentecostal women. Pentecostals have also recognized the waning eschatological fervor within the movement and its shifting eschatological convictions, leading to calls to rediscover the eschatological heart of the movement. Despite the renewed interest in both eschatology and women's equality, little research has been done to put these two areas into conversation with each other: eschatological convictions are often absent in the debate on gender roles in the church. For Pentecostals, eschatology has often been about urgency in “saving souls” rather than attending to social issues, but could Pentecostal eschatology be the key to (re)discovering greater equality for women in the church? Is the waning of both eschatology and women's equality within Pentecostalism potentially interrelated? For over one hundred years the role of women in Pentecostalism has been debated without a firm consensus. By examining gender solely through an eschatological lens in history, Scripture, and praxis, this work provides a valuable and creative contribution to one of the most important theological and global issues of our time, women's (in)equality. This book is also one of the first comprehensive studies to approach a single social issue solely through an eschatological lens and to provide attention to developing a thorough and methodologically connected eschatological praxis. By uncovering the unified eschatological-egalitarian narrative thread within both the Pentecostal and biblical story, this work suggests that the present end of women's inequality begins with fidelity to the future eschaton of gender equality.

African Pentecostal Theology: Modality, Disciplinarity, and Decoloniality explores research methodology, theological disciplines, and contextualization as important aspects in the process of studying Pentecostal theology in an African context. Mookgo Solomon Kgatle outlines different data collection and data analysis methods, including the skills of interpreting and presenting research findings in a responsible manner. This book illustrates that Pentecostal theology, given its pneumatological approach, goes beyond conventional theological disciplines in transdisciplinary research. The development of knowledge in African Pentecostal Theology should recognize African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS), African oral and traditional cultures, and African indigenous languages to be relevant to Africans. Pentecostal theologians from different theological disciplines in Africa and globally will find this book a worthwhile read.

This book explores the complex ideas of the Trinity and God, placing particular emphasis on the Pentecostal Church. If Jesus and the Spirit are divine to the same extent as the God of Israel, what is their relationship with the Father? Traditionally, the Western Church responds that there are three persons in the one God. How did the early Church think about the Trinity? The Church assumed that Jesus died a gruesome death on the cross to atone for our sins. This implies that God required one part of the divine to die to appease another part of the divine. A further complication arises when we consider that Jesus taught believers to forgive – why, then, did God not forgive humans? This book challenges the reader to rethink and reconsider their conception of God and the Trinity, given that God falls outside our frame of reference and outside of our universe (which we can consider our final frame of reference).

Hermeneutics remains a divisive and polarizing topic within scholarly and ecclesiastical communities in South Africa. These tensions are not limited to theoretical differences but often crystallize on a grassroots level when local churches and church assemblies have to make important decisions on controversial ethical topics such as ordaining women in church offices, assessing the ethics of gay marriages, and taking a stance on the land debate in South Africa. This book makes a unique contribution in two ways: firstly, it focuses on the uniquely South African hermeneutical landscape; secondly, it relates theories to practical ethical application. The unique scholarly contribution of this consists in it relating hermeneutics to ethics within the South African landscape. A diverse group of scholars have been invited to partake in the project and the views expressed are often quite diverse. This allows readers to develop an understanding and sensitivity of the various angles employed and the interests at stake in addressing difficult societal problems.

Kirche muss nicht nur Theologie, sondern auch Welt und Kultur verstehen. Das gilt erst recht für die neue Epoche der Weltchristenheit. Die Beiträge in diesem Band sensibilisieren für Herausforderungen, die der Wandel hin zu einer vielfältigen Weltchristenheit mit sich bringt. Unter den Stichworten Mission - Theologie - Kontext werden im ersten Teil Fragen zur Bedeutung einer interkontextuellen hermeneutischen Gemeinschaft reflektiert. Teil 2 beschäftigt sich mit Beiträgen des englischen Theologen und Ökumenikers Lesslie Newbigin. Teil 3 enthält Vorträge, die die Relevanz der Interkulturellen Theologie für Kirche und Gemeinde aufzeigen.

Who would have imagined that the hippies, those long-haired, psychedelia-influenced youth of the 1960s, would have initiated a spiritual revolution that has transformed American Christianity? If you are unfamiliar with the 1960s, the counterculture, the hippie movement, and the Jesus People, then this book will transport you to that era and introduce you to the generation and the decade that turned American culture upside down. If you have read other books on the Jesus People, this account will take you by surprise. A refreshingly different narrative that unveils a storyline and characters not commonly known to have been associated with the movement, this book argues that the Jesus People, though often trivialized and stigmatized as a group of lost and vulnerable youth who strayed from the Fundamentalism of their childhood, helped American Christianity negotiate a way forward in a post-1960s culture. It examines the narrative of the Holy Spirit and the phenomenon called Pentecostalism. Although utterly central, the Jesus People's Pentecostalism has never been examined and their story has been omitted from the historiography of Pentecostalism. This account uniquely redresses this omission.

The Pentecostal World provides a comprehensive and critical introduction to one of the most vibrant and diverse expressions of contemporary Christianity. Unlike many books on Pentecostalism, this collection of essays from all continents does not attempt to synthesize and simplify the movement’s inherent diversity and fragmented dispersion. Instead, the global flows of Pentecostalism are firmly grounded in local histories and expressions, as well as the various modes of their worldwide reproduction. The book thus argues for a new understanding of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements that accounts for the simultaneous processes of pluralization and homogenization in contemporary World Christianity. Written by a distinguished team of international contributors across various disciplines, the volume is comprised of six parts, with each offering a critical perspective on classical themes in the study of Pentecostalism. Led by a programmatic introduction, the thirty-six chapters within these parts explore a variety of themes: history and historiography, conversion, spirit beliefs and exorcism, prosperity, politics, gender relations, sexual identities, racism, development, migration, pilgrimage, interreligious relations, media, ecumenism, and academic research. The Pentecostal World is essential reading for students and researchers in anthropology, history, political science, religious studies, sociology, and theology. The book will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as culture studies, black studies, ethnic studies, and gender studies.