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Writing Pentecostal history is no easy task, because historiographical narratives are inevitably linked to how Pentecostalism is defined (see Definition). In most of academic discourse, Pentecostalism tends to be seen as either the final outcome of a series of revivals in the beginning of the twentieth century, or as a global discourse in today's world with possibly more recent origins. The latter definition is becoming increasingly popular, as it avoids some of the historiographical problems as…

01. AusgangslageDie Behandlung des Themas ›Religion‹ (= R.) und ›Religionen‹ (= Rn.) hat zu bedenken, dass sich der heutige Gebrauch des Begriffs grundsätzlich von dem in der Nz. unterscheidet und sich erst seit der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jh.s durchgesetzt hat. In der Forschung wird von einer Neukonzeption ›in einer gravierenden Zäsur‹ [28. Bd. 4, 12] oder von einer ›monumentale[n] Transition‹ [33. 58] gesprochen. Über diese geschichtliche Konstellation besteht heute weitgehend Einigkeit. Deshalb wird im Folgenden gefragt, ob – und wenn ja, wie – sich chri…

In a country shaped by many different religious traditions, Indian Christianity accounts for about 2 percent of the population. Nevertheless, in South India, where nearly two thirds of India’s Christians live, Christianity represents a relatively strong minority. Here, the portion of Pentecostalism is also relatively high with a growing trend. Though reliable statistics are not available, pentecostal churches and ministries gained a visible presence within the south Indian church landscape by th…

The question of how the Pentecostal movement is to be adequately defined and delimited has remained unresolved and contested (Anderson et al. 2010). The debate may have ebbed away somewhat in recent years, but increasing scholarly attention to global Pentecostalism makes the problem even more virulent. Current academic research on global Pentecostalism tends to favour a broad and vague understanding of its subject matter. At first glance, such an all-inclusive definition seems to be attractive t…