Introduction
Introduction
Black Tongues of Fire: Afro-Pentecostalism’s Shifting Strategies and Changing Discourses
This book explores how adherents of African American Pentecostalism have adapted strategies to deal with issues of culture, race, gender, sexuality, economics, and politics while formulating discursive practices of worship and spirituality consistent with their self-identities and ethical and ideological commitments. Part I of the book examines how Afro-Pentecostalism emerged out of the antecedent Holiness movement to become a movement of global proportions. Part II focuses on Pentecostalism and its antecedent Holiness movement through the lens of gender and sexuality. Part III addresses ethical concerns that black Pentecostal culture and spirituality raise within contemporary American society. Part IV discusses Pentecostal approaches to the task of theology, with particular emphasis on pneumatology and eschatology. Part V analyzes the historical connection between African American Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, as well as the phenomenal growth of Pentecostal spirituality throughout the Two-Thirds World.
Keywords: spirituality, culture, gender, sexuality, worship, Holiness movement, pneumatology, eschatology, Christianity, Afro-Pentecostalism