Oneness Pentecostalism

This volume traces the history of Oneness Pentecostalism in North America. It maps the major ideas, arguments, periodization, and historical figures; corrects long-standing misinterpretations; and draws attention to how race and gender impacted the growth and trajectories of this movement.

Oneness Pentecostalism emerged in the aftermath of the Azusa Street Revival (1906–9), baptizing its members in the name of Jesus Christ rather than the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and splintering from trinitarian Pentecostals. With its rapid growth throughout the twentieth century, especially among ethnic minorities, Oneness Pentecostalism assumed a diversity of theological, ethnic, and cultural expressions. This book reckons with the multiculturalism of the movement over the course of the twentieth century. While common interpretations tend to emphasize the restorationist impulse of Oneness Pentecostalism, leading to notions of a static, unchanging movement, the contributors to this work demonstrate that the movement is much more fluid and that the interpretation of its history and theology should be grounded in the variegated North American contexts in which Oneness Pentecostalism has taken root and dynamically developed.

Groundbreaking and interdisciplinary, this volume presents diverse perspectives on a significant religious movement whose modern origins are embedded within the larger Pentecostal story. It will be welcomed by religious studies scholars and by practitioners of Oneness Pentecostalism.

In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Daniel Chiquete, Dara Coleby Delgado, Patricia Fortuny-Loret de Mola, Manuel Gaxiola, David A. Reed, Rosa Sailes, and Daniel Segraves.

“To my knowledge, no work has offered such extensive insight into the Mexican mores of the movement. Oneness Pentecostalism will appeal to a range of scholars, including historians, alongside those interested in how the movement’s narrative intersects the areas of theology, anthropology, and architecture.”—Paul J. Palma, Journal of Religious History

“[Oneness Pentecostalism] is well-situated to provide pioneering work on the subject with theoretical considerations, historical backgrounds, critical insights and best practices that are committed to tackling social exclusion and marginalization and digging deeper into issues surrounding race, gender and ethnicity among religious minority groups like Oneness Pentecostal movement in North America.”—Hadje Cresencio Sadje, PentecoStudies

Lloyd D. Barba is Assistant Professor of Religion at Amherst College. He is the author of Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California.

Andrea Shan Johnson is Associate Professor of History at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her research has appeared in edited collections and journals including Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies and Religion Compass.

Daniel Ramírez is Associate Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate University. He is the author of Migrating Faith: Pentecostalism in the United States and Mexico in the Twentieth Century.

List of Illustrations

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Remapping the History of North American Oneness Pentecostalism

Lloyd D. Barba, Andrea Shan Johnson, and Daniel Ramírez

1. The Unresolved Issue: A Third-World Perspective on the Oneness Question

Manuel Gaxiola

2. Evangelical Origins of Oneness Pentecostal Theology

David A. Reed

3. Sounding Out Diversity in Pentecostal History: Early Oneness Hymnody

Daniel Ramírez

4. Andrew D. Urshan: An Eastern Voice in Early Oneness Pentecostalism

Daniel L. Segraves

5. The Dust District: Okies, Authority, and the Hard-Liner Transformation of California Pentecostalism

Lloyd D. Barba

6. The Braziers: Three Generations of Apostolic Activism

Rosa M. Sailes

7. Bossed and Bothered: Authority and Gender in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World

Dara Coleby Delgado

8. Trust God to Provide for the Difference: The Economic and Opportunity Costs of Being Female and a Preacher

Andrea Shan Johnson

9. Women in the Luz del Mundo Church: A Transnational Study

Patricia Fortuny Loret de Mola

10. Liturgical Spaces in Mexican Oneness Pentecostalism: Architectural and Spatial Dimensions

Daniel Chiquete

Conclusion: Navigating New Paths to Old Landmarks

Lloyd D. Barba, Andrea Shan Johnson, and Daniel Ramírez

List of Contributors

Index

Download a PDF sample chapter here: Introduction

History

           History of Religion

Religious Studies & Religion

           History of Religion

           Sociology of Religion

           Theology

           Twentieth-century