The origins of the Pentecostal movement have long been disputed. Some Pentecostals trace their origins to Charles Parham, a white American preacher. Parham ran a ‘Holiness’ school in Houston and taught that one of the signs that they were close to the Last Days was ‘speaking in tongues’. Harvey Cox, however, rejects Parham in favour of one who listened through the windows to Parham’s lectures. William Joseph Seymour, an itinerant black preacher, was interested in what Parham had to say. Parham was loathed to welcome him, but allowed him to sit under a window when he was lecturing.
Seymour moved to Los Angeles, and with a small group of people, mainly black and mainly very poor, began to hold meetings in his house, praying for the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. On the 9th April, 1906, that little group had an experience that they believed was a new Pentecost. The interest increased and they moved into a warehouse in Azusa Street. The revival, which became known as the Azusa Street revival, was soon inspiring people throughout America, and within a few years, in many parts of the world.

Characteristics of the Pentecostal movement

Cox identifies the Azusa Street revival as the origins of the Pentecostal movement because he does not believe that ‘speaking in tongues’ was the primary characteristic. He points out that, throughout Christian history, from time to time, people have spoken in tongues. At Azusa Street, there developed a new inter-racial and inclusive community, while racial separation was growing elsewhere. What startled or impressed many people who visited Azusa Street was that here, blacks and whites, Asians and Mexicans, embraced each other, and wept and prayed together (p.58). Here was a true reversal of Babel, overcoming old divisions, in the name of the Kingdom.
Cox does not ignore ‘speaking in tongues’. It was certainly a significant aspect of the revival. Cox interprets it as a recovery of ‘ecstatic utterance’ or primal speech, in which people speak a language of the heart. He suggests that in many spiritual traditions, mystics have indicated that ‘the reality religious symbols strive to express ultimately defies even the most exalted human language’. As words fail, people sing, rhapsodize, invent metaphors, or ultimately, lapse into silence, or speak in tongues (p.92). Cox distinguishes such religious explanations from theological interpretations of it. At the theological level, Cox acknowledges that through speaking in tongues, people are able to speak with God even though the infinite God is unapproachable in mere human language. Prayer itself is an ‘act of grace’ (p.96).
A second feature of the Pentecostal movement is what Cox calls primal piety. He sees in Pentecostalism a fusion between the cognitive and emotional sides of life, between rationality and symbol. He believes that the Pentecostals reflect a restoration of basic forms of spirituality. One specific example of this is in health. The Pentecostals, he says, bridge the gap between the cure of the soul and the cure of the body, recognising that the two must go hand in hand (p.108).
The third feature of the Pentecostal movement, Cox refers to as the recovery of primal hope. At the heart of Pentecostalism is the message that a fundamentally different world age is about to begin. Cox takes up a suggestion that ‘millennial movements are to a culture what rites of passage are to an individual. ... They enable the person or the society to touch base with the past and with their deepest symbolic roots in order to be better prepared to take the next - sometimes frightening - step into the future’ (p.117). The Pentecostals have also preached that the benefits of ‘The Big Change’ may be savoured right now. The ‘Big Change’ will be good news for many, particularly those among the 87 per cent of the world’s population who live below the poverty line. It is good news for those who are excluded from society because of their race, or because they have been wounded psychologically. Thus, says Cox, it is not surprising that Pentecostalism is attracting most of its membership among the impoverished, rather than the privileged few.
The book contains a chapter looking at music in the Pentecostal movement, another prominent feature which has attracted many (and repelled some). Cox argues that Pentecostalism and jazz are ‘siblings’. They both arose as expressions of protest among the Afro-American people, both despised and ridiculed at first. Cox draws many other parallels. In particular, he notes the ‘near abolition’ in jazz of the distinction between composer and performer. Cox says that, similarly, in Pentecostal worship, the basic chords are there, but are ‘delivered with what might be called ‘riffs’, with a free play of Spirit-led embellishment and enactment’ (p.147).

International Expressions of Pentecostalism

Cox draws some sketches of Pentecostal expressions in several places around the globe. As he does so, he attacks some of the stereotypes that many people have had of Pentecostalism, arguing that what it seems on the surface does not always represent the underlying truth.
For instance, he suggests that Pentecostalism in Brazil has a significant political role as it unites the poor and gives them hope. It is far from ‘other-worldly’. He reviews some of the theories about the growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America, but he returns to a quotation from one Pentecostal, a prominent leader in political circles, saying ‘The Pentecostals tell people they need to change and that they can change’ (p.166).
Sicily provides the setting for Cox to tackle the ‘patriarchalism’ of Pentecostalism. From an analysis of the social roles that Pentecostalism is playing in Sicily, Cox argues that it is, in fact, providing an opportunity for women to learn new skills and gain new confidence, which is assisting them to change their gender status. He argues that Pentecostal worship allows women to break out of the constraints of everyday life in a way which poses a threat to traditional male domination. Cox goes further to argue that Pentecostals are repainting the image of God in such a way that distinctly feminine qualities of God become apparent. God becomes more a lover than a judge (p.201).
In Korea, Cox suggests that Pentecostalism has, in practical ways, helped to prepare people from rural areas to participate in the economic revolution which the country has experienced. At the same time, its practices reflect some of the shamanistic practices of ancient Korea. Cox argues that, unself-consciously, there has been a considerable degree of ‘indigenisation’ of the Christian faith in the Pentecostal churches of Korea. However, he also asks whether Korean Pentecostals are retaining their social conscience, and whether, in the future, the primal energy of shamanism combined with the vigour of Pentecostal evangelism will be combined with the passion for justice of the minjung theology? (p.240).
In Africa, Cox sees Christian Pentecostal impulses interacting with ‘the throbbing universe of African primal religion’ (p.245). Many of the indigenous African churches which are developing throughout Africa do not claim to be Pentecostal churches. Cox argues, however, that many of them are Pentecostal in the style of their worship. He also suggests that there are, in fact, some historical links with the revival of Azusa Street. The African expressions suggest ‘the remarkable capacity of Pentecostalism to absorb both pre-Christian indigenous traditions and previous layers of Christian practice, and thus in turn helps us understand its profound appeal’ (p.251). Yet, Cox says, this flexibility can also be the downfall of Pentecostalism. He sees this, for example, in the acceptance, and even, until recently, the affirmation, of apartheid among many Pentecostals in South Africa.
The book draws to its conclusion as it returns to the Third Wave of Pentecostalism in the United States. At this point, Cox becomes angry.
I was infuriated by preachers who were telling trusting and vulnerable listeners that if they were poor in health or not in perfect health it was their own fault for not having enough faith. I was exasperated at the way the sleazy values of the rich and the famous had seeped into Pentecostal worship. And I was genuinely fearful about what might happen to America if people with the ideas I had read in some of the reconstructionist theology ever really came to power (p.296).
Cox rejects the ‘Kingdom Now organisers’, the ‘satanic conspiracy buffs’ and the ‘health-and-wealth’ theologians. He sees some of the developments of thinking about the ‘powers of darkness’ as macabre distortions of what the Bible teaches. In so much of this Third Wave, the moving spirit of the Azusa Street revival which ‘washed away the colour line with the blood of the cross’, has been lost, Cox says.
In an age in which both scientific modernity and conventional religion have lost much of their ability to provide spiritual meaning to people, he says there are two new contenders: Fundamentalism and Experientialism. One of the characteristics of the Fundamentalism is that each movement claims to be the sole authentic representative of the religion it speaks for. ‘Experientialists’, on the other hand, seek to restore ‘experience’ as the key dimension of faith. Cox suggests that the struggle between these two contenders is present within the Pentecostal movement. Cox believes that at the heart of early Pentecostalism was an experience of the Holy Spirit, which gave the early believers a hope that the poor would be lifted up, the hungry fed, and the broken-hearted comforted.
Not all will be convinced by Cox’s vivid and seducing prose. But the social observations and theological reflections should be assessed by everyone concerned about faith in contemporary society. Pentecostalism is reshaping the nature of spirituality for the twenty-first century. It cannot be by-passed. Cox helps us to work through its nature and assess its strengths and weaknesses.

Australian Pentecostalism

At some point within the last five years, the numbers of Pentecostals worshipping on an average Sunday in Australia probably surpassed the numbers of Anglicans at worship. In terms of the numbers of worshippers on an average Sunday, it is likely that the Pentecostals are probably the second largest religious group in Australia. They have attained that position in twenty-five years from just a few thousand people in the early 70s. Australia has not yet come to grips with the significance of Pentecostalism, in terms of the social fabric of Australian society or its religious impact.
Australian Pentecostalism has its own blend and balance of the characteristics described in Cox’s book. As a small and initial contribution to the scene, the Christian Research Association has put together a book entitled The Pentecostals in Australia. This is the last of the Religious Community Profiles, commissioned by the Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research. It will be available from the Christian Research Association for $12.95 (including postage) sometime between the end of September and early November 1996.

Philip Hughes