Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism

Estrelda Alexander was raised in an urban, black, working-class, oneness Pentecostal congregation in the 1950s and 1960s, but she knew little of her heritage and thought that all Christians worshiped and believed as she did. Much later she discovered that many Christians not only knew little of her heritage but considered it strange. Even today, most North Americans remain ignorant of black Pentecostalism.Black Fire remedies lack of historical consciousness by recounting the story ofAfrican American Pentecostal origins and development. In this fascinating description she coverswhat Pentecostalism retained from African spiritualitythe legacy of the nineteenth-century black Holiness movementWilliam J. Seymour and the Azusa Street RevivalAfrican American trinitarian and oneness Pentecostal denominationsthe role of women in African American PentecostalismAfrican American neo-Pentecostals and charismatic movementsblack Pentecostals in majority-white denominationstheological challenges of black Pentecostalism in the twenty-first centuryWhether you come from an African American Pentecostal background or you just want to learn more, this book will unfold all the dimensions of this important movement's history and contribution to the life of the church. Read more