The World's Christians. Douglas Jacobsen. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Douglas Jacobsen
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
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Жанр произведения: Религия: прочее
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9781119626121
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who are Pentecostalistic in their personal faith and practice, but who belong to churches that are not Pentecostal in their statements of faith. These individuals are typically described as “charismatic” Christians (which is different from being a member of a Neo‐Charismatic church, which is part of the inner circle). The third circle, which is considerably fuzzier than the other two, represents Pentecostalism’s extended influence within contemporary Christianity. During the past century, many churches have become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in a way that reflects Pentecostal values without explicitly becoming part of the Pentecostal movement.

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      The inner circle of the Pentecostal movement is made up of three different kinds of Pentecostal churches and one of these groups is known as “classical Pentecostalism.” Classical Pentecostalism is comprised of a handful of denominations that were created in the early twentieth century in order to organize the still emerging Pentecostal movement and delineate its moral and doctrinal boundaries. The Assemblies of God, the Church of God (headquartered in Cleveland, TN), and the Church of God in Christ are the largest and most well‐known of these classical Pentecostal denominations. Each of these churches define the contours of Pentecostalism in slightly different ways, but they are all proudly Pentecostal in their statements of faith and they generally agree that speaking in tongues is the necessary “initial evidence” that a person has received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. In the eyes of most classical Pentecostals, if a person has not spoken in tongues, that person has not been baptized by the Spirit.

Photo depicts the Holy Spirit Church of East Africa is one of many Spirit-centered Independent churches that are part of the global Pentecostal movement.

      The fuzzy outer zone in the sociological diagram of Pentecostalism represents a very different kind of reality than the first two. The individuals, churches, and parachurch organizations in this zone have adopted some ideas and attitudes that would typically be considered Pentecostal, but they have not crossed the threshold of becoming actually Pentecostal. Their Christian practices are within the zone of Pentecostalism’s extended influence, but they would never call themselves Pentecostal. Examples include churches and individuals who like to sing Pentecostal praise songs and raise their hands in worship, but do not speak in tongues. It includes churches that emphasize the gifts of the Holy Spirit more than in the past but stop short of expecting miracles to happen regularly. And it would include pastors and congregations that stress the importance of personal faith for claiming all of God’s promises but resist being drawn into a full‐blown prosperity gospel orientation. This zone might also extend to events like the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church, where each day began with a prayer addressed specifically to the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to know if the Pentecostal movement is directly responsible for the new attention these groups and individuals are giving to the Holy Spirit, but regardless of the source, it is clear that global Christianity as a whole has become more Pentecostalistic in style and flavor in recent decades.

      Pentecostalism is a young movement and its history is short, but that history is also complex and far from fully understood. It is now clear that Pentecostalism had many sites of origin. One of the birthplaces of Pentecostalism was the Mukti Mission in Pune, India where Pandita Ramabai, an internationally known Hindu feminist convert to Christianity, oversaw a Pentecostal‐like religious revival during the years 1906 and 1907. Around the same time, Isaiah Shembe was forming his