Pentecostalism: the problem of definition

Tsys Aleksei Vladimirovich Postgraduate student; Department of Philosophy of Religion and Religious Studies; St. Petersburg State University 196084, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Smolenskaya str., 33, office 3 alextsis@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

The World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (2020), has 644 million Pentecostals and Charismatics worldwide, including Charismatics in historic churches. This is 8.3 percent of the world's population, that is, every twelfth person today is a Pentecostal or Charismatic. If you look at the current distribution of Pentecostals around the world, there are 230 million in Africa, 195 million in Latin America, 125 million in Asia, 68 million in North America, 21 million in Europe, and 4.5 million in Australia and Oceania ^{[1, p.3]}. In Russia, Protestants make up 18% of all registered religious associations, and the most numerous branch of Protestantism is Pentecostalism ^{[2, p. 422]}.

In 1970, there were "only" 58 million Pentecostals in the world, so one can observe a significant increase in the number of people who identify themselves as a Pentecostal movement. Of course, these statistics are contradictory and, most likely, the final figures in them are overstated. But even so, it indicates that in just a century, Pentecostal, charismatic and related movements have become a numerical force in world Christianity and can account for up to a quarter of all Christians. Something significant is happening in the demography of world Christianity. As R.N. Lunkin writes about it: "Pentecostals from Africa and Latin America joined the Protestant community in Europe, bringing their ideas about church culture, mission, preaching, and worship to the soil of the Old World. African and Latin American Pentecostal churches have become part of European Christianity, and without them the future of the Christian continent is already unthinkable" ^{[2, p. 87]}. Pentecostalism is often presented even as an independent modality, standing on the same level as Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism ^[3].

Until recently, Pentecostalism was almost completely ignored in the social sciences, but the place it occupies in world Christianity makes it absolutely necessary to assess its social and political influence. The problem is this: there are many different movements recognized by scholars as "Pentecostalism," but there is absolutely no uniformity among these movements. There is no single form of Pentecostalism, nor clear theological criteria by which it can be defined. Researchers are asking the question: is it even possible to talk about global Pentecostalism as a single phenomenon?

It is impossible to define what Pentecostalism is without understanding how this movement originated. In most works, including Russian-speaking ones, Pentecostalism is defined as a movement originating in North America at the beginning of the 20th century, which emphasizes the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues ^[4-9]. Recent research shows that this is not an entirely correct statement, so the question of the genesis of Pentecostalism is of key importance in solving the problem of defining Pentecostalism.

We will consider the following approaches of scientists to the definition of Pentecostalism: phenomenological, historical, sociological, theological and the "global perspective" approach. These approaches are not mutually exclusive, but they are interdependent and complementary.

The phenomenological approach

Pentecostalism was not studied properly in the first half of the twentieth century. According to Frank Bartleman, a participant in the "awakening meetings", the reason for this was that since this movement was accompanied by supernatural phenomena, it simply "came from Heaven" ^{[10, p. 69]}. Or, as D. Taylor unequivocally wrote, another early interpreter of Pentecostalism: "This movement has no leader except the Holy Spirit" ^{[11, p. 95]}. Bartleman, Taylor and other pioneers of Pentecostalism saw in their new religious movement nothing more than the biblically promised "last rain" or the restoration of "apostolic" Christianity. In fact, it was "the last outpouring of God's Spirit on unregenerate humanity before the return of Jesus Christ and the end of human history." Therefore, Pentecostalism was considered as a spontaneous, accidental, religious revival of the last time. This view of the origin of Pentecostalism dominated Pentecostal historiography until the late 1950s, as the history of the movement continued to be written by church ministers who often lacked critical standards, were biased and turned some theological statements into historical facts.

This approach has not lost its support even today. William Kay, in his article on the methodology of studying the history of Pentecostalism, addresses the role of providence in the formation of the movement. Kay warns followers of Pentecostalism against using secular historical models that can harm the interpretation of the Pentecostal experience. He believes that it is impossible to write the history of Pentecostalism without referring to providence, and a Pentecostal writer, like biblical authors, must be convinced of the constant action of God in history ^[12].

Proponents of the phenomenological approach suggest that today's Pentecostals should be wary of trying to explain the causes and consequences of the movement of God's Spirit in different cities and countries of the world, because "the wind blows where it wants." "Whenever someone points a finger at a point on the globe and says, "This is the center of what God is doing today," or, "This was the epicenter of what God was doing," there is a chance that we are mistaken" ^{[13, p. 401]}.

Naturally, this approach cannot be verified by conventional research methods. Pentecostal researchers must adapt to academic standards and maintain a critical distance from their subject in their scientific work if they want to continue communicating at this level.

Historical approach

There are four directions in the historical approach: Wesleyan origins of the movement, Reformed origins, "black origins" and multicenter origins.

After a century, the historical roots of the movement are not so easy to recognize. The starting point for the birth of Pentecostalism is considered to be the "awakening" on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, accompanied by a public mass glossolalia ("speaking in tongues", uttering inarticulate sounds during prayer), "baptism of the Spirit and fire", and a sermon by Charles Parham and William Seymour on the return of spiritual gifts to the church. It lasted for three years, along with the preaching of Pentecostals and the establishment of churches in other parts of the United States, which turned Pentecostalism into a national and international religious movement that spread throughout the world over two decades ^{[14, p. 24]}. Although later we will see that modern researchers of Pentecostalism do not agree with the unambiguous definition of the movement as originated on Azusa Street.

In the 1960s, attempts were made to determine the origin of Pentecostalism by finding its origins in the historical roots of other Christian spiritual movements. Historians K. Kendrick and V. Sainan find Wesleyan roots of Pentecostalism. They write that in the 18th century John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church in England, for the first time made a distinction between those who were "sanctified" or "baptized in the Spirit" and ordinary Christians. This gives rise to the "holiness movement" in the 19th century, which sought Christian perfection through "total sanctification," an experience that occurs after salvation and allows Christians to live a sinless life. By the end of the 19th century, the "holiness movement" had turned into an ecumenical, interracial movement, whose most zealous supporters sought to restore the power and practice of "apostolic" Christianity of the first century, expected the imminent Second Coming of Christ and accepted a free form of worship, which is definitely a feature of early Pentecostalism. This is confirmed by the theologian and historian D. Dayton, who defines Pentecostalism as a movement consisting of four main doctrines — the doctrine of salvation, healing, baptism of the Holy Spirit and the second coming of Jesus Christ ^[15].

But some researchers have emphasized the great role of the non-Wesleyan roots of Pentecostalism. E. Blumhoffer, for example, emphasized the theological contribution of non-Wesleyan evangelicals. She called their views "reformed Pentecostal theology", which, in contrast to Wesleyan, insisted on the belief in sanctification as a gradual overcoming of sin, and not as an instantaneous eradication of sinful nature ^{[16, p. 40]}. A great proponent of this position is W. Menzies, a theologian and teacher of the Assemblies of God, who writes that before 1910 the history of the movement was largely Wesleyan Pentecostal history, but by 1920 the Reformed component of the modern Pentecostal movement was becoming the main direction of the movement around the world, and the only serious disagreement was the issue of pneumatology — the doctrine of Cessationism (the doctrine of the cessation of spiritual gifts with the end of the "apostolic era") ^[17].

The historian of Pentecostalism Hollenweger also emphasizes the moment of departure from Wesleyan theology. Early Pentecostalism quickly abandoned some of its beliefs that had contributed to the revival: the movement moved away from the three-step understanding of salvation (conversion, sanctification, and baptism of the Holy Spirit, preached by D. Wesley and the leaders of the revival, Ch. Parham and W. Seymour) to a two—stage conversion and baptism of the Spirit (preached by W. Durham) ^[15]. Also, the theory of British Israel and communication with African Americans were abandoned.

The latter point has been criticized due to the glorification of white Pentecostalism and the lack of attention to black and has had a great impact on the academic study of Pentecostalism. Walter Hollenweger put forward a proposal about the "black origin" of Pentecostalism. Before Hollenweger, most scholars pointed to Charles Parham as the founder of Pentecostalism, glossolalia as the distinctive practice of Pentecostalism, and the "original testimony of tongues" as the defining doctrine of Pentecostalism. However, as Hollenweger's arguments began to prevail, attention shifted from Charles Parham, and accordingly William Seymour became the most widely recognized early leader of Pentecostalism.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Hollenweger's students, as well as I. Clemmons and S.Sanders expanded his ideas to a full-fledged African-American interpretation of the historical origins of modern American Pentecostalism. They described Seymour's Pentecostalism, especially his teaching on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as a revolutionary religious experience that allowed participants to overcome racial, ethnic, gender and class differences and create a truly egalitarian community^[16]. Many quoted Frank Bartleman: "The color line was washed away with blood (the blood of Christ, or the atoning death of Jesus)" ^{[10, p. 29]}.

Nowadays, the inclusivity of the movement is being emphasized more and more often. Universal priesthood, the possibility of prophecy, and the free action of the Spirit in the life of any member of the community have led to interracial, desegregation, and gender-inclusive participation in public ministry and church worship. In his book on Latin American Pentecostalism, Gaston Espinosa emphasizes that Seymour did not just popularize Parham's message, but "created his own message." Espinosa comments: "Seymour's main message was not languages or eschatology, but that... The reborn man had to demonstrate his faith through brotherly love and the fruit of the Spirit, manifested in the way he treats his neighbors, regardless of race or class" ^{[13, p. 395]}.

However, this approach is too subjective. This interpretation of the origin of Pentecostalism needs further research and should successfully respond to the accusation of historian E. Blumhoffer that it does not come from primary sources, but from the inspired "myth of Azusa Street". Blumhoffer points out the "paucity of historical evidence that gives us an idea of what actually happened on Azusa Street; questions the representativeness of what happened at the mission; and denies that early Pentecostalism had "anything inherent that contributed to racial (or, for that matter, gender) inclusivity" ^{[16, p.50]}.

Cheryl Jones writes that the baptism of the Spirit and God's call are the only conditions for service, and that this essentially "cancels social norms and accepted models of service." However, he concludes this brief section on women with a rather depressing remark that, at least in the United States, Pentecostalism has failed to solve the problem of various forms of gender oppression, and is now characterized by male clergy and a high degree of institutionalism ^[18].

Currently, Pentecostal historiography is dominated by a multicenter approach to the origin of Pentecostalism. In the early 1990s, studies appeared convincingly showing that Pentecostal "outpourings of the Spirit" took place in other parts of the world - in particular, in Africa, England, Finland, Russia, India and Latin America, and in some parts of the world even before the 20th century ^[19]. Due to new research, a reprint of the Burgess Dictionary was published in 2002, as the first edition was limited in both time and geographical scope. The dictionary highlighted the events of the 20th century in the United States and Western Europe, where white Pentecostals were traditionally at the origins of these movements. The new edition added information about the Pentecostal movement in countries around the world, and also revised the approach to the emergence of the movement ^[20].

In 2005, A. Anderson in the article "Revision of the history of Pentecostalism in a global perspective" writes that it is necessary to correct the global misconception in writing the history of Pentecostalism. His criticism can be expressed in two points: first, early studies have a North American orientation, implying that the Pentecostal movement, thanks to the events on Azusa Street, from this new "Jerusalem", spread to the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, whereas there were such "Jerusalem" centers of Pentecostalism a lot more before the events on Azusa Street. Secondly, Western missionaries were often infected with the idea of the superiority of Western culture and civilization, which influenced the fact that many local ministers and their contribution to the development of the movement remained in the shadow of the missionaries. These people have gone unnoticed into history, and their memory is now very difficult to restore, but this must be done due to the "shift of the center of gravity of Christianity to the South" and the fact that most Pentecostals today live in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In conclusion, Anderson writes that historiographical imperialism and ethnocentrism must be corrected ^[21]. British priest and theologian A. McGrath says that at the beginning of the last century, a number of movements emerged with recognizable common beliefs and expectations, but without obvious signs of mutual causation. And large-scale studies of the origins of the movement, often devoted to the biographies of individual leaders of movements in Argentina, Ghana, Korea, the Philippines, South Africa, Chile and South India, forced scientists to significantly revise previous paradigms ^{[19, p. 422]}.

There were many different "Jerusalem": Toronto, Canada; Pyongyang, Korea; Pune, India; Wakkerstroom, South Africa; Lagos, Nigeria; Valparaiso, Chile; Belem, Brazil; Oslo, Norway; Sunderland, England ^{[22, p. 206; 23-27]}. These various Pentecostal revivals were not so much movements from the Western world to "foreign lands" as movements within these continents themselves.

The most significant Revivalist movement that preceded the birth of Pentecostalism can be found in India — the awakening that took place in 1905-1907 near Pune in southern India at the Mukti Mission, founded by the famous Pandita Ramabai Saraswati. Ramabai, having converted to Christianity at the age of 25, fought for women's rights in India, founded the Mukti Christian Mission for girls forcibly married underage, widows and orphans, which by 1900 had 1,500 inhabitants. Ramabai, being educated and erudite, also translated the Bible into her native language, Marathi ^[28]. When the revival bonfires broke out in Wales in 1904, many in the mission took it as "the beginning of a worldwide outpouring of the Spirit." Since 1905, at the Mukti mission, girls at worship services began to see visions, fall into a trance, and, later, since 1906, reports of "speaking in tongues" appeared. Soon, stories similar to those in Wales and those noted in the awakening of 1860 began to spread: visions and dreams, strong denunciation and confession, "prayer storms" — loud, intense, hours-long joint prayers, dancing, falls "under the influence of the Spirit", the appearance of supernatural lights above the practice of exorcism, debt repayment, conversion of non-Christians, prophecies and miraculous provision of food ^{[29, p. 653]}.

In September 1907, Ramabai wrote that she "did not know that anything like the current awakening of the Holy Spirit had ever visited India before 1905," she was "more and more convinced" that people who received the gift of languages "they helped lead a better life," and as a result they became more effective in prayer and evangelization. The distinctive features of this revival were that, firstly, speaking in tongues was not given as much importance as in classical Pentecostalism, and it was not an obligatory sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And secondly, unlike North American Pentecostalism, women were assigned an even greater role in the Indian Pentecostal movement. All these phenomena contributed to the creation of the National Missionary Society (NMO) in 1905. The Awakening in Mukti, which was not the work of American missionaries, became the most important reason for the rapid spread of the ideas of Pentecostalism in India and even in Chile ^[30].

In his studies of Pentecostalism, religious scholar Michael Bergunder writes that "the South Indian Pentecostal movement is quite a native variant of Indian Christianity" ^{[31, p. 112]} and some call Ramabai "the mother of Indian Pentecostalism" ^{[32, p. 157]}.

Michael Mcclymond writes that "over the past twenty years, new information has been received about such groups that existed before 1900. Along with classical Pentecostals, traditional Charismatics and neo-Pentecostals, we should probably talk about Proto-Pentecostals or Paleo-Pentecostals" ^{[13, p. 385]}.

However, in this article it is not the task to describe all the movements preceding the birth of Pentecostalism in various countries of the world. Moreover, the emphasis on continuity can obscure what is actually new, or at least different. For all his emphasis on the continuity of Pentecostalism, Dayton rightly warned against overemphasizing the "old" versus the "new" in Pentecostalism. Dayton wrote: "The search for "predecessors" and "roots" can reveal parallels and continuity that overshadow novelty and discontinuity. It is impossible to deny the "new" in Pentecostalism, especially in comparison with its immediate predecessors..." ^{[33, p. 64]}.

The task of equating the "new" Pentecostals and the "classic" Pentecostals of the 20th century is practically impossible. "By almost any standard, Pentecostalism today is not what Charles Fox Parham or any of his successors declared it to be, but rather what modern Brazilians, Koreans, and Africans represent" ^{[34, p. 55]}. Michael Bergunder goes even further, saying that "the current global Pentecostal network has only been formed in the last two to three decades. An indicator of this is the observed gradual mixing of "classical" Pentecostalism and "new" Pentecostalism, and often charismatic movements in traditional churches in many regions of the world. This assumption is also consistent with statistical data that the noticeable growth of world Pentecostalism did not occur earlier than the 1970s, and went hand in hand with its expansion into a wide inclusive network... From this point of view, the historical and critical focus for the "origins" of modern global Pentecostalism should fall on the 1970s and 1980s years" ^{[34, p. 60]}.

However, in this case it is impossible to discover the "origin" of Pentecostalism, and we find only an existing synchronous network that finds itself in a historical gap with the beginning of the 20th century. Therefore, Bergunder nevertheless describes the events on Azusa Street, at the Mukti mission and in other parts of the world, but not as the "historical origins" of Pentecostalism, but as the events that shaped it. A. Anderson does the same in his later works. "The idea of missionary languages, widely spread, in particular, on Azusa Street, was later abandoned, and speaking in tongues turned from an awakening phenomenon into an everyday spiritual practice. After the end of the universal awakening, accompanied by a sharp change in theological dogmas, a separate global synchronous Pentecostal network was formed within a few years. I would argue that Pentecostalism arose only here, and not before." ^{[34, p. 63]}.

In this regard, it can be concluded that at the beginning of the 20th century, the key phenomenon was not a specific awakening, but the gradual development of a global missionary network. That is, Pentecostalism was transnational from the very beginning, and its origins had many "centers".

The sociological approach

Two directions can be distinguished here: the early "hostile" and the present "friendly".

Since the 1970s, studies have begun to appear characterizing Pentecostalism as a socially destructive movement. Historian Robert Anderson, using a naturalistic approach to religious experience, explained the emergence of Pentecostalism as a psychologically unhealthy and socially dysfunctional religious reaction of marginal poor farmers, urban residents from the working and lower classes, immigrants and black Americans to a rapidly industrializing and urbanizing America. These Pentecostals, Anderson says critically, spoke in tongues and longed for the imminent second coming of Jesus as a way to escape from the terrible life here and now ^[16]. Another historian, G.Walker suggested that the ideology of Pentecostalism, opposed to everything modern in American life at the beginning of the 20th century, contained socially regressive cultural attitudes that reflected the marginal status of Pentecostals in American society. As part of its attempt to move away from modern society and create its own social and religious space, Walker writes, the Pentecostal movement "carried regressive sentiments that, by any reasonable standard, were socially destructive. His disregard for social conventions, his belligerence and fanaticism, his ecstatic excess and deliberate distortion of human language undoubtedly reflected a gloomy primitivist desire for disorder" ^{[16, p. 46]}.

In a study by Lalive de Epinay on Chilean Pentecostalism in the 1960s, Pentecostalism is characterized as "a popular form of Protestantism in which emotions prevail over reason," and it is assumed that it belongs to the type of "sect" of Trelcha. L. de Epinay described "Pentecostal propaganda" convincing potential converts of a new mystical experience — "fiery baptism expressed in the gift of tongues." The application of the theory of relative deprivation can be found in a study by British sociologist Malcolm Culley on Afro-Caribbean Pentecostals in the UK ^[35].

In the psychology of religion, one can also distinguish a predominantly "hostile" period towards Pentecostalism from the beginning of 1910 to the 1960s. He was based on the hypothesis that "Pentecostalism is an expression or a direct consequence of abnormal mental processes and mental disorders," and "... glossolalia was analyzed mainly in connection with abnormal personal characteristics and social deprivation" ^{[36, p. 135]}.

But in the end, the modern explosive growth of Pentecostalism around the world, especially among the poor, forced scientists trying to understand the origins and appeal of primitive Pentecostalism in the early twentieth century to recognize the socially positive functions that Pentecostalism provided for various segments of the population, and how Pentecostalism was sensitive to its mostly poor and disenfranchised followers. And the psychological assessment of the religiosity of Pentecostals after a forty-year "hostile" period became positive. For example, in new studies, Pentecostals turned out to be more emotionally stable, less prone to depression and less hostile than the average population ^{[36, p. 140]}.

D. Goff, biographer of Charles Parham, writes that from the very beginning, Pentecostal preaching met the social and spiritual needs of farmers and urban workers ^[37]. People became Pentecostals not because they were disadvantaged and inferior, but because they could become "agents of change." Pentecostalism is not a reactionary, but a revolutionary movement on the periphery, separated from the wider Christian community due to its special doctrine of "baptism of the Spirit" and "speaking in tongues." It provided people with a democratic worship service where everyone and everyone can participate on an equal footing, allowing everyone to realize their ministry, providing emotional support from like-minded people in a group interaction characterized by equality between members.

Universal engagement is a key component of Pentecostal worship and encompasses all races, genders, and ages. Therefore, ordinary, unprepared people could participate in public worship in various ways, including the use of spiritual gifts, including preaching and giving personal testimonies. Experiential worship attracted those who were often shunned by mainstream communities and pushed aside by society. Pentecostal preachers, inspired by eschatological fervor, preached wherever they could, and due to financial constraints, the place of worship was often the premises of shops, warehouses, etc. All this made the Pentecostal congregation accessible and attractive to the marginalized ^[38].

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the role of Pentecostalism's influence on the economy. For example, in Africa, religious associations are the most widespread and fruitful forms of social life, and Pentecostal groups there, as in other countries, strive to create fully self-sufficient communities.

In the Latin American context, Pentecostalism "may have found a way to overcome the daily threat of poverty" and is "an important source of social transformation, especially among poor and marginalized groups of people" ^{[22, p. 291]}. D. Miller and T.Yamamori compare Pentecostal ethics with the Protestant ethics of Max Weber, arguing that "the way of life Pentecostals are not much different from Weber's description of Puritans," and Pentecostal leaders in South America are businessmen and entrepreneurs, their communities of "evangelical poor" imbued with a work ethic that is an integral part of the industrialization process. ^[39]. D. Martin and P. Berger have also recently written and talked about the so-called "Pentecostal ethics of development" ^[40-42].

However, it is worth taking into account that instead of strict, according to Weber, "worldly asceticism", encouraging sober, rational work and the rejection of sensual pleasures, Pentecostalism at its very core opposes extreme rationalistic tendencies, which makes the above theories questionable.Even when Pentecostals become more adapted to a rational, global capitalist system, this is always in conflict with the empirical.The constant expectation of direct experience of the Divine helps to restrain rationalism, maintaining a "charmed" world, despite the pressure of rationalization. In this regard, some researchers write that Pentecostals transform society with the help of American fundamentalism, a faith peculiar to North American Christianity that "blesses" imperialism, the gospel of success, wealth and prosperity ^[43].

Pentecostals have not always felt comfortable interacting with the society around them. They continue to be accused of apocalyptic spirituality and isolation from "worldly" issues such as politics and the struggle for freedom and justice, as well as proclaiming the Gospel, which either spiritualizes or individualizes social problems and dichotomizes church and state into "spiritual" and "secular" spheres. But it is possible that the situation is gradually changing.

In 2007, Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori jointly conducted a study, which resulted in the publication of the book "Global Pentecostalism: the New Face of Christian Social Activism" ^[39]. They identify a new type of Pentecostalism, which they call "progressive Pentecostalism." The "progressive Pentecostalism" that emerged in the 1990s is described as a combination of charitable and "development-oriented" ministries. Among them, they distinguish 8 types:

1. Charity ministries providing food, clothing and shelter;

2. Emergency ministries responding to floods, famines and earthquakes;

3. Educational ministries, providing day care, schools and learning assistance;

4. Consulting services, help with addictions, divorces, depression;

5. Medical care, establishment of medical clinics, dental clinics, psychological services;

6. Economic development, provision of loans to microenterprises, vocational training, affordable housing;

7. Art, teaching music, dance, dramatic art;

8. Policy change, anti-corruption, election observation, protection of the living wage.

Perhaps the most unexpected is the presence of the eighth type — participation in the political life of society. Historically, Pentecostals have been perceived as apolitical. This may be one of the reasons for the paucity of research on Pentecostalism and politics. Pentecostalism, taking its origins from the pietism movement, has always sought, first of all, a deeper and more meaningful spiritual life and a close personal relationship with God, and also had faith that the Holy Spirit leads to change. He separates believers and their community from the corrupt world. For a long time, the Pentecostal position has been defined as "against everyone." And this position distinguished them from other Christian denominations and denominations known for their strong political ties.

However, according to Luis Lugo, director of the Research Center for Religion and Public Life, "Pentecostals are just as politically active as other Christians, and by some indicators even more so." His conclusion is that the growing number of Pentecostals "almost certainly guarantees that this movement will become a major force in shaping the political and religious landscape in the 21st century" ^{[44, p. 14]}. Burgess believes that "Pentecostals' emphasis on honesty, accountability and community participation, as well as instilling civic skills such as peacefulness, interethnic cooperation, leadership qualities and critical thinking, may ultimately prove crucial for the development of democratic societies"^[45]. Latin America is a vivid indicator of the political influence of Pentecostals.

In addition, it is worth noting Pentecostalism as an active participant in the theories of "church-sect" and secularization. Pentecostalism has often played an important role in the field research of sociologists such as Walter Goldschmidt, Liston Pope, Milton Yinger, and others who sought to expand the church-sect theory with authentic data. However, the very typology of "church-sect" became untenable in part due to studies involving Pentecostals - Benton Johnson's work with Pentecostals led him to criticize the theory of "church-sect" ^[46]. Criticism of this theory has led to the rejection of it by many sociologists of religion.

The similarity between the trajectories of the development of the "church-sect" theory and the theory of secularization was noted by William Svatos and Kevin Cristiano. They ask the question: "Is 'secularization' an analytical tool or a value judgment?", strongly defining this theory as a value judgment masquerading as an analytical tool ^{[47, p. 211]}. The influence of Pentecostalism on the theory of secularization can be seen in the works of former prominent supporters of secularization. Peter Berger, Harvey Cox, and David Martin devoted much of their post-secularization careers to research and publishing about Pentecostalism. Harvey Cox, in his book "Fire from Heaven", published in 1995, changed his well-known position on secularization and wrote about Pentecostalism as "an unexpected reappearance of primitive spirituality in our time", which will rebuild religion in the XXI century ^[48]. The theory of secularization, as well as the theory of "church-sect", faced a large-scale growth of Pentecostalism and its particular resistance to sociological categorization. Martin argues that the growth of Pentecostalism is the largest global shift in the religious market in the last forty years ^{[39, p.22]}.

Compared to North American studies, Europe, Africa, Asia and, to a lesser extent, Latin America lag far behind in the study of Pentecostalism, but at the moment the sociological approach shares a positive assessment of the role of Pentecostalism both at the beginning of the 20th century and at the present time, and the movement itself is described as a modern religion capable of influencing politics and the economy of the country.

The theological approach

In this approach, Pentecostals are those who share a certain theology and emphasize the Holy Spirit. The word "Pentecostal" comes from the experience of the Day of Pentecost. Acts 2:4 says that the disciples in Jerusalem "were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

This experience of being "fulfilled" or "baptized" with the Holy Spirit is what distinguishes many Pentecostals from most other believers. But there is a difference between Pentecostalism in its first, "charismatic" generation and in its second, more institutionalized one. As a rule, it is in the third generation that the renewal movement arises, which often has a different emphasis than the first generation. In later forms of Pentecostalism, less attention is paid to this so—called distinctive doctrine - in fact, "speaking in tongues" is often absent from worship in many modern Pentecostal churches and has relatively little significance. And if by Pentecostals we mean churches in whose theology there is faith in the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the obligatory testimony of speaking in other languages, then we will have to "pass by" most Pentecostal churches (for example, Robert Menzies uses such criteria in his classification of the Pentecostal movement ^[49]).

Unlike established Christian traditions such as the Orthodox Church, Pentecostalism cannot rely on tradition for the simple reason that it appeared only a century ago. Moreover, and this is related to the question of identity, since Pentecostalism "was born from a dynamic experience, and not from a theological discovery, it freely absorbed elements of a number of theological traditions and sources, such as the Methodist-priestly movements, the Protestant Reformation, mystical-charismatic movements in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, as well as the spirituality of blacks or African Americans" ^{[50, p. 225]}.

Pentecostal theology is still in the process of formation and represents a dynamic syncretic teaching. A stereotypical representation of the Pentecostal experience is "speaking in tongues." However, according to research by Margaret Poloma and Matthew Lee, it is "prophecy" and "prophetic prayer" that are the key experiences in Pentecostalism, and they have been central elements of Pentecostalism since the early days of the spread of the Pentecostal movement. Prophecy is an experience when a person hears the Spirit "speak" to them — directly or through another believer. And prophetic prayer is a constant interactive dialogue with the Spirit through which prophecy occurs. That is, according to Poloma, prophecy comes to the fore instead of glossolalia. Other studies have shown that many Pentecostals and Charismatics rarely speak in tongues — for them, prayer for supernatural healing is a much more common practice than glossolalia ^[51].

Another stereotype, as the theologian writes in M. Karkainen, is the central role of the Holy Spirit. At the center of Pentecostalism is actually the theology of the "Full Gospel" — the idea of Jesus Christ in His five-fold role as Savior, Sanctifier, Baptist in Spirit, Healer and Coming King. Consequently, "the key to recognizing and defining Pentecostal identity lies in a Christ-oriented charismatic spirituality with a passionate desire to "meet" Jesus Christ as He is perceived as the Bearer of the Full Gospel" ^{[50, p. 224]}. Nevertheless, this encounter is achieved through the "experience of the Spirit."

The founding father of Pentecostal Studies, Walter Hollenweger, believes that the growth of Pentecostalism occurred because of the characteristic spirituality of nineteenth-century African Americans. He highlights the main features of this spirituality: oral liturgy, narrative theology and the possibility of testimony, maximum participation of the entire community in worship and ministry, visions during public worship, as well as the relationship between body and mind, manifested in healing through prayer. In this sense, thousands of "Spirit" churches in Africa and various house churches in China are Pentecostal movements, having the features described by Hollenweger, although their form is often very different from Western forms of Pentecostalism^[52].

Andrew Drugers identifies three broad common features of Pentecostal spirituality: 1) the central emphasis on the experience of the Spirit, accompanied by ecstatic manifestations; 2) the experience of "being born again"; 3) a dualistic worldview that distinguishes between "the world" and "the church", "the devil" and "deity", "disease" and "health" ^{[53, p. 29]}. Striving for the "experience of the Spirit" is a very good description of most Pentecostal communities. D. Jacobsen writes something similar: "In general, Pentecostalism means that a person adheres to a Spirit-oriented, miracle-affirming and praiseworthy version of the Christian faith..." ^{[35, p. 26]}. However, the experience of being "born again" is typical for many Evangelical Christians, and the dichotomy of "church" and "world" is becoming more and more blurred, as can be seen in the example of the megachurch phenomenon.

As a result, we can say that neither the Pentecostals themselves nor theologians of other directions have yet come to a consensus on the Pentecostal view of the Spirit and the role of the Spirit in the world, although "the experience of the Spirit that permeates the whole person" is at the center of Pentecostal spirituality. There is no single essence of Pentecostalism, its normative archetype. It follows from this that it is possible to unite the Pentecostal communities, which often differ in form and theology, under one "sacred canopy" only if the concept of simultaneous "baptism of the Spirit" is included in the individual and group "experience of the Spirit" by the followers of Pentecostalism, and the emphasis on glossolalia is shifted to the use of spiritual gifts in general.

The "global perspective" approach

In 1988, a dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements was published, edited by S. Burgess. In this large-scale work, the concept of "Pentecostalism" was defined, historical information about the spread of Pentecostalism was collected, biographies of the leaders of the Pentecostal movement were collected. "Pentecostalism" is defined as a spiritual movement that has taken shape in a denomination in which followers adhere to the doctrine that every Christian, after conversion, should strive for the "baptism of the Holy Spirit", and that a believer baptized in the Spirit can receive one or more supernatural gifts that were known in the early church, which may include instantaneous sanctification, the ability to prophesy, practice divine healing through prayer, speak in tongues or interpret tongues, singing in tongues, singing in the Spirit, dancing in the Spirit, dreams, visions, discernment of spirits, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, strong experiences, exorcism (exorcism), resurrections, deliverances, signs and wonders ^[54].

But already in the early 1990s, studies have been appearing that convincingly show that Pentecostal "outpourings of the Spirit" took place in other parts of the world - in particular, in Africa, England, Finland, Russia, India and Latin America, and in some parts of the world even before the 20th century ^[20].

Overcoming national and cultural boundaries. As has been shown in previous approaches, from the very beginning of its inception, Pentecostalism has been multicultural and multicenter. Periodicals played a key role in understanding the process of globalization in early Pentecostalism. First, early periodicals were distributed all over the world and served as a media outlet to spread the ideas of Pentecostalism. Secondly, they also formed the social structures that were necessary during this time of "creative chaos", when the only form of organization of missionary activity was often associated with the support provided by these periodicals. Early missionaries often traveled internationally, and organizational networks and conferences were a means of spreading their messages.

Daniel Bays, a researcher of Christianity in China, describing the rapid spread of the Pentecostal movement, speaks of its "transnational nature." From the very beginning, it embodied the features that allowed it to "overcome national and cultural boundaries" ^{[55, p. 54]}. Thanks to this adaptability, his influence was global, both in terms of geographical distribution and in terms of his presence in public space as a religious movement capable of creating local versions of his universal message. It has given its many converts the opportunity to integrate into an expanding, modernizing world. Especially for residents of developing countries, this has become an important factor in the attractiveness of Pentecostal churches.

Paradoxical diversity. The diversity of Pentecostal communities also adds to the attractiveness. Thus, Pentecostalism includes home communities and megachurches; established churches and brand new communities; churches where charismatic practices have become routine, and newly founded groups where "The Spirit blows with stormy force."

Pentecostalism is paradoxical. Faith in the Holy Spirit grants broad rights to the believer, and at the same time, the authority of a leader can become stronger than the authority of a person's individual experience of communicating with the Spirit. Group spontaneous manifestations such as prayer and speaking in tongues may be a common practice, but over time they will be subordinated to the pastor's control over the ritual. Experience is of paramount importance, but a strictly observed doctrine can prevail over it. Similarly, the sinful world should be avoided in all possible ways, and yet it is a place where believers attract people to the community and fight evil. The Pentecostal faith has apocalyptic features, and yet what is happening here and now is important. Women very often make up the majority of the congregation, but their access to leadership positions is limited. The location of the participants of the meeting may be different: in some countries it is mixed, in others it is divided by gender. The rules for those who can participate in the Lord's Supper differ, often reflecting the practice of the religious traditions of the majority in a given culture (Orthodox, Catholic, etc.) ^[56].

All this leads to great conflicts and schisms within the church and fuels one-sided stereotypes about Pentecostal churches. And also leads to the idea of many Pentecostalism.

The network structure. Today, many Pentecostal churches and movements present themselves as "global" or "international" and also use these terms in their names. Unsurprisingly, the topic of globalization is central to the study of Pentecostalism. Of particular interest in the study are the newly founded Pentecostal churches, often non-denominational, and organized as global megachurches, widely using media technologies to spread the message and endorsing the "Prosperity Gospel."

As already mentioned, the unity of Pentecostalism cannot be described in the way that traditional church history describes Eastern Orthodoxy or German Lutheranism. But simply dwelling on the diversity of world Pentecostalism and its various currents is not a solution, because then the question arises: why do we even talk about world Pentecostalism as a single phenomenon?

The modern answer for defining the Pentecostal movements into a single Pentecostalism is to characterize this movement as a network structure. Much has been said about online religious organizations in the studies of D. Miller reviewed earlier. Joel Robbins also writes about "a widespread network of people who are united through their publications and other media products, conferences, awakening meetings and constant travel." Birgit Meyer writes about Pentecostalism as "an explicitly global religion, with its own view of the world as a whole, which goes beyond a more limited, local worldview and promises to involve believers in a global born-again community." In a study of the charismatic Church in Sweden conducted by Simon Coleman, "the globalization of charismatic Christianity was demonstrated in the form of three aspects: 1) using the media to spread their ideas; 2) a social organization connecting nations and cultures through international travel and networking, conferences and megachurches functioning as multinational corporations; and 3) a "global orientation" or global charismatic "metaculture" that transcends locality and denominational loyalty and demonstrates striking similarities in completely different parts of the world" ^{[22, p. 301]}.

M. Bergunder writes about Pentecostalism as a network movement ^[34]. This network movement requires some fixation of boundaries, however, "there cannot be such a fixation of the network that would not be controversial and conditional, and any fixation can only be considered as a discursive expression, and not as something referring to the essence behind its representation. Since its boundaries are relative, such a network can be meaningfully described only when it is fixed in the totality of cultural discourses. It is always necessary to investigate how the Pentecostal network integrates into other discursive networks (for example, Evangelicalism, Protestantism, Christianity, religion, conservative politics)" ^{[34, p.54]}. Pentecostalism as a subject of Pentecostal research is understood not as a nominalistic or idealistic category, but as a contingent discursive network. The fluidity of the network does not mean that it can be arbitrarily displayed, since the controversy of its boundaries is part of the Pentecostal discourse itself, and not the free reflections of the researcher. Nevertheless, "the researcher must recognize these boundaries and reflect the conflicting claims of inclusions and exclusions. This also means that competing, alternative, complementary, or subdividing fixations can be formulated within the Pentecostal network, which are often hybrid (for example, Oneness Pentecostals, the positive confession movement, interfaith churches, the Charismatic movement, Hispanic Pentecostalism)" ^{[34, p. 54]}.

Thus, it is necessary and possible to define the doctrines and practices that form a distinctive Pentecostal identity. However, theology and practice are "extracted as they manifest themselves in discursive expression, and not in relation to historical and theological "traditions", "roots" or "entities". Modern Pentecostalism, although historically interconnected, is primarily a global network movement.

The McDonaldization of mysticism. In his book Jesus at Disneyland, D. Lyon says that a postmodern society is characterized by an emphasis on personal spiritual authority as opposed to doctrine, the church, religious leaders or church tradition. The starting point of a person's spirituality is his "I". Two qualities are characteristic of postmodern religion: consumption, when a person "buys" religion, and experience, which is highly therapeutic ^[57].

Pentecostalism is a great example of such a global religion. It takes root and spreads precisely in those regions that have recently become incorporated into the global capitalist system and are accompanied by rapid modernization and urbanization. And although some may believe that Pentecostalism is focused only on the salvation of souls, it owes its success, among other things, to addressing the bodily and material aspects of people's lives, including the problems caused by modernization processes. Megachurches carrying the "gospel of prosperity" have spread to many parts of the world, offering a better life to people struggling with poverty and despair. The doctrine of prosperity made the enjoyment of wealth acceptable, drew attention to the possibility of a better material future, as opposed to the old pessimistic eschatology that underlay the early missions.

But, of course, the key element of Pentecostalism will always be experience, because "meeting with the divine", which changes people's lives, is the essence of religion ^[58]. And although there is a wide variety of charismatic practices in Pentecostalism, perhaps the future of Pentecostalism lies in their standardization. The term "McDonaldization" is usually attributed to the work of George Ritzer. He assumes that economic products, along with related cultural attributes, are packaged and distributed around the world. Esoteric practices can be viewed in the same way. For the first time, the term "McDonaldization of mysticism" was applied by Martin Percy to the "Toronto Blessing" — a 1994 revival at the neo-charismatic Toronto Airport Church ^[59]. Similar trends of "McDonaldization" can be seen in evangelistic programs typical of internationally popular Alpha courses, with their standardization of charismatic doctrines and practices.

Sociologist Harvey Cox suggests that the rapid spread of Pentecostalism is explained by its intoxicating and spontaneous spirituality, "similar to the spread of a beneficial infection" ^{[48, p. 70]}. The emphasis on experiences affects people emotionally, a person wants to come back and make up for this experience again and again. People are inherently "seekers" of emotional energy, "trying to participate in as many successful interaction rituals as possible" ^[60]. In this case, it suggests that the emotional energy that Christianity, and in particular Pentecostalism, provides through these ritualized interactions is one of the keys to understanding the appeal and success of Pentecostalism.

Conclusion

Considering how diverse and mutually independent movements are included in quantitative statistics, any attempt to define them will not be accurate enough, and Pentecostalism will probably never be able to be defined adequately. Moreover, until recently, Pentecostal historiography was based on North American history, and in connection with recent research, the complexity of the term "Pentecostalism" has increased. A number of historians have noted that there may no longer be a single definition for this term, and now the Pentecostal movements (in the plural) should have several definitions ^{[22, p. 10]}. And yet, using the "global perspective" approach, we found that Pentecostalism can be defined as a global network movement.

From the point of view of historical and theological approaches, Pentecostalism cannot be considered either as a movement with a clear beginning in the United States or anywhere else, nor as a movement based on one particular theology. It is a movement in constant motion, the spirituality of whose followers is expressed in the constant search for "experiencing the Spirit" and spiritual gifts. It is a movement that took several years and several different formative ideas and events to emerge, a movement that has been global in nature since its inception ^[61]. And new phenomena driven by specific history and specific cultural realities continue to appear right now — for example, the reality of global migration is actively changing the face of Pentecostalism in many parts of the world.

Although Pentecostalism does not fully reflect modernity and is critical of some moral aspects of modern society and culture, Pentecostalism is a modern religion that has truly manifested itself in modern conditions. Therefore, it is best viewed as a Protestant global network movement that originated in the early 20th century, in which the emphasis is on "experiencing the Spirit" and applying spiritual gifts.