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 of African American Pentecostal origins and development. In this fascinating description she covers what Pentecostalism retained from African spirituality the legacy of the nineteenth-century black Holiness movement William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival African American trinitarian and oneness Pentecostal denominations the role of women in African American Pentecostalism African American neo-Pentecostals and charismatic movements black Pentecostals in majority-white denominations theological challenges of black Pentecostalism in the twenty-first century 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.