Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism

by Estrelda Y. Alexander

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 of African American Pentecostal origins and development. In this fascinating description she covers Whether 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.

406 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2011

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent work on African American involvement in the Pentecostal movement and the vital role that has been and is continuously played by African Americans in Pentecost. Highly recommend!

[Chaim Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume sheds light on the half of Pentecostalism too often undervalued in histories and interpretations of the movement. My head was swimming with names, denominations, and branches of the various classical, oneness, and neoPentecostal that black churchgoers are organized under (and the work is, simplistically, a who’s who of African American Pentecostalism). But, Alexander’s argument is potent- any study of Pentecostalism must take great pains to examine the many branches of African American Pentecostalism, or risk misreading the entire movement.

[Daniel Kleven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I agree with Mark Noll: "African American Pentecostals have become a major force in American (and world) Christianity, but there is a serious lack of well-documented studies. Estrelda Alexander does an excellent job filling that lamentable gap" (from the back cover).

I came to the book via a Tyler Burns (of Pass the Mic) "Cultural Artifacts" recommendation, and I am glad I did. While I don't identify as a "pentecostal," but really, I wanted to understand a part of Christian history/Black history/American history that I was unfamiliar with.

Alexander introduces the book with some insightful historiography: "Such a lack [of historical record] was also due to the rampant racism--and classism--that overshadowed American society during the first half of the twentieth century. White leaders and scholars denigrated the black contribution to any important arena, leaving most of Pentecostal historiography woefully bereft of evidence of black involvement" (12).

Alexander undertook an enormous task: "The task of documenting one hundred years of untold history is monumental. It cannot be accomplished in one volume. This work simply begins to celebrate the breadth of the contribution of people of color to American Pentecostalism and only begins the attempt to correct the lack of attention they have received in the unfolding historiography of Pentecostal origins and development" 12).

Alexander starts with slave-religion and African spirituality, and this is a great overview of the subject drawing on great sources. She treats the nineteenth-century Black holiness movement (chapter 3), before spending a whole chapter on William Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival. I came away from this chapter deeply admiring Seymour, and marveling at the (short-lived) racial unity on display during his ministry. Alexander then gives an overview of the Trinitarian Pentecostal Denominations (like COGIC) in chapter 5, and the Oneness Pentecostals in chapter 6, before addressing Black Pentecostals in predominantly white denominations (chpater 7). She devotes a chapter to the role of women in the movement (chapter 8), and concludes with neo-pentecostal and charismatic movements.

One thing I deeply appreciated was Alexander's attentiveness to the racial and gender dynamics at every stage of her study. This helps to develop a richer understanding of the figures and movements, and centers figures that have too long been ignored. There was much to admire in some of these figures; there was much to lament. Like so many religious movements, there is good, bad, and ugly; glory and brokenness; but above all wave after wave of the Spirit of God moving amongst His people in numerous ways.

I hope that many others will build on Alexanders work and extend these studies into a multitude of further avenues of research.

[Joshunda Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estrelda Y. Alexander, pastor and associate professor of practical theology in the School of Divinity at Virginia’s Regent University, has penned an exhaustive and comprehensive history of black Pentecostalism from its origins at the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 (overshadowed by a massive earthquake in San Francisco the same year) to its more modern day manifestations in the churches of T.D. Jakes, the recently-controversial Eddie Long in Atlanta and prosperity gospel preacher Creflo Dollar in Black Fire, out this month.

You can read the rest of my review here:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conten...

[Iejones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I teach a class on Black Pentecostal history - and there was no textbook.