Basic concepts of the genesis of the Pentecostal movement: the world and domestic context

Abstract

The article analyzes the main concepts of the origin of the Pentecostalism. It was found that western studies on the history of Pentecostalism dominated the historical-theological concept of the genesis of movement, which emphasizes the theological context of the future movement, indicating the transformation of the doctrinal content of Protestantism as a key factor for the further development of the Pentecostal. Important are the social causes associated with racial and gender emancipation. Beginning on the margins of society, Pentecostalism, with its emphasis on subjective spiritual experience and individual self-expression of the believer, was able to provide a "higher level of compensation" than other currents of Christianity. At the beginning of the 21st century, researchers emphasize the missionary nature of Pentecostalism and ecclesiology, which is fully adapted to the needs of missionary work. The historians of the discovery of non-American sources of Pentecostalism enable theologians to better understand the sources of openness to local cultures. An analysis of contemporary theological notions about the origin of the Pentecostalism makes it possible to draw a general conclusion that a significant diversity was characteristic of the Pentecostal from the very beginning of this movement. This would make it possible to better understand the identity of the Pentecostal movement as essentially diverse and open to transformations, inculturations, spiritual renewal. It is proved that the variability and dynamism of the movement at the beginning of the 21st century are not a consequence of the influence of postmodernism, but are the traditional features of the Pentecostalism. In the historical and theological studies of the origins and early stages of the Pentecostal movement, several approaches have been developed that try to explain its origin and rapid development. Actualization of various aspects in the course of the genesis of motion confirms its variegated, multi-colored and rootedness not only in theological or missionary, but also socio-cultural reality. From the very beginning of the Pentecostal movement he was characterized by the theological legitimization of "unity in diversity." It arose not because of a later rethinking of the strategies, goals and approaches of the American Pentecostal movement through its meeting with non-American cultures. Rather, it can be argued that "unity in diversity" was an integral part of the historical origin of the phenomenon, which we now call Pentecostalism.