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The Assemblies of God (AG) is the ninth largest American and the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination, with over 50 million followers worldwide. The AG embraces a worldview of miracles and mystery that makes“supernatural” experiences, such as speaking in tongues, healing, and prophecy, normal for Christian believers. Ever since it first organized in 1916, however, the “charismata” or “gifts of the Holy Spirit” have felt tension from institutional forces. Over the decades, vital charismatic experiences have been increasingly tamed by rituals, doctrine, and denominational structure. Yet the path towards institutionalization has not been clear-cut. New revivals and direct personal experience of God—the hallmarks of Pentecostalism—continue as an important part of the AG tradition, particularly in the growing number of ethnic congregations in the United States.The Assemblies of God draws on fresh, up-to-date research including quantitative surveys and interviews from twenty-two diverse Assemblies of God congregations to offer a new sociological portrait of the AG for the new millennium. The authors suggest that there is indeed a potential revitalization of the movement in the works within the context of the larger global Pentecostal upswing, and that this revitalization may be spurred by what the authors call “godly love:” the dynamic interaction between divine and human love that enlivens and expands benevolence.The volume provides a wealth of data about how the second-largest American Pentecostal denomination sees itself today, and suggests trends to illuminate where it is headed in the future.
Margaret M. Poloma is Professor Emeritus at the University of Akron. She is the author of many books, including Main Street Mystics,and (with Ralph W. Hood, Jr.) Blood and Fire: Godly Love in a Pentecostal Emerging Church (NYU Press, 2008).GreenJohn C.:
John C. Green is distinguished professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Akron. He is the author of The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences the Vote, among other works.
Candy Gunther Brown,author of The Word in the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789:Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand American Pentecostalism. Poloma and Green have succeeded in crafting a readable, and indeed enjoyable, narrative that is at the same time precise in its insights, being grounded as it is in a rich array of survey and interview data. Novice and expert alike can learn what Assemblies of God pastors and congregants believe as well as what they actually do or do not do to act on their beliefs.
Donald E. Miller,Executive Director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California:An insightful, empirically based analysis of how the Assemblies of God denomination is changing in response to modernity. This multimethod book, based on both surveys and field research, contributes to a growing sociological literature on Pentecostalism.
Geoffrey W. Sutton:The authors successfully maintain a delicate balance between a plethora of statisticsand readable narratives, making the work a primary source for a wide audience of scholars interested in this century-old American Pentecostal journey.
Michael Wilkinson:Poloma and Green offer an important observation on the different types of congregations emerging within the Assemblies of God.
Mathias Detamore:Herring offers queer history and geography new artifacts of a rural past and present...his work challenges scholars to excavate more of these histories, geographies, and cultural and political styles.
D. A. Chekki:A valuable addition to religious studies
Candy Gunther Brown:This is a richly provocative book that can be expected to generate many fruitful follow-up explorations.
This book is recommended for those interested in an empirically based study of new and emerging trends in American Pentecostalism.
This work is exceptionally well-crafted and will stand as a new classic for understanding trends within the AG and modern Pentecostalism.
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